Robo-Advisor vs Self-Managed Calculator

A robo-advisor's stated advisory fee (commonly around 0.25%) typically covers the service of automated allocation, rebalancing, and account management -- it does not include the expense ratios of the underlying ETFs the robo-advisor actually invests your money in, which carry their own small ongoing cost, similar to any fund. 0.10% is a rough average estimate for those underlying fund fees; check your specific robo-advisor's fund lineup for the real figure, since it varies by provider and portfolio.

No -- tax-loss harvesting only creates value in a taxable (non-retirement) brokerage account, since it works by realizing investment losses to offset taxable gains or income on your tax return. A 401(k) or traditional/Roth IRA is already tax-advantaged (gains aren't taxed annually), so there's no tax event to offset and no benefit to harvesting losses inside one -- the Robo + tax-loss harvesting comparison only applies if you're investing in a taxable account.

No -- both paths apply the same Expected gross return before subtracting their respective fees, so raising or lowering that assumption moves both final values in the same direction and by a similar proportion; it doesn't change which path has the fee advantage. What determines the winner is the fee gap between the two paths (robo advisory fee plus underlying fund fees, versus DIY fund expense ratio alone), not the assumed market return.

Not necessarily -- this calculator assumes you're comparably disciplined about rebalancing and staying invested through market swings either way, which is a real cost some self-managed investors pay in practice through poorly timed trading or neglected rebalancing. If a robo-advisor's automation and behavioral guardrails meaningfully improve your actual investing discipline, that value isn't captured in this fee-only comparison, and could offset some or all of a modest fee difference.