The all-in cost of an ETF (it’s more than the TER)

Part of Costs & fees

The TER is the fee everyone quotes — but the true cost of owning an ETF quietly includes a few extras the sticker price leaves out.

🔎 Use a real ETF’s numbers (optional)

Starting amount € Added each month € Number of years Expected annual return %

Try:Rough historical ranges — your assumption, not a prediction or advice.

Adjust for inflation % (2% is a common example — shows the result in today’s money)

Projected value

You put in

Growth

At year · · you’d have put in , growth added . Drag across the chart (or use ← → keys) to read any year.

Money you added Growth

See the key milestones (every 5 years)

Year	Put in	Growth	Balance

Amount invested € Number of years Expected annual return % ETF yearly fee (TER) %

Try:Rough historical ranges — your assumption, not a prediction or advice.

The fee costs you about

Value with 0% fee

Value with this fee

What you keep Lost to fees — and the gap grows every year

How this works: an educational scenario, not a forecast. We compound monthly and add your monthly amount each month. “Expected annual return” is your own assumption — pick a cautious one; real markets are bumpy and can fall. “Adjust for inflation” simply restates the result in today’s spending power. The fee figure includes the yearly fund fee (TER) and the growth those fees would otherwise have earned. The fund comparison repeats each fund’s last-12-months return every year — a rough illustration only, which real funds never do. Not advice.

Finance Hamster provides educational information about ETFs and investing. It is not investment, tax, or legal advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Markets carry risk; do your own research or consult a licensed adviser.

👉 Change the numbers above — it’s your money, your assumptions.

The headline fee

Every fund advertises its — the ongoing charge, a small yearly percentage skimmed quietly from inside the fund. You never get a bill; it just gently drags on your return each year. For a broad index ETF it’s usually a fraction of a percent, and it’s the first number worth checking. But it isn’t the whole cost.

The extras inside the fund

To do its job, the fund itself buys and sells shares, and that carries small trading and running costs. Rolled together with the TER, these make up the — a truer answer to ‘what does owning this actually cost me?’ It’s usually only a touch above the TER, but it’s the more honest figure when two funds look identical on their headline fee.

The gap you don’t see on the label

There’s one more, subtler cost: how closely the fund keeps up with the index it’s copying. If it lags its index by a little each year, that shortfall comes out of your pocket just like a fee would — it’s covered in the separate guide on tracking difference. A cheap-looking fund that tracks poorly can end up dearer than a slightly pricier one that hugs its index tightly.

Why the small numbers matter

Costs feel trivial on day one — a few tenths of a percent, who cares? But they come off every single year, and the money they take is money that never gets to compound for you. Drag the slider above to see how even a small yearly cost adds up over 25 years. None of this is a reason to obsess or to always pick the very cheapest; it’s just a reason to know the real number before you decide.

Teaches: a cost difference that looks tiny each year compounds against you — the gap grows fastest in the last years invested, not the first

Same €10,000, same assumed 6%/yr return, only the yearly cost differs (0.30% vs 1.30%) — over 25 years, that's a real chunk of the outcome gone.

Illustrative example: €10,000 lump sum, 6%/yr assumed gross return, 0.30% vs 1.30% yearly cost (this guide's own calculator baseline), no other factors modelled. Not a forecast.

Common questions

Where do I find the all-in cost?

Fund providers publish an ongoing charge (the TER) and, in the official Key Information Document, a fuller cost breakdown. On a fund’s page here we show the TER and, where we have it, the all-in figure — each with the date it’s ‘as of’ and its source.

Should I always pick the cheapest?

Cost matters, but it isn’t the only thing. A rock-bottom fee doesn’t help if the fund tracks its index poorly, is tiny, or holds something different from what you wanted. Compare cost alongside what the fund actually does, rather than on its own.