How to Figure Rate of Return on Investments

We don’t invest money in our retirement accounts just to see what happens. We all want high returns, positive growth, and a big pile of cash to retire on. Investing your funds through automatic investments is a great way to start, but at some point you have to do some math to figure out if you are earning a return or not.

This is surprisingly difficult.

Brokerage firms and mutual fund companies don’t want to make it easy for you to calculate your personal rate of return on an investment. Why? B...