A self-possessed adult woman in a clean, high-end editorial setting for Fees.

05 / 25 · Fees

She knows what the yacht costs. Do you know what your fund costs?

A fee compounds too—against you. Its real cost includes every future return the deducted money never earns.

The lesson

1.5% sounds small. Thirty years makes it €290,401.

In the first year, the difference between a 0.2% and a 1.5% annual fee is €1,300 on €100,000.

€100,000 earning 8% gross for thirty years becomes approximately €951,838 after a 0.2% annual fee. At a 1.5% fee, the same money, return and time produce approximately €661,437. The €290,401 gap was not lost to a crash. It was billed.

The higher charge repeats every year; every euro deducted also loses all the growth it could have earned later.

€1,006,266No annual fee

€951,8380.2% annual fee

€661,4371.5% annual fee

Test the drag

Change the fee. Measure what disappears.

Compare a low-cost and high-cost scenario against the same gross return.

See the curve

The €290,401 gap
widens with time.

It widens because each deducted euro also loses every future return it could have earned.

No fee0.2% fee1.5% fee

The €290,401 gap widens with time.
YEARS INVESTED	No fee	0.2% fee	1.5% fee
0	100000	100000	100000
10	215892	211928	187714
20	466096	449133	352365
30	1006266	951838	661437

Starting capital

Gross annual return

Years invested

Lower annual fee

Higher annual fee

Value with no fee

Value with lower fee

Gap between lower and higher fee

Continue with any AI assistant

Audit the drag.

Compare €100,000 invested for 30 years at a constant 8% gross annual return under annual fees of 0%, 0.2%, and 1.5%. Model each fee as a direct reduction in annual return.

Show values after 10, 20, and 30 years, the ending-value impact versus no fee, the difference between 0.2% and 1.5%, and why the gap includes foregone growth. Then test gross returns of 5% and 9%, state every assumption, and give me three practice questions.

Assumptions

Constant 8% gross return, compounded annually.
Fee modeled as a direct reduction in annual return.
No contributions, withdrawals, tax or inflation.
Real product charges and timing vary. Returns are not guaranteed.