Investment Calculator

Personal Investment Return Calculator

Find your real, personalised rate of return — accounting for every deposit, withdrawal and its exact date. Unlike broker headline figures, this calculator gives you your true money-weighted (XIRR) annualised return. Works with any ISA, SIPP, dealing account or fund.

XIRR / Money-Weighted Return Works with any account No data leaves your browser CSV & Excel import Saves automatically
7 min read Updated 18 Jul 2026 UK
1 Opening Position
£
2 Additional Transactions — optional, add as many as you need
DateTypeAmount (£)

Required format

date,type,amount 2022-03-15,deposit,500 2022-09-01,deposit,250 2023-04-10,withdrawal,150

date — YYYY-MM-DD  |  type — deposit or withdrawal  |  amount — positive number, no £ sign. Include header row. You can paste directly from Excel or Google Sheets.

File format — CSV or Excel (.xlsx)

date,type,amount 2022-03-15,deposit,500 2022-09-01,deposit,250

Three columns: date, type, amount with a header row. Date format: YYYY-MM-DD preferred, DD/MM/YYYY also accepted. Excel date cells work too. Max 500 rows. Select your broker above to auto-map column names from broker exports.

3 Closing / Current Balance
£
Your Results
—
Annualised Return (XIRR)
—
Money-weighted, per year
Total Invested
—
Net deposits minus withdrawals
Final Value
—
As entered
Gain / Loss
—
Final value minus net invested
Total Return
—
Simple (not annualised)
Investment Period
—
Opening to closing date
Enter your opening investment, every deposit and withdrawal with its date, and your current balance, then press Calculate to see your true money-weighted (XIRR) annual return.
Your portfolio

Portfolio curve is modelled from your cash flows and XIRR rate — illustrative, not daily valuations.

Investments

Your real investment return: why XIRR beats your platform's percentage

By CalculatorDashboard Editorial Team·Updated ·Reviewed ·4 min read

Key takeaways
  • XIRR is your return, not the fund's. It weights every deposit and withdrawal by its exact date, so it reflects what you actually earned.
  • Your broker's headline is time-weighted. That figure answers "how did the fund do?" — XIRR answers "how did I do?"
  • Timing drives the gap. Big money in before a fall drags XIRR down; drip-feeding through a dip and holding can push it above the headline.
  • Everything stays in your browser. No figures, dates or files leave your device — calculations run entirely in JavaScript.
  • Compare like-for-like. Use the benchmark overlay to see whether your decisions beat simply buying an index fund.

What is this and why does it matter?

When your broker quotes "10.4% over the last 3 years", that's a time-weighted return — it measures the fund's performance independently of when you invested. If you put in a large lump sum just before a crash, or drip-fed in during a downturn, your personal experience looks completely different.

This calculator computes your XIRR — the single annualised rate that, applied to every cash flow you've made (with its exact date), produces your final balance. It's the professional standard for measuring what an individual investor actually earned. The Investment Association and CFA Institute both recommend money-weighted returns when the goal is to evaluate an individual's investment outcome rather than a fund manager's skill.

XIRR is particularly relevant for UK investors who contribute to ISAs and SIPPs on an irregular schedule — annual allowance top-ups, one-off pension transfers, or monthly direct debits all affect your personal return. A globally diversified index fund might report 8% annualised over five years, but if you invested 60% of your capital just before a correction, your actual experience could be substantially lower. Conversely, investors who drip-fed during the 2022 downturn and held through the recovery may find their XIRR exceeds the fund's headline number.

This calculator supports manual entry, CSV paste, and file upload — with built-in broker profiles for Hargreaves Lansdown, Vanguard, Trading 212, Freetrade, and AJ Bell. Everything runs in your browser; no data is sent to any server. Your inputs are saved to local storage so you can return and update your figures as your portfolio evolves.

How to use it: Enter your opening investment, log every deposit and withdrawal with its date, then enter your current or closing balance. Hit Calculate. Your true return appears instantly, with a chart and benchmark comparison against the S&P 500, FTSE 100, or FTSE All-World.

A worked example: lump sum plus monthly saving

Casey invested £5,000 on 1 January 2024 and then added £200 a month for two years, £9,800 in total. On 1 January 2026 the account is worth £11,800. Many platforms would show this as a gain of £2,000, or 20.4% on the money invested.

That figure overstates how hard the money worked, because much of it was only invested for a short time. The £200 paid in last month had almost no time to grow. XIRR solves for the single annual rate that would turn each payment, on its actual date, into the final value. For Casey that's about 12.7% a year. It's lower than 20.4% because it's an annual rate, and because it gives each pound credit only for the time it was invested.

Why this matters

XIRR lets you compare your own results fairly with a fund's published annual return, or with a savings rate. A simple gain percentage can't do that when money goes in and out at different times. It also shows the effect of your own timing. If you added more just before a rise, your XIRR will be higher than the fund's return. If you added more just before a fall, it will be lower.

To calculate it accurately, use the dates and amounts of every payment in and out, including any withdrawals, and the current value on today's date. The calculator above accepts manual entries, pasted data or a CSV export from your platform.

