S&P 500 Return Calculator
S&P 500 Return Calculator iStandard & Poor's 500 - the cap-weighted index of the 500 largest US public companies. Often used as the proxy for "the US stock market."
How It Works - How does the S&P 500 return calculator work?
The S&P 500 Total Return index measures the performance of the 500 largest US public companies, with dividends reinvested. From 1928 through 2023, it has compounded at roughly 10% per year nominally, or around 6.5% real (after subtracting inflation).
This calculator pulls a long-running monthly series of the index from our cache (refreshed monthly) and lets you simulate what a fixed monthly contribution would have grown into across any historical window. Unlike the generic DCA calculator, it uses the actual month-by-month price path - so the result reflects real volatility, not a smooth average return.
If the historical CSV in our cache is more than 60 days old (because the monthly refresh job has not run), a yellow stale-data banner appears at the top of this page. We never silently serve outdated index data without saying so.
Use this tool to stress-test claims like "stocks always go up." Drag the start date into 2000 and the end date into 2010 and you will find a decade with negative real returns - the so-called Lost Decade. The long arc of the index is upward, but multi-year drawdowns are normal and frequent.
Not financial advice. For informational and educational purposes only. Numbers come from public market data and may be stale. Always consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.