What the $1,000 seed is actually worth.
A Trump Account is a traditional IRA for a child, and the official projections show the $1,000 government seed growing into thousands by 18 and hundreds of thousands by retirement. Those are future dollars, before tax. This tool puts the poster number next to the same balance in today's money so you can see both at once.
Nominal balance at age 18, before tax. Future dollars.
Same balance, deflated at 3% inflation. Before tax.
Grow the $1,000 seed at 10.5% a year for 18 years.
Nominal = seed*(1+r)^n + PMT*((1+r)^n - 1)/r*(1+r)
Contributions are modeled at the start of each year (annuity due). This reproduces the official TrumpAccounts.gov projections to the dollar.
Convert that future balance back into today's spending power by removing 3% inflation a year.
Today's dollars = Nominal / (1 + inflation)^n
The result is still a pre-tax number. Because a Trump Account is a traditional IRA, withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income.
Education only, not advice, not a prediction, and not tax guidance. The 10.5% top of the return slider is the S&P 500 long-run historical average the official projections use, a statistic and not a forecast. The 3% inflation figure is ours. Both numbers are before tax.
The number is real. The units matter.
The official projections are internally consistent: a $1,000 seed growing at about 10.5% a year reaches roughly $6,000 in 18 years and about $243,000 in 55. The problem is not the arithmetic. It is that the figure is measured in future dollars, before any tax, and decades of inflation quietly eat most of it. A dollar 55 years from now buys far less than a dollar today.
This calculator runs the same annuity-due math the poster uses for the gold line, then removes inflation to show the same balance in today's spending power (the green line). Both numbers are still before tax. Because a Trump Account is a traditional IRA, the money is taxed as ordinary income when it comes out, and the free portions (the seed, any employer money) create no basis, so every dollar of them is taxable on the way out.
The formula and assumptions
- The account opens at birth. The seed is $1,000 for a U.S.-citizen child born 2025 to 2028, $250 for the Dell Foundation group, or $0. These dollar figures are sourced (IRS and CRS); the return and inflation rates are assumptions, not guarantees.
- Contributions are modeled at the start of each year (annuity due): Nominal = seed times (1 plus r) to the n, plus PMT times ((1 plus r) to the n, minus 1) divided by r, times (1 plus r). This reproduces every official TrumpAccounts.gov preset to the dollar.
- Today's dollars = Nominal divided by (1 plus inflation) to the n. Inflation is fixed at 3%, which is ours.
- 10.5% is the S&P 500 long-run historical average the official numbers use, a statistic and not a forecast. A steady annual rate is a simplification; real returns vary year to year.
Accuracy and limitations
- Accuracy: the tool reproduces all six official presets ($1,000 seed to about $6,000 at 18, $15,000 at 27, and $243,000 at 55; and with $5,000 added a year, about $271,000, $742,000, and $13,000,000). The Math Verifier asserts this on every change.
- Every figure is before tax. Withdrawals from a traditional IRA are taxed as ordinary income, and the free portions of a Trump Account are fully taxable because they create no basis.
- A steady rate is a simplification. Actual returns can be far lower for long stretches, and a lower assumed return moves both lines down together.
- The $1,000 is not automatic. A parent or guardian must open the account (Form 4547, at tax filing, or at trumpaccounts.gov), and only children born 2025 to 2028 get the full federal seed.
- It is not advice on whether to open a Trump Account or contribute to one.
- It is not a prediction of what the stock market will return over the next 18 or 55 years.
- It is not tax guidance. The basis and withdrawal rules turn on facts specific to each family.
- It is not a recommendation of any account, fund, app, or provider, and not a ruling that a Trump Account beats a 529 or a custodial account for your situation.
Sources: IRS and the Congressional Research Service for the program rules; TrumpAccounts.gov for the projection method. Valid as of July 6, 2026. Education only. The headline figures are pre-tax; the today's-dollars figure removes inflation but not the ordinary income tax owed on withdrawal. ClearMoneySchool does not provide personalized financial, tax, or legal advice.