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%.
Traditionally, stocks have offered the highest rate of return among all other asset classes over time, making them a popular investment for people saving for retirement. The average rate of return on stocks depends on the size of the company you choose to invest in. According to January 2011 data provided by New York University, large company stock, such as IBM and Apple Computer, have earned an average annual rate of return of 11.31 percent since 1928.