Most growth calculators ask for one number, “expected return,” and hide what is inside it. This one splits it open. Type what the market might do, what it pays in dividends, what you pay in fees and how long you have, and watch each piece do its work on your balance.
Total return has two parts. The price of what you own goes up or down, and the companies pay dividends along the way. The S&P 500 pays about 1% a year today, against a long-run average near 1.6%, and reinvested dividends have supplied roughly a third of its total return since 1926.
A fee is a small negative return, charged every year, on the whole balance. It compounds the same way growth does. The calculator shows what the fee costs in dollars over your horizon, not just the percentage.
The last years do the most work, because they act on the biggest balance. One more year at the end usually adds more than the first five did. The calculator shows both.
The same market return lands differently in an advisory account (total return, less a fee), an index fund (total return, tiny expense, no advice) or a buffered annuity segment (price return only, multiplied, with a buffer and a six-year lock). Section 04 compares them.
Set a starting balance, what you add each month, and four rates. The balance on the right updates as you move each slider. Returns compound monthly; contributions arrive at the end of each month; fees come off the balance every month. Hypothetical: the market does not return the same number every year, and a run of bad years early or late changes the result. See sequence of returns.
Drag a slider or click the number and type.
A registered index-linked annuity credits the price return only, once per six-year segment, times a participation rate, with a buffer on a loss. It takes a single premium, so this line shows when the monthly amount is $0.
| Year | Start | Added | Price growth | Dividends | Fees | End |
|---|
Each year’s twelve months added up. Dividends are paid on the balance and reinvested; fees come off the balance each month.
When someone says “the market returned 10% a year,” they almost always mean total return: the price went up about 8% and the companies paid about 2% in dividends along the way, reinvested. A chart of the index shows only the first part.
That matters when you compare wrappers. An advisory account or an index fund collects the dividends and reinvests them, so it earns the whole thing, less its fee. A registered index-linked annuity credits the change in the price index only, and then multiplies it by a participation rate, with a buffer against part of a loss and a lock of six years. The participation rate is real and the buffer is real; so is the dividend it leaves out. Put 7% price return into the calculator, then move the dividend slider from 0% to 1.5%, and the “without dividends” line on the graph shows what the price-only side gives up over your horizon.
Fees work the same way, in the other direction. A 1% fee is a −1% return, charged on the whole balance, every year. Over twenty years it is not 20% of the money; it is closer to a fifth of the growth, because the fee comes off a balance that would otherwise have compounded. The calculator prints the dollar figure so the percentage cannot hide.
| Wrapper | What it earns | What it costs | What it gives up | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advisory account | Total return: price plus dividends, reinvested | An advisory fee on the balance (often 1% to 1.5%) plus fund expenses | Part of the return to the fee, every year | Money that needs managing, rebalancing and a plan behind it; stays liquid |
| Index fund on its own | Total return, less a small expense | Fund expense only (often under 0.1%) | Advice, planning, and someone to call when it falls 30% | Simple, patient money with a long horizon |
| Buffered annuity segment (RILA) | Price return times a participation rate, credited once at the end of the segment; a buffer absorbs the first part of a loss | The dividend it doesn’t credit; a rider fee for enhanced rates; surrender charges for six years | Liquidity for the segment term, and the dividend | Money with a six-year runway where a bad stretch should hurt less; see the RILA calculator |
A buffer limits a loss at the end of a segment; it does not remove it. Participation rates and buffers are set by the carrier at issue and change. The 06/15/2026 Principal rates are on the RILA calculator.
Ask any projection three questions: is the return before or after dividends, is the fee taken out, and how many years is it compounding? Two projections with the same headline number can be $100,000 apart at year twenty. The calculator above answers all three on one screen, which is the only way to compare an advisory account, an index fund and an annuity segment without fooling yourself.
Bring a statement. We’ll put your actual balance, contributions, dividend income and fee into this model, and compare the wrappers you actually hold.
Book a fifteen-minute review → Open the RILA calculator →