Live fee-drag bridge and contribution vs growth stack - so a sticker return never pretends to be the path you keep.
Educational constant-rate sketch. Sticker ≠ kept. Not investment advice, a market forecast, or a tax projection.
By Ahmet C. Toplutaş·Site owner & editor · Finance tools
Last updated Dec 14, 2025 · Planning estimates only - not tax, medical, or investment advice
01
Investment marketing loves a clean annual percentage. The quieter question is whether that number is the sticker return before costs or the kept path after an expense ratio (and other drag) compounds against you for decades.
This page’s framing is Sticker ≠ kept. You enter a gross expected return and an annual fee assumption; the panel projects both paths on the same contributions and years, then bridges the dollar gap so fee drag is visible - not a footnote.
That is a different job from the compound interest calculator, which owns deposits ≠ destiny, drip vs lump, and compounding frequency. Here the literacy skill is brochure-versus-net portfolio growth for a contribution plan.
Markets bounce; this tool does not. Constant-rate sketches are for comparing assumptions - contribution size, horizon, sticker rate, and fees - not for promising a future statement balance.
Decision framing: “What does the fee drag cost by year N?” - not “Will I earn exactly 7% every year?”
02
Each month the model applies a monthly rate from the annual assumption, then adds the monthly contribution - matching the site’s investment engine timing. Starting principal counts in total contributions; growth is ending value minus everything you put in.
Kept path uses net annual rate = sticker − fee. That is a blunt educational model of expense-ratio drag. Real products layer trading costs, loads, advisory fees, and taxes differently; read a prospectus when dollars are real.
Negative net rates are allowed if fees exceed the sticker assumption - useful for stress-testing high-cost products in low-return worlds, not as a prediction.
03
The unique affordance is the fee-drag bridge: sticker-path ending value → subtract drag → kept-path ending value. Same deposits and years; only the annual rate changes by your fee field.
That bridge is not an inflation basket meter and not a compound-interest frequency strip. It is cost literacy for long contribution plans - Sticker ≠ kept made visual.
A 1% fee can look harmless next to a 7% brochure. Over twenty years of monthly investing, the finish-line gap is often the loudest number on the panel. Try the fee-heavy preset, then drop the fee toward a low-cost index sketch and watch the bridge shrink.
Try Fee-heavy fund vs Core DCA - identical contributions, different fee - read the drag line.
04
On the kept path, the stack splits ending value into what you contributed versus what growth added. Early years are contribution-heavy; long horizons with solid net rates shift the bar toward growth - still not a guarantee.
If growth share stays thin, you may be under-saving, under-horizoning, or over-feeing - or using a deliberately conservative sticker rate. Fix the lever that matches your goal rather than staring at a single future-value headline.
For purchasing-power of that ending balance, hand off to the inflation calculator (Nominal ≠ real). This page stays in nominal portfolio dollars after fee drag.
05
Return-band chips hold contributions, years, and fee fixed while swapping common sticker rates (5%, 7%, 9%). Each chip prints kept FV and fee drag so optimistic stickers do not get a free pass without a conservative neighbor.
Custom rates still compute; chips are stress anchors. If your plan only “works” at 9% with tiny fees, it is fragile - rebuild contributions or horizon before celebrating.
Display currency uses a dollar format for site consistency. Enter amounts in your planning unit; ratios and drag percent carry the Sticker ≠ kept lesson.
06
Example A · Core DCA. Preset: $10k start, $500/mo, 7% sticker, 0.2% fee, 20 years. Note kept FV, drag, and the contribution/growth split.
Example B · Fee-heavy fund. Same plan with 1.2% fee. Compare drag dollars to Core DCA - Sticker ≠ kept in high relief.
Example C · Aggressive save. Higher drip and 9% sticker - use return bands to see 5% kept as a floor stress.
Example D · Lump + light drip. Larger principal, smaller monthly. Growth share often rises earlier; fee drag still compounds on the whole balance.
After presets, paste your real contribution plan and a fee from a fund fact sheet. Share only when sticker, fee, and cash flows match the scenario you intend to send.
Couples arguing about “the market return” should argue about fee and contribution assumptions on the same panel - not about who remembers last year’s index print.
For retirement income and runway after accumulation, continue on the retirement calculator.
07
Most investment-projection regrets are sticker worship and single-scenario optimism.
08
Share links snapshot initial, monthly, rate, years, and fee. Live typing never rewrites the address bar.
09
Stop here for Sticker ≠ kept literacy: fee drag on a contribution plan, return bands, and contribution vs growth. Hand off for compounding mechanics, inflation, SIP maturity, or retirement runway.
10
A sticker return is the gross expected annual rate you type in (for example 7%). Kept return is what remains after a simple annual fee/expense-ratio drag (sticker − fee). This page’s framing is Sticker ≠ kept so a brochure return is not mistaken for the path your balance actually compounds on.
It projects the same contributions twice: once at the sticker rate and once at the net rate after fees, then shows dollars “lost” to that drag. That bridge is the unique affordance - different from the compound-interest page’s drip-vs-lump and frequency tools, and different from the inflation page’s basket shrink.
As a constant annual percentage subtracted from the sticker return (net rate = sticker − fee). Real funds charge differently (AUM fees, trading costs, loads). This is an educational drag sketch, not a prospectus.
On the after-fee path, it splits ending value into what you contributed (initial + monthly) versus growth. Contributions ≠ growth share - useful when a large balance is mostly deposits, not market magic.
Compound interest owns compounding mechanics (frequency, drip vs lump). SIP focuses on systematic installment maturity. This investment page owns portfolio growth with fee drag and return-band stress - Sticker ≠ kept.
No. Taxes and inflation are out of scope here. Pair with the inflation calculator for purchasing-power literacy, and treat tax lots with a tax professional or dedicated tools.
No. Values hydrate from the URL on load; the address bar updates only when you use Share or Copy.
LIVE INVESTMENT · STICKER ≠ KEPT
Sticker ≠ kept ↓Scenario presets
Kept portfolio (after fee drag)
$293,042
Sticker path $300,851 · fee drag $7,809 · net rate 6.80%
FEE-DRAG BRIDGE · STICKER → KEPT
STICKER PATH
$300,851
@ 7% gross
−$7,809
fee drag
KEPT PATH
$293,042
@ 6.80% net
Same contributions and years. Only the annual rate changes by your fee assumption. Drag can look small yearly and large at the finish line.
CONTRIBUTION VS GROWTH · KEPT PATH
Your contributions
$130,000 · 44%
Growth
$163,042 · 56%
Total contributed
$130,000
Growth (kept path)
$163,042
Net rate
6.80%
Sticker FV
$300,851
Fee drag $
$7,809
Drag % of sticker FV
2.6%
Return-band chips · sticker vs kept at your fee
Sticker ≠ kept
Brochure returns ignore expense ratios. A small annual fee compounds into a large gap versus the sticker path - especially over long horizons with steady contributions.
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