What-if tool for mutual fund value?

Factual Questions
1

I won’t pretend to understand financial math, so I’ll just ask my question. Maybe it’s simpler than I think:

Background: Several months ago, my wife sold some shares of a mutual fund to help pay off a credit card of mine. When we are able to put that money back into the mutual fund, I’d like to not just put back in the amount she took out, but restore the value to where it would be at that time as if she had never taken money out of it.

Is there a way (online tool, formula, whatever) to calculate the present value (let’s pretend I’m repaying it all today) of a mutual fund from a given value on a given date in the past?

Can it really be as simple as just percent change in stock price? That doesn’t feel right.

2

Just buy the same number of shares as she sold.

3

Yep. You might toss in a little extra if there’s a commission.

4

Unless it paid dividends that would have bought more shares in the meantime.

I’d round up a little higher. But I wouldn’t go through all the math to get it to the penny. It’s just not worth it.

5

I would do what the others suggested. Just buy the same number of shares you had before. If you missed out on a dividend payment and/or you’re worried about the commission, maybe buy a few more to make up for it, but unless this is 10’s of thousands of dollars, you’re probably talking about being off buy twenty dollars if you just buy back the same amount of shares. Add an extra few shares to ‘penalize’ yourself for borrowing if you want to to make up for the fees and dividend if you want.

Also, keep in mind that if the cost of the shares went down while you had the money out, you may actually come out ahead (not counting any gains taxes you might have to pay).

6

Ah. See? I told you I didn’t understand financial math.

Thanks, all! A simple and elegant solution.