Most compounding calculators show a single clean curve and stop there. The number they produce is gross, nominal, and pre-tax -- three assumptions that rarely survive contact with a real portfolio. This one models the same growth, then subtracts what actually comes out of it: advisory fees, fund expenses, annual tax drag, exit tax, and inflation. What remains is the figure you could plan against.
✓Lump sum plus ongoing contributions — Start with a single amount -- sale proceeds, an inheritance, an existing portfolio -- and layer monthly contributions on top, with an annual escalation to reflect rising income.
✓Fee drag isolated and quantified — The calculator runs your projection twice, once with fees and once without, and reports the difference. It separates fees actually charged from the compounding those dollars would have produced, which is usually the larger number.
✓Three account wrappers compared — The same contributions modelled in a taxable account, a tax-deferred account, and a Roth -- with annual dividend tax drag on the taxable one and exit tax applied to each on its own terms.
✓Real purchasing power, not just nominal — Every headline figure is restated in today's dollars, with a rate waterfall showing gross return reduced step by step to a real net return.
✓Drawdown and depletion — Take the after-tax balance into a withdrawal phase with inflation-adjusted spending, and see the year the money runs out -- or that it does not.
✓Full year-by-year schedule — Every year of the projection with opening balance, contributions, growth, fees and tax drag broken out separately.