I was surfing around the Internet yesterday and happened on this little financial calculator on the CNN Money site. It's woefully simple and bears little resemblance to the realities of making your first million.

It'll take you all of 30 seconds to input the data it needs to run through its calculations.

Pretty simple, eh? Put in how much you have saved and how much you intend to save in both taxable and non-taxable accounts; then input how much you expect to pay in taxes and what sort of return you expect to get on your investments. That's all there is to it.

Now click the "Calculate" button and CNN's millionaire calculator magic tells you when you can expect to be a millionaire.

As you can see, I plugged in some sample numbers just for fun. With the numbers I gave it my millionaire status time horizon came to 20 years, 26+ years if we adjust for inflation. And why would we not adjust for inflation? Who could call rightly herself a millionaire if her standard of living were 30% lower than it was 20 years before?

Twenty six years is a very long time. Over that time span you're not likely to see a 9% return on your investments very often. In fact, in some years your return will be negative. The good news is that in some years your return will be higher than 9%. Assuming a linear rate of return greatly oversimplifies the problem here.

The same goes for taxes. Though I doubt your tax rate (or mine) will ever go negative, it's not likely it will remain the same either. This is particularly true as your investments grow and begin to generate taxable income of their own. The reality is, the more you have, the more complicated your tax picture becomes.

You get the idea. This calculator is just for fun. It does give you a sense of perspective though. Earning and saving your way to a million dollars is quite an accomplishment. It takes time and commitment. If CNN's Millionaire Calculator does nothing else, it shows that it's a task that can't be taken lightly.