Hundred SummersFund charges calculator: what 1% a year costs against 0.2% over a lifetime
The same money and the same growth under two total annual charges, compounded month by month: the pot under each, what charges took, and the share of the final pot the difference consumes. Your figures never leave your browser.
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Worked example
Computed when this page was built by the same engine that runs the calculator above, so the figures below and the live tool can never disagree. Change any input above to see your own.
| Inputs | |
|---|---|
| Pot today / paid in a month | £50,000 / £300 |
| Years | 30 |
| Growth before charges | 5.0% |
| Charge A / charge B | 1% / 0.2% |
| Results | |
|---|---|
| Pot at 1% a year | £373,890 |
| Pot at 0.2% a year | £451,074 |
| The lower charge leaves | £77,184 more |
| Share of the larger pot the difference takes | 17% |
The next question
What will my pension be worth after charges? →Pension projection calculator
Or answer it with everything else: the full Hundred Summers plan connects your pay, pensions, savings, property, tax and spending year by year, and stress-tests them across 500 simulated market histories.
Read the guides
- Pension charges: what you actually pay, and what it costs you →The layers of a UK pension charge (provider, fund OCF, transaction costs, adviser) the 0.75% auto-enrolment cap and the 1.5%/1% stakeholder cap, what 0.8 percentage points does to a pot over 25 years, and the guarantees worth more than the saving before you move an expensive old pension.
- Overpay the mortgage or invest? The honest arithmetic →Overpaying earns your mortgage rate guaranteed and tax-free; investing has to beat it after fees, tax and nerve. How to compare the two properly, including what happens after the mortgage clears early.
Why a small percentage becomes a large sum
A charge is not taken once; it is taken from the whole pot every year, including from the growth of earlier years. On a 5% return a 1% charge removes a fifth of each year’s growth, and over thirty years that fifth of the growth becomes roughly a fifth of the final pot. The arithmetic is the same as growth, run in reverse, which is why the difference between two charge levels widens every year rather than staying constant.
Compare the total cost of ownership
Fund charges are only one layer: the platform or pension provider charges a percentage or a flat fee, and advice taken from the pot is another percentage. Add them up before comparing. The pension projection calculator shows the fee drag on your own pot in today’s money, and the Hundred Summers app applies your charge in every projected year, so its verdicts already include it.
Sources
- FCA, Investment fees and charges.
- MoneyHelper, Understanding investment fees.