Dividend & DRIP calculator
Project how much dividend income a portfolio could pay and how it grows when you reinvest the dividends (a DRIP). Add regular contributions, dividend growth and tax to see the long-run picture.
- Portfolio value
- $379,079
- Total contributed
- $130,000
- Dividends received
- $110,864
- Yield on cost
- 11.28%
Reinvesting adds $70,084 compared with taking the dividends as cash.
Pull every dividend a stock or ETF has paid, with dates, into Google Sheets or Excel and track your real income as it lands.
=SF_DIVIDEND("SCHD","2016-01-01",TODAY(),"date÷nd")=SF("SCHD","profile","divYield")| Year | Contributed | Dividends that year | Total dividends | Yield on cost | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $16,000 | $484 | $484 | 3.03% | $17,129 |
| 2 | $22,000 | $744 | $1,228 | 3.38% | $24,878 |
| 3 | $28,000 | $1,031 | $2,260 | 3.68% | $33,308 |
| 4 | $34,000 | $1,349 | $3,609 | 3.97% | $42,483 |
| 5 | $40,000 | $1,700 | $5,308 | 4.25% | $52,474 |
| 6 | $46,000 | $2,088 | $7,396 | 4.54% | $63,359 |
| 7 | $52,000 | $2,517 | $9,913 | 4.84% | $75,226 |
| 8 | $58,000 | $2,991 | $12,904 | 5.16% | $88,169 |
| 9 | $64,000 | $3,516 | $16,420 | 5.49% | $102,293 |
| 10 | $70,000 | $4,095 | $20,515 | 5.85% | $117,714 |
| 11 | $76,000 | $4,737 | $25,252 | 6.23% | $134,559 |
| 12 | $82,000 | $5,446 | $30,699 | 6.64% | $152,969 |
| 13 | $88,000 | $6,231 | $36,930 | 7.08% | $173,099 |
| 14 | $94,000 | $7,100 | $44,030 | 7.55% | $195,120 |
| 15 | $100,000 | $8,062 | $52,092 | 8.06% | $219,222 |
| 16 | $106,000 | $9,127 | $61,219 | 8.61% | $245,613 |
| 17 | $112,000 | $10,306 | $71,525 | 9.20% | $274,525 |
| 18 | $118,000 | $11,613 | $83,138 | 9.84% | $306,213 |
| 19 | $124,000 | $13,061 | $96,198 | 10.53% | $340,960 |
| 20 | $130,000 | $14,666 | $110,864 | 11.28% | $379,079 |
How the dividend calculator works
The calculator simulates your portfolio month by month. Each month the share price grows, your contribution buys more shares, and on payout months each share pays its slice of the annual dividend. The dividend per share rises once a year at your dividend growth rate.
What a DRIP does
A dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP) uses each payout to buy more shares. Those shares pay dividends of their own, so income compounds: the longer the horizon, the bigger the gap between reinvesting and taking cash. Switch between the two to see the difference.
Yield on cost
Yield on cost is this year's dividends divided by the money you've put in. When dividends grow faster than you add money, it climbs well above the starting yield, which is why dividend-growth investors watch it.
Choosing your assumptions
- Dividend yield: use the current yield of the stock or ETF you're modelling.
- Dividend growth: look at the last five to ten years of dividend history, then be conservative.
- Share price growth: long-run price growth for broad markets has been around 5–7% a year before dividends, but past returns don't guarantee future ones.
This is a projection with constant rates, not a forecast. Real dividends can be cut, and prices move around a lot more than a smooth line suggests.
Frequently asked questions
How much do I need to invest to earn $1,000 a month in dividends?
Divide the annual income you want by the yield. $12,000 a year at a 4% yield needs $300,000 invested; at 3% it needs $400,000. Set the years to 1 and try different starting amounts to check.
Is it better to reinvest dividends?
If you don't need the income yet, reinvesting usually builds a bigger portfolio and a bigger future income, because the new shares pay dividends too. Taking cash makes sense once you're living off the income. Either way, dividends are usually taxable in the year they're paid unless the account is tax-sheltered.
What is a DRIP?
A dividend reinvestment plan automatically uses your dividends to buy more shares of the same stock or fund, often including fractional shares and sometimes without fees. Most brokers offer it as a setting on your account.
Does the calculator account for dividend tax?
Yes. Enter your tax rate on dividends and each payout is reduced by it before it's reinvested or counted as income. Leave it at 0 for tax-free accounts.
Run this analysis on any ticker, refreshed automatically
SheetsFinance pulls prices, fundamentals, dividends and ETF holdings for 80,000+ assets straight into Google Sheets and Excel, so your model updates itself.