Suppose $\hat{m} = \frac{1}{N}\sum_{i=1}^{N}(X_i)$ where $X_i \sim N(m,\sigma)$. Are the following steps correct? \begin{align}\operatorname{Var}\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\} &= \mathrm E\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^4\right\} - \mathrm E^2\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\}\\&= 3\mathrm E^2\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\} - \mathrm E^2\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\}\\&= 2\mathrm E^2\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\}\end{align} <strike> and I know that $ \mathrm E\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\} = \frac{1}{N^2}\sigma$. </strike> (I was wrong here. Read the Update) Then, $\operatorname{Var}\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\} = 2\frac{1}{N^4}\sigma^2$ ---- However the textbook says (without any proving) that $$\operatorname{Var}\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\} \tilde{} \frac{1}{N^2} $$ Where am I going wrong? **Update:** as [whuber][1] told in the comments, i was wrong about $ \mathrm E\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\} $. This expectation equals to $\frac{1}{N}\sigma$ and not $\frac{1}{N^2}\sigma$. Therefore, the variance is $$\operatorname{Var}\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\} = 2\mathrm E^2\left\{(\hat{m}-m)^2\right\} = 2\frac{1}{N^2}\sigma^2 \tilde{} \frac{1}{N^2}$$ Anyway, the answer provided by [mpiktas][2] is also correct and i prefer to chose it as the best answer. [1]: https://stats.stackexchange.com/users/919/whuber [2]: https://stats.stackexchange.com/users/2116/mpiktas