Should I use ‘My Returns’ or ‘Investment Returns’?

Both measures are useful, but they serve different purposes.

‘My Returns’ is generally the best measure if you want to understand how your wealth has grown over time. Because it takes into account the timing and size of your contributions, withdrawals and transactions, it reflects the ‘real world’ return that you personally experienced as an investor.

‘Investment Returns’ is useful when you want to assess the performance of the underlying funds themselves. Because it removes the impact of investor cash flows, it provides a more consistent basis for comparing the performance of one fund against another, or for evaluating the investment manager’s decisions.

Many investors use both measures together. ‘My Returns’ helps answer “How am I doing?”, while ‘Investment Returns’ helps answer “How are my investments doing?”