Costs and Financial Aid. The cost of attendance is the total amount of tuition, fees, room and board, books, supplies, and other estimated school expenses. Financial aid is a combination of grants, loans, scholarships, and work-study employment designed to help offset the total cost of attendance.
One of the major problems for an investor looking at that 10% average return figure and mistakenly expecting to realize a nice yearly profit from investing in the S&P 500 is inflation. Adjusted for inflation, the historical average annual return is only around 7%.
Accounting Rate of Return Example. The total profit from a project over the past five years is $50,000. During this span, a total investment of $250,000 has been made. The average annual profit is $10,000 ($50,000/5 years) and the average annual investment is $50,000 ($250,000/5 years). Therefore, the accounting rate of return is 20% ($10,000/$50,000).