Dividend income calculator

Project the snowball: what a dividend portfolio pays you today, what it pays in twenty years, and what reinvesting every payment along the way actually does to the curve.

Educational tool, not advice. Dividends are promises companies can cut, yields drift, and smooth growth assumptions flatter reality. Ignores taxes — which, on dividends, are very real.

Starting investment ($)

Monthly contribution ($)

Dividend yield (%)// healthy range ≈ 1–5%. 12% is a trap, not a gift

Dividend growth (%/yr)

Price growth (%/yr)

Years (max 50)

Reinvest dividends (DRIP)?

REINVEST

TAKE THE CASH

dividend_income — 20 years · drip on

INCOME_YEAR_1$795 /yr

INCOME_YEAR_20$8,035 /yr ≈ $670/mo

TOTAL_DIVIDENDS_COLLECTED$70,283

FINAL_PORTFOLIO$242,162

TOTAL_CONTRIBUTED$85,000

YIELD_ON_COST_YEAR_209.45%

> the_snowball: rolling

// annual dividend income, year by year

// the snowball log

Year	Income	Monthly	Portfolio	Yield on cost
2	$952	$79	$35,255	3.07%
4	$1,311	$109	$47,076	3.54%
6	$1,736	$145	$60,725	4.04%
8	$2,240	$187	$76,513	4.57%
10	$2,839	$237	$94,806	5.16%
12	$3,550	$296	$116,038	5.82%
14	$4,397	$366	$140,722	6.56%
16	$5,404	$450	$169,467	7.40%
18	$6,604	$550	$202,993	8.36%
20	$8,035	$670	$242,162	9.45%

// the number to watch: yield on cost

Yield on cost is this year's income divided by what you actually put in. A portfolio bought at a 3% yield, with dividends growing ~5% a year and every payment reinvested, quietly turns into a much larger effective yield on your original money a decade or two later. That's the snowball argument in one number — and this calculator prints it for every year.

// the trap this can't protect you from

Plugging a 12% yield into a projection makes beautiful numbers and terrible portfolios — extreme yields usually signal a dividend the market expects to be cut. Before chasing the biggest input, read what is a dividend (the yield-trap section especially) and dollar-cost averaging on the Press.