Question

At the beginning of the year, Mr. and Mrs. Smith's portfolio is made up of $200 cash, stocks, with value of $236,000, and bonds worth $163,000. Mr. Smith received $5,000 in dividends and bond interest of $4,150. At year end, Mr. Smith has $200 cash, stocks $250,000 and bonds worth $159,000. What was Mr. Smith's total return for the year?

Answer 1

4.797% of total return

Explanation:

In this case, first, let's gather the data:

Beggining of the year:

200 + 236,000 + 163,000 = 399,200$

End of the year:

200 + 250,000 + 159,000 = 409,200$

This means that between the beggining and the end of the year, Mr Smith only had a gain of 10,000$.

To get the final return, we need to add this gain to the dividens and interest which is:

10,000 + 5,000 + 4,150 = 19,150$

So, the total return would be the percentage between this gaining and the innitial amount:

% = 19,150 / 399,200 * 100

% = 4.797%

And this is the total return.