Investment Return Calculator Project your growth or measure the annualized return you actually earned
Use one tool for both questions investors ask. Project what a lump sum and monthly contributions could grow to after fees and inflation, or enter what you put in and what it is worth today to find your total return and true annualized rate of return.
Compounding method consistent with the SEC’s Investor.gov calculator. Fee impact explained in the SEC’s investor bulletin on fees. Inflation data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Your investment plan
See what your money could grow to. Results update as you type.
Money you invest
Return and time
Your investment could grow to
$0
Calculating.
Where the final value comes from
Your money compared with the growth it earned.
Growth over time
Balance compared with the money you put in.
The same plan at different returns
Small differences in return compound into large differences in outcome.
What would grow your money faster
Each change tested on its own against your plan.
Year-by-year growth schedule
Key years shown.
| Year | Money put in | Growth | Balance |
|---|
Insights for your investment
What the numbers are telling you.
What is an investment return calculator?
An investment return calculator estimates how much an investment earns over time. It works two ways: it projects a future balance from your starting amount, contributions, expected return and years, or it measures the return you actually earned by comparing what you put in with what the investment is worth now, expressed as total return and annualized return.
Most online tools answer only one of those questions. In practice, investors need both. Before investing, you want to know what a plan could become. After a few years, you want to know whether it delivered. This calculator handles each in its own mode, with fees, inflation and regular contributions built in rather than ignored.
I built the measurement mode specifically to fix a common error. When you add money over time, simple ROI understates your real performance because later contributions had less time to grow. This tool solves for the money-weighted annualized return instead, which is the same method brokers use when they report your personal rate of return.
How to use this investment return calculator
- Choose a mode. Pick Project my growth to forecast a future balance, or Measure my return to evaluate an investment you already own.
- Project mode: enter your starting amount, monthly contribution, expected annual return, number of years and annual fees. Add a yearly contribution increase if your savings will rise with your pay.
- Measure mode: enter what you started with, what you added each month, how long you have held it, and its value today. Include any dividends or interest you took as cash.
- Set inflation. Every result is also shown in today’s money so you can see your real gain in buying power.
- Read the insights. The calculator flags fee drag, doubling time, unrealistic return assumptions and periods too short to annualize reliably.
Investment return formulas
These four formulas are behind every number on this page. You can check any result by hand.
Future value = P × (1 + r)t + contributions grown at the same rate
Total return = (ending value + cash income − money put in) ÷ money put in
Annualized return (CAGR) = (ending value ÷ starting value)1 ÷ years − 1
Real return = (1 + annualized return) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1
Projections compound monthly at the monthly equivalent of your annual return, so a lump sum at 8% grows exactly 8% a year. Fees are deducted from the return each year. When you add money over time in measurement mode, the calculator finds the single annual rate that turns your starting amount plus every monthly deposit into today’s value. With no contributions, that rate is identical to CAGR.
Total return vs. annualized return
Total return tells you how much you made. Annualized return tells you how fast. Only the second lets you compare investments held for different lengths of time. Here is the same 60% total return earned over three different periods.
| Total return | Time held | Annualized return | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60% | 2 years | 26.49% a year | Exceptional performance |
| 60% | 5 years | 9.86% a year | Close to long-run stock market averages |
| 60% | 10 years | 4.81% a year | Little better than inflation plus a modest return |
How $10,000 grows at different rates of return
A one-time $10,000 investment with no further contributions and no fees. The gap between rows grows dramatically with time, which is why a seemingly small difference in return or fees matters so much.
| Annual return | After 10 years | After 20 years | After 30 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4% | $14,802 | $21,911 | $32,434 |
| 6% | $17,908 | $32,071 | $57,435 |
| 8% | $21,589 | $46,610 | $100,627 |
| 10% | $25,937 | $67,275 | $174,494 |
| 12% | $31,058 | $96,463 | $299,599 |
How fees reduce your investment returns
Fees are taken every year whether markets rise or fall, and the money they remove can no longer compound. The table assumes $10,000 to start plus $500 a month for 30 years at an 8% return before fees. With no fees at all, the balance would reach $804,902.
| Annual fee | Balance after 30 years | Lost to fees |
|---|---|---|
| 0.05% | $796,303 | $8,599 |
| 0.25% | $762,895 | $42,007 |
| 0.50% | $723,268 | $81,634 |
| 1.00% | $650,611 | $154,291 |
| 1.50% | $585,923 | $218,979 |
A 1% fee sounds small, yet here it costs more than $150,000. That is exactly why the SEC encourages investors to compare expense ratios and advisory fees before choosing a fund.
What is a good return on investment?
