What a Stocks and Shares ISA Could Return on £7,300 a Year by 2030

The arithmetic behind Stocks and Shares ISA returns is straightforward enough, but the numbers tend to surprise people. Put in £20 a day, roughly £7,300 a year, leave it for five years at a historically grounded return, and the outcome is materially different from anything a Cash ISA will produce in the same period.

Stocks and Shares ISA Returns: The Maths Behind £7,300 a Year

AJ Bell‘s analysis of global equity ISAs found that the average portfolio returned 141.8% over the ten years to the end of 2023, equivalent to roughly 9.2% annually. Using a 9% assumed annual return and £7,300 in contributions each year, the pot could reach roughly £36,388 by mid-2030, on total contributions of £29,200. The implied gain is just over £7,000, or around £1,750 per year.

The comparison with a competitive Cash ISA is instructive. At a rate of 4.5%, £7,300 earns £328.50 of interest in year one. The gap looks modest at first. Over five years of compounding, it becomes considerably more meaningful, which is precisely why the ISA wrapper, with its tax-free treatment of capital gains and dividends, exists as a planning tool rather than just a savings account.

The £20,000 annual allowance leaves substantial headroom above this £7,300 example. For investors who can direct more of that allowance into equities, the compounding effect scales accordingly.

Why F&C Investment Trust Merits a Closer Look

Reaching 9% a year is not passive. It requires asset allocation discipline and careful selection. F&C Investment Trust (LSE: FCIT), which has been running since 1868, is one vehicle that has consistently been held up as a core diversified holding for long-term ISA investors.

The trust spans listed global equities, unlisted securities and private equity, with gearing used to enhance returns. Its 2025 annual report showed a total return of 14.6%, ahead of the FTSE All-World index return of 14.2% for the same period. Over ten years, £1,000 invested with dividends reinvested would have grown to £3,283.

For 2025, the board proposed a total dividend of 16.6p per share, a 6.4% increase, marking 55 consecutive years of annual dividend growth. The final component, 5.2p per share, was paid on 6 May. Reinvested dividends have contributed substantially to those long-run compounding figures.

The trust’s discrete annual performance since 2022 illustrates the range of outcomes investors should expect:

Source: F&C Investment Trust fund updates; Lipper; share price, percentage growth, bid to bid, net income reinvested, as at 31 May 2026. Past performance is not a guide to future returns.

The five-year cumulative NAV return to 31 May 2026 stands at 74.27%, with the share price returning 78.62% over the same period. The 2022/21 year is a reminder that the trust is not immune to drawdowns: a negative return in a down market is the cost of the gearing and equity concentration that drives outperformance elsewhere.

One structural development worth registering: at the AGM held on 29 April 2026, shareholders approved a 4-for-1 split of the nominal share value, which took effect on 11 May 2026. The split did not change the value of existing holdings; the net asset value per share and share price adjusted proportionally for the fourfold increase in shares in issue. The practical effect is greater accessibility for smaller investors, which sits alongside the trust’s long-running mandate.

Fund manager Paul Niven has noted the longevity of that mandate on the F&C website: ‘We started out in 1868 investing in Emerging Market bonds including Brazil, so we have moved from literally investing in the Amazon, to purchasing Amazon.com some 140 years later.’ The point is not merely historical colour. A trust with a 55-year dividend growth streak and a mandate that has navigated multiple full cycles carries a different risk profile from a single-stock position, though concentration in global equities still leaves it exposed to currency moves and broad market corrections.

The maths suggest the next test for FCIT, and for ISA investors more broadly, is whether the momentum from a 25% NAV return in the year to May 2026 moderates or continues into a period where consensus expectations for global equities are already elevated.