VTI calculator
Historical growth of Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF using CRSP US Total Market (proxied by S&P 500) return series. Dividends reinvested at year-end; expense ratio drag negligible at 0.03%.
$10,000 invested in VTI at inception (2001) with dividends reinvested through end of 2024 would be worth approximately $68,751 nominal ($37,735 in 2001 dollars). Annualized nominal: 8.36%; real: 5.69%.
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.
VTI at a glance
| Full name | Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF |
| Provider | Vanguard |
| Expense ratio | 0.03% |
| Inception | 2001 |
| Assets under management | $400B |
| Dividend yield | 1.30% |
| Return series used | CRSP US Total Market (proxied by S&P 500) |
Where a total-market fund fits
Total US market funds hold essentially every investable American stock — 3,500+ names instead of 500. In practice they behave almost identically to the S&P 500 (the correlation exceeds 0.99) because they are cap-weighted and the same mega-caps dominate. The argument for total-market over S&P 500 is philosophical completeness — you own the small- and mid-cap tail — at the same rock-bottom cost. There is no wrong answer between them; owning both is redundant.
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, VTI'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.
VTI vs same-category peers
| Fund | ER | Yield | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| VTI (this page) | 0.03% | 1.3% | 2001 |
| SCHB | 0.03% | 1.3% | 2009 |
| ITOT | 0.03% | 1.3% | 2004 |
How this calculator works
For each start year, we apply the year-by-year total return of the CRSP US Total Market (proxied by S&P 500) to the entered starting amount, compounding annually with dividends reinvested at year-end. This mirrors what an actual buy-and-hold VTI 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.