AGG calculator
Historical growth of iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF using Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond return series. Dividends reinvested at year-end; expense ratio drag negligible at 0.03%.
$10,000 invested in AGG at inception (2003) with dividends reinvested through end of 2024 would be worth approximately $99,952 nominal ($57,315 in 2003 dollars). Annualized nominal: 11.03%; real: 8.26%. Bond returns diverge from stocks — historical S&P proxy is NOT applicable.
Uses annual S&P 500 total return (with dividends reinvested) and CPI-U inflation, 1928–2024. Source: Damodaran (NYU Stern) + Shiller CAPE + BLS. Excludes fees, taxes, and bid/ask. Real return = nominal ÷ cumulative CPI.
AGG at a glance
| Full name | iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF |
| Provider | BlackRock |
| Expense ratio | 0.03% |
| Inception | 2003 |
| Assets under management | $110B |
| Dividend yield | 4.50% |
| Return series used | Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond |
Why bond funds are a different asset class
Bond index funds do not compound like stocks — returns come from coupon yield plus small price moves driven by interest rates, which is why this page uses a flat long-run bond assumption instead of the equity series. Their role is ballast: in 2008, aggregate bond funds gained while stocks halved. Their limit was shown in 2022, when rising rates produced the worst bond year in modern history (-13%) at the same time stocks fell. Expected return today is roughly the current yield.
What 0.03% costs over 30 years
Expense ratios compound against you exactly the way returns compound for you. On a $10,000 position growing at a 10% gross return for 30 years, AGG's 0.03% fee quietly consumes about $1,422 of the final balance. That is the lowest fee in its category on this site — fee drag is one variable you fully control.
AGG vs same-category peers
| Fund | ER | Yield | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| AGG (this page) | 0.03% | 4.5% | 2003 |
| BND | 0.03% | 4.5% | 2007 |
How this calculator works
For each start year, we apply the year-by-year total return of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond to the entered starting amount, compounding annually with dividends reinvested at year-end. This mirrors what an actual buy-and-hold AGG holder would have experienced, before fees and taxes. Expense ratio is intentionally excluded from the historical result to keep the underlying series comparable across ETFs; for a full lifetime fee estimate at 0.03%, use the projection tab in our fund fee analyzer.