★ MONEY · DIVIDENDS · INCOME
Year-1 income $200.00 — $3,166.84 of dividends over 10 years with DRIP. 100 shares at $50.00 paying $2.00 a share, growing 5% a year. Enter your shares, price, dividend, growth, and years to work out yours.
Dividends are cash a company pays its shareholders, quoted per share per year. This calculator works out the income your shares pay each year, the yield, the total over the years you choose, and what reinvesting the dividends (DRIP) adds — with the shares, price, dividend, growth, and years you enter.
A dividend is a cash payment a company makes to its shareholders, usually every quarter, quoted as a dollar amount per share per year. Your income in a year is your shares times the dividend per share: 100 shares paying $2.00 a share pay $200.00 a year. The yield is the dividend per share divided by the price per share: $2.00 on a $50.00 share is a 4.00% yield. If the dividend grows, the income grows with it: at 5% growth a year, the dividend per share is $2.00 in year 1, $2.10 in year 2, and $3.10 in year 10. With DRIP — a dividend reinvestment plan — each dividend buys more shares at the current price, so the share count grows and later dividends are paid on more shares. The price is held constant in this calculator, so the ending value is the shares times the price, and the identity is simple: ending value = invested + total dividends with DRIP.
At the defaults — 100 shares, $50.00 a share, $2.00 a share in dividends, 5% growth a year, 10 years, DRIP on — the year-1 income is $200.00, the yield is 4.00%, total dividends are $3,166.84 with DRIP and $2,515.58 without, and the ending value is $8,166.84 on 163.34 shares. Check the identity: $5,000.00 + $3,166.84 = $8,166.84.
| Year | Dividend per share | Shares (DRIP) | Income (DRIP) | Income (no DRIP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2.0000 | 100.00 | $200.00 | $200.00 |
| 2 | $2.1000 | 104.00 | $218.40 | $210.00 |
| 3 | $2.2050 | 108.37 | $238.95 | $220.50 |
| 4 | $2.3152 | 113.15 | $261.96 | $231.52 |
| 5 | $2.4310 | 118.39 | $287.80 | $243.10 |
| 6 | $2.5526 | 124.14 | $316.88 | $255.26 |
| 7 | $2.6802 | 130.48 | $349.71 | $268.02 |
| 8 | $2.8142 | 137.47 | $386.88 | $281.42 |
| 9 | $2.9549 | 145.21 | $429.09 | $295.49 |
| 10 | $3.1027 | 153.79 | $477.17 | $310.27 |
Setup: 100 shares at $50.00 a share, dividend $2.00 a share, growth 5% a year, 10 years, DRIP on.
Line 1 — the money in. 100 × $50.00 = $5,000.00 invested.
Line 2 — the year-1 income and the yield. 100 × $2.00 = $200.00 in year 1. The yield is $2.00 ÷ $50.00 = 4.00%.
Line 3 — the dividend in year 10. $2.00 × (1.05)^9 = $3.10 a share. Nine years of 5% growth turn $2.00 into $3.10.
Line 4 — ten years without DRIP. The dividends are $200.00, $210.00, $220.50, and so on, growing 5% a year: 100 × $2.00 × ((1.05)^10 − 1) / 0.05 = $2,515.58.
Line 5 — ten years with DRIP. Each year’s dividend buys more shares at $50.00: the share count grows from 100 to 163.34, and the total dividends are $3,166.84. The ending value is 163.34 × $50.00 = $8,166.84.
Line 6 — yield on cost and total return. Year-10 income is $477.17, so the yield on cost is $477.17 ÷ $5,000.00 = 9.54%. The total return with DRIP is ($8,166.84 − $5,000.00) ÷ $5,000.00 = 63.34%. Without DRIP the total wealth is $5,000.00 of value plus $2,515.58 of cash dividends, $7,515.58, a 50.31% return.
Line 7 — the check. $5,000.00 + $3,166.84 = $8,166.84. The ending value is exactly the money in plus the dividends, because the price never moved and every dividend was reinvested.
