Enter your initial investment amount, the current (or final) value, and the investment period in years. The calculator computes your total return, annualized return (CAGR), and shows a growth projection chart.

This tool works for any investment — stocks, real estate, cryptocurrency, a business, or any asset where you know the starting and ending values.

Investment returns can be expressed in several ways, and the distinction matters. A "100% total return" sounds impressive, but it matters enormously whether that happened over 2 years or 20 years.

Total Return vs. Annualized Return

Total return is the overall percentage gain or loss: (End Value – Start Value) / Start Value × 100. Annualized return (CAGR) — Compound Annual Growth Rate — normalizes the return to a per-year basis, making it possible to compare investments with different time horizons. A 100% total return over 10 years is a 7.2% CAGR, while over 5 years it's 14.9%.

Why CAGR Matters

CAGR smooths out the volatility of year-to-year returns to give you the equivalent steady growth rate. An investment that gains 30% one year and loses 10% the next has a CAGR of about 8.2% — not 10% as a simple average would suggest. This is because losses hurt more than equivalent gains help (a 10% loss requires an 11.1% gain to break even).

Real vs. Nominal Returns

Nominal returns don't account for inflation. If your investment earned 8% but inflation was 3%, your real purchasing power only increased by about 5%. Always evaluate long-term investment performance in real (inflation-adjusted) terms.