Calculators

VOO Dividend Calculator

Project dividend income and reinvested growth from Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF over any horizon.

Your investment

$
$0$1M
$
$0$10K

Leave at zero for a one-off lump sum.

$

VOO was around $600 as of 2026-05-01 — set it to today's price.

Assumptions

%
0%15%
%
−10%20%
%
−5%15%
years
1 yr40 yrs

VOO pays quarterly, so that is 80 distributions.

Dividends

Reinvest dividends (DRIP)?Reinvest dividends (DRIP)?
Income in the final year$1,124year 20
Total dividends collected
$12,760
Portfolio value
$141,846
Shares owned
50.7
Yield on cost
4.5%
final-year income against $25 K paid in
Where do you pay tax on the dividends?Where do you pay tax on the dividends?
Dividend income by year
$0$1 K$2 K$3 K14710131620
Year-by-year breakdownShow
YearSharesIncomeValue
142.2$308$27,317
242.6$330$29,842
343.1$354$32,594
443.6$380$35,592
544.1$407$38,858
644.5$436$42,416
745$467$46,289
845.5$500$50,507
945.9$536$55,099
1046.4$573$60,097
1146.8$614$65,536
1247.3$657$71,455
1347.7$703$77,895
1448.2$752$84,900
1548.6$804$92,520
1649$860$100,807
1749.5$920$109,819
1849.9$984$119,616
1950.3$1,051$130,268
2050.7$1,124$141,846
  • Income starts at about $308 a year and reaches $1,124 — roughly 3.6x growth.
  • VOO distributes quarterly, and the projection compounds on that schedule rather than annually.
  • These are pre-tax figures. Pick a tax jurisdiction above to see what is actually left.
  • Every rate here is an assumption held constant for the whole period, which no fund guarantees.

How it works

Two things compound at once, which is what makes dividend investing hard to eyeball. The dividend per share grows at its own rate, and if you reinvest, the share count grows as well — each distribution buying more shares, which then earn their own distributions. VOO pays quarterly, so that loop runs 4 times a year rather than once, and contributions buy in at whatever the price happens to be. Tax, when you switch it on, comes out of each distribution before the remainder is reinvested, so it reduces the income and slows the compounding at the same time.

income(period) = shares x (annual dividend per share / periods per year)
shares
Shares held, which grows with reinvestment and contributions
annual dividend per share
Price multiplied by yield, growing each year
periods per year
4 for VOO, a quarterly payer
yield on cost
Final-year income measured against everything you paid in

Worked example

$50,000 into VOO at $600 a share, a 1.2% yield, 6% dividend growth, 8% price growth, reinvesting quarterly for 20 years.

  1. 1$50,000 at $600 buys about 83 shares
  2. 2The starting dividend is $600 x 1.2% = $7.20 per share a year, about $600 in year one
  3. 3Reinvesting adds roughly 1.2% to the share count each year — small, and not where the money comes from
  4. 4Price growth at 8% is doing most of the work: the shares themselves roughly quintuple

Around $2,900 of income in year 20 — but a portfolio worth well over $200,000. On VOO the income line is the footnote and the value line is the story.

Frequently asked questions

Is VOO a good choice for dividend income?

Not really, and it is worth being blunt about it. VOO yields somewhere around 1.2%, which means $100,000 invested produces roughly $1,200 a year before tax. That is not an income stream anyone retires on. What VOO is good at is total return: the S&P 500's dividend is a small and fairly incidental part of owning the index, and the reason people hold it is the price appreciation of 500 large US companies. Run this calculator with reinvestment on and watch the portfolio value rather than the income figure — that is the number that matters here.

Why is VOO's yield so much lower than SCHD's?

Because they are screening for different things. VOO holds the S&P 500 weighted by market capitalisation, which means it is dominated by the largest US companies — and the very largest have in recent years been technology businesses that pay little or nothing. SCHD deliberately screens for companies with strong dividend records and weights toward them. Neither approach is inherently better; VOO trades current income for broader exposure and, historically, faster price growth. Running both calculators side by side with the same amount and horizon makes the trade-off concrete.

How often does VOO pay dividends?

Quarterly, typically in March, June, September and December, with the exact amount varying each quarter depending on what the underlying companies paid. This calculator compounds on that quarterly schedule rather than annually, which is slightly more accurate than treating the year as a single payment. The year-by-year table still aggregates to one row per year.

How are VOO's dividends taxed?

Almost entirely as qualified dividends, so US investors pay 0%, 15% or 20% depending on taxable income rather than ordinary income rates, plus the 3.8% net investment income tax above the statutory thresholds. Because the yield is so low, the absolute tax bill on VOO's income is small — the tax question that actually matters for an S&P 500 holding is capital gains when you sell, which this calculator does not model at all.

Should I use dividend growth or price growth for VOO?

Both, but pay attention to which one you are changing. The S&P 500's dividend per share has grown at roughly 6% a year over long periods, while the index price has averaged something closer to 8-10% before inflation. The defaults here reflect that split. If you only adjust the dividend growth slider you will barely move the result; if you adjust price growth you will move it enormously, which tells you something true about what drives returns on this fund.

Does this account for VOO's expense ratio?

Not directly. VOO charges 0.03% a year, which is about as close to free as a fund gets — on $100,000 that is $30 annually. The honest way to account for it is to shade your price growth assumption down by the expense ratio, but at three basis points the effect is smaller than the rounding in any growth rate you might pick. On a more expensive fund the adjustment would matter more.

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