What’s on the Nominal & Real Return poster
The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes.
- Real return ≈ nominal return − inflation.
- real ≈ nominal − inflation
- 8% return, 3% inflation = ~5% real
- 3% savings rate, 5% inflation = −2% real
- 0% cash, 2% inflation = −2% real
- Common mistake: Comparing returns from different decades directly → Adjust both for i…
The exact formula is (1+n)/(1+i) − 1. Subtraction is close enough at ordinary rates.
Questions about the Nominal & Real Return poster
- What’s on the Nominal & Real Return poster?
- The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes. Real return ≈ nominal return − inflation.; real ≈ nominal − inflation; 8% return, 3% inflation = ~5% real; 3% savings rate, 5% inflation = −2% real; 0% cash, 2% inflation = −2% real; Common mistake: Comparing returns from different decades directly → Adjust both for i…. The exact formula is (1+n)/(1+i) − 1. Subtraction is close enough at ordinary rates.
- Who is the Nominal & Real Return poster for?
- Nominal & Real Return belongs to the Money section rather than to a school year, because money is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning growth can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Nominal & Real Return poster?
- Real return is what you can actually buy afterwards. It is the only one that matters. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Nominal & Real Return belongs on the wall where that money work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Nominal & Real Return?
- Inflation, Turning Savings into Income and APR & AER sit alongside Nominal & Real Return in the Money section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.InflationTurning Savings into IncomeAPR & AER
- Is the Nominal & Real Return poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Nominal & Real Return downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Money section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Nominal & Real Return poster print at?
- Nominal & Real Return is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Nominal & Real Return loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Nominal & Real Return on the same wall.
Browse every Money poster, or start from the full catalogue.