What is the Home Bias vs Global Equity Calculator?
The Home Bias vs Global Equity Calculator helps you compare three simple equity investing approaches: all UK shares, an all global portfolio, and your own UK/global mix.
It is designed for UK investors who want to understand how “home bias” can affect long-term outcomes. You can adjust the starting balance, contributions, time period, and return assumptions to see how different equity tilts may change the final pot.
How the Calculator Works?
The calculator uses the same rules across all three scenarios, so the comparison stays fair. It models your starting balance, regular additions, and years invested, then applies the return assumptions you enter for UK and global equities.
For your chosen mix, the calculator blends the UK and global return based on the slider. For example, a 40% UK and 60% global mix uses a weighted return based on those two inputs.
The tool does not use live market data. Any presets are rounded educational figures, and the past performance table is separate from the model. Only the returns you enter drive the results.
Step 1: Enter Your Starting Point
Add your starting balance, choose whether you will make regular additions, and set the amount if relevant.
Step 2: Choose Your Mix and Assumptions
Use the slider to set your UK/global split, then enter the annual return assumptions for UK and global equities. You can also use a rounded preset as a starting point.
Step 3: Compare the Results
Review the all UK, your mix, and all global scenarios. Use the charts, summary, and CSV export to understand how your assumptions affect the outcome.
Illustrative tool · for UK investors
Home bias vs global equity
The Home bias vs global equity calculator shows in round numbers how a UK-heavy tilt compares with a more global one. You set a yearly return for UK equities and one for global equities (or pick rounded presets), move the slider to set your blend, choose how many years to compound, and add optional top-ups. The page blends those rates by your mix, then lines up three pots: all UK, your mix, and all global. It is a simple illustrative model, not live market data and not a prediction. You can edit every field. Share prices go up and down, and past performance is not a guide to the future.
🧭 New to investing? Why people compare UK and global
If you are opening your first ISA or buying your first fund, you will keep hearing two ideas: home bias (sticking close to the UK) and diversification (spreading money wider). This page lets you try both in a very simple way.
Leaning on the UK
UK companies can feel easier to follow. Dividends often arrive in pounds, and the news is full of British names. Tilting toward the UK is common. It also means more of your money rises and falls with one economy and one currency.
Spreading money globally
Global funds hold companies from many countries. When one region has a quiet decade, another may do better. That mix does not remove risk, but it can stop one country from carrying the whole story.
What the calculator is doing
We blend the two illustrative yearly returns using your UK/global split, then roll that rate forward. You can add the same pattern of top-ups in every scenario so the comparison stays fair. Real life is messier: returns jump around, charges and tax matter, and exchange rates move. Use this to learn the trade-off, not to pick a fund in one click.
Yearly mode adds the same sum at the end of each year in every scenario. Monthly mode adds the same sum at the end of each month and uses a monthly version of your return. Set the amount to £0 if you picked none.
Past performance (10 year summary)
Why this section is here. The table compares one UK broad index with one global broad index, each over a published 10-year horizon (annualised total return in sterling). Global equity benchmarks have often been stronger than a UK-only benchmark over windows like this, partly because listed companies are more global than a generation ago. Treat it as background on how tilts can differ. This is not a forecast, and past returns are only a rough guide, not something you should expect to repeat.
About the figures. Taken from provider PDFs (different month-ends). Your fund may track another index. They do not feed the calculator. Only the percentages you type above drive the sums. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
| Broad benchmark (GBP) | Typical use | 10 years annualised |
As at (source) |
|---|---|---|---|
| FTSE All-Share Index | UK broad market (many UK tracker funds) | 8.02% | 31 Oct 2025, Vanguard FTSE U.K. All Share Index Unit Trust annual report (benchmark line) |
| MSCI World Index (GBP, gross) | Developed markets globally (many “global” trackers) | 12.97% | 31 Dec 2024, MSCI World Index (GBP) factsheet |
Readout. On these dates only, the global row is ahead of the UK row in the table. The boxes above still use only your inputs.
- Vanguard FTSE U.K. All Share Index Unit Trust annual report (PDF). Benchmark FTSE All-Share total return table, periods ended 31 October 2025. Figure used: ten-year annualised.
- MSCI World Index (GBP, gross) factsheet (PDF). Annualised 10-year column, as of 31 December 2024.