Reverse: 500 shares pay $1,000 a year in year 1 (499 shares pay $998.00); the dividend for $1,000 a year on 100 shares is $10.00 a share ($9.99 pays $999.00); income doubles in 14.21 years (dividend $3.96 after 14 years, $4.16 after 15); a 5% yield at $2.00 a share needs a $40.00 price (at $40.01 the yield is 4.9988%).
500 shares: year-1 income $1,000.00, total dividends $15,834.21 with DRIP ($12,577.89 without), ending value $40,834.21 on 816.68 shares. Five times the shares is five times everything: the model scales exactly with the share count.
Price $100 a share: the same 100 shares now cost $10,000.00, the yield halves to 2.00%, and total dividends with DRIP are $2,819.56 (ending value $12,819.56). The year-1 income is still $200.00, because the dividend per share did not change — but each reinvested dollar now buys half as many shares, so DRIP adds less.
Dividend $4.00 a share: year-1 income $400.00, yield 8.00%, total dividends $8,031.72 with DRIP ($5,031.16 without), ending value $13,031.72. Doubling the dividend more than doubles the DRIP total, because the bigger dividends buy more shares, which pay more dividends.
Growth 0%: the dividend stays at $2.00 a share, so the no-DRIP total is a flat $2,000.00 ($200.00 a year for 10 years). With DRIP the total is $2,401.22 and the ending value is $7,401.22 — even with no growth, reinvesting still adds $401.22, because the share count grows 4% a year ($200.00 of dividends on $5,000.00 of shares).
Growth 10%: total dividends $4,263.84 with DRIP ($3,187.48 without), ending value $9,263.84. Five more points of growth add $1,097.00 of DRIP dividends over the same ten years.
20 years: total dividends $12,942.86 with DRIP ($6,613.19 without), ending value $17,942.86. The second decade pays more than the first three times over, because the share count and the dividend have both been compounding.
5 years: total dividends $1,207.11 with DRIP ($1,105.13 without), ending value $6,207.11. Half the time gives a little over a third of the ten-year DRIP total: the early years are the slowest.
DRIP off: total dividends $2,515.58 and the ending value stays at $5,000.00 — the shares never grow, so the value never grows either. The $651.26 difference between DRIP and no-DRIP is the whole price of taking the cash.
Reverse — the other way round: 500 shares pay $1,000 a year in year 1; the dividend for $1,000 a year on 100 shares is $10.00 a share; income doubles in 14.21 years; a 5% yield at $2.00 a share needs a $40.00 price.
The model holds the share price constant at $50.00 for the whole period, which is the biggest simplification: in real life the price moves every day, and the ending value moves with it. It assumes the dividend grows at exactly 5% a year, with no cuts, no freezes, and no special dividends. It assumes DRIP buys shares at the same $50.00 price with no fees and no taxes, and that dividends are paid once a year in the model’s arithmetic (real dividends are usually quarterly, which changes the timing by a little and the totals by almost nothing at this scale). It leaves out taxes on dividends entirely. With the dividend at $0, the income is $0.00, the total is $0.00, and the ending value stays at $5,000.00. With 0 shares, everything is $0.00. With 0% growth the income is flat at $200.00 a year without DRIP. Rounding convention: all figures are computed from unrounded values and rounded only for display — money to cents, shares to two decimals, so a figure worked out from the rounded numbers can differ by a few cents from the figure shown.
