Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund ETF Shares pays a 1.5%% trailing yield. Here is what a steady monthly plan does to that income over 20 years.
Dividend data as of August 7, 2026
Using VIG’s own 1.5%% trailing yield and 9.2% dividend growth, with every dividend reinvested and a modest 5% a year of share-price growth. Year 1 pays $205; year 20 pays $9,371, which is $781 a month.
Milestones
The month your projected dividend income first covers each bill. Change any amount to your own.
The first bill most people cover, usually years before the big ones.
Small, unavoidable, and due every single month.
The point where dividends start covering a real necessity.
The big one. In most plans this is the last to fall.
The three layers add up to the portfolio value exactly. With reinvestment off the middle layer is zero — those dividends went to your bank account instead.
Yield on cost measures the dividend against the money you actually paid, so it climbs as the dividend grows. It is a nice number to watch and a bad number to decide with — it says nothing about whether the shares are worth buying today.
Every year up to year 10, then every fifth year.
| Year | Monthly income | Annual income | Yield on cost | Portfolio value | You invested |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | $12.25 | $147 | 1.5% | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| 1 | $17.11 | $205 | 1.3% | $16,846 | $16,000 |
| 2 | $27.00 | $324 | 1.5% | $24,155 | $22,000 |
| 3 | $38.30 | $460 | 1.6% | $31,969 | $28,000 |
| 4 | $51.19 | $614 | 1.8% | $40,331 | $34,000 |
| 5 | $65.88 | $791 | 2.0% | $49,292 | $40,000 |
| 6 | $82.60 | $991 | 2.2% | $58,905 | $46,000 |
| 7 | $102 | $1,219 | 2.3% | $69,233 | $52,000 |
| 8 | $123 | $1,479 | 2.5% | $80,342 | $58,000 |
| 9 | $148 | $1,774 | 2.8% | $92,308 | $64,000 |
| 10 | $176 | $2,109 | 3.0% | $105,215 | $70,000 |
| 15 | $384 | $4,605 | 4.6% | $187,551 | $100,000 |
| 20 | $781 | $9,371 | 7.2% | $313,482 | $130,000 |
Year 0 shows today’s forward rate. Later years show the dividends actually received during that year.
The last ten complete calendar years, straight from the payment record. This is the history the growth assumption above is read from.
| Year | Dividends per share |
|---|---|
| 2025 | $3.56 |
| 2024 | $3.38 |
| 2023 | $3.21 |
| 2022 | $2.97 |
| 2021 | $2.66 |
| 2020 | $2.30 |
| 2019 | $2.13 |
| 2018 | $2.04 |
| 2017 | $1.92 |
| 2016 | $1.83 |
Open the calculator prefilled with VIG, then change the amount, the monthly contribution, the horizon and the assumptions.
The same worked example, run on the other securities in this set.
Every number after today rests on assumptions you can change, and changing them changes the answer a lot. Dividends are declared at a board’s discretion and can be reduced or stopped at any time — several of the securities on this page have done exactly that. The calculator ignores tax, fees, foreign withholding and currency moves, all of which reduce real income. Past dividend growth does not predict future dividend growth. This is educational information, not investment advice; you are responsible for your own decisions, and a regulated adviser is worth the money for the big ones.
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