Calculators / Fee Drag
Investment Fee Calculator
A 1% fee sounds small. Over decades it quietly compounds into a huge share of your final portfolio. See exactly how many dollars a fee costs you, and what percentage of your money it eats. Everything runs in your browser.
Typical fees: a low-cost index ETF ~0.03–0.20%, an actively managed fund ~1–2.5%, a typical advisor ~1% (often on top of fund fees).
Without the fee · With the fee · what the fee ate
How this works
Two identical portfolios are grown month by month with your contributions: one at the full return, one at return − fee (an annual fee is essentially a haircut on your return each year). The gap between them at the end is what the fee cost you.
Why it's so large: the fee is charged every year on your whole balance, including the growth, so the lost amount compounds. A 1% fee on a 7% return removes far more than 1% of your final wealth, because you also lose all the future growth on the money the fee took.
Simplifications: constant return and fee, monthly compounding, fee modeled as a reduction in annual return. Real funds vary; this is illustrative, not advice.
Illustration only. Accuracy not guaranteed. A simplified model for education, not financial advice. See the disclaimer.