Investment calculator
An investment growth calculator for South Africa: what a lump sum and a monthly contribution grow to under your own return assumption, after the fees that every South African fund and platform charges, in nominal rands or today’s money.
Balance over time
How this investment calculator works
The balance compounds monthly. Each month it grows by the monthly equivalent of your annual return, a twelfth of the annual fee is taken off the balance, and the contribution is added. Escalation raises the monthly contribution once a year by the percentage you set, which is how most debit order investments in South Africa are structured. That makes this an investment calculator for the way South Africans actually invest: a starting amount, a monthly debit order, and a fee on the balance.
Fees are shown twice on purpose. Fees paid is the rand total actually deducted. Value lost to fees is bigger, because it also counts the growth those rands would have earned had they stayed invested. That second number is the true cost, and it is the one product calculators leave out.
Today’s money mode divides every figure by inflation compounded to that date, so a value in year 20 is stated in rands with the buying power of today’s rands. Contributions and fees are deflated month by month the same way. Nominal mode shows the rands you would actually see on a statement.
The return is your assumption. The calculator does not supply one, and nothing here says what any fund will earn. A workable habit is to run three cases, a low, a middle and a high return, and look at the spread rather than any single line. For the tax side of the same decision, the TFSA calculator runs the same contributions inside and outside a tax free account.
The FTSE/JSE All Share Index level today, the day’s leading and lagging shares, the rand and gold are on the JSE today page, delayed 15 minutes and refreshed every 10 minutes on trading days.
Questions
What return figure should I use?
Use a figure before fees, then put the fund’s total expense ratio and the platform fee in the fee field so the drag is visible. If you want a reference point, look at the long run total return of the index your fund tracks, and treat it as one case among several, not an expectation.
Does this include tax?
No. Outside a tax free savings account or retirement fund, dividends carry 20% dividends tax and a disposal can trigger capital gains tax. The TFSA calculator on this site models that difference.
Is this an investment growth calculator or a savings calculator?
Both, depending on the return you enter. With a share or ETF return it is an investment growth calculator; with a bank rate it projects a savings account. For a fixed interest rate with quarterly or annual compounding, the compound interest calculator on this site is the more exact tool.
What fees should I put in?
Everything charged as a percentage of your balance: the fund’s total expense ratio, transaction costs inside the fund, the platform or administration fee, and any adviser fee. Add them up and enter the total. A local index tracker on a low cost platform can come in under 0.5% a year all in; an advised unit trust can pass 2.5%.
TradeIntel is an information publisher, not a licensed financial services provider. This calculator shows what the assumptions you entered produce. It is general information, not financial advice, and the return figure is your assumption, not ours. Nothing on this page is a forecast.