How purchases are made
- Buys whole shares only, at the monthly high price — a deliberately conservative entry assumption.
- Unspent cash accumulates per ticker in its own bucket until there is enough to buy the next whole share.
- If an asset wasn't tradeable in a given month, its share of that month's budget flows to the other assets and resumes the following month.
Share accumulation — worked example
Setup: $1,000/month — 60% Holding A ($250/share), 40% Holding B ($800/share).
- Month 1: $600 to A → buys 2 shares ($500), carries $100. $400 to B — not enough for a share yet.
- Month 2: $700 available for A → buys 2 shares, carries $200. $800 for B → buys 1 share, carries $0.
Dividends and interest
- Dividends are tracked as cash received and are not reinvested back into equities.
- That cash earns money market interest at the historical FRED federal funds rate, compounded monthly.
- The MMF benchmark shows what the same total invested would have earned in a money market fund alone.
Deposit growth
The optional annual deposit growth field adds a flat dollar amount each year: year 1 uses the base amount, year 2 adds the growth figure, year 3 adds twice it, and so on.
What the results show
- Six summary figures — total invested, equity value, dividends received, cash accrual, portfolio balance, and the money market benchmark. Each is clickable for detail.
- Charts — hover for month-by-month growth and dividend detail.
- Monthly breakdown table — click any highlighted cell for per-ticker detail.
- Tax impact — adjust your tax rate to see yearly liability on dividends and interest.
- Annual returns — pre-tax performance per calendar year.