Trump account calculator

How to use the calculator

1. Enter the child’s year of birth (2009 to 2028). For a child born 2025 to 2028, leave “Claim the $1,000 federal deposit” switched on if you’ve claimed it or plan to. For a child born 2015 to 2024, a toggle can add Dell’s $250 deposit.
2. Under “Money going in each year”, enter yearly amounts from family (up to $5,000), from an employer (up to $2,500) and from a government or charity program.
3. Under “Assumptions”, set the return before fees (6% to start) and pick a fund fee of 0.03%, 0.07% or 0.10% (the cap). You can also change the inflation rate used for today’s dollars (2.5%) and the yearly rise in the $5,000 limit after 2027 (2%).

The result is the balance on 1 January of the year the child turns 18, split by where the money came from. Beside it is the same plan at 4%, 6% and 8% a year.

The rules, as of 14 October 2026

Trump accounts are investment accounts for children under section 530A of the US tax code, added by Public Law 119-21 in July 2025.

Much of the detail comes from IRS Notice 2025-68, which describes regulations the Treasury and the IRS intend to propose. Some points may change before the rules are final.

Who gets the $1,000, and the Dell $250

On 1 October 2026 Treasury said automatic enrollment was complete, with “over 60 million more eligible children” holding an account ready to be claimed. Each account still has to be claimed. Until then nobody can manage it, and an eligible child’s $1,000 isn’t paid. Claiming in the Trump Accounts app means verifying your identity and your relationship to the child, checking the child’s details and accepting the account terms. The IRS also takes the election on Form 4547, through your IRS online account, with your 2025 tax return or by mail.

Children born before 2025 don’t get the $1,000. Michael and Susan Dell pledged in December 2025 to put $250 into the accounts of about 25 million children aged 10 and under who were born too early for it. That’s a private pledge rather than part of the law, and press reports say children in ZIP codes with a median income below $150,000 come first. The calculator’s Dell toggle adds the $250 in 2026.

Contribution limits

Family and employer money share one cap of $5,000 per child per year in 2026 and 2027. An employer can put in up to $2,500 of it, and that money isn’t counted in the parent’s income. At the full launch on 4 July 2026, Treasury said over 50 companies had committed to contributing for employees’ children. After 2027 the cap rises with inflation; the calculator assumes 2% a year, rounded down to the nearest $100, which gives $5,100 in 2028 and $6,800 by 2043. Those later figures are our assumption, not published limits. If family and employer money together go over the cap, the calculator counts only the cap and warns you. The $1,000 deposit and money from governments or charities sit outside it.

With $1,000 a year from family and $2,500 from an employer, a child born in 2026 would have about $115,800 at 18 at 6% a year. Of that, $64,000 is money paid in.

How the money is invested

Until 1 January of the year the child turns 18, the account can hold only mutual funds or ETFs that track an index of mainly US companies. They can’t use leverage. Fees are capped at 0.1% of the balance a year. Treasury’s default fund at launch is the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM), and it has picked four more (IVV, VTI, SPTM and ITOT) to add as choices.

At these fee levels the fee you pick barely moves the result: on the default plan, 0.03% gives $35,327 at 18 and 0.10% gives $35,044, a gap of $283. The return moves it far more. A US share index can lose value in any year, and the calculator’s single average rate smooths over those swings.

What happens at 18

The growth period ends on 1 January of the year the child turns 18, which is why the result is dated then (1 January 2044 for a child born in 2026). From that date withdrawals are allowed, and the account generally follows traditional IRA rules. The calculator stops there; the compound interest calculator can carry a balance forward at a rate you choose. How a Trump account compares with a 529 plan or a custodial Roth IRA is in our guide to Trump accounts, 529s and custodial Roth IRAs.

Worked examples

Balance on 1 January 2044 for a child born in 2026, with the $1,000 deposit claimed, a 0.10% fund fee and the same family amount every year:

An older child has fewer years. A child born in 2018 gets no $1,000 and has 10 years of contributions (2026 to 2035). With $1,000 a year at 6%, the account would hold about $13,800 on 1 January 2036, or $14,300 with Dell’s $250.

In today’s dollars, assuming 2.5% inflation a year, the default plan’s $35,044 is worth about $22,750.

Why headline figures are higher

The White House Council of Economic Advisers projected in August 2025 that a baby born in 2026 would have about $5,800 at 18 from the $1,000 alone, under its average-returns scenario. With maximum contributions, its figure was $303,800. Turning $1,000 into $5,800 in 18 years takes about 10.3% a year (our back-calculation). The CEA took its rates from the S&P 500’s total return over every rolling 18-year period ending from 1975 to the present. It also gave the deposit a full 18 years of growth, used index returns (which carry no fund fee), and had maximum contributions rise 2% a year after 2027.

Our default is 6% before a 0.10% fee. Even the CEA’s low-returns scenario ($187,400 with maximum contributions) works out to about 6% a year by the same back-calculation. Put 10.26% into this calculator and the $1,000 alone reaches about $5,400; the rest of the gap to $5,800 is the shorter first year and the fee.

Nobody knows what US shares will return over the next 18 years, us included. Scroll is education, not advice. Our lessons and calculators explain how money works in general. They don’t know your circumstances, so they can’t tell you what to do with yours. For that, speak to a qualified, regulated adviser in your country.

How the calculator works

The net return takes the fee off the gross return: r_net = (1 + r) × (1 − fee) − 1. With the defaults, (1.06 × 0.999) − 1 = 5.894% a year.

The calculator then works through each calendar year from 2026 (or the birth year, if later) to the year before the child turns 18. Each year it adds that year’s money, then a year’s growth: balance = (balance + contributions) × (1 + r_net). Contributions are family plus employer money up to the cap, plus anything outside the cap: the $1,000 deposit in the first year, Dell’s $250 in 2026 if it’s switched on, and government or charity money. Growth in 2026 covers 181 of 365 days, from 4 July.

With the defaults:

That’s $19,000 paid in (the $1,000 deposit plus 18 years of $1,000) and $16,044.38 of growth. Today’s dollars divide by inflation over the same period, about 17.5 years: $35,044.38 ÷ 1.025^(17 + 181/365) = $22,750.70.