Project a mutual fund balance, total contributions, estimated growth, and expense drag from starting investment, monthly contribution, expected return, expense ratio, and time.
$5,000 plus $250.00/mo for 20 years
This is a simple projection, not a fund quote. Real mutual fund results can change with NAV, share class, loads, redemption fees, taxable distributions, turnover, market losses, and the fund prospectus.
Project a mutual fund balance with recurring contributions.
Estimate how an expense ratio can reduce a projection.
Compare low-fee and higher-fee scenarios before reading a fund prospectus.
Separate contributions from estimated investment growth.
About $140,887.47 after expenses vs. $150,425.36 before expenses
About $109,593.09 after expenses and about $13,985.06 expense drag
About $17,889.72 after expenses from $13,000 contributed
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Plain-language answers about when to use the estimate, what your numbers mean, what is left out, and how privacy works.
Use it when you want to test the exact inputs on this page: Project a mutual fund balance with recurring contributions. Estimate how an expense ratio can reduce a projection. The result is a check against your assumptions, not proof that a lender, tax app, broker, platform, or provider will use the same number.
Starting investment means The money already invested. This can act like a lump-sum starting amount. Monthly contribution means The recurring deposit you want to test. Some people call this SIP-style investing, but this tool does not check any country-specific fund rules. Expected annual return means A what-if return before expenses. It is not a promise and can be negative in real markets. Expense ratio means The annual operating-cost percent you want to subtract from the return assumption. Real funds can also have loads, redemption fees, and taxes. Years invested means How long the projection runs. Longer time makes both compounding and fee drag easier to see.
No. It is a what-if projection. Real mutual funds move with the securities they own, and the next share value is based on NAV, not a smooth return line.
No. Taxable accounts can owe tax on dividends and capital-gain distributions, even when distributions are reinvested. This calculator keeps those outside the estimate.
An expense ratio is charged every year, so the drag compounds over time. A small-looking difference can turn into a large dollar gap in a long projection.
In plain language: The calculator projects the balance with the expected annual return, subtracts the annual expense ratio from that return for a simple net-return estimate, then compares the two balances. For the starter example, $5,000 plus $250/month at 7% for 20 years gives about $150,425.36 before expenses. With a 0.5% expense ratio, the simple net-return estimate is 6.5%, giving about $140,887.47 after expenses.
Read projected fund balance after expenses as the main what-if number, balance before expenses as the no-expense comparison, and estimated expense drag as the gap caused by the fee assumption.
This is a hypothetical projection. It does not include actual fund performance, share price or NAV movement, front-end or back-end loads, purchase or redemption fees, 12b-1 fees, trading costs, taxable distributions, capital-gain distributions, changing expenses, market losses, fund closure, liquidity limits, or investment advice. Use the fund prospectus, broker data, FINRA Fund Analyzer, SEC/Investor.gov materials, and tax records before making a real investment or tax decision.
Check the fund prospectus, expense ratio, share class, sales load, redemption fees, distributions, tax account type, investment objective, risk level, and whether the return assumption is realistic.
No. The calculator runs in your browser tab. Recent answers stay only on the page while you use it, and they are not sent to a server.