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Wealth.cat

    Investment fee calculator: what fund fees cost

    Compare two annual fees on the same plan — say a 0.1% ETF and a 1.5% fund — and see how much the difference grows over 10, 20 or 30 years.

    Value with fee A
    73,872
    Value with fee B
    48,373
    Difference between the two
    25,499
    Value with no fee at all
    76,123
    Total paid in
    10,000
    YearFee AFee B
    110,68910,540
    513,95613,005
    1019,47616,912
    1527,17921,994
    2037,93028,602
    2552,93437,196
    3073,87248,373

    Fees are taken from the whole balance every year, so they grow with it. The return is your own assumption, not a forecast: markets can fall.

    How it works

    Each year your investments grow by the return you enter, and the platform or fund takes its annual fee from the whole balance: the balance is multiplied by (1 + return) × (1 − fee). Monthly contributions are added at the end of each month. The calculator runs the same plan three times: with fee A, with fee B and with no fee at all.

    Example: 10,000 invested for 30 years at 7% a year before fees grows to about 73,900 with a 0.1% fee and about 48,400 with a 1.5% fee. The fee looks small each year, but it is charged on a balance that keeps growing.

    What to enter as the fee

    Add up everything charged as a percentage of your balance each year: a fund’s or ETF’s ongoing charge (expense ratio), the platform’s custody or account fee and any advice fee. One-off costs per trade, such as commissions and currency conversion, are not included here — the currency conversion calculator covers those.

    Keep it realistic

    The return is your assumption, not a forecast. Markets fall as well as rise, and real returns vary from year to year. Use the result to compare costs, not to predict what you will have.

    Updated October 18, 2026