# Total Return

*Saving & Investing — Finicade finance glossary*

Total return is price change plus income, which is the only honest measure of what an investment made you. Judging a stock on its chart alone ignores dividends, and dividends have historically supplied roughly a third to a half of long-run equity returns. The distinction shows up starkly in index quotes: a price index and its total-return twin can diverge by thousands of percent over decades. Always check which version a chart is showing before comparing performance.

**Formula:** `Total return = (Ending value − Starting value + Income) ÷ Starting value`

**Also known as:** total shareholder return, TSR

**Related terms:** [Capital Gain](https://finicade.com/glossary/capital-gain), [Dividend Yield](https://finicade.com/glossary/dividend-yield), [Holding-Period Return](https://finicade.com/glossary/holding-period-return), [Yield](https://finicade.com/glossary/yield), [Capital Appreciation](https://finicade.com/glossary/capital-appreciation)

Source: https://finicade.com/glossary/total-return