Use a long term investment calculator to understand the lifetime costs of excessive investment fees
High mutual fund fees and other excessive investment fees are huge problems for the average individual investor. These excessive investment fees are the major factor that undermines the financial welfare of millions of Americans. The potential value of your investment portfolio assets lost through excessive investment costs and compounded across your lifetime can be huge – even when your costs are “only” at the financial securities industry averages!
Average investment costs are not “just a few percent.” In fact, in any average year with average returns, a sophisticated compound investment calculator will demonstrate to you that average financial services industry investment fees will take away between 1/4 and 1/3 of your entire gross annual portfolio return. Since the investment fees you pay recur every year, these compounded annual investment costs year after year after year grow to be huge over years and decades. The financial services industry wins and you lose more and more.
Cutting investment fees is the single, best strategy that people have to improve their net investment returns.
At the same time, you can easily avoid high investment costs. The most significant personal investment success factor that your can control is to lower your investment costs.
When you drive the costs out of your investment portfolio, you give yourself a substantial head start over the average individual investor. You also cut down on trading and turnover in your portfolio, which simultaneously reduces trading costs, while it also cuts down on the completely unnecessary realization of some short-term capital gains taxes and long-term capital gains taxes.
VeriPlan’s fully automated retirement investment calculator spreadsheet software helps you understand the full impact of excessive mutual fund fees and other excessive investment fees over your lifetime
VeriPlan’s future value investment calculator functionality gives you fully automated investment cost-efficiency analysis — an incredibly valuable feature that you will not find in any other home investment calculator software. These valuable investment cost analysis features can help you to understand the cumulative impact of unproductive investment costs over the years.
A customer comment from the sidebar: "VeriPlan is a big help. I'm in my mid 50's and have been a diligent saver and passable investor for many years. I am going through a work transition from salaried corporate employee to independent consultant, and my aging parents are needing financial help. Financial planning is particularly important to me and my family now. Thanks for making your product available. I've recommended it to a number of folks and will continue to do so." J.H. in Portland, OR
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "VeriPlan has been a very flexible home financial planning tool. It took me a few hours on a weekend to understand what VeriPlan could do and to enter our financial data. Our family financial affairs were scattered all over, and we lacked a comprehensive picture of what the future might hold for us. I wanted a clear understanding of our projected lifetime and retirement income, expenses, taxes, debts, real estate, financial assets, college investments, retirement investments, and everything else all together." S. L. in Altadena, CA
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "You have done a great job of including the necessary instructions in VeriPlan, located close to where the modeling is happening. The thing I like about the VeriPlan User Guide is that it adds substantial additional commentary that I personally find very valuable. I was hunting for a capable and reasonably priced financial planning package, and VeriPlan is an awesome tool. The more I play around with it, the more valuable I find it. Your free user guide was what made me decide to get VeriPlan." C. A. in North Royalton, OH
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "One of the stories that VeriPlan tells me is how much of my money could be lost to excessive investment costs. I just switched to some lower cost funds in my 401k. I loved updating VeriPlan with the new cost values just to see the red bar on the Total Assets chart get significantly thinner - quite a shocking difference." M. W. in Tulsa, OK
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "I am extremely impressed with the depth of information that VeriPlan asks for and provides. VeriPlan seems much more detailed than one would expect for the very reasonable price. Although I am not a financial professional, I consider myself more financially educated than the most people of my age (62). I find that VeriPlan's depth to be just what we need for our retirement planning. I am glad I purchased it. Thanks." J. W. in Gainsville, FL
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "I have been very happy with this software. I will put VeriPlan to work to help optimize our IRA to Roth conversions, while avoiding the IRMAA penalties if we can. We are in an opportunistic window for the next several years. I have been appalled by the lack of professional knowledge available with respect to the tax burden that will fall upon us when RMDs take effect. Most of the information I have found suggests that it isn't a problem. Luckily, this software will be of great benefit to chart our course." J. S. in Louisville, KY
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "I am a recently retired engineer, and I created a cash flow Excel spreadsheet for 25 years of retirement. So, I fully appreciate the data and potential variances that must be accounted for. Yet, mine is so very simple compared to VeriPlan. I love VeriPlan's concept of total control over inputs and parameters. Veriplan's objectives are very much like mine, but it has many, many more input and control options, and the price is spot on." L. G. in Southbridge, VA
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "I've been using VeriPlan for a few weeks now, and it is everything I was looking for plus a whole lot more of what I didn't even know I needed. By simply switching VeriPlan to a state that does not have a state income tax, I can see how much I could save on traditional IRA distributions in retirement by moving to a state without income taxes. It is a real education in personal finance, and I think just about everyone would benefit from using this tool." T. H. in Silicon Valley CA
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VeriPlan’s investment growth calculator functionality automatically analyzes your future investment portfolio values across your lifetime, and it does this net of your projected investment fees and investment capital gains taxes. Once you enter the investment cost characteristics of your current portfolio, VeriPlan easily handles the rest of the analysis for you automatically.
