KRW 100 million → about KRW 513 million (513,023,055 KRW). The 413.02% cumulative return uses the September 22, 2026 close.
- Purchase → valuation
- →
- Initial amount
- 100,000,000 KRW
- SPY purchase close
- $217.18 per SPY share
- KRW 100 million after ten years
- 513,023,055 KRW
- Cumulative return
- 413.02%
- CAGR
- 17.77%
Both SPY and QQQ results use distribution-reinvested adjusted closes and KRW conversion. Personal taxes and trading or FX costs are excluded. The valuation date is September 22, 2026.
What would different investment amounts be worth?
The same adjusted-close return factor applies to each amount, with no additional contributions or withdrawals. The model assumes fractional exposure with reinvested dividends. Values round to the nearest KRW. Scroll tables sideways on small screens.
| Investment | Final value | Cumulative return | CAGR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 KRW | 5,130,231 KRW | 413.02% | 17.77% |
| 10,000,000 KRW | 51,302,305 KRW | 413.02% | 17.77% |
| 50,000,000 KRW | 256,511,527 KRW | 413.02% | 17.77% |
| 100,000,000 KRW | 513,023,055 KRW | 413.02% | 17.77% |
How the KRW 100 million investment changed over ten years
Last monthly observations trace the KRW value of the initial investment. Look for periods of growth and large reversals alongside the ending value above.
Read annual chart values as a table
| Date | KRW value |
|---|---|
| 2016-09-22 | 100,000,000 KRW |
| 2016-12-29 | 113,744,084 KRW |
| 2017-12-28 | 122,715,249 KRW |
| 2018-12-28 | 120,552,198 KRW |
| 2019-12-30 | 164,996,682 KRW |
| 2020-12-30 | 182,988,206 KRW |
| 2021-12-30 | 259,782,277 KRW |
| 2022-12-29 | 226,137,588 KRW |
| 2023-12-28 | 290,741,352 KRW |
| 2024-12-30 | 415,357,302 KRW |
| 2025-12-30 | 479,861,554 KRW |
| 2026-09-22 | 513,023,055 KRW |
Why holding on for ten years was difficult
The largest observed daily USD total-return drawdown was 33.70%, from 2020-02-19 to 2020-03-23. Monthly KRW values can hide deeper daily declines.
Broad ownership can still feel frightening in a decline
An S&P 500 investment reduces dependence on any one company. When the whole market falls, however, a diversified account can lose substantial value too. The 2020 drawdown meant enduring immediate losses while believing in the long-term growth of US businesses. At the time, an investor could not know where the bottom would be or how long recovery would take.
The 2022–2023 window in the table below also recorded a 24.50% observed USD total-return drawdown. Getting through one crisis did not end the tests of a holding plan. Looking back at a recovered chart can feel very different from checking a falling account each day.
| Window | Peak | Trough | Drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-2019 | 2018-09-20 | 2018-12-24 | 19.34% |
| 2020-2020 | 2020-02-19 | 2020-03-23 | 33.70% |
| 2022-2023 | 2022-01-03 | 2022-10-12 | 24.50% |
The table separates the 2018 correction, the 2020 pandemic window and the 2022–2023 tightening period. The table compares observed declines within each stated period. Selling near a trough would have produced a different outcome from this uninterrupted holding model.
Other investors doing better can unsettle the plan
QQQ ended with a higher value than SPY in this article’s same-period comparison. Even after choosing broad ownership, stronger returns elsewhere could prompt a question: is my investment growing too slowly? The desire to move to a faster-rising asset can interrupt a long holding period even without a loss.
Study what a change would put into your portfolio. QQQ and the S&P 500 have different sector weights and constituents. Choosing an allocation around the diversification you want and the declines you can sustain gives a holding plan a clearer basis than repeatedly moving toward recent winners.
Ten years requires money and a plan that can stay invested
Believing in long-term investing does not remove a need to pay for housing or living expenses. If that need arrives during a downturn, an investor may have to sell despite wanting to wait for recovery. I believe setting an investment amount starts with separating money needed soon from money available for a long holding period.
Berkshire’s 2013 shareholder letter, published in 2014 (p.20), also discussed entering an exuberant market and selling after disappointment with paper losses. Understanding broad ownership needs to lead to an allocation and contribution plan you can maintain through declines. Varying entry dates in a backtest lets you examine returns, drawdowns and recovery times when thinking about how long you could wait.
Why would investors have chosen the S&P 500 ten years ago?
The following investment case uses material published before the September 2016 purchase.
- Diversification without knowing the winners. Berkshire’s 2013 letter, published in 2014 (p.20), proposed broad business ownership and a low-cost S&P 500 index fund for non-professionals. This reduced dependence on one company, but could not prevent a market-wide loss.
- Participation in productivity and earnings growth. The 2015 letter, dated February 27, 2016 (pp.7, 22), made a long-term case for US productivity and innovation. Owning a group of businesses did not require predicting which technology would win. Economic growth, however, could still disappoint an investor who paid too much.
- Costs were more controllable than next year’s returns. The 2013 letter emphasized the drag from trading and advisory expenses. Holding a low-cost index ETF was a practical response. Choosing one meant comparing fund fees alongside brokerage and currency costs.
- Less dependence on selecting a winning manager. The SPIVA Year-End 2015 scorecard found that 84.15% of US large-cap active funds lagged the S&P 500 over five years and 82.14% over ten. The figures highlighted the difficulty of selecting managers when choosing between index investing and active funds.
The objections were visible at the time. The 2015 SPIVA report discussed falling oil prices, a stronger dollar, renminbi devaluation and the US rate increase. Berkshire’s 2013 letter warned about buying during exuberance and selling after disappointment. A Korean investor also faced currency risk: a stronger won could reduce an otherwise positive dollar return. Diversified portfolios also went through declines.
