Fastened for 2026. I initially wrote this calculator in 2007. Hey, a minimum of you understand it wasn’t AI! A few of it’s possible you’ll be questioning how nicely your particular portfolio carried out final 12 months (or over any particular time period). Let’s say you began the 12 months with $10,000 and put in one other $5,000 via 10 completely different deposits spaced all year long, and ended up with $16,000. What was your fee of return? Your major aim is just to separate the impact of latest deposits (or withdrawals) and your precise return from investments.
Determining your precise private fee of return requires you to know the precise dates of all of your deposits and withdrawals, together with a monetary calculator or spreadsheet program with an IRR perform (instance right here). Nevertheless, for a fast and easy estimate of your returns, do that calculator as a substitute:
Directions
- Get your preliminary steadiness. That is most likely out of your brokerage statements. Strive January of final 12 months.
- Tally up any deposits or withdrawals. For instance, let’s say you understand you set $3,000 in your Roth IRA and in addition 5% of your $40,000 wage right into a 401(ok). That will be $3,000 + $2,000 = $5,000. That’s it, you don’t want to fret about trying up the particular dates and quantities.
- Get your ultimate steadiness. Your December assertion might be out there already.
- Discover the time elapsed (in years) between your preliminary and ultimate balances.
- Hit Calculate. An estimate of your annualized return is immediately given.
How Correct Is This Estimate?
The calculator assumes that the inflows and outflows are unfold evenly across the center of the 12 months. I initially noticed this methodology within the e-book The 4 Pillars of Investing (overview). Nevertheless, until the deposits and withdrawals are very massive as in comparison with the preliminary steadiness, the estimates are literally fairly good.
For instance, let’s say that you just begin with $100,000 on 1/1/2025, and find yourself with $120,000 on 1/1/2026. In the event you had web deposits of $10,000 throughout the 12 months, the calculator above would estimate your return at 9.52%. If the $10,000 was truly deposited unexpectedly on one in every of these particular days, you’ll get the next precise returns:
| Deposit Date | Actual Return |
| 1/1/2025 (very first day) | 9.1% |
| 6/04/2025 (center of the 12 months) | 9.5% |
| 1/1/2026 (final day) | 10% |
| Estimate | 9.5% |
Additionally try the remainder of my Instruments and Calculators.