Dividend calculator
See what reinvesting dividends does to a portfolio: future value, monthly income, and the gap between DRIP and no-DRIP, all modeled month by month.
Yield& growth assumptions
Reinvesting adds $2,613 (6.5%) over taking dividends as cash.
Year-by-year breakdown
| Year | Portfolio value | Dividends | Monthly income | Cumulative dividends | Yield on cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12,165 | $325 | $27 | $325 | 2.9% |
| 2 | $14,523 | $387 | $32 | $713 | 3.1% |
| 3 | $17,091 | $454 | $38 | $1,167 | 3.3% |
| 4 | $19,886 | $525 | $44 | $1,692 | 3.5% |
| 5 | $22,927 | $602 | $50 | $2,294 | 3.8% |
| 6 | $26,234 | $684 | $57 | $2,978 | 4.0% |
| 7 | $29,830 | $772 | $64 | $3,750 | 4.2% |
| 8 | $33,738 | $867 | $72 | $4,617 | 4.4% |
| 9 | $37,984 | $968 | $81 | $5,585 | 4.7% |
| 10 | $42,597 | $1,077 | $90 | $6,662 | 4.9% |
Educational purposes only. This calculator is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Projections are hypothetical illustrations based on historical data and simplified assumptions — actual results will differ. Consult a qualified financial advisor before investing.
Calculators with real ticker data
All tickers →Each page preloads the fund's verified yield, payment schedule, and growth history — compiled from official sources, with the verification date shown.
- SCHDSchwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF3.22% yield
- JEPIJPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF8.05% dist. rate
- JEPQJPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF10.80% dist. rate
- QQQINEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF14.45% dist. rate
- VOOVanguard S&P 500 ETF1.05% yield
- MSTYYieldMax MSTR Option Income Strategy ETF85.62% dist. rate
- ULTYYieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF60.50% dist. rate
- SPYINEOS S&P 500 High Income ETF12.07% dist. rate
- VYMVanguard High Dividend Yield ETF2.19% yield
- ORealty Income Corporation5.18% yield
- NVDYYieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF38.71% dist. rate
- KOThe Coca-Cola Company2.49% yield
Why reinvesting dividends matters
Reinvesting is compounding with one extra step. A dividend paid in cash just sits there. A dividend reinvested buys more shares, and those shares pay their own dividends next time. Stretched over decades, that loop accounts for a large share of the stock market's total return. The calculator above makes it concrete: switch DRIP off and watch the two ending balances pull apart.
What the inputs mean
Three inputs drive the projection. Dividend yield is the annual payout as a share of price, and the per-ticker pages fill it in from verified trailing-twelve-month payments. Dividend growth is how fast that payout rises each year: it's the whole point of growers like VIG or DGRO, and something option-income funds like JEPI shouldn't assume. Price growth is share-price appreciation on its own. Add it to the yield and you have a rough total return.
How this calculator works (assumptions & method)
The simulation runs month by month. Each month the share price moves at the annual growth rate you set, any contribution buys shares at that month's price, and dividends land on the fund's real schedule, whether that's monthly, quarterly, or weekly. With DRIP on, each dividend buys more shares the day it's paid. With DRIP off, it piles up as cash that earns nothing, which is the cleanest way to see what reinvestment alone is worth.
Dividends per share step up once a year at the growth rate, the way companies actually raise them. Weekly payers are modeled as monthly, since the difference is too small to matter. Taxes apply to dividends at the moment they're paid and nothing else: price gains count as unrealized, so no capital-gains tax is modeled. Setting the rate to 0% approximates an IRA or 401(k).
The starting yield, growth, and schedule come from the ticker's verified data, with the sources and date shown on the page. Those rates then hold flat for the whole projection. Real markets won't cooperate, and that's the point: this is an illustration, not a forecast. Fund fees are already baked into the historical figures, and the model adds no costs on top.
Frequently asked questions
- What does this dividend calculator do?
- It shows how an investment grows when you reinvest the dividends. You set the starting amount, monthly contributions, time horizon, and tax rate. The calculator then pays out dividends month by month on the fund's real schedule, reinvests them, and reports the ending value, total dividends, monthly income, and how much the reinvestment itself added over taking the cash.
- What is a DRIP (dividend reinvestment plan)?
- A DRIP puts each dividend straight back into more shares instead of paying you cash. Those shares then earn their own dividends, which buy more shares, and so on. Most brokerages do it for free on stocks and ETFs, usually down to fractional shares.
- How is dividend yield calculated?
- Dividend yield = annual dividends per share ÷ share price × 100. A stock paying $1.00 a share each year at a $25 price yields 4%. The figures here use trailing-twelve-month dividends — the last 12 months of actual payments — not a projected forward number.
- Does the calculator account for taxes?
- Yes. Set a dividend tax rate and it applies to every payment as it's made. Use 0% for a tax-advantaged account like an IRA or 401(k), 15% for the usual qualified-dividend rate, or a custom rate for ordinary-income payouts like covered-call ETFs and REITs. Price gains are left untaxed, since the model treats them as unrealized.
- How accurate are dividend projections?
- Treat them as illustrations, not forecasts. The arithmetic is exact, but it assumes yield, dividend growth, and price growth all hold steady for the whole horizon, and real markets never do. Dividends get cut, yields drift, prices swing. They're useful for comparing scenarios, not for predicting your balance.
- What's different about the per-ticker calculators?
- Each ticker page — SCHD, JEPI, VOO, and the rest — loads that fund's real numbers before you touch anything: its trailing-twelve-month yield, actual payment schedule, dividend-growth history, and price trend. Every figure comes from the fund sponsor's own filings, with the date it was checked and the sources listed on the page.