Why does the broker change the date at all?

Two charges, and they bite at opposite ends. A per-purchase commission is a fixed euro amount taken out of every contribution, so it matters most when the contribution is small and the portfolio is young. A custody charge with an annual minimum is a fixed euro amount taken out of the balance, so it matters most when the balance is small, and it becomes a rounding error once the percentage overtakes the floor. A plan that starts small and runs for twenty years meets both.

What is the fee drag at target column telling me?

It answers the reverse question. When a broker reaches your target in a given month, the same contributions with no charges at all would have grown to something larger by that same month. The difference is the wealth the charges consumed, expressed in euros rather than in basis points. It is larger than the fees paid, because every euro taken early also stops compounding.

Is the 4% income figure a promise?

No. It is the Bengen 1994 heuristic applied to the target so you can see what the number means as an income rather than as a balance. It was derived from a specific market history over thirty-year windows, and a longer retirement or an annually taxed portfolio makes it optimistic. Treat it as a way to sanity-check whether your target is the right size, not as a withdrawal plan.

FIRE calculator with real broker costs

Most financial independence calculators take a contribution, a return and a target, and give you a date. The interesting question is the one they skip: the same plan run through different brokers arrives on different dates, because commission comes out of every purchase and custody charges come out of the balance every month. This one reprices the whole timeline through each broker on your country's list and reports the gap between the fastest and the slowest as what it is — months of your life.

The calculator

How it works

The fund's own cost is taken as its tracking difference where one is published and its ongoing charge otherwise, plus the estimated withholding tax leakage, and it is applied by compounding the ratio of one plus the gross return to one plus that cost. Each month the contribution goes in, the balance grows at that net monthly rate, the broker's per-purchase commission is deducted, and custody is charged as the greater of the annual percentage and the annual minimum, divided by twelve. Charging the floor monthly on the live balance is what makes a sixty euro annual minimum dominate a small portfolio, which is exactly where it hurts. The no-fee line at the top is the same simulation with every charge set to zero.

What it assumes

The return is a fixed rate, so this is a central projection rather than a distribution, and the ordering of good and bad years is not modelled here at all. Purchases are assumed monthly and the DEGIRO Core Selection exemption is applied where the fund qualifies. Tax on the portfolio is deliberately absent — a growing contribution stream needs a different basis from a single trade — so read the date as pre-tax and use the country simulators for that layer.

Common questions

Why does the broker change the date at all?: Two charges, and they bite at opposite ends. A per-purchase commission is a fixed euro amount taken out of every contribution, so it matters most when the contribution is small and the portfolio is young. A custody charge with an annual minimum is a fixed euro amount taken out of the balance, so it matters most when the balance is small, and it becomes a rounding error once the percentage overtakes the floor. A plan that starts small and runs for twenty years meets both.
What is the fee drag at target column telling me?: It answers the reverse question. When a broker reaches your target in a given month, the same contributions with no charges at all would have grown to something larger by that same month. The difference is the wealth the charges consumed, expressed in euros rather than in basis points. It is larger than the fees paid, because every euro taken early also stops compounding.
Is the 4% income figure a promise?: No. It is the Bengen 1994 heuristic applied to the target so you can see what the number means as an income rather than as a balance. It was derived from a specific market history over thirty-year windows, and a longer retirement or an annually taxed portfolio makes it optimistic. Treat it as a way to sanity-check whether your target is the right size, not as a withdrawal plan.

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FIRE calculator with real broker costs