Dividend Tracker: How to Monitor Your Passive Income
TL;DR
- ▸A dividend tracker automatically records all dividend payments from stocks, ETFs, and REITs across all your brokers.
- ▸Key metrics to monitor: current yield, yield on cost, DPS, payout ratio, and dividend growth rate.
- ▸DonkyCapital imports dividends automatically from broker CSV files and consolidates them into one view.
- ▸Track reinvested dividends (DRIP) separately to accurately measure the compounding effect over time.
- ▸Use the dividend calendar to anticipate payment dates and plan your cash flow or reinvestment timing.
Dividend investing is one of the most popular strategies for building passive income over the long term. Whether you hold individual dividend-paying stocks, distributing ETFs, or REITs, tracking every payment accurately across multiple brokers is surprisingly complex — especially once your portfolio grows beyond a handful of positions.
In this guide, you'll learn how to use DonkyCapital's dividend tracker to monitor every payment from multiple brokers, calculate your annual yield, understand the difference between yield on cost and current yield, and build a dividend calendar to plan your income stream efficiently.
1. What is a Dividend Tracker?
A dividend tracker is a dedicated tool that records, categorizes, and displays all dividend payments received from your investments — whether stocks, ETFs, or REITs. Unlike a simple spreadsheet, a purpose-built dividend tracker like the one in DonkyCapital automatically imports dividend events from your broker transaction files, classifies them by asset, and aggregates them into a clean income dashboard. This means you can instantly see how much passive income you received last month, last quarter, or over the past 12 months — broken down by position. For investors who hold dividend ETFs and dividend stocks simultaneously, having one unified tracker is essential: you no longer need to log into each broker separately to reconcile payments. DonkyCapital eliminates manual data entry entirely by parsing your CSV imports and identifying dividend transactions automatically, even when brokers label them differently in their export formats.
2. Key Metrics to Monitor
To build a reliable dividend income stream, you need to track more than just the raw payment amount. The most important metrics are: Dividend Yield (annual dividend per share divided by the current share price, expressed as a percentage), which tells you what income you earn for each euro or dollar invested at today's price; Yield on Cost (annual dividend divided by your original purchase price), which shows the real return on your invested capital — a stock bought years ago at a low price may now yield 8% on cost even if its current yield is only 3%; Dividend Per Share (DPS), which helps you track whether the company is growing or cutting its payout; Payout Ratio (dividends paid as a percentage of earnings), which signals dividend sustainability — a payout ratio above 90% is a warning sign; and Dividend Growth Rate, which shows how consistently a company increases its dividend year over year. DonkyCapital displays all these metrics in a dedicated dividend dashboard, giving you a comprehensive picture of your income investments.
3. Tracking Dividend History Across Brokers
Historical dividend data is essential for two reasons: identifying reliable dividend payers and spotting early warning signs of dividend cuts. A company that has raised its dividend every year for 15 consecutive years is a very different investment from one that cut its payout twice in the last decade. But if your portfolio is split across DeGiro, Scalable Capital, and a third broker, reconciling that history manually is a nightmare. DonkyCapital solves this by maintaining a complete, unified history of every dividend payment across all imported brokers. You can filter by asset, date range, payment type (regular dividend, special dividend, return of capital), or broker. The timeline view makes it easy to spot if a company skipped a quarterly payment — often the first sign of financial stress before a formal cut is announced. For ETF investors, DonkyCapital also tracks the distribution history of distributing ETFs separately from individual stock dividends, so you always know exactly what is generating your income.
