Investment Fee Impact Calculator
Estimate how much investment fees can reduce your portfolio over time by comparing a low-fee scenario against a higher-fee scenario. Model starting balance, ongoing contributions, gross return assumptions, and fee drag to see the long-run cost of seemingly small percentage differences.
Burrow Tip: Fee differences that look tiny on paper can compound into huge wealth gaps over decades.
The useful question is not just “what is the fee?” but “how much final wealth do I lose because of it?”
Portfolio and fee assumptions
Fee comparison setup
Advanced comparison settings
Results
Portfolio value over time
Ending value breakdown
Fee impact summary
Target balance comparison
Projection table
| Year | Date | Low-fee balance | High-fee balance | Annual contribution | Cumulative contributions | Annual fee gap | Cumulative wealth gap |
|---|
Fee impact timeline (Mermaid code)
If your site supports Mermaid elsewhere, you can paste this snippet into a Mermaid block. This tool does not load Mermaid.
How to use these results
Fee analysis is useful because it converts abstract percentages into real dollars and lost future wealth. The key decision is not “is the fee small?” but “what is the long-term cost of paying that fee every year?”
- Compare net outcomes: the right comparison is what you keep after fees, not just the gross return assumption.
- Use long horizons: fee drag becomes much more visible over 20–40 years than over 2–3 years.
- Check front loads separately: one-time entry fees hurt immediately, while annual expense drag compounds every year.
- Test contribution growth: if you plan to invest more over time, the cost of high fees usually grows with you.
This tool is best for comparing fee structures and understanding tradeoffs. It does not judge manager skill or guarantee one approach will outperform another.