SPY Return Calculator

The S&P 500 – which SPY tracks – has historically returned around 7% to 10% per year on average over many decades. Closer to 10% is the often-cited figure for long-term average annual return (including dividends reinvested). This means that over a very long period (say 30+ years), money invested in an S&P 500 index fund like SPY has tended to roughly double every 7–10 years, thanks to compound growth. Of course, this is an average – some decades have higher returns, and some periods (like the 2000s or a crash year) can be flat or negative. But overall, SPY's long-term ROI reflects the steady growth of the U.S. stock market.

A $1,000 investment in SPY a decade ago would have grown nicely. 10 years ago, the stock market was coming off the post-2008 recovery. So, $1,000 invested in SPY in October, 2015 would have been worth $3,924 ten years later (about 4x your initial investment in 10 years).

Yes, SPY (being an ETF that holds the S&P 500 stocks) pays dividends quarterly based on the dividends of the companies in the index. These dividends typically add roughly 2% per year to the return (that's been the ballpark yield for the S&P 500 in recent years). If you reinvest those dividends, they significantly boost your long-term ROI – in fact, a large portion of the historical ~10% annual return of the S&P 500 comes from reinvested dividends (the rest from price appreciation). Our investment return calculator uses adjusted close data, which means the effect of dividends is included. The ROI figures you get for SPY from the calculator are total return figures (price gains plus dividends reinvested), giving you a true sense of how an investment grows over time.

SPY (and the S&P 500) has historically performed better than a large majority of actively managed funds over the long run. Many studies show that most mutual fund managers and stock pickers fail to consistently beat the S&P 500 index after fees. By investing in SPY, you essentially get the market average, which has been quite strong over time (~7-10% annually historically). Picking individual stocks can sometimes lead to higher returns if you choose big winners, but it's also riskier – you might underperform or even lose money if your picks do poorly. SPY provides broad diversification across 500 companies, which lowers risk compared to owning a few individual stocks. So, while an exceptional investor might beat SPY in a given year, the index's return has been tough for most pros to beat consistently over decades. For many investors, SPY's reliable market-matching return has proven to be a very effective strategy.

Investing in SPY is widely considered a sound strategy for long-term growth because it gives you exposure to the broad U.S. stock market. Over almost any 20+ year period in the past, the S&P 500 has delivered positive returns, often in the high single digits annually. SPY's diversification (covering various industries and hundreds of companies) means you're not overly exposed to the fate of any one business – even if some companies in the index stumble, others succeed, and the overall index historically trends upward with the economy. That said, SPY isn't immune to risk: it can go down in the short term (for example, during a recession or market crash, SPY can drop significantly). But if you have a long-term horizon and can endure those occasional downturns, holding SPY has, in the past, been a reliable way to participate in the growth of the stock market. Essentially, SPY is often used as a core holding for long-term investors seeking steady wealth accumulation.