📊 Your results in pictures
The results show three things:
- Bar chart — how big each pot might be at the end (all UK, your mix, all global).
- Line chart — how your mix could grow year by year on the same rules as the boxes (including monthly or yearly adds if you picked them).
- Pie chart — how your slider splits UK versus global today.
If a chart does not load, use the big numbers in the coloured boxes above.
Charts did not load (for example, if a privacy tool blocked the chart library). The figures above are unchanged.
🏦 Pot size at the end
Three answers to the same question: where would I have ended up?
📈 How your mix could have grown
A smooth path for your mixed pot if the same illustrative return repeated every period (a simplification, not real market wiggles).
🥧 Split of your mix today
UK slice vs global slice of the equity you have dialled in.
✨ What this means in one sentence
💾 Save or share
Download your results as a CSV file, or copy a short written summary to paste into an email or note.
How we calculate your blended return
We take (UK weight × illustrative UK return) + (global weight × illustrative global return) to get one blended yearly rate. With no regular additions, we compound that rate once a year. With yearly additions, we still compound once per year and add your sum at each year-end. With monthly additions, we use an equivalent monthly rate and add at each month-end so the comparison stays fair across scenarios. That still ignores rebalancing, fees, tax, changing weights, and currency moves. It is a classroom-style simplification so you can see the directional effect of tilting home or away.
Presets are rounded, educational figures inspired by broad UK and global equity index stories in pounds; they are not live data from a vendor. Replace them with your own assumptions before making decisions. This page is not regulated financial advice. For impartial guidance see the MoneyHelper beginner’s guide to investing.
Disclaimer: This calculator provides illustrative projections only and should not be taken as financial advice. Share prices can go up and down, and past performance is not a guide to the future.
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How different investors might think about UK vs global shares
Many UK investors hold more UK shares than they realise, often through older funds, workplace pensions, or familiar companies. These examples show how different people might use the calculator to test their own mix.
Emma, heavily UK invested
Emma has built her ISA around familiar UK funds and wants to see how that compares with a more global approach.
- Tests an all UK scenario
- Moves the slider towards global
- Compares possible end values
James, moving towards global
James wants to understand whether reducing home bias could change the long-term picture for his ISA or pension investments.
- Models a blended return
- Compares UK and global assumptions
- Checks the effect over 10, 20, or 30 years
Sophie, testing assumptions
Sophie does not want to rely on presets. She wants to enter her own UK and global return assumptions and see how sensitive the result is.
- Uses her own return inputs
- Checks the charted balance path
- Downloads the CSV for comparison
What is the Home Bias vs Global Equity Calculator?
The Home Bias vs Global Equity Calculator is an illustrative tool for UK investors that compares all UK, all global, and mixed equity portfolios using the same contribution and return assumptions. It helps you see how changing your UK/global split could affect the final pot over time.
What does the Home Bias vs Global Equity Calculator do?
It compares three equity investing scenarios: all UK, your chosen UK/global mix, and all global, using the return assumptions you enter.
What does “home bias” mean?
Home bias means favouring investments from your own country. For UK investors, that often means holding more UK shares than the UK represents in global markets.
What does “your mix” mean?
Your mix is the UK/global split you choose with the slider. If you choose 30% UK, the remaining 70% is treated as global.
Does the calculator use live market data?
No. It uses the return assumptions you type in, or rounded presets if you choose them. It does not pull live index or fund data.
How is the blended return calculated?
The blended return is a weighted average of your UK and global return assumptions. The UK percentage is taken from your slider, with the rest treated as global.
What do the presets mean?
The presets are rounded educational examples for different time horizons. They are not live market figures or predictions.
Does this include fees or tax?
No. The calculator does not model platform fees, fund charges, tax, rebalancing, currency movements, or personal circumstances.
Can I model monthly contributions?
Yes. You can choose no regular additions, yearly additions, or monthly additions. The same contribution pattern is applied across all three scenarios.
Is all global always better than all UK?
Not necessarily. Although over the past 10 years, global stocks have outperformed the UK, it’s not an indication of future performance.
Is my information stored?
Inputs may be remembered in your browser for convenience. CSV export and email signup are separate from the calculation.
Trust and education
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These calculators are built by a Certified Money First Aider to help you think more clearly about money and time. Money First Aid® is about practical, non-judgemental support for financial wellbeing. The calculators can certainly help you make informed decisions, but they are not regulated financial advice.
