The problem with calculating the average/total returns on investments starts with the fact you point out that the answer is totally dependent on the period and data interval chosen (specific years?, data by the hour?, by the month? ...) Perhaps even more important is that to get the total return in actual cash money I must dispose of the asset. Then I get no further return. To continue the return I must keep the asset and then I only get the current yield as paid each period. A realization of this fact might help to explain the rise in discussions about and investments in "dividend aristocrats" and the popularity of so-called "dividend growth" investing. I can't spend paper profits without realizing them and then I can't get more. Quite a paradox. The folks who will benefit most from my skills, it turns out, are my heirs and my charities. Oh, and btw, why does everyone assume there are only stocks? If you hated bonds for the last thirty years you left a LOT of money on the table.