VAS · VGS · IVV · A200 · verified 5-yr return after fees
Nominal balance year by year. The orange line is your projected balance; the dim line is your cumulative contributions only.
Cumulative contributions, gains and balance at each anniversary.
| Year | Contributions to date | Gains to date | Balance (nominal) | Real value |
|---|
Returns sourced from each provider’s most recent published fact sheet. Year-stamped. Management fees deducted in the projection above.
| Ticker | Index | 5-yr avg return | 10-yr avg return | Annual fee | 12-month yield | Franking | As at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VAS Vanguard VAS | S&P/ASX 300 | 7.92% | 9.02% | 0.07% | 3.13% | 82% | 31 May 2026 |
| VGS Vanguard VGS | MSCI World ex-Australia | 13.64% | 13.32% | 0.18% | 1.59% | none | 31 May 2026 |
| IVV iShares IVV | S&P 500 (AU-domiciled) | 13.75% | Not available* | 0.04% | 0.97% | none | 31 Mar 2026 |
| A200 Betashares A200 | Solactive Australia 200 | 8.22% | Not available* | 0.04% | 3.40% | 73.5% | 29 May 2026 |
*IVV (AU-domiciled since 7 Sep 2018) and A200 (inception 7 May 2018) are under 10 years old — 10-year data not yet available. Sources: Vanguard Australia, BlackRock iShares Australia, Betashares official fact sheets.
VAS tracks the S&P/ASX 300, so a projection here is effectively a projection of the broad Australian market. Its 5-year return of 7.92% is the lowest of the four, but it carries the highest franking level (82%) — which the headline return does not capture. If you hold VAS in a low-tax structure, the franking refund is a real addition to your effective return that this projection deliberately leaves out.
VGS tracks MSCI World ex-Australia, covering developed markets outside Australia. Its 5-year return of 13.64% is the strongest of the Australian-domiciled diversified options here, but it carries the highest fee at 0.18% and pays no franking. Over a 30-year horizon that fee gap is worth modelling: run VGS and VAS side by side and compare the real (inflation-adjusted) figures, not the nominal ones.
IVV is the AU-domiciled S&P 500 tracker, so it is a concentrated bet on large-cap United States equities rather than a diversified global holding. It shows the highest 5-year return in the table at 13.75% on the lowest fee tier (0.04%), but that period covers an exceptionally strong run for US large-caps. Treat the historical figure as one input, not a forecast — the Custom option exists so you can test a more conservative assumption.
A200 tracks the Solactive Australia 200 and is the closest competitor to VAS, at a lower fee (0.04% versus 0.07%) with a slightly higher 5-year return of 8.22% and a 73.5% franking level. The two are close enough that fee and franking treatment, rather than index choice, tend to be the deciding factors.
Diversified all-in-one funds are not pre-loaded, because their published return reflects a blended asset mix (including bonds) that changes materially when the provider rebalances the allocation. Loading a single CAGR for them would imply more precision than the number carries. Use the Custom option instead: take the 5-year total return and management fee straight from the fund’s current fact sheet and enter both. For VDHG specifically, the published management fee is 0.27% — noticeably higher than the single-index building blocks above, which is the trade-off for automatic rebalancing across asset classes.