Dividend Reinvestment Calculator
Every dividend buys you a choice: take the cash, or reinvest it into more shares. This calculator runs both paths side by side with your own numbers, so you can see exactly how many extra shares reinvestment buys — and how much more income those shares pay you later.
Year-by-year breakdown (with DRIP)
| Year | Start Balance | Shares | Price | Div / share | Annual Div | Yield on Cost | End Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | 116 | $100.00 | $4.00 | $400.00 | 3.57% | $12,180 |
| 2 | $12,180 | 132.3 | $105.00 | $4.41 | $511.56 | 4.13% | $14,586 |
| 3 | $14,586 | 149.02 | $110.25 | $4.86 | $643.25 | 4.73% | $17,251 |
| 4 | $17,251 | 166.29 | $115.76 | $5.36 | $798.80 | 5.40% | $20,212 |
| 5 | $20,212 | 184.24 | $121.55 | $5.91 | $982.72 | 6.14% | $23,515 |
| 6 | $23,515 | 203.05 | $127.63 | $6.52 | $1,200.45 | 6.98% | $27,211 |
| 7 | $27,211 | 222.89 | $134.01 | $7.18 | $1,458.60 | 7.93% | $31,363 |
| 8 | $31,363 | 243.96 | $140.71 | $7.92 | $1,765.23 | 9.01% | $36,045 |
| 9 | $36,045 | 266.5 | $147.75 | $8.73 | $2,130.17 | 10.24% | $41,343 |
| 10 | $41,343 | 290.78 | $155.13 | $9.63 | $2,565.49 | 11.66% | $47,364 |
| 11 | $47,364 | 317.09 | $162.89 | $10.61 | $3,086.06 | 13.30% | $54,233 |
| 12 | $54,233 | 345.8 | $171.03 | $11.70 | $3,710.27 | 15.21% | $62,100 |
| 13 | $62,100 | 377.32 | $179.59 | $12.90 | $4,460.93 | 17.43% | $71,149 |
| 14 | $71,149 | 412.14 | $188.56 | $14.22 | $5,366.51 | 20.02% | $81,602 |
| 15 | $81,602 | 450.85 | $197.99 | $15.68 | $6,462.63 | 23.08% | $93,727 |
With DRIP vs taking cash
- With DRIP
- Take cash
- Invested
DRIP compounding: dividends buy more shares, which pay more dividends next year. Dividend growth plus regular contributions beat a high starting yield.
Estimates only, not financial advice. Dividend yields and growth rates are assumptions, not guarantees of future results. Always consult a qualified financial professional before investing.
How to calculate dividend reinvestment
Reinvestment math is a loop, not a formula you evaluate once. Each period the stock pays shares × dividend per share in dividends; that money buys dividends ÷ share price new shares; and the enlarged share count earns the next dividend. With a dividend growing at rate g, your share count after n years compounds roughly like (1 + g)^n — which is why a position that looks boring in year one looks powerful in year fifteen.
You can run this loop by hand in a spreadsheet (see the FAQ below for the exact column layout), but the calculator above does it for every year at once and shows the results as a table and chart, including the comparison against taking the cash.
Reinvest or take the cash? What the numbers say
The grouped chart above is the heart of this page: dark bars are the reinvested path, light bars are the same position with dividends taken as cash. The gap between them is pure compounding — the dividends that bought shares, which then paid dividends of their own. Over ten to twenty years that gap typically becomes larger than most people expect, even with a flat share price.
Reinvesting wins when you do not need the income today and your account shelters the payouts from immediate tax. Taking the cash wins when you live on the income, when the holding looks expensive and you would rather deploy the money elsewhere, or when reinvesting would concentrate you further in one stock. The calculator exists to put a number on both sides of that decision — it does not make it for you.
A worked example: $50,000 at 3.5%, ten years, flat price
Take a $50,000 position at $100 a share (500 shares) yielding 3.5%, with the dividend growing 5% a year and the share price deliberately flat — so every dollar of difference comes from reinvestment, not price movement. Reinvesting every payment leaves you with roughly 54% more shares after ten years (about 770 instead of 500), and the year-ten dividend income is roughly 45–50% higher than on the cash path — from the same starting position and the same dividend schedule. Raise the horizon to twenty years and the multiples keep climbing: this is the shape of compounding, and it is the whole argument for reinvestment.
Reinvestment in practice: broker DRIP vs manual
Two ways to execute the loop: a broker-side DRIP, which reinvests automatically at no or low cost and usually supports fractional shares; or manual reinvestment, where dividends land as cash and you place the buy orders yourself — more control and better tax-lot management, at the cost of discipline. Mathematically they are the same loop; behaviourally, automation wins for most people because it removes the temptation to spend the payment. Either way, keep records: in taxable accounts each reinvestment adds to your cost basis.
Frequently asked questions
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