Retirement Fund with Interest A young woman 22 years of age has just graduated from college. She accepts a good job and desires to establish her own retirement fund. At the end of each year thereafter she plans to deposit 2000 in a fund at 15% annual interest. How old will she be when the fund has an accumulated value of 1000000 Answer is 53 years. Using Compound Interest Formula: F = P(1+i)^n 1000000 = 2000(1 + 0.15)^n n = 44.465 Add to age 22+44 = 66 years old. What am i doing wrong. Any hint?

As Mattos already said the mistake is that she adds $2000$ dollars at the end of each year.

After $1$ year she will have $2000$ dollars. After two years she will have $2000\cdot1.15+2000$, After three she will have $2000\cdot1.15^2+2000\cdot1.15+2000$.

After $n+1$ years she will have $2000(1.15^n+1.15^{n-1}\dots +1)$ By formula of geometric sum this is equal to: $2000(\frac{1.15^{n+1}-1}{1.15-1})$.

So after $n$ years she will have $2000(\frac{1.15^{n}-1}{0.15}$) So we must solve:

$1,000,000\cdot0.15=2000(1.15^{n}-1)\iff 500\cdot0.15=(1.15^{n}-1)\iff 76=1.15^n$ which has an approximate solution of $n=30.9865$

Therefore she will have $22+31=53$ years