This calculator compares a low-fee ETF against a higher-fee managed fund in New Zealand over time, after fees, to reveal how much the difference in fees really costs you across a long investing horizon. Fees are the quiet drag on every investment, and because they are charged every year on your whole balance, a gap that looks tiny on paper compounds into a startling sum over decades. The money a fee takes is not just lost that year; it is also all the growth that money would have earned for the rest of your investing life. This tool isolates the effect of fees by assuming the same gross return for both options, so you can see the fee impact on its own. You enter the amount invested, the number of years, the gross return you expect, and the annual fee for the ETF and for the managed fund, and the calculator projects the after-fee value of each and the difference between them. Use it to weigh up whether a managed fund's fee is justified, and to appreciate why low-cost index investing has become so popular. Remember ETFs can carry brokerage and foreign exchange costs, and some managed funds are themselves low-fee index funds, so compare the real total fees. Returns are not guaranteed. General information, not financial advice.
Assumes the same gross return so the difference is purely the fees. ETFs may add brokerage and FX costs. Returns are not guaranteed. General information only.
Each option grows the amount invested at the gross return minus its annual fee, compounded over the years. The after-fee return for the ETF is the gross return minus the ETF fee, and for the managed fund it is the gross return minus the managed fee. The difference between the two final values is what the higher fee costs you.
Investing 50,000 dollars for 20 years at a 7 percent gross return, an ETF charging 0.3 percent grows to about 182,919 dollars, while a managed fund charging 1.2 percent grows to about 154,413 dollars. The 0.9 percent fee gap costs about 28,506 dollars.
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