ETF Return Calculator
A 0.5% expense ratio sounds negligible next to a 0.03% one — until decades of compounding turn that "small" difference into tens of thousands of dollars. This calculator makes the real long-term cost of a fund's fee visible, not just its headline percentage.
Enter your details to see your net projected value.
How to use this calculator
- Enter your initial investment and expected annual return.
- Enter the ETF's expense ratio — a small annual fee expressed as a percentage.
- Click "Calculate net return" to see how much the fee costs you over time.
How the calculation works
The calculator projects your investment twice: once at your full expected return (the "gross" value before fees), and once at that return minus the expense ratio (the "net" value you'd actually keep). Since an expense ratio is deducted continuously from fund assets, subtracting it directly from the annual return before compounding gives an accurate approximation of its long-term drag on your balance.
A worked example
Say you invest $50,000 with an expected 8% annual return over 25 years. At a 0.03% expense ratio (typical of a broad low-cost index ETF), fees cost you only about $1,000 over the full period. Swap that for a 1% expense ratio instead — common among actively managed funds — and the cost balloons to roughly $75,000 in lost growth over the same 25 years, on the exact same starting investment and gross return assumption.
Frequently asked questions
What is a typical ETF expense ratio?
Broad index ETFs are often 0.03%-0.20% annually, while actively managed or niche funds can run 0.5%-1%+ — check the fund's prospectus for the exact figure.
Is a slightly higher expense ratio ever worth it?
It can be, if the fund provides access to a strategy or asset class not available more cheaply elsewhere — but for broad market exposure, lower-cost options often perform comparably or better after fees.
Does this include taxes or trading costs?
No, this isolates the expense ratio's impact only — taxes and any trading costs are separate.
Where do I find a fund's exact expense ratio?
It's listed in the fund's prospectus and fact sheet, usually as "expense ratio" or "total annual fund operating expenses," and typically also shown on any major brokerage's fund page.
Do actively managed funds ever outperform after fees?
Some do in individual years, but broad, long-running studies (like S&P's SPIVA reports) have repeatedly found that most actively managed funds underperform low-cost index alternatives net of fees over long periods.