Did the original investment case hold up?
This interval was consistent with the case for broad, long-term ownership. SPY rose from USD 217.179993 to USD 773.38. The ETF reflects index membership and weight changes; it is not a frozen basket of the 2016 constituents.
Earnings growth was observed too. S&P Global’s September 20, 2024 report found aggregate normalized S&P 500 EPS grew 12.9% year on year in Q2 2024. This is one later example, not the earnings growth rate for the full decade. Changes in valuation multiples also affect prices; this evidence does not quantify how much of the ten-year return came from earnings.
Reinvestment and FX changed the KRW outcome. With identical dates and exchange rates, the hub’s price-only SPY value is 437,823,735 KRW, versus 513,023,055 KRW in this reinvestment model. The difference includes subsequent gains on reinvested distributions, not simply dividends received. A higher KRW-per-dollar rate also increased the KRW value. The 413.02% return is not the underlying dollar return.
How did SPY compare with QQQ over the same period?
Both rows use KRW 100 million, identical dates and FX, reinvested-distribution adjusted closes, and no personal taxes or trading costs. QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100, not the Nasdaq Composite.
| ETF | Final value | Cumulative return | CAGR |
|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 ETF (SPY) | 513,023,055 KRW | 413.02% | 17.77% |
| QQQ | 826,917,349 KRW | 726.92% | 23.53% |
QQQ delivered a higher result in this interval. A narrower index and different sector weights make it a different exposure, however; these endpoint returns alone do not establish which portfolio had the better risk-adjusted result.
Compare S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 portfolio construction
Comparison basis
The KRW results cover September 22, 2016 to September 22, 2026 without further contributions: dividends reinvested. Personal taxes, trading and FX costs, and inflation are excluded. Prices and same-record-date USD/KRW observations are combined.
Calculation details and source records
Daily observations: 2513. The widest calendar gap runs from 2016-12-23 to 2016-12-27. A full exchange-calendar audit is incomplete; these are observed-close drawdowns, not certified full-history or intraday MDD. Missing FX is not filled, so no daily KRW MDD is reported.
Calculation basis and data sources
The S&P 500 is an index, not an orderable security. SPY’s issuer states its objective is to track the index’s price and yield performance before expenses. Launched in 1993, SPY has stored observations for the full interval and is already used by the hub. When choosing between SPY, VOO, Korean-listed and hedged ETFs, compare their fees and currency exposure.
Purchase: September 22, 2016. Valuation: September 22, 2026. Checked: September 28, 2026. The article does not update automatically to the latest trading day. The stored SPY purchase close is USD 217.179993 (displayed as 217.18), and the final close is 773.38. Calculations use split- and dividend-adjusted closes of 185.3455802258 → 773.38. An adjusted close is not the historical execution price.
The initial KRW amount is converted at 1103.3 KRW/USD, multiplied by the adjusted-close ratio, then translated at 1356.5 KRW/USD. Monthly points use each month’s last paired price/FX observation. Stored rates are neither executable quotes nor simultaneous market observations, and independent central-bank reconciliation is incomplete.
This approximates pre-tax reinvested total return without simulating payment-date trades. It assumes fractional investment with no contributions or withdrawals, excluding personal taxes, trading fees, FX spreads and inflation. Fund expenses are already reflected in market prices and are not deducted again. The hub’s Nasdaq endpoint check is reused; SPY and QQQ adjusted closes were refreshed together from the provider on September 28, 2026. The full daily series has not been checked against a second independent provider.
Formulas and rounding
Final value = principal ÷ starting FX × ending adjusted close ÷ starting adjusted close × ending FX. Cumulative return = (final value ÷ principal − 1) × 100. CAGR = ((final value ÷ principal)^(365.2425 / elapsed days) − 1) × 100.
Shared backtest precision: 24 significant digits for intermediate arithmetic, valuations rounded to two decimals, return percentages to six. Display uses whole KRW and two decimal places for percentages, HALF_UP. Drawdown magnitude = (1 − observed value ÷ preceding running peak) × 100.
Frequently asked questions
How much did KRW 100 million become?
2016-09-22 → 2026-09-22: 513,023,055 KRW. Pre-tax SPY dividend-reinvestment model with FX, not a live quote.
Is this the return of the index or an ETF?
It uses SPY market closes adjusted for reinvested distributions. The S&P 500 is an index, not a security you can buy. VOO and Korean-listed funds can produce different outcomes because of costs, tracking, currency hedging and tax treatment.
Why does the hub show a different value?
The hub shows 437,823,735 KRW excluding both cash dividends and reinvestment. The dates and FX are the same.
Would taking dividends in cash give the same result?
No. This adjusted-close model assumes reinvestment before personal taxes. It does not simulate payment-date purchases, withholding or cash-dividend balances.
Which periods should I compare for SPY and QQQ?
Keep the ending date fixed and try several starting dates. Match reinvestment and currency settings, then examine returns, drawdowns and recovery when considering broad exposure versus greater growth-company weight.
What would KRW 100 million invested ten years ago be worth across other assets?
Begin by owning a broad market
I believe investing is part of building assets, and an S&P 500 ETF is worth studying when picking individual stocks feels difficult. It puts our money into a group of businesses. Our money should share in that growth through investing. Study broad ownership and the declines it brings, then account for living expenses when setting an allocation and contribution plan you can maintain.
Compare before choosing your investment
Compare SPY and QQQ using the same dates and dividend settings. Vary the starting date and examine returns and drawdowns to consider broad US exposure against greater growth-company exposure.
Open investment backtestThis article presents the author’s investment opinion and historical observations. Returns and losses depend on the asset and investment period.