Example report
This is the full report for Alex, a made-up Vanguard investor, built by the same engine from real fund prices, inflation and Bank Rate up to today. Alex has paid £400 a month into a Vanguard ISA since January 2019, plus £3,000 each April, and put a £15,000 inheritance into a General Account in June 2022.
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Everything below is free with an account. Without one, you still see your real return, the savings comparison, your ISA allowance, fund costs and the growth checks.
Your Vanguard real return · January 2019 to November 2026
+6.9%
a year after inflation · +11.2% before
What your money actually earned, allowing for when and how much you paid in.
You’ve paid in £77,200 and it’s now worth £121,690. Prices have risen 35.6% (CPI, 4.0% a year) over that time, so you’re £30,862 ahead of inflation. Vanguard fees: £600.
Checked against Vanguard’s own figures
We read all 361 transactions in your 2 accounts. Every cash entry adds up to the balance Vanguard printed beside it (£550 in cash today), and every fund’s units add up from the first purchase.
What you hold today
£121,690
Mixed funds such as LifeStrategy are split into their shares and bonds. Money market funds count as cash.
How you compare
Your deposits and withdrawals, on the same days, put into one simple fund instead, so each alternative gets exactly the same timing as you.
Your portfolio
What you actually held
£121,690
+6.9% a year after inflation
Global shares
100% shares, worldwide
£132,030
+8.8% a year after inflation
You’re £10,340 behind
Traditional 60/40
60% shares, 40% bonds
£104,972
+3.4% a year after inflation
You’re £16,717 ahead
Savings account
Earning Bank Rate
£89,494
-0.3% a year after inflation
You’re £32,195 ahead
- Global shares: A proxy for Vanguard’s FTSE Global All-Cap ETF (VALL) at its 0.07% charge, built from Vanguard’s FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund.
- Traditional 60/40: Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% Equity (Acc), using its actual prices after its 0.20% charge.
- Savings account: Interest at the Bank of England’s Bank Rate as it changed, added daily, with no fees or tax. A stand-in for a good easy-access savings account.
- The fund comparisons pay the same Vanguard account fees as you, on the same days.
Your 2026/27 ISA allowance
£14,200 unused
You’ve paid £5,800 into your Vanguard ISA since 6 April. £14,200 of this year’s £20,000 tax-free allowance is left, and it doesn’t carry over: use it by 5 April 2027 (154 days left) or lose it.
£26,791 is in your General Account, where dividends and gains can be taxed. Moving up to £14,200 of it into your ISA before 5 April 2027 would shelter it from tax for good, and you can move more each new tax year.
Vanguard calls this Bed and ISA: it sells in your General Account and buys the same in your ISA. Selling can realise a gain; gains above £3,000 in a tax year can be subject to Capital Gains Tax.
Only payments into the Vanguard ISA in this file count here. Paying into another ISA this tax year, including a Cash ISA, uses the same allowance. For information only, not financial advice.
What your funds cost
Holding the same mix of shares, bonds and cash in three low-cost Vanguard funds would cut your fund charges by £176 a year.
Your funds
£263a year
0.22% on average
Same mix, low-cost Vanguard funds
£87a year
0.07% on average
What you hold
| Fund | Value | Charge | A year |
|---|---|---|---|
| FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund - AccumulationVAFTGAG | £68,145 | 0.23% | £157 |
| LifeStrategy 80% Equity Fund - AccumulationVGLS80A | £52,995 | 0.20% | £106 |
| Uninvested cash | £550 | 0.00% | £0 |
The low-cost alternative
| Fund | Value | Charge | A year |
|---|---|---|---|
| FTSE Global All-Cap UCITS ETFVALL | £110,540 | 0.07% | £77 |
| Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETFVAGP | £10,599 | 0.08% | £8 |
| Sterling Short-Term Money Market FundVASTMGA | £550 | 0.12% | £1 |
Ongoing charges from Vanguard, October 2026, on today’s values. Vanguard’s account fee is the same either way, so it isn’t included. The alternative matches your split between equities, bonds and cash. VALL holds the whole world’s stock market, with less in the UK than LifeStrategy funds. Vanguard charges £7.50 for each ETF trade placed at a live price, but nothing through its twice-daily batch dealing. Selling in a General Account can mean capital gains tax. For information only, not financial advice.