VeriPlan develops projections that assume you will continue to acquire assets throughout your lifetime using the same level of cost-efficiency or cost-inefficiency that is apparent from your current investment portfolio. The VeriPlan financial investment calculator also provides an easy-to-use investment cost-effectiveness tool that allows you to develop hypothetical investment calculator projections that override your current investment fees in favor or lower and more reasonable investment costs. By flipping a single software switch, you can instead tell VeriPlan to develop future investment calculator projections that reflect any lower investment costs that you believe would be more reasonable to pay over your lifetime.
Here is an example of one of the cost-efficiency graphics automatically developed by the VeriPlan compounding investment calculator for all your projections.
If your current investment portfolio costs and mutual fund fees exceed your reasonable cost assumptions, then VeriPlan will automatically measure the cumulative value of the financial investment assets that you would lose in the future. VeriPlan’s fully automated mutual fund investment calculator and retirement planning calculator features will project your lifetime financial asset portfolio using your current investment fees and cost structure. Furthermore, it will show you what you could lose compared to more choosing investments with lower investment fees and lower total expense ratios, as you can see in the graphic above.
A customer comment from the sidebar: "VeriPlan's financial projection graphics simply lay out what the future might hold for my family. Also, VeriPlan is a very fast and automated financial investment calculator that allows me to change anything and to test alternate investment decisions rapidly. Its integrated documentation explains clearly how it works, and it also includes a wealth of well-researched personal finance and investment information that has been very helpful." T. F. in Muncie, IN
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "I do most of my own financial modeling, and I like the way VeriPlan generates “what if” scenarios that I like to compare, such as possibly buying a rental property, selling my house and renting, moving social security retirement age payment timing, and pulling out IRA money after taxes. Plus, I like VeriPlan for its automated projection of detailed investment costs. Thanks for making a great product." K. W. in Naperville, IL
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "I am 10 years out from retirement, and I needed to start thinking more seriously about having enough to retire on. I'm following the suggestions of you and others in opting for more hands-on retirement planning. I am also using lower cost index investing. There are too many wealth management companies out there, all ready to charge an arm and leg for what should be straightforward financial planning work." G. B. in Smith Mountain Lake, VA
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "Larry, Hello again! I've continued to work with VeriPlan, and the more I work with it the more I'm amazed at how much it does. It's an incredible decision support tool for my financial planning. Since I have already built a model of my lifetime finances, it is easy to test new ideas as they come to me. Thanks again." M. W. R. in Austin, TX
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A customer comment from the sidebar: "I first learned about the zero federal taxes on long term capital gains when under the 25% marginal income tax rate from working with VeriPlan a number of years ago. I’m no longer working but not yet receiving RMD’s or social security so my ordinary income is relatively low. So I’ve been taking full advantage of zero federal capital gains taxes by selling off my high expense ratio mutual funds which have a lot of capital gains built in since I’ve held them a long time and then I reinvest them in index mutual funds which don’t generate as much capital gains distributions. So the education that you and VeriPlan provide has saved me thousands in taxes, not to mention the expenses on high cost mutual funds. Thanks again." M. D. in El Paso, TX
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Every VeriPlan growth of investment calculator projection automatically develops full lifetime projections that include these five primary types of investment costs:
- Fees to buy investments (e.g. front end loads)
- Investment portfolio management fees (e.g. the management expense ratio)
- Annual marketing and sales fees (e.g. 12b-1 fees for investment funds)
- Fund trading costs (e.g. portfolio trading and market impact costs, which are indicated by rates of portfolio turnover)
- Personal account custody fees, commissions, and advisory fees (e.g. wrap account fees or annual percent of assets charges on account balances for advice and client services, which are in addition to portfolio management charges)
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See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
See a complete list of VeriPlan's features and capabilities