| Output | Formula | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Invested | shares × price per share | $5,000.00. |
| Year-1 income | shares × dividend per share | $200.00. |
| Yield | dividend per share ÷ price per share | 4.00%. |
| Total dividends (DRIP) | sum of each year’s income, dividends reinvested | $3,166.84. |
| Total dividends (no DRIP) | shares × dividend × ((1 + g)T − 1) / g | $2,515.58. |
| Ending shares | shares grown by reinvested dividends | 163.34. |
| Ending value | ending shares × price per share | $8,166.84 = $5,000.00 + $3,166.84. |
| Yield on cost (year 10) | year-10 income ÷ invested | 9.54% ($477.17 on $5,000.00). |
| Total return (DRIP) | (ending value − invested) ÷ invested | 63.34%. |
| Shares for $1,000 a year | $1,000 ÷ dividend per share | 500 shares (499 shares pay $998.00). |
| Dividend for $1,000 a year | $1,000 ÷ shares | $10.00 a share ($9.99 pays $999.00). |
| Years for income to double | ln(2) ÷ ln(1 + g) | 14.21 years (dividend $3.96 after 14 years, $4.16 after 15). |
| Price for a 5% yield | dividend per share ÷ 5% | $40.00 (at $40.01 the yield is 4.9988%). |
| 500 shares | same model, S = 500 | Year-1 income $1,000.00, total $15,834.21, ending value $40,834.21. |
| Price $100 | same model, P = $100 | Year-1 income $200.00, total $2,819.56, ending value $12,819.56. |
| Dividend $4.00 | same model, D = $4.00 | Year-1 income $400.00, total $8,031.72, ending value $13,031.72. |
| Growth 0% | same model, g = 0% | Year-1 income $200.00, total $2,401.22, ending value $7,401.22. |
| Growth 10% | same model, g = 10% | Year-1 income $200.00, total $4,263.84, ending value $9,263.84. |
| 20 years | same model, T = 20 | Year-1 income $200.00, total $12,942.86, ending value $17,942.86. |
| 5 years | same model, T = 5 | Year-1 income $200.00, total $1,207.11, ending value $6,207.11. |
| DRIP off | same model, DRIP off | Year-1 income $200.00, total $2,515.58, ending value $5,000.00. |
The math is exact for the numbers you enter: year-1 income is shares times the dividend per share, the yield is the dividend divided by the price, each year’s dividend grows by the growth rate, DRIP buys shares at the price, and the totals are the sum of the yearly incomes. What the model cannot do is predict a real dividend: check the dividend, because companies cut dividends, freeze them, or raise them by more or less than 5% a year, and check the price, because a constant $50.00 price is a modelling choice, not a forecast — the ending value moves dollar for dollar with the real price. It assumes no fees and no taxes on dividends. It leaves out quarterly payment timing, special dividends, and stock splits. For how compounding grows money, see daily compound interest calculator; for the step-by-step guide, see how to calculate dividend income.
Bright Side Kit. "Dividend Calculator: Income, Yield & DRIP Growth 2026" https://brightoolbox.com/dividend-calculator/ Accessed October 25, 2026.$200.00 in year 1, and $3,166.84 over 10 years with DRIP. Without reinvesting, the same 100 shares pay $2,515.58 over 10 years. The difference, $651.26, is the dividends your dividends earned. Year-10 income alone is $477.17.
500 shares at $2.00 a share. Shares needed are $1,000 divided by the dividend per share: $1,000 ÷ $2.00 = 500. With 499 shares you get $998.00, two dollars short. On 100 shares the dividend would have to be $10.00 a share to pay $1,000 a year.
Yield on cost is the annual income divided by what you originally paid. Here the year-10 income is $477.17 on a $5,000.00 investment, so the yield on cost at year 10 is 9.54% — more than double the 4.00% starting yield, because the dividend grew 5% a year and DRIP added shares.
Yes: $3,166.84 of dividends with DRIP against $2,515.58 without, over 10 years. DRIP buys 63.34 extra shares, so the ending value is $8,166.84 instead of $7,515.58 in value plus cash. The gap grows with the years: over 20 years DRIP pays $12,942.86 against $6,613.19 without.
14.21 years. The dividend per share doubles when (1.05)^t = 2, which is ln(2) ÷ ln(1.05) = 14.21 years. After 14 years the dividend is $3.96 a share, still short of double; after 15 years it is $4.16. Year-15 income is $395.99 and year-16 income is $415.79, the first year above double.
$40.00 a share. Price is the dividend divided by the yield: $2.00 ÷ 5% = $40.00. At $40.01 the yield is 4.9988%, just below 5% — a cent of price is the difference. At the default $50.00 price the yield is 4.00%.
$0 of income, and the ending value stays at $5,000.00. With a $0 dividend there is nothing to reinvest, so the share count stays at 100 and no dividends arrive. With 0 shares the answer is also $0 everywhere — you cannot earn dividends on shares you do not own.