I need your help. Need for you to give your opinion on a number if you can.

I posted something about a year ago about my mother getting overcharged on her water bill. For 24 years. Could be close to a settlement. I think I have a decent idea of how much they overcharged her. In the thousands of dollars over 24 years. (NOT including interest, just regular dollars.)

But I think that they should pay interest. They charge YOU 10% per MONTH if you are late! Others have mentioned similar court settlements (which I have not actually read about) and it was mentioned that the final settlement should factor in the time value of money -- that if you invested this overdcharge in some kind of yield-bearing account, that this is fairer to the customer. I think a judge would easily agree.

The question is... how much? To me, low end would be passbook savings account rate. I have researched this and from 1981 through 2005, the average is about 5.3%.

However, my father regularly invested in the stock market, so, it could be argued that a mutual fund average or the DJIA should be used.

This is a small town but what's right is right. So, what is right? If you have any opinion at all, please give an interest.

In other words, what interest/yield (%) would be fair to a customer who was overcharged?

Due to the magic of compound interest, an overcharge gets to be a hefty sum of money over 24 years.

I cannot find definitive numbers of how much investing in the DJIA would yield on an annual basis, 1981 - 2005. I do know it was about 1,000 in 1981 and now, it's 11,000 or so.

Point being, I just have to come up with some kind of annual yield/interest percentage. To plug into my calculator.

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Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

[This message has been edited by SemiLiveMusic (edited 08-28-2006).]