Rate of return

Rate of return is income you collect on an investment expressed as a percentage of the investment's purchase price. With a common stock, the rate of return is dividend yield, or your annual dividend divided by the price you paid for the stock.

However, the term is also used to mean percentage return, which is a stock's total return -- dividend plus change in value -- divided by the investment amount.

With a bond, rate of return is the current yield, or your annual interest income divided by the price you paid for the bond. For example, if you paid $900 for a bond with a par value of $1,000 that pays 6% interest, your rate of return is $60 divided by $900, or 6.67%.