Calculator

What charges actually cost

An annual charge is quoted as a small percentage, which is why it rarely feels like a decision worth much attention. The cost is not the percentage: it is the percentage compounded over decades, plus everything the money taken would itself have earned.

Fee drag

Adjust anything; the chart shows the gap the charge opens up

Starting amount

Added each month

Return before charges

Annual, before any charge is deducted.

Annual charge

Years invested

years

The charge costs you

$147,338

The same as 24.6 years of your contributions

You end up with

$818,001

Instead of $965,339 with no charge at all

Year 0Year 15Year 30

No charge · $965kAfter the charge · $818k

Total you paid in$230,000

Growth kept$588,001

Taken by the charge$147,338

Share of the fee-free pot lost15.3%

Return kept after charges6.25%

The charge is applied to the whole balance each year, compounded monthly, which is how platform and fund charges are normally levied. The cost shown is not the fee alone: it is the fee plus all the growth that money would subsequently have earned, which is why a fraction of a percent becomes a large sum over decades. Tax and inflation are not modelled.

The same pot at different charges

$50,000 plus $500 a month, 7% a year, 30 years

Annual charge	Final value	Lifetime cost	Share of pot lost
0.05%	$954,680	−$10,659	1.1%
0.25%	$913,286	−$52,053	5.4%
0.50%	$864,231	−$101,108	10.5%
0.75%	$818,001	−$147,338	15.3%
1.00%	$774,431	−$190,908	19.8%
1.50%	$694,660	−$270,679	28.0%
2.00%	$623,785	−$341,554	35.4%

Same contributions, same gross return, same period. The only thing that changes down this table is the charge.

What counts as a charge

The figure that matters is everything deducted annually, added together: the fund’s ongoing charge, the platform or custody fee, and any adviser fee taken as a percentage of the balance.

Transaction costs, bid-offer spreads and performance fees sit outside most headline figures and are not modelled here. Where they are significant, the real drag is worse than this calculator shows.

A flat annual fee behaves very differently from a percentage: it matters enormously on a small balance and barely at all on a large one. This calculator models a percentage, which is the more common arrangement.

Charges are contractual and known in advance, which makes them the one input to a long-term outcome that is neither a forecast nor a matter of opinion.