Project portfolio growth with dividends, reinvestment, taxes, inflation and Monte Carlo risk analysis — in Simple mode for beginners or Advanced mode for pros.
| Year | Invested | Dividends (yr) | Cum. dividends | Fees (yr) | Value | Real value |
|---|
Short, honest explanations of every concept this calculator uses.
Compounding means your returns earn returns. Money growing 7%/year doubles roughly every 10 years (the "rule of 72": 72 ÷ rate ≈ years to double). The curve looks flat early and steep late — time in the market matters more than timing the market.
Instead of taking dividends as cash, you buy more shares with them. Those new shares pay their own dividends, compounding your income stream. Over decades, reinvested dividends have accounted for a large share of total stock-market returns.
Yield is today's payout as a % of price. Dividend growth is how fast the payout rises each year. A 2% yield growing 8%/year often beats a static 5% yield over long horizons — the "yield on cost" keeps climbing.
Markets don't return the average every year. Monte Carlo runs your plan hundreds of times with random yearly swings (based on volatility) and shows the range of outcomes — a median path plus optimistic and pessimistic bands.
Dividend taxes are taken before reinvestment, and fund expense ratios silently skim value every year. A 1% fee can consume 20%+ of your final wealth over 30 years. This calculator shows the total fee drag explicitly.
Nominal value is the number on your statement; real value is what it buys. At 2.5% inflation, prices roughly double in 28 years — so a future $1M is worth about $500k in today's money. Plan with real values.
Long-run diversified stock portfolios have historically delivered around 9–10% nominal total returns (price + dividends) before fees and taxes, but past performance never guarantees the future. Many planners model 5–8% to stay conservative. Bonds and cash yield less with less volatility.
No. It's an educational projection tool using simplified models and your own assumptions. Real markets include sequence risk, changing tax law, and fees this tool can't know. Talk to a licensed advisor before making investment decisions.
Each holding's effective yield evolves by (1 + dividend growth) ÷ (1 + price growth) per year — so if payouts grow faster than the price, the yield rises over time, and vice versa. Dividends are paid at your chosen frequency, taxed, and (optionally) reinvested.
Roughly: broad stock index ~15%, aggressive/tech-heavy portfolios 20–30%, 60/40 balanced ~10%, bonds ~5%. Higher volatility widens the gap between best- and worst-case bands.
Yes — Simple mode is the same math with one holding, monthly reinvestment, and taxes/inflation/fees set to zero, so upgrading to Advanced only refines your numbers.