What does 1% per month actually compound to?
Taken at face value and multiplied out, 1% per month is 12.68% a year. That is about 3.2x what you would get from a three-month Treasury bill that pays around 4% and a government-insured deposit around 3.5%. The arithmetic below assumes every payment arrives on time, which is the assumption that fails in practice, not the compounding.
Above the best long-run professional record
No supervised product guarantees this. To pay it, somebody has to take market risk, use leverage, or use new deposits. Once it is advertised as fixed or risk-free, the arithmetic and the promise are no longer the same thing.
1% per month, by starting amount
| Held for | $100 becomes | $1,000 becomes | $10,000 becomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | $112.68 | $1.1K | $11.3K |
| 3 years | $143.08 | $1.4K | $14.3K |
| 5 years | $181.67 | $1.8K | $18.2K |
| 10 years | $330.04 | $3.3K | $33.0K |
Balance = principal x (1 + 1%) ^ periods, compounded every month.
1% per month against what is guaranteed
Reference levels: long-run approximations, October 2026. A multiple of "-" means the comparison does not apply.
| Reference level | Rate | This rate in multiples |
|---|---|---|
| Insured bank deposit (US, FDIC) | 3.5% a year (guaranteed) | 3.6x |
| 3-month US Treasury bill | 4.0% a year (guaranteed) | 3.2x |
| US inflation (consumer prices) | 2.5% a year (not investable, measures erosion) | 5.1x |
| S&P 500, long-run average | 10.0% a year (not guaranteed to anyone) | 1.3x |
| Best long-run professional record (Buffett, decades) | 20.0% a year (not guaranteed to anyone) | 0.6x |
The red line
A guaranteed return higher than a Treasury bill or an insured deposit cannot exist. Every dollar paid above the risk-free rate is paid for with risk, leverage, or other people's deposits. A published promise of a fixed return above the risk-free rate is the definition of a return trap.
No published entry on this register currently quotes a rate in this range. The arithmetic above still applies to any offer that does.
Questions about 1% per month
- What is 1% per month as an annual return?Compounded, 1% per month is 12.68% a year. Interest is multiplied, not added, so the yearly figure is (1 + 1/100) raised to the power of 12, minus one.
- How long would 1% per month take to double my money?About 2 months. At a monthly rate that high the balance reaches a million dollars from a thousand in 1.9 years, which is why the number is only ever advertised, never audited.
- Is 1% per month realistic?No supervised product guarantees anything close. A monthly percentage is quoted because it sounds small, but 12.68% a year is far above an insured deposit, above a Treasury bill, and above the best long-run professional record. A fixed promise at that level has to be paid from someone else's deposit.
Try your own numbers
- Daily return calculator — your amount, your horizon.
- Guaranteed return check — is any of this guaranteed?
- Where the payout comes from — how many new depositors it takes.
- Loss recovery — what one bad month costs.
All advertised rates · all calculators · the method and math.