How to Create a Dividend Tracking Spreadsheet

Do you want to track your dividend income on your journey towards financial independence? It’s super easy to do and best of all 100% free using a tool called Google Sheets. Google Sheets is a free online spreadsheet tool similar to Microsoft Excel.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to track your dividend income in Google Sheets and calculate how much passive dividend income you’ll receive per year. At the end of this tutorial, you can download my free dividend income tracker template too.

Step 1 – Create a Google Account and Open Google Sheets

The first step is to create a Google account so you can use the free tool, Google Sheets.

If you already have a Google account (or Gmail) then go straight to Google Spreadsheets.

Start a new spreadsheet by clicking the “Open” Tab.

Step 2 – Enter Your Spreadsheet Headings & Stock Data

Now, you should be looking at a blank spreadsheet. It’s time to add your sheet headings then your portfolio data. You can add as many headings as you like. Here are the headings I’m currently using on my personal Google spreadsheet:

  • Company Name
  • Stock Symbol
  • Number of Shares
  • Purchase Price
  • Market Price
  • Cost Basis
  • Market Value
  • Gain/Loss
  • Annual Dividend
  • Dividend Yield
  • Annual Income

Feel free to add more or subtract as many as you please. This is enough to let you track your dividend income and figure out how your portfolio is doing over time.

I suggest entering these heading on Row 1 then bolding them by clicking “B” or hit ctrl+B.

I usually open up my brokerage accounts or copy my portfolio data from Tipranks into my Google spreadsheets.

For dividend data like yield & annual income, I use the data from Dividend.com.

You can enter everything manually except for the current stock price.

Stock prices change every day so it would be a waste of time to constantly update these. There is a cool Google Finance function you can use under the “Market Price” column to update them automatically.

Click on any cell and enter the following formula into the cell:

=GOOGLEFINANCE(“TICKER”, “price”)

Replace TICKER with your stock’s symbol. FOr example, if you are entering Apple stock into your spreadsheet then here’s you grab the current stock price:

=GOOGLEFINANCE(“AAPL”, “price”)

Step 3 – Keep Your Spreadsheet Updated Monthly

That’s it! After entering all your data, your dividend spreadsheet should look something like this:

Remember to keep track of your progress by updating your dividend spreadsheet every month. You want to stay on top of things like:

  • Dividend Increases
  • Buys & Sells
  • Etc

Create a routine where you update your spreadsheet at the beginning of every month to stay on track. You’ll be suprised how much your portfolio changes in just a few months if you don’t regularly update your spreadsheet.

My Biggest Tip: Focus on Increasing Annual Dividend Income

Out of all the columns on your spradsheet, I think annual income is the most important. Dividend income is real money in your pocket. Money is fungible so you can save & spend these dividend dollars just like any money you earn from a job or business.

Tracking my dividend income is how I plan to retire by 40 and pursue my passions that aren’t related to money,.

Make a goal to increase your annual dividend income each year. Since dividends are usually paid every quarter, you’ll do much better looking at things from a 12-month perspective.

Some months will be bigger than others depending on when your company stock’s pay their dividends.

Focus on increasing annual dividend income above all.

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