When will your dividends pay your bills?
Answer three questions and watch your dividends climb your bills, from coffee to rent to everything. Your plan saves itself in the page link, so bookmark it.
Your dividends already pay for your ☕ coffee & streaming.
Phone & internet is next, in 1 yr 5 mo.
All your bills covered in 32 yrs 3 mo.
Climb faster: adding $500 more a month covers all your bills 3 yrs 10 mo sooner.
Based on our default assumptions (3.5% yield, dividends growing 6.0% a year).
Your ladder
- Coffee & streaming$60/mo✓ Covered
- Phone & internet$150/mo57% · in 1 yr 5 mo
- Utilities$250/moin 6 yrs 1 mo
- Groceries$600/moin 13 yrs 9 mo
- Car & gas$550/moin 18 yrs 6 mo
- Health insurance$500/moin 21 yrs 9 mo
- Rent or mortgage$1,900/moin 29 yrs 9 mo
- Everything else$890/moin 32 yrs 3 mo
Share your progress: “☕ My dividends now cover my coffee & streaming”
Your dividends, year by year
Show as table
| Dividend income / mo | |
|---|---|
| Year 0 | $146 |
| Year 1 | $191 |
| Year 2 | $239 |
| Year 3 | $289 |
| Year 4 | $342 |
| Year 5 | $398 |
| Year 6 | $457 |
| Year 7 | $519 |
| Year 8 | $586 |
| Year 9 | $656 |
| Year 10 | $732 |
| Year 11 | $812 |
| Year 12 | $897 |
| Year 13 | $988 |
| Year 14 | $1,085 |
| Year 15 | $1,189 |
| Year 16 | $1,301 |
| Year 17 | $1,420 |
| Year 18 | $1,548 |
| Year 19 | $1,686 |
| Year 20 | $1,833 |
| Year 21 | $1,992 |
| Year 22 | $2,163 |
| Year 23 | $2,347 |
| Year 24 | $2,545 |
| Year 25 | $2,759 |
| Year 26 | $2,989 |
| Year 27 | $3,238 |
| Year 28 | $3,507 |
| Year 29 | $3,798 |
| Year 30 | $4,113 |
| Year 31 | $4,453 |
| Year 32 | $4,822 |
| Year 33 | $5,222 |
| Year 34 | $5,656 |
| Year 35 | $6,126 |
| Year 36 | $6,637 |
| Year 37 | $7,192 |
| Year 38 | $7,795 |
In today's dollars, adjusted for 3.0% inflation so it compares directly with your bills.
Keep climbing, one bill at a time
Every Monday: one bill your dividends could pay, this week's ex-dividend dates, and the raises and cuts that matter. Free, three minutes to read. See a sample issue.
Signups open when the first issue is ready.
How this calculator works
Each month, your share prices grow by the price growth rate and your dividends grow by the dividend growth rate. Every new dollar you invest (plus reinvested dividends with DRIP on) buys income at your portfolio's current yield: dividends ÷ portfolio value. If prices rise faster than dividends, that yield shrinks and new money buys less income. If dividends grow faster, it rises. Your bills grow with inflation.
A rung counts as covered once your after-tax monthly dividends reach that bill plus every bill below it. The portfolio needed is simply your yearly bills divided by your after-tax yield.
New to FIRE? Read our beginner guide. Prefer the classic 4% rule? Try the FIRE number calculator.