Important information about personal rate of return
A note about performance. Over the long-term, the biggest determinant of your performance will be your mix of stocks, bonds, and short-term reserves, not the specific investment choices you make within each category. Your personal performance is based on the performance of your investments and on the timing and amount of your purchases and redemptions. Therefore, your personal performance may differ—perhaps greatly—from the performance of the investments themselves. Both experience and academic studies suggest that a buy and hold strategy is better than market timing (trying to discern when to "get in" or "get out" of stocks or bonds) or chasing performance (investing in the asset class or fund that has performed best lately).
Past performance. Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. Don't be tempted to shift money between funds based on a single year's results. You should monitor your personal performance over an extended period of time and consider other factors—investment objectives, time horizon, risk tolerance, personal financial situation, and tax implications—before making changes to your portfolio.
What the chart shows. This chart displays your personal rate of return over a specific amount of time. You can view your personal rate of return and activity summary at the portfolio, account, and fund levels. At the portfolio level, you also can choose to view data for retirement accounts only or for nonretirement accounts only.
What assets are included. Your personal rate of return includes Vanguard® mutual fund accounts, Vanguard Brokerage Services® accounts, annuities and 529s, and assets from employer-sponsored retirement plans. These accounts will be included in your "total assets." These figures don't include trust services accounts, holdings purchased through companies other than Vanguard (outside investments), or assets from defined benefit plans.
Calculation method. Personal performance uses a formula called internal rate of return (IRR), which is a dollar-weighted return. IRR takes into account new money coming into your investment, as well as how long that money has been held. Don't confuse your personal rate of return with those posted for funds and indexes. The returns presented in these instances use a time-weighted calculation, which does not take cash flow into consideration.
"As of" date. Your personal rate of return and activity summary data is as of the last day of the previous month. This page is updated with new data by the third business day of each month. If, for some reason, the data is delayed, the previous month's figures will continue to be displayed until new figures are available.
Data not available. Due to the calculation method that Vanguard uses, personal rate of return data is not available:
If you're a newly registered participant.
For a fund, account, or portfolio if the balance was zero at either the beginning or end of the time period shown.
For money market funds at the individual holding level.
Closed accounts. The figures include accounts that you may have had investments in during the time period shown, but that have since closed. Performance figures for converted Admiral™ Shares include the past performance of the original Investor class shares.
