Growth & Save Portfolios: Performance of the Funds Behind Amal

When you join Amal on the Standard plan, you pick one of two portfolios: Growth or Save. Growth is built from FDGRX (Fidelity Growth Company Fund) and Save is built from VDADX (Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Fund). This page shows how those two funds have actually performed, using the same live data we use across the site. It updates automatically.

Figures through 14 Aug 2026, the latest close in our dataset.

How This Year Is Going So Far

The question we get most often in support: "How have Growth and Save done since January?" Here's the answer for 2026, measured from the last close of the previous year through the date above:

Two notes before you read too much into a single year:

1. These are the underlying funds' returns. Your Amal portfolio is the screened version (same engine, minus the non-compliant holdings), so your number will be close, but not identical. More on that below.
2. A few months tells you very little. The long-term numbers further down are the ones worth judging these funds on.

Growth: Built on FDGRX

Key Facts:

• Fund: Fidelity Growth Company Fund, managed by Steve Wymer
• Launch date: January 1983
• Average yearly return since launch: 9.83%
• Average yearly return (last 5 years): 8.95%
• Held in top 10 stocks: 52.02%

FDGRX is one of the most successful actively managed funds in America, full stop. Over four decades it has grown by 9.83% a year on average, against 8.94% for the S&P 500 over the period we can compare. A gap like that, compounding year after year for decades, adds up to an enormous difference.

Here's the fun part: you can't buy it. Fidelity closed FDGRX to new investors back in 2006 because it got too popular for its own good. That's part of why we chose it as the base for Growth: Amal doesn't buy the fund. It looks at what's inside, screens the holdings for Shariah compliance, and rebuilds the compliant portion directly in your brokerage account. The fund being closed doesn't matter when you own the stocks yourself. Neither does its expense ratio, because you never pay it.

Here's the same chart we show inside the app: the Shariah-screened version of FDGRX (the portfolio Growth actually builds for you) against the original fund and the S&P 500. Our holdings data begins in late 2019, so that's where the chart starts:

Inside, you'll find what you'd expect from a growth fund in this market: heavy on big tech, with NVIDIA at the top.

With 52.02% of the fund in its top 10 holdings, Growth is concentrated, and it will swing harder than the market in both directions. That's the trade you're making: higher expected returns, bumpier ride. If that description makes you nervous, keep reading.

Save: Built on VDADX

Key Facts:

• Fund: Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund
• Launch date: December 2013 (Admiral share class; the strategy dates back to 2006)
• Average yearly return since launch: 9.97%
• Average yearly return (last 5 years): 8.91%
• Held in top 10 stocks: 31.87%

Save is the calmer sibling. VDADX tracks companies that have raised their dividend for at least ten years in a row. These are businesses boring enough, and profitable enough, to hand shareholders a raise every single year for a decade. You don't accomplish that with hype; you accomplish it with steady, reliable profits.

The result is a portfolio that grows more slowly than Growth (9.97% a year since our data begins in 2013) but falls less when markets get ugly, and pays you dividends along the way.

Here's the screened version of VDADX against the original fund and the S&P 500, over the same period:

The holdings look nothing like a tech fund, and that's the point:

Its top 10 make up just 31.87% of the fund, a fraction of Growth's concentration. If Growth is the accelerator, Save is the cruise control.

Which One Should You Pick?

There's no universally right answer, but there's a decent rule of thumb:

• Pick Growth if you're investing for the long haul (10+ years), won't need the money soon, and can watch your balance drop 30% in a bad year without selling in a panic.
• Pick Save if you're closer to needing the money, you're the type to check your portfolio daily, or steady dividend income matters more to you than maximum growth.

Plenty of people split the difference and hold both: Growth for the long-term money, Save for the rest.

What Amal Actually Does to These Funds

The tables and key facts above describe the unscreened funds; only the charts show the screened version. Neither FDGRX nor VDADX is halal off the shelf. Open them up and you'll find banks and other non-compliant businesses sitting alongside the companies you actually want.

Amal screens every holding, drops the ones that fail Shariah compliance, and rebuilds the rest directly in your brokerage account. The screened portfolio keeps monitoring itself after you invest: if a holding turns non-compliant later, it gets removed automatically.

That screening is also why the screened and original lines in the charts above don't move identically. Removing holdings changes the portfolio, so some years the screened version does better than the original, and some years worse. The screened lines use our default filter preferences (doubtful and unrated assets allowed, no personal white/blacklist); inside the app you can re-run the same chart with your own preferences.

Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. This page is for information, not investment advice. The numbers are here so you can judge the funds for yourself.