See what dividend reinvestment really does over time: this calculator simulates your portfolio month by month — contributions buying shares, the share price growing, and dividends landing every quarter. With DRIP on, each dividend immediately buys more shares, so later dividends are paid on a bigger holding. Everything runs in your browser; the defaults are the worked example.
The model, month by month: (1) your monthly contribution buys shares at the price at the start of the month; (2) the price then grows for the month at (1 + price growth)1/12 − 1; (3) in months 3, 6, 9 and 12 a quarterly dividend is paid — shares held × current price × that year's yield ÷ 4 — and with DRIP on it immediately buys more shares at the current price. “Growth” below is the final value minus everything you put in and minus the dividends paid, so dividends are never double-counted.
Final annual dividend income is a run-rate: shares owned at the end × the final share price × the yield in your final year (starting yield grown by the dividend growth rate). It is what the holding would pay over the next twelve months if the yield stayed at that level — not a sum of dividends already received.
Contributions in year 1 include your initial investment. Value is the portfolio (shares × price, plus any cash dividends held with DRIP off) at each year end.
| Year | Contributions | Dividends | Value |
|---|
—
Month-by-month dividend growth projection with quarterly dividends, dividend growth, share price growth and DRIP reinvestment — final value, total dividends, shares owned and a year-by-year table.
100% free · No sign-up · No daily limits · No watermarks · Processed in your browser — files never leave your device
Project a dividend portfolio month by month: your contributions buy shares, the share price grows, dividends are paid every quarter and — with DRIP on — each dividend immediately buys more shares. See the final value, total contributed, total dividends received, growth, shares owned, your final annual dividend income and a year-by-year summary.
You invest $10,000 up front and $200 a month into a stock priced at $50, yielding 4% with the dividend growing 5% a year and the share price growing 3% a year, over 10 years with DRIP on. You contribute $10,000 + $200 × 120 = $34,000 in total. The simulation pays a dividend every quarter on the shares held, at a yield that rises from 4% in year 1 to about 6.2% by year 10, and reinvests each one. The result: $16,693 of dividends received, a final value of $59,829 — so $9,135 of growth on top of contributions and dividends — holding about 890 shares paying roughly $3,713 a year. With DRIP off, the same inputs end at $54,772: reinvesting was worth about $5,056.
Monthly simulation. Each month: (1) the monthly contribution buys shares at the price at the start of the month; (2) the price grows by (1 + price growth)^(1/12) − 1; (3) in months 3, 6, 9 and 12 a quarterly dividend is paid equal to shares held × current price × that year’s annual yield ÷ 4, where the yield in year N is the starting yield × (1 + dividend growth)^(N−1). With DRIP on, the dividend buys shares at the current price immediately; with DRIP off it is held as cash — counted in the final value but earning nothing further. Final value = shares × final price + any cash held. Growth = final value − total contributed − total dividends, so dividends are counted once, as income, and price appreciation (including on reinvested dividends) is the growth figure. Final annual dividend income is a run-rate: shares at the end × final price × the yield in the final year.
Dividend Reinvestment Plan: instead of taking a dividend as cash, it is automatically used to buy more shares — often fractional shares — of the same stock. Those new shares pay their own dividends next quarter, which is why the effect compounds. Many brokers offer it free; this calculator shows the difference it makes over your exact horizon.
Most US dividend stocks pay four times a year, so the simulation settles dividends in months 3, 6, 9 and 12 on the shares held at that point, at the then-current price and that year’s yield. A stock paying monthly or annually would land slightly differently, but the reinvestment mechanics are the same.
It raises the yield itself over time: a 4% yield growing 5% a year becomes about 6.2% by year 10, applied to a share price that has also grown. Dividend growers therefore produce much larger late-year payouts than a fixed yield suggests — in the worked example, $16,693 of dividends on $34,000 contributed.
Because the same growth percentages apply whatever the starting price: a lower price simply means each contribution buys proportionally more shares, each worth proportionally less. The price only sets the share count — which matters for the shares-owned figure and for comparing with a real holding.
Final value minus everything you contributed and minus the dividends paid. With DRIP on, reinvested dividends buy shares that then appreciate — that appreciation lands in growth, while the dividends themselves are counted once, as dividend income. The three figures always add back up to the final value.
No — it is a run-rate at the end of the projection: your final shareholding × the final price × the yield in the final year. It estimates what the holding would pay over the following twelve months if the yield stayed at that level. Money actually received during the period is the “dividends received” figure.
What is missing, broken, or could be better on this tool? Tell us — we read every suggestion.
✅ Thanks — your suggestion has been received. Suggestions like yours shape what we build next.