4. Dividend Reinvestment (DRIP) Tracking
Dividend reinvestment, often called DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan), is one of the most powerful compounding strategies available to long-term investors. Instead of withdrawing dividend payments as cash, you use them to purchase additional shares of the same asset — and those additional shares then generate their own dividends in future periods. Over decades, this compounding effect can dramatically amplify total returns compared to simply holding shares without reinvesting. The challenge is that reinvested dividends create new cost lots with their own purchase prices and dates, which complicates both performance attribution and tax reporting. DonkyCapital tracks reinvested dividends as separate transactions, correctly updating your cost basis for each position. This means your unrealized gain calculations remain accurate, and you can see exactly how much of your portfolio's current value was built through compounding reinvested dividends versus new capital invested. This is especially useful for accumulating ETF investors, where dividend reinvestment happens automatically within the fund.
5. Building a Dividend Income Calendar
One of the most practical features for dividend investors is knowing exactly when payments are expected. Different assets pay dividends on different schedules: US stocks typically pay quarterly, many European stocks pay annually or semi-annually, and some REITs pay monthly. If you rely on dividends to supplement your income — or if you want to strategically time reinvestments to maximize compounding — you need a forward-looking dividend calendar. DonkyCapital's dividend calendar displays upcoming expected payment dates based on historical payment patterns for each position in your portfolio. This allows you to anticipate months with higher or lower income, plan cash flow for living expenses, and decide when it makes sense to add to a position before the ex-dividend date. For investors building toward a specific monthly income target (for example, €1,000 per month in passive income), the calendar view in combination with the income projection tool gives you a realistic roadmap of when you'll reach your goal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does DonkyCapital automatically import dividends from my broker?
Yes. When you import transactions via CSV from brokers like DeGiro, Scalable Capital, Fineco, or others, DonkyCapital automatically identifies and categorizes dividend payments, including reinvested dividends and special dividends. The parsing logic handles different broker export formats so you don't need to manually tag each transaction.
Can I track dividend ETFs and dividend stocks separately?
Yes. DonkyCapital allows you to segment your dividend income by asset type. You can view income from individual dividend-paying stocks separately from distributing ETFs and REITs. This is particularly useful if you want to compare the reliability of stock dividends vs ETF distributions, or if you follow a barbell strategy combining high-yield stocks with dividend growth ETFs.
How do I import dividend history from my broker CSV?
Simply export your transaction history from your broker's platform (most brokers offer a CSV or Excel download covering up to several years) and upload it to DonkyCapital. The system automatically parses the file, identifies dividend events, and populates your dividend history. If you have transactions across multiple brokers, import each file separately — DonkyCapital consolidates them into a single unified view.
What is the difference between yield on cost and current yield?
Current yield is the annual dividend divided by today's share price — it reflects what a new investor would earn. Yield on cost is the annual dividend divided by your actual purchase price — it reflects the true return on your invested capital. For long-term dividend investors, yield on cost often grows significantly over time as companies raise their dividends, making it a more meaningful metric for evaluating the performance of a position you've held for years.
How is dividend yield calculated in DonkyCapital?
DonkyCapital calculates trailing dividend yield using the sum of all dividend payments received over the last 12 months divided by the current market price, expressed as a percentage. For positions held less than 12 months, it annualizes based on available data. Yield on cost is calculated using your average cost basis from all buy transactions.
Can I track dividends from REITs and bonds in DonkyCapital?
Yes. DonkyCapital handles income payments from REITs (classified as dividend income), bond coupon payments, and interest from cash or money market instruments. Each income type is correctly categorized so your dividend dashboard reflects true dividend income separately from interest income.
How do I monitor dividend reinvestment for accumulating ETFs?
Accumulating ETFs reinvest dividends internally — no cash appears in your brokerage account. DonkyCapital tracks these positions by NAV growth, which implicitly includes reinvested dividends. For comparison purposes, you can see the performance difference between your accumulating ETFs and equivalent distributing ETFs to evaluate the real compounding benefit.
Can DonkyCapital project my future dividend income?
Yes. Based on your current portfolio positions and historical dividend payment patterns, DonkyCapital projects your expected annual and monthly dividend income going forward. This projection tool is especially useful for investors building toward a specific passive income target, letting you model how adding to certain positions would accelerate income growth.
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