Investment calculator

How much of the return actually reaches you after fees, tax and inflation.

I invest each month

One-off amount at the start

For how longin years

Assumed annual returnthe gross market return, before fees — in per cent

Assumed inflationper cent a year, used to convert to today’s money

Not sure how much is left each month? Work out your net salary →

Fees

This is where it is decided. Always check the fees with your own provider — the presets below are typical values, not a price list.

Kupuješ ETF sám cez brokera. Za vedenie neplatíš nič, platíš len nákladovosť fondu a prípadné poplatky za obchod. Po roku držania platí časový test.

Entry feeper cent of every contribution

Exit feeper cent of the value when you withdraw

Management feeper cent of the portfolio value a year

Fund cost (TER)per cent a year, charged inside the fund

VAT is added to the management fee
Some providers quote the rate before VAT of 23%.

Taxation

The sale is exempt from income tax and health contributions — the holding test applies.

You will end up with

€114,432

after 25 years and after tax

Of that you put in

€45,000

of your own money

You earned

€69,432

that is 6.79% a year after fees and tax

Fees will leave you €3,689 short

You will pay €2,121 in fees themselves. What you end up missing is considerably more, because every euro paid in fees never earns another. Altogether that is 3.12% of what you would have without fees.

How it grows

The lower area is what you put in. Above it is the return. The first years look dull — the whole point of investing long shows up only in the final third.

Click or move across the chart to see any month.

ContributionsValue

Breakdown of the result

The gross market return is chipped away step by step until what is left is what you actually withdraw.

If you paid no fees at all€118,120.40

Entry fees€0.00

Management fees€0.00

Fund costs−€2,121.07

Exit fee€0.00

Return these fees never got to earn−€1,567.82

Value before tax€114,431.51

Tax on withdrawal€0.00

What you keep€114,431.51

Fees are not deducted from the final amount in one go — they are taken as you go, so they never get to grow. That is why the gap against the first row is larger than their plain sum.

In today’s money that is €61,723

At 2.50% inflation a year, your final amount will buy in 25 years what the figure above buys today. It is an estimate — nobody knows inflation that far ahead.

What time does to a fee

Same investment, same return, different management fee. The difference is not in the percentage but in how many years it runs for.

Management fee	At the end	Versus zero
0.00%	€114,432	—
0.50%	€105,788	−€8,643
1.00%	€97,908	−€16,523
1.50%	€90,720	−€23,711

Repay the mortgage, or invest?

There is no single number that answers this, because you are comparing certainty with hope. What can be said is where the line lies.

How investing is taxed in Slovakia

If you buy a security admitted to trading on a regulated market — typically an ETF or a share — and sell it after more than a year, the proceeds are exempt from income tax and from health contributions. This is called the holding test and it is the biggest advantage a Slovak investor has. It does not apply to mutual fund units: on redemption the manager withholds 19 % of the gain, even if you held them for twenty years.

Why one per cent is a lot

A management fee is not paid out of the return but out of the whole portfolio value — including the money you put in, and including years when the market fell. It grows with the portfolio, so in the final decade it is several times higher in euros than in the first. And every euro that leaves as a fee never gets to grow. That is why one per cent a year over thirty years does not take thirty per cent, but considerably more.

What this calculation cannot do

In assumed-return mode the growth is even. Real markets are not — after two good years comes one where the value falls by a third. If you want to see what that actually looks like, switch to the historical mode.
The DAX and the S&P 500 are gross index series. A real fund lags them by roughly 0.3 to 0.6 per cent a year because of its own costs and the withholding tax on dividends in the country of origin. To account for that, enter the difference as the fund cost.
With the S&P 500 the euro–dollar exchange rate is part of the result. In some years it added tens of per cent and in others it took them away — it is not an equity return, but it cannot be separated from one. 2002 shows this: in dollars the index lost about a fifth, in euros almost a third, because the euro strengthened sharply at the same time.
The exchange rate is the Federal Reserve monthly average of daily rates, while the index value is a month-end close. Over long periods the difference against a month-end rate is 0.07 per cent a year; over very short ones it can be larger.
The historical simulation ignores whether an ETF on that index existed at the time, and any difference between the index and a particular fund tracking it.
The calculator does not cover selling within one year. The gain is then taxed and health contributions apply, at a rate that depends on your other income.
It also excludes per-trade fees, currency conversion and the spread between buying and selling price. On small regular contributions these can be noticeable.
With foreign ETFs part of the dividends is taxed inside the fund in the country of origin. That loss is part of the fund’s return; the calculator does not show it separately.
The holding test applies to securities admitted to trading on a regulated market and not to assets held as business property.

Not sure how much is left each month? Work out your net salary →
Thinking about a mortgage? See how much a bank would lend you →