To annualize something is to convert it to a yearly, or annual basis. Basically, you are looking at something that takes place over an irregular period of time and standardizing it, providing a statistic that shows what would happen if you did that thing for a single year.
In finance, most information is reported on either a quarterly or annual basis. Standardizing reports in this way makes it easier to compare. Investors can see how one period of time stacks up against another. Along these lines, short-term events often get transferred into annualized rates for easier comparisons.
This comes up often in relation to interest rates, which are often given as annualized rates (See: Annualized Rates). Annualization also comes up often when reporting salaries and other income (See: Annualized Income).
Businesses often annualize their revenue and expenses so they get a better idea of the long-term impact of seemingly small decisions. If people did that, you might learn, for instance, that the number of burritos you eat in a year has reached 107, giving you an Annualized Rate Of Burrito Consumption (ARBC) of 29.32%. Based on this level of ARBC, you might decide that skipping Chipotle once and a while might be a good idea.
Related or Semi-related Video
![Finance: What is an Annualized Return?](https://media1.shmoop.com/video/thumbnails/COURSE.FINANCE.275_770x433.jpg)
Finance: What is an Annualized Return?36 Views
Finance, a la shmoop. What is an annualized return? Alright people, well
when you invest a dollar you hope or even expect to get more than a dollar [ATM machine]
back, at some point. And let's say you invested that dollar in Terminators
Closet -a leading dealer in cybernetic body enhancements. And it went from $1 a
share to a dollar ten six months later. Alright, nice return.
You made 10% in just six months but in most investing discussions ,investment [spreadsheet shown]
returns are discussed in the form of annual returns, not monthly or daily or
biannual numbers, so you need to convert your six-month return into an annualized [angelic glow]
one, and you can do the process here of computing that number that is if you made
10% in six months well then in a year presumably you could notion that you'd
have made 20%. It's not that you would have guaranteedly made 20% it's just [spreadsheet shown]
the math saying that well if you had compounded at that rate then you'd have
made 20%, so what if she made 10% in a month? Well the stock went from a buck a
share Jan 1 to a buck ten a share by Feb 1 .Well if you impute so that you can [calendar shown]
compute that month's gain of 10% would carry a compound rate of a hundred
twenty percent. Right ? You're multiplying 12 months times 10 there, that'd be
annualizing it meaning, that at that rate you are more than doubling your money on [spreadsheet shown]
an annualized return basis. And that's more than enough dough to keep
terminators closet popping out those Wi-Fi enabled contact lenses faster than [woman watches TV]
people can wear them.
Up Next
What are Return on Equity and Return on Assets? Return on equity is a percentage that is found by dividing net income by shareholder’s equity. It...
What is real return? Real return is the actual return made from an investment after inflation is factored in. Return is expressed as a percentage c...
How do you calculate rates of return? Calculating rate of return on an investment that pays dividends can be a bit tricky. You need to look at the...
What are revenues? Revenue is the amount of money a company brings in after they’ve accounted for returns and discounts and such. It’s just wha...