What is 5% per month as an annual return?

Compounded, 5% per month is 79.59% a year. Interest is multiplied, not added, so the yearly figure is (1 + 5/100) raised to the power of 12, minus one.

How long would 5% per month take to double my money?

About 14 days. At a monthly rate that high the balance reaches a million dollars from a thousand in 5 months, which is why the number is only ever advertised, never audited.

Is 5% per month realistic?

No supervised product guarantees anything close. A monthly percentage is quoted because it sounds small, but 79.59% 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.

What does 5% per month actually compound to?

Taken at face value and multiplied out, 5% per month is 79.59% a year. That is about 19.9x 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.

What this rate means

A textbook scheme profile

Rates in this range do not describe investing, they describe a Ponzi structure: the payout schedule only clears while new deposits keep arriving.

Advertised rate 5% per month as promoters quote it

Compounded over a year 79.59% (1.0500) to the power of 12

Money doubles in 14 days at this rate, if it were real

$1,000 after one year $54.2B no fees, no tax, no missed payment

Payout owed on $1,000 $50.00 a month for the promise to hold, forever

5% per month, by starting amount

Held for	$100 becomes	$1,000 becomes	$10,000 becomes
1 year	$179.59	$1.8K	$18.0K
3 years	$579.18	$5.8K	$57.9K
5 years	$1.9K	$18.7K	$186.8K
10 years	$34.9K	$348.9K	$3.5M

Balance = principal x (1 + 5%) ^ periods, compounded every month.

5% 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)	22.7x
3-month US Treasury bill	4.0% a year (guaranteed)	19.9x
US inflation (consumer prices)	2.5% a year (not investable, measures erosion)	31.8x
S&P 500, long-run average	10.0% a year (not guaranteed to anyone)	8.0x
Best long-run professional record (Buffett, decades)	20.0% a year (not guaranteed to anyone)	4.0x

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 5% per month

What is 5% per month as an annual return?Compounded, 5% per month is 79.59% a year. Interest is multiplied, not added, so the yearly figure is (1 + 5/100) raised to the power of 12, minus one.
How long would 5% per month take to double my money?About 14 days. At a monthly rate that high the balance reaches a million dollars from a thousand in 5 months, which is why the number is only ever advertised, never audited.
Is 5% per month realistic?No supervised product guarantees anything close. A monthly percentage is quoted because it sounds small, but 79.59% 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.

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