Portfolio Dividend Simulator Guide

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The Portfolio page is where everything in DividendSim comes together. This is your dashboard for tracking dividend holdings, seeing your current monthly income, and running “what if” simulations for your entire portfolio at once.

In this guide we’ll walk through each part of the page — from adding a ticker and reading the summary cards to editing holdings, toggling DRIP, and simulating your future dividend income.

Full DividendSim portfolio page showing holdings table, simulation controls, results, and growth charts — The Portfolio view lets you manage real holdings and run DRIP simulations across your whole account.

1. Add a Stock to Your Portfolio

At the top of the Portfolio page you’ll see the Add Stock to Portfolio section. This is where you tell DividendSim which tickers you actually own. Free accounts can track up to three tickers here; going Pro raises that limit so you can model a larger dividend portfolio.

Add stock dialog on the DividendSim portfolio page with ticker dropdown and confirm add button — Choose a ticker and confirm to add it to your DividendSim portfolio.

Ticker dropdown – Search for a supported stock or ETF (for example AGNC).
Current price & dividend – A quick inline snapshot of the share price and monthly dividend per share used for your portfolio math.
Confirm Add – Adds the selected ticker to your holdings table.
Cancel – Closes the add panel without saving anything.

You can also add positions from other parts of DividendSim:

Stock Detail page – After running a single-stock simulation, use Add to Portfolio to save that position directly into your portfolio.
Browse Stocks page – Quickly add popular monthly dividend names from the browser view.
Custom stocks – For tickers that aren’t preloaded (or private symbols), you can create a custom stock directly from the ticker dropdown when adding a stock (see the Custom Stock guide).

Think of the Portfolio page as your “real life” view inside DividendSim — it’s meant to represent what you actually own today so the simulations stay grounded in your real numbers.

2. Read the Portfolio Summary

Directly under the page title you’ll see three large summary cards. These give you an instant snapshot of your portfolio value and income before you run any simulations.

Portfolio summary cards showing holdings value, monthly dividend income, and annual dividend income — The Summary row tells you what your current holdings are worth and how much they pay right now.

Holdings Value – The combined value of all holdings in your portfolio based on the prices and share counts you’ve entered. This is your dividend portfolio “net worth.”
Monthly Income – The total monthly dividend income your current holdings are projected to pay, assuming today’s dividend amounts.
Annual Income – Your projected yearly dividend income (monthly income × 12).

As you edit positions, toggle DRIP, or add more tickers, these summary numbers update automatically.

3. Understand the Holdings Table

The Your Holdings table lists each position in your portfolio and how it contributes to your income. Every row represents one ticker.

Holdings table showing tickers, shares, average price, dividend per share, monthly income, annual income, reinvest toggles, delete and edit buttons — The holdings table breaks down value and income per ticker, with DRIP, delete, and edit controls.

Ticker – The symbol for the holding (for example AGNC, O, PECO).
Shares – How many shares you currently own. Fractional shares are supported.
Avg/Current Price – The price per share used for the position. This is usually your average cost basis, but you can also choose to let DividendSim keep it synced with the latest saved price.
Total Cost/Value – The total value of the position. You can treat this as your total cost basis or as the current market value, depending on how you use the toggle in edit mode.
Div/Share (M) – The monthly dividend per share used for calculations.
Monthly Income – How much this holding pays you per month at the current dividend.
Annual Income – The yearly dividend income from this holding.
Reinvest – When checked, dividends from this holding are reinvested into more shares during simulations (DRIP). If unchecked, dividends are taken as cash.
Delete – Removes the holding from your portfolio.
Edit – Opens inline edit mode for that row.

4. Edit a Holding

Click the Edit button in any row to switch that holding into edit mode. This is where you can fix share counts, update prices, or lock in a custom dividend.

Edit mode for a DividendSim portfolio holding with editable shares, average price, total value, dividend per share, reinvest checkbox, and cancel/done buttons — Use Edit mode to clean up your position data before running portfolio simulations.