Fees, dividends and transfers

For an honest figure, count what actually left and entered your pocket. Platform and fund charges taken from the account are already reflected in its value, so they reduce your XIRR automatically. Dividends that were reinvested are part of the growth and shouldn't be entered separately; dividends paid out to your bank account should be entered as money coming out, on the date they were paid. Transfers between your own accounts aren't contributions or withdrawals, so leave them out, or the result will treat moving money as if it were new saving.

When the number looks odd

Over short periods XIRR can produce extreme figures, because a small gain over a few weeks becomes a large annual rate. It's most useful over a year or more. If your result looks implausibly high or low, check for missing transactions, such as a dividend that was paid out rather than reinvested, or a transfer between accounts that was recorded as a withdrawal.

This is general information, not personal financial advice. Past returns don't guarantee future results, and the value of investments can fall as well as rise.

Frequently Asked Questions
XIRR (Extended Internal Rate of Return) is the annualised rate that accounts for the exact timing of every cash flow. Your broker typically shows a time-weighted return — which strips out the effect of your deposits and withdrawals to isolate fund performance. That's useful for comparing funds, but it's not your personal return. XIRR captures the reality of your individual experience.
Yes — this is entirely expected and is exactly the point. If you invested heavily during a bull market and the market then fell, your XIRR will be lower than the fund's long-run average. Conversely, if you drip-fed money in during a downturn and the market recovered strongly, your XIRR can exceed the headline figure. Timing matters enormously for individual investors.
A deposit is any money you transfer into your account — a lump sum, monthly contribution, or manual dividend reinvestment. A withdrawal is any money you take out. Dividends automatically reinvested within the fund (accumulation units) are not transactions — they're already reflected in your final balance, so don't enter them.
For maximum accuracy, yes. But if you've made many identical regular contributions, you can group them — enter one transaction per year at the approximate mid-year date using the total deposited that year. This gives a very close approximation. The more precisely you date each transaction, the more accurate your XIRR.
Most UK brokers let you download a transaction history CSV from the account or statements section. In Hargreaves Lansdown: Account → History → Download. Vanguard: Documents → Transaction history. Trading 212: History → Export. Once downloaded, select your broker from the profile dropdown and the column mapping will be handled automatically.
All calculations run entirely in your browser using JavaScript. No data — not your figures, not your dates, not your file — is ever sent to any server. You can disconnect from the internet and this calculator still works perfectly. Your inputs are saved to your browser's local storage so you don't lose them if you close the tab.
The benchmark overlay shows what your opening investment would have grown to in the selected index from your start date, using historical annual returns. It assumes a single lump sum at the start (not matching your deposit schedule), so treat it as a rough reference rather than a precise like-for-like comparison. It's most useful for answering "was I better or worse than just buying an index fund?"

Why don't most investors know their true return?

Most investors never know their real return because the factsheet's headline figure ignores when they actually put money in. They see a fund quoting 10% a year and assume that's what they made — but if they invested a large sum just before the 2022 correction, their personal experience looks nothing like that long-run average.

The money-weighted return (XIRR) is the professional standard for measuring individual investor performance. It's the methodology the Investment Association and CFA Institute use when the goal is what an investor actually earned — not what a fund delivered in the abstract.

Knowing your real return tells you whether you're on track, whether your market timing has helped or hurt, and whether a simpler strategy — a monthly direct debit into a passive index fund — might have served you better.

What does the worked example show?

The built-in example turns £8,150 of net contributions into £11,240 — a 37.9% total gain, but an XIRR of just 7.90% a year. It starts with £5,000 in January 2020, drip-feeds quarterly deposits, takes a £1,000 withdrawal in September 2022, and ends at £11,240 on 31 December 2024.

That gap between "37.9%" and "7.90% a year" is the whole point: the simple total return flatters you, while XIRR spreads the gain over the roughly five years — and over the exact dates — your money was actually invested. Click Load worked example, then Calculate, to see it reproduced exactly.

Why does XIRR differ from a time-weighted return?

Because a time-weighted return removes the effect of your cash flows to measure the fund, while XIRR keeps them to measure you. Your broker's headline is almost always time-weighted (TWR): it answers "how did the fund do?" not "how did I do?" — so two investors in the same fund over the same period can have wildly different personal returns.

Consider a fund up 20% in year one and down 15% in year two — a TWR near 2% annualised. But if you invested £50,000 at the start and added another £50,000 right before the fall, your XIRR would be negative, because the larger sum took the loss. That's the reality XIRR captures and TWR strips away.

How can UK investors use XIRR effectively?

Use one XIRR across your ISAs, SIPPs and dealing accounts to see your whole investing experience in a single, timing-aware number. It accounts for April ISA top-ups, lump-sum pension transfers and ad-hoc additions; drip-feed into a Stocks and Shares ISA and your XIRR will differ from the fund's figure because you buy at different prices all year.

It's also great for comparing accounts: you might find your passively invested ISA quietly beats the dealing account where you trade individual shares — an insight only a money-weighted return can give. The benchmark overlay then compares you against the S&P 500, FTSE 100 or FTSE All-World, so you can see whether your decisions beat simply buying an index fund.

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This calculator is for educational and informational purposes only. Results are based on the data you enter and mathematical modelling. This is not financial advice. Investment returns can go down as well as up. Past performance is not a guide to future results. Benchmark overlays use approximate historical annual return data and are illustrative only. Always consult a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.