Investment Ratio Calculation — A First Look
Imagine you and a friend decide to start a small business together. You put in ₹50,000, and your friend puts in ₹30,000. At the end of the year, you make a profit of ₹16,000. How should you split it?
The fair answer is not "half each" — you put in more money, so you should get a larger share. That's the entire intuition behind investment ratios: profit is shared in the same proportion as the money invested.
The Core Idea
An investment ratio is simply a comparison of the amounts different people (or groups) put into a venture. If you invest ₹50,000 and your friend invests ₹30,000, the ratio of your investment to theirs is:
50,000:30,000
Like any ratio, you simplify it by dividing both sides by their common factor (here, 10,000):
That's your investment ratio. It tells you that for every ₹5 you put in, your friend put in ₹3.
From Ratio to Profit Share
Now, how does this ratio translate into actual money? The total investment is ₹80,000. Your share of the total is:
80,00050,000=85
Your friend's share is:
80,00030,000=83
So the profit of ₹16,000 is split as:
- You: 85×16,000=₹10,000
- Friend: 83×16,000=₹6,000
Notice that 10,000:6,000 simplifies to 5:3 — the same as the investment ratio. Profit is always divided in the ratio of investment.
Share of profit=Total investmentIndividual investment×Total profit
When Investments Are for Different Durations
Here's where it gets slightly more interesting. What if you invested ₹50,000 for the full year, but your friend invested ₹30,000 only for the last 6 months? Is it still fair to split profit 5:3?
No — because your money was at work for twice as long. The solution is to convert each investment into an equivalent "money × time" unit, called the product.
- Your product: 50,000×12=6,00,000 (rupee-months)
- Friend's product: 30,000×6=1,80,000 (rupee-months)
Now compare these products:
6,00,000:1,80,000=20:6=10:3
That's the effective investment ratio. Profit is now split in the ratio 10 : 3, not 5 : 3.
Never ignore time when investments are made at different points. The ratio of amounts alone is only valid when everyone invests for the same duration.
The Precise Statement
For any partnership (or any situation where returns are proportional to contribution):
Profit (or loss) is shared in the ratio of the product of each partner's investment and the time period for which it was invested.
If all time periods are equal, this reduces to the ratio of the investments themselves.
A Quick Example to Lock It In
Three partners start a business:
- A invests ₹2,00,000 for 12 months
- B invests ₹1,50,000 for 8 months
- C invests ₹1,00,000 for 6 months
Compute the products:
- A: 2,00,000×12=24,00,000
- B: 1,50,000×8=12,00,000
- C: 1,00,000×6=6,00,000
Ratio: 24:12:6=4:2:1
If the profit is ₹70,000, then:
- A gets 74×70,000=₹40,000
- B gets 72×70,000=₹20,000
- C gets 71×70,000=₹10,000
Always simplify the ratio at the product stage — it makes the final calculation cleaner and less error-prone.
The One Thing to Remember
Investment ratio is not about who put in more money — it's about who contributed more value, where value = money × time. That single idea handles every variation you'll ever see in exams.