While markets having been heading higher this year, many investors are hoping the recovery is enough to offset the losses stemming from a three-year bear market.

A new calculator from the Investor Education Fund helps investors calculate what it will take to get their portfolios back on track.

The Getting Back on Track calculator is the brainchild of financial author and writer Bruce Cohen.

Found on www.investorED.ca’s Interactive Centre, investors simply enter their information: what their investment was worth, what it’s worth now, what return they had aimed for, and the time frame; the tool will tell them the rate of growth needed to put them back on plan. There are also three examples that users can enter into the calculator so they can see how it works.

“There’s no question that during the bull market of the late 1990s, many people expected far higher returns than the market could consistently deliver,” says Terri Williams, president of the Investor Education Fund. “It may be a real eye-opener when you use this calculator and see what it will take to get your portfolio back on track.”

This new calculator joins the popular Mutual Fund Fee Impact Calculator and interactive tools from the Canadian Securities Administrators on investorED.ca’s Web site.