A good return depends on what you invest in and how much risk you take. As a reference point, the S&P 500 has averaged roughly 10% a year before inflation over the long run, or about 7% after inflation, though individual years range from steep losses to large gains. High-quality bonds have historically returned less, and savings accounts less again.
The most useful test is personal: did your investment beat inflation by a meaningful margin, and did it match a low-cost index fund with similar risk? If your annualized return trails both over five years or more, fees, timing or asset choice are worth reviewing. Measurement mode shows your real return after inflation alongside the comparison table to make that check easy.
The Rule of 72
Divide 72 by your annual return to estimate how many years it takes to double your money. At 8%, money doubles in about 9 years. At 4%, it takes about 18. The calculator shows your doubling time in both modes.
Worked investment return examples
Projecting growth
Using the default inputs, someone invests $10,000 and adds $500 at the end of each month for 20 years. The investment earns 8% a year and charges 0.2% in fees.
- Money put in: $130,000
- Final balance: about $322,305, of which $192,305 is investment growth
- Cost of the 0.2% fee: about $8,800 compared with a fee-free version
- In today’s money at 3% inflation: about $178,450
Measuring a return
Someone started with $10,000, added $200 a month for 5 years, and the account is now worth $30,000. They put in $22,000 in total, so the profit is $8,000 and the total return is 36.4%. Their money-weighted annualized return is about 8.69%, or 5.52% after 3% inflation. Simple ROI would have suggested a much weaker 6.4% a year, because it ignores that most of the money went in later.
Common mistakes when calculating investment returns
Comparing total returns over different periods
A 50% gain over three years and a 50% gain over ten are very different results. Always compare annualized returns.
Averaging yearly returns
If an investment falls 50% and then rises 50%, the average is 0%, but you have actually lost 25% of your money. Annualized return (geometric average) reflects what really happened. Arithmetic averages do not.
Ignoring contributions or withdrawals
Counting deposits as gains inflates performance, while dividing profit by everything you added understates it. Use the money-weighted method in measurement mode whenever money moved in or out.
Forgetting fees, taxes and inflation
A 9% return with 1% fees and 3% inflation is a 5% real gain. Projections that leave these out can overstate future buying power by a wide margin.
Related finance calculators
Once you know your return, these tools help with the next decision. You can also browse every tool in our finance calculators hub.
Investment return calculator FAQs
Subtract the money you put in from the current value, add any cash income you received, then divide by the money you put in. That is your total return. To compare it with other investments, convert it to an annualized return using the measurement mode above.
Total return is the overall gain for the whole period. Annualized return is the steady yearly rate that would produce the same result. A 60% total return equals about 9.9% a year over 5 years but only 4.8% a year over 10 years.
Find the single rate that grows your starting amount plus each monthly deposit, for the time it was invested, to today’s value. This money-weighted return, also called IRR, is what the calculator solves for automatically.
For a single lump sum with no deposits or withdrawals, yes. When money is added or withdrawn during the period, CAGR no longer applies and a money-weighted annualized return gives the accurate figure.
For a diversified stock portfolio, 7% to 10% a year before inflation has been a reasonable long-run expectation, though returns vary widely year to year. Any return should be judged against inflation and against a low-cost index fund with similar risk.
Many planners use 6% to 8% for a stock-heavy portfolio and lower for a balanced or bond-heavy one. Run a cautious case too, since returns over your specific time frame may fall short of historical averages.
Use the Rule of 72: divide 72 by your annual return. At 6% your money doubles in about 12 years, and at 9% in about 8 years. The calculator shows the exact doubling time for your rate.
Yes. Projections show the final balance in today’s money, and measurement mode shows your real annualized return after inflation, so you can see the actual gain in buying power.
More than most people expect. On $10,000 plus $500 a month for 30 years at 8%, a 1% annual fee costs about $154,000 compared with no fee. Even 0.25% costs around $42,000.
Use the start of the month if your money is invested as soon as you are paid. Start-of-month contributions grow slightly more because each deposit compounds for an extra month.
Yes. If today’s value is below what you put in, the calculator shows a negative total and annualized return, along with the loss in money.
No. It is an educational tool that uses constant return assumptions. Real investments rise and fall, so speak with a licensed financial adviser before making investment decisions.
Manzoor Ahmad
Manzoor builds and tests every calculator on DexoCalc by checking its formulas against published sources and hand-worked examples. This investment return calculator was verified against standard future value, CAGR and money-weighted return formulas. Read more about Manzoor.
Sources and methodology
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor.gov compound interest calculator.
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor Bulletin: How Fees and Expenses Affect Your Investment Portfolio.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index.
This investment return calculator gives estimates for education and planning only. Projections assume a constant annual return with monthly compounding and fees deducted from the return. Measurement mode assumes equal monthly contributions made at the end of each month. Real results will differ. It is not investment, tax or legal advice.