Investment Fee Calculator
How much an ongoing fee and a sales load cost over time: your balance with and without them, the fees charged, and the growth those fees would have earned.
Result
Balance after fees: $179,213.48Estimate
On one steady return and fee that you enter. Real returns vary year to year; the fee is taken whatever they do.
- Balance with no fees
- $219,112.31Estimate
- Cost of the fees
- $39,898.83Estimate
- Ongoing fees charged
- $27,831.76Estimate
- Sales loads paid
- $0.00
- Share of the no-fee balance lost
- 18.2093%Estimate
https://calcgallery.com/investment-returns/investment-fee-calculator/
Results are arithmetic on the returns, rates and horizons you enter, not a forecast and not investment, tax or retirement advice. The site supplies no expected return, inflation rate, contribution limit, tax rate or withdrawal rate. Real returns vary from year to year, and fees, taxes and the order of returns all change the outcome. Check anything that matters with a qualified adviser. Read the full disclaimer
How to use the Investment Fee Calculator
- Enter what you invest now, and anything you add at the end of each year.
- Enter the yearly return you assume before fees, the yearly fee as a percentage, and the number of years.
- Add a front-end sales load if the fund charges one, and compare the balances with and without fees.
The model
each year: balance × (1 + return) × (1 − fee) + contribution × (1 − load)no-fee: balance × (1 + return) + contributioncost of fees = no-fee balance − balance after feesSmall percentages, large sums
A fee looks small because it is quoted against the whole balance, not against the return. A 1% fee on a 4% return takes a quarter of each year’s growth. Over decades that share compounds: the page’s share-lost figure shows how much of the no-fee balance never arrives.
What the diagram shows
The balance year by year after fees, with the balance you would have had without them as a dashed curve. The gap widens every year.
With your numbers
- Each year the balance grows by 4%, then 1% of it is taken as the fee
- After 20 years: $179,213.48 with fees against $219,112.31 without
- Cost = $39,898.83: $27,831.76 charged, and the rest is growth those charges would have earned
Quick reference
On one steady return and fee that you enter. Real returns vary year to year; the fee is taken whatever they do.
| Example | Balance after fees |
|---|---|
| 100,000 at 4% for 20 years, 1% fee | $179,213.48 |
| Same, 0.25% fee | $208,413.03 |
| Same, 0.50% fee | $198,211.30 |
| 10,000 with a 5% load, one flat year | $9,500.00 |
| 10,000 plus 6,000 a year, 7%, 0.75%, 30 years | $551,901.63 |
| 50,000 at 6%, 2% fee, 25 years | $129,499.63 |
Common questions about the Investment Fee Calculator
- Why is the cost bigger than the fees charged?
- Because every fee taken out of the account also stops earning a return. Over 20 years at 4%, a 1% fee on 100,000 charges about 27,800 in fees, but leaves the account nearly 40,000 smaller than with no fee. The difference is the growth the fees would have earned.
- How is the fee charged?
- Once a year, as a share of the balance after that year's growth. Many funds take their expense ratio a little each day, which makes almost no difference to the result. The page reproduces the US Securities and Exchange Commission's example, where 100,000 growing at 4% with a 1% fee is worth roughly 179,000 after 20 years.
- What is a front-end sales load?
- A charge taken from each purchase before it is invested. With a 5% load, a 10,000 purchase buys 9,500 of fund shares, and the 500 is paid to the seller. The page applies the load to the first amount and to each yearly addition.
- Does a higher fee ever pay for itself?
- Only if the investment earns enough more to cover it, year after year. The page assumes the same return before fees in both cases, so it shows the cost of the fee alone. Enter a different return if you expect the higher-fee option to earn more, and compare.