How much would an investment of $100 made in the year of your birth be worth today? The S&P 500 return calculator has the answer. 

Explainer: The S&P 500 is an index made up of 500 of the largest U.S. public companies listed on major stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. These 500 companies represent about 80% of the overall value of the stock market. 

The S&P 500 calculator provides a variety of values including nominal values, inflation-adjusted, with and without dividends and assuming a dollar cost averaging strategy. 

Here's a few questions to get your students engaged with this interactive return calculator: 

• How much would $100 invested in the year of your birth be worth today? 
  • Express your answer in nominal terms, inflation-adjusted terms and if you had not invested in a lump sum but had dollar cost averaged into the investment over a 24 month period. 
  • How much does inflation impact the value of your investment (i.e. what is the difference between the annual return in nominal terms vs. inflation-adjusted terms)? Does investing in the S&P 500 typically provide a return greater than the rate of inflation? 
• The return you earn from investing in stocks has two components: the change in price and the dividends earned. The chart at the top of this interactive separates out these two types of returns. 
  • How much of the annual return comes from the price change over this period from 1967 to 2022? 
  • How much of the annual return comes from the dividends paid? Note that the Change incl. dividends reflects BOTH price change and dividends. 

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• Want to help your students visualize what the S&P 500 is? Check out this activity, What is the S&P 500? 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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