Shares – Type a new value or use the plus/minus buttons to add or subtract shares as you buy or sell.
Avg/Current Price – Update your cost basis, or use the small toggle underneath to let DividendSim automatically refresh this price from its latest saved stock data.
Total Cost/Value – Manually enter the total value of the position if you prefer, or enable its toggle so DividendSim calculates this using Shares × Price.
Div/Share (M) – Override the monthly dividend per share. This is especially useful for ETFs where payouts jump around; you can set a baseline number and it will stay fixed until you change it.
Reinvest – Turn DRIP on or off for this holding.
Cancel – Discard any changes and revert to the previous values.
Done / Save – Apply your edits to the holding and update the summary numbers.

A quick rule of thumb: if you want your portfolio to match the numbers in your brokerage account, copy over your shares, your average price, and either your total cost or current value. Once those are set, the income stats on the right will line up with reality.

5. Use Advanced Options (Per-Holding Capital Gains)

New in this version of DividendSim is the Advanced toggle near the top of the Portfolio page. When turned on, it adds an extra column to each row in your holdings table:

DividendSim portfolio row showing Capital gains / losses Avg dropdown with None, 1 Year, 3 Years, and 5 Years options — In Advanced mode, each holding gets its own **Capital gains / losses Avg** dropdown so you can choose None, 1 Year, 3 Years, or 5 Years of historical performance per stock.

Capital gains / losses Avg – Lets you choose None, 1 Year, 3 Year, or 5 Year of historical price performance for that specific holding. DividendSim converts your choice into a simple price trend for simulations, so you can see the impact of capital gains or losses alongside dividends.

Each holding can use a different setting, and your choices are saved between sessions. The combined effect of all these settings is summarized in the Capital Gain/Loss Impact card in the Simulation Results row. For a deeper walkthrough of how these numbers are calculated, see the Capital Gains & Price Growth guide.

6. Simulate Your Portfolio

Once your holdings look right, you can project them into the future using the Simulate Portfolio controls. This models how your income and balance could grow if everything stayed at the current dividend rates.

Simulate Portfolio toggle and months input on the DividendSim portfolio page — Turn on Simulate Portfolio, choose how many months you want to project, and DividendSim does the rest.

Simulate Portfolio – Enable this checkbox to run a portfolio-wide simulation.
How many months? – Choose how far into the future you want to look (for example 12, 60, or 360 months).

After you toggle simulation on and set the months, the Simulation Results row updates with your projected numbers.

Simulation results row showing ending balance, monthly income, annual income, and dividends earned for the portfolio — Simulation results summarize where your portfolio could land at the end of the period.

Ending Balance – What your portfolio could be worth at the end of the period, based on your current positions, DRIP settings, and any capital gain/loss assumption.
Monthly Income – The projected monthly dividend income at the end of the simulation.
Annual Income – The projected annual dividend income at the end of the simulation.
Dividends Earned – The total dividends paid out over the full simulation window.
Capital Gain/Loss Impact (when Advanced is used) – How much of the ending balance change is due to price movement rather than dividends alone.

7. Read the Growth Charts

Under the result cards you’ll see two charts: one for overall portfolio growth and one for monthly income. These visuals make it easier to see how DRIP and time affect your dividend strategy.

Stacked area chart on the DividendSim portfolio page showing initial investment, dividends earned, and reinvested growth — The Growth chart separates your initial investment from dividends and the extra boost from DRIP.

Initial Investment – The base layer showing the original value of your portfolio.
Dividends Earned – Total dividends generated over the simulation period.
Reinvested Growth – Extra growth created when dividends are reinvested into more shares for holdings with the Reinvest box checked.

Line chart showing projected monthly dividend income over time for the simulated portfolio — The Monthly Income chart shows your projected payout climbing month by month.

Together, these charts answer two big questions for dividend investors: How big could this portfolio get? and How much income could it pay me every month?

The Portfolio page is the heart of DividendSim. Use it to mirror your real holdings, experiment with DRIP, and run long-term simulations that show how consistent investing and reinvested dividends might grow your income over time.

When you’re ready to dive deeper into a single ticker, head over to the Stock Detail page, or use the custom stock option in the Add Stock dropdown (described in the Custom Stock guide) to experiment with new ideas. They all plug back into this Portfolio view so you can see the full picture.

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