Dividend Calculator
Project dividend income: today's yield, the dividend growing yearly, and — optionally — dividends reinvested into more shares, with the share price held flat so the dividend effect stands alone.
Income that can raise itself
A dividend portfolio's yield on today's price is only its first chapter. If the dividend grows — as mature companies' payouts often do, a few percent a year — the income on your original cost compounds upward; reinvest the dividends and the share count compounds too. This calculator projects both effects, separately switchable.
Year's income = shares held × dividend per share · reinvested shares buy at the (held-flat) price · dividend per share grows at your rate
Example: 500 shares at $40 paying $1.20 (a 3% yield): income starts at $600 a year. With 5% yearly dividend growth and reinvestment, year-10 income reaches roughly $1,580 and cumulative dividends about $10,300 — the snowball in its income form.
The flat-price honesty device
The share price is held constant deliberately: it isolates the dividend mechanics from price speculation, so you see exactly what the payout engine does on its own. Real prices will move; real dividends can also be cut — usually at the moment of maximum inconvenience, a fact no projection page can repeal.
How this is calculated
Year by year: income = shares × current dividend per share; with reinvestment on, the year's income buys additional shares at the entered (constant) price; then the dividend per share grows by your growth rate. Without reinvestment, shares stay fixed and only the dividend grows. Total dividends sum the yearly incomes. DRIP fractional shares are assumed, as most plans allow.
Frequently asked questions
What is 'yield on cost'?
Your current dividend per share divided by what you originally paid per share. A holding bought at a 3% yield whose dividend doubled now yields 6% on cost — the number long-term dividend investors quietly brag about.
Are dividends guaranteed once declared history?
No. A dividend is a board decision each quarter. Long payment streaks (the 'Dividend Aristocrats') signal commitment, not contract — cuts happen, and they cluster in recessions.
Reinvest or take the cash?
During accumulation, reinvestment compounds the income engine; in retirement, the cash is the point. The toggle shows the cost of switching early: reinvestment's advantage grows with the years remaining.
How are dividends taxed?
Qualified dividends (most US company payouts held long enough) get capital-gains rates in the US; others are ordinary income, and rules differ abroad. The projection here is pre-tax, as the page notes.
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