How it fits a long-term growth approach
2 of 5 worth a look
These compare your Vanguard holdings with a growth approach for money you won’t need for many years. They can’t see your goals, timeline or savings elsewhere: more in bonds or cash can be right if you’ll need the money soon.
Invested for growthFits
91% of your portfolio is in shares, with 9% in bonds and cash.
A long-term growth portfolio usually holds 80–100% in shares, the main driver of long-term returns.
Spread across the worldFits
All of your shares are in funds that cover the whole developed or global market.
A growth approach favours broad global funds over concentrated bets on one market.
No home biasWorth a look
About 11% of your shares are in UK companies (estimated from each fund’s typical mix).
The UK is about 3–4% of the world’s stock market; much more than that is a bet on one country.
Time in the marketFits
On average, 1% of your portfolio sat in cash or money market funds over this period.
Time in the market beats timing it: money waiting in cash misses out on growth.
Using tax wrappersWorth a look
£26,791 is in a General Account, while this report shows £14,200 of this tax year’s £20,000 ISA allowance unused.
A growth approach uses the ISA allowance before a taxable General Account. ISAs held elsewhere aren’t visible here.
Fund mixes come from each fund’s name and stated equity share; multi-asset and target-date funds are estimates. For information only, not financial advice.
Value against what you paid in
When the blue line is above the orange line, your portfolio is beating inflation.
- Portfolio value
- Paid in, adjusted for inflation
- Paid in
Year by year
What your money earned in each calendar year, before and after inflation.
| Year | Return | Inflation | Real return | Paid in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019part year | +11.0% | +2.1% | +8.7% | £7,800 |
| 2020 | +13.2% | +0.7% | +12.4% | £7,800 |
| 2021 | +13.7% | +5.4% | +7.9% | £7,800 |
| 2022 | -6.1% | +10.5% | -15.1% | £23,000 |
| 2023 | +12.6% | +3.9% | +8.4% | £7,800 |
| 2024 | +14.9% | +2.6% | +12.1% | £7,800 |
| 2025 | +14.1% | +3.3% | +10.5% | £7,800 |
| 2026part year | +11.7% | +2.9% | +8.6% | £7,400 |
How these figures were calculated
- We rebuilt your portfolio for every day from January 2019 using your transactions and daily fund prices.
- Your return is money-weighted (XIRR): the yearly rate that turns your deposits and withdrawals into today’s value. After inflation, each deposit and withdrawal is first restated in today’s money from its own date.
- It’s the same method as Vanguard’s “Your rate of return”, which shows it before inflation and over the whole period: 130.1% here.
- Each year in the year-by-year table is money-weighted too (Modified Dietz), so money paid in partway through a year counts for the part of the year it was invested.
- The growth checks read each fund’s mix of shares, bonds and cash, and how much is in the UK, from its name and stated equity share. Money market funds count as cash. They describe your portfolio against a growth approach; they aren’t a recommendation.
- Your portfolio is valued at the latest prices, including today’s for ETFs. Vanguard’s website values it at the previous close, so figures can differ by today’s market move.
- Inflation is the ONS Consumer Prices Index, published to September 2026. Deposits, withdrawals and pension tax relief count as money paid in or out. Distributions count as returns.
- The savings comparison puts each deposit and withdrawal, on the same day, into an account paying the Bank of England’s Bank Rate, with interest added daily and no fees or tax.
- To check the file, we add each cash entry to the balance before it and compare the result with the running balance Vanguard printed beside it, and add up each fund’s units from its first purchase.
- Cash moved between two accounts in your file cancels out. Cash transferred in from an account that isn’t in your file counts as money paid in, and cash transferred out to one counts as taken out.
For information only, not financial advice. Past performance doesn’t predict future returns.
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