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.
| Date | Type | Amount (£) |
|---|
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.
Portfolio curve is modelled from your cash flows and XIRR rate — illustrative, not daily valuations.
- 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.
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.
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.