“The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.”

— Charlie Munger

The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) strips out the noise of year-to-year swings and leaves you with the single number your whole holding period boils down to.

principal → ending value, one smooth rate between them
Calculate Your CAGR

Enter your investment information

Enter what you invested, how long you held it, and what your investment was worth at the end.

Your investment

$
Enter the amount your beginning amount.
Enter a start and end date, with the end after the start. Use the current date if you have not sold it yet.
$
Enter what it was worth at the end.

Result

Fill in the three fields and your CAGR shows up here — along with the total return and how many years it compounded over.
—
Compound annual growth rate
Held for —
Total return —
Growth —
Under the hood

How the three numbers become one rate

01

Divide ending value by initial investment to get the total growth multiple:

ending ÷ initial $25,000 ÷ $10,000 = 2.5×
02

Measure the holding period in years, including fractional years for partial-year stretches:

(end date − start date) ÷ 365.25 (01/01/30 − 01/01/25) ÷ 365.25 = 1,826 days ÷ 365.25 = 5.00 years
03

Take that multiple to the power of one over the years, then subtract one:

multiple^(1/years) − 1 2.5^(1/5.00) − 1 = 20.11%
Quick reference

How Long To Double Your Investment

Same math as above, run backwards: hold your money at a fixed annual rate long enough, and it doubles. Here's how long that takes at a few common rates.

Growth rate Years to double
3%23.4yrs
5%14.2yrs
8%9.0yrs
10%7.3yrs
12%6.1yrs
15%5.0yrs
25%3.1yrs

Want to calculate your own time to double? Input a growth rate below and it will tell you how long it takes.

%
—