Investment fee calculator: what the TER takes over the long run

The TER is charged every year on your whole portfolio, not on the gain. With a 7% gross return, 1.5% takes about a fifth of each year's return, and what you pay stops compounding. €10,000 at 7% for 30 years would be about €76,123 with no costs; with a 1.5% TER about €48,373 remains, 36.5% less. At 0.2% the difference shrinks to about €4,400.

Ongoing charges (TER): charged by the fund and already deducted from the net asset value, which is why you never see them leave your account; they appear in the key information document. Custody: charged by some providers for holding your units; many brokers don't. Purchase fee: a fixed amount per order that weighs more the smaller the contribution, since €2 on €100 is already 2%. Bid-ask spreads, entry or exit charges and taxes are not included.

The total cost is the difference between what you would have with no costs at all and what you have with each product. The percentage shows how much of that cost-free wealth is lost along the way. A more expensive manager only pays off if it beats its index by more than it costs, consistently.

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