Historical S&P 500 Calculator

The S&P 500 is an index of 500 of the largest publicly traded U.S. companies. This calculator uses historical annual total returns, including reinvested dividends, from 1928 through 2024. Your lump sum is invested at the start of your chosen year and grows by each year's actual return. The inflation-adjusted figure divides the nominal value by cumulative U.S. CPI inflation over the same period, so it's expressed in your start year's dollars.

Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. The S&P 500 had a great century, but notice what the chart looks like through 1929–1932, 1973–1974, 2000–2002, and 2008: any given decade can look very different, and sequence risk is exactly why many of our clients pair market investments with the guaranteed floor of high cash value whole life insurance. For a direct comparison, read infinite banking vs. stock market investments.