Calculate dividend yield, monthly and annual income, and yield on cost — or work backwards to the capital a target dividend income requires.
Use the current price and the total dividend paid per share over a year.
Estimates only, for education — not investment or tax advice. Dividends are declared at a company’s discretion and can be cut or suspended at any time; past payments do not guarantee future ones. Tax figures use 2026 federal rates for qualified dividends and ignore state tax; non-qualified dividends are taxed as ordinary income.
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Enter a share price, the annual dividend per share and how many shares you hold to see your dividend yield, what lands in your account each payment, and your monthly average. Or flip it around: name the income you want each month and the calculator returns the capital and share count that reach it. Add a growth rate to project how a rising dividend compounds your income, and switch on the tax estimate to see what you actually keep.
Dividend yield is the annual dividend per share divided by the share price. A $60 stock paying $2.40 a year yields 4%. Income is simply that dividend multiplied by your share count, then split across the payment schedule — quarterly for most US companies, monthly for many REITs. Yield on cost measures the same dividend against what you originally paid, so it rises as a company raises its dividend even though the current yield may fall as the price climbs. Running the yield backwards gives the capital an income target needs: $1,000 a month is $12,000 a year, which at a 4% yield requires $300,000 invested.
Dividend yield and capital required
Work out the portfolio a target annual income needs, before and after tax.
Put each price and dividend in to compare yields and the actual cash per payment.
See how a long-held position yields against your purchase price as the dividend grows.
Find out whether a headline yield is normal for its sector or unusually high.
A 4% yield is abstract; $350 landing every quarter is not. The calculator converts yield into the amount per payment and a monthly average.
Instead of guessing at portfolio sizes, enter the income you want and read off the capital and shares required at that yield.
The yield band shows whether a payout sits in normal territory or high enough that it deserves a look at the payout ratio and dividend history.
Qualified dividends are taxed on their own 0/15/20% schedule. The optional tax estimate applies the 2026 thresholds so the income figure is realistic.
$1,000 a month is $12,000 a year, so divide that by the yield you expect. At a 4% yield you need $300,000; at 3% you need $400,000; at 5% you need $240,000. Switch the calculator to "Income goal", enter 1000 per month, and it returns both the capital and the number of shares. Remember the income is taxable, so the capital needed to keep $1,000 after tax is higher.
$5,000 a month is $60,000 a year. At a 4% yield that takes $1.5 million invested, at 3% it takes $2 million, and at 5% it takes $1.2 million. Higher yields lower the capital required but usually come with more concentrated sector risk, so the trade-off is not free.
For most established payers, 2–4% is the usual range, and 4–6% is common for REITs, utilities and telecoms whose business models support a higher payout. Below 2% typically means a growth company reinvesting its profits. Above roughly 8%, the yield is often the result of a falling share price rather than a generous dividend, so check the payout ratio and whether the dividend has been cut before treating it as income.
Yield on cost divides the current dividend by the price you originally paid instead of today’s price. Buy at $50 with a $2 dividend and your yield on cost is 4%. If the dividend grows to $3 and the price rises to $100, the current yield is 3% but your yield on cost is 6%. It measures how your own position has performed; current yield is what a new buyer would get today.
Qualified dividends — most US corporations and many foreign ones, if you meet the holding-period rule — are taxed at the same preferential rates as long-term capital gains: 0%, 15% or 20% depending on your taxable income. For 2026 the 0% band runs to $49,450 for single filers and $98,900 for joint filers, and the 20% rate begins above $545,500 and $613,700 respectively. Non-qualified (ordinary) dividends are taxed at your regular income rate instead, and a 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax applies above $200,000 of modified AGI ($250,000 joint).
Most US companies pay quarterly, so a $2.40 annual dividend arrives as $0.60 four times a year. Many REITs and some funds pay monthly, which suits income planning; companies outside the US more often pay semi-annually or annually. The calculator divides the annual dividend by the frequency you choose to show what each individual payment is worth.
No — it treats dividends as cash you receive, which is what you want when you are planning income. Reinvestment is a different calculation because it needs an assumption about the share price you buy at each year. Use the dividend reinvestment calculator for that: it compounds the payouts into new shares and reports the ending portfolio value alongside the cash-dividend alternative.