Dividend Spreadsheet

I have loaded up a sample Dividend spreadsheet to use to track dividend income. See the spreadsheet on my site. Most dividends are paid quarterly and these are designated to be in Cycles 1, 2 or 3. Cycle 1 dividends are paid in January, April, July, and October. Cycle 2 dividends are paid in February, May, August and November. Cycle 3 dividends are paid in in March, June, September and December. Unfortunately, dividends are hard to even distribute over the three cycles. Most dividends are paid in Cycle 1.

How you can handle this is that you could move money into your chequing account each month for an amount just under the monthly average. (You would have to start this in a Cycle 2 month. A number of cycle 1 stocks pay at the end of the month, so to get the full amount in your trading account, you would have to wait until the end of a cycle 1 month.)

For the stocks that I follow I have index page. On that index page I have a column of DP for Dividend Payment and that is where I put what cycle a dividend is paid in for a specific stock. See my notes on Dividend payment cycles. This post also talks about dividend dates.

My Dividend spreadsheet is quite easy. All you need to do is check the stocks every quarter to see if there are any changes to dividends paid. You can use the G&M for this. Say you want to check BNS's dividend amount, you can do that on the stock's summary page. See BNS summary page.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on Twitter or StockTwits.