If you invested your money in different assets, like mutual funds, stocks, forex, and bonds, it’s important to know how to manage your dividend payments. Dividends are the income received by the fund’s shareholders from the sale of a given security or portfolio of securities.
Dividends are a key ingredient in the success of any investment venture so you must keep track of it regularly. Before you find the ultimate list of stocks that provide dividends and earn money, you need to learn how to manage and track your dividend income. Properly managing your dividend portfolio will ensure that your money is safe and your portfolio grows over time.
This article will provide different ways to track and manage your dividend incomes. Below are some of the ways on how you can efficiently check if your investment is growing:
- Use A Dividend Tracker Software
One of the most effective ways that people make money is by tracking their progress on their investments through the use of investment software. This kind of software can break down everything that you’ve invested in so that you can see at a glance what has worked and what hasn’t. This allows you to make necessary changes and helps you keep track of the results that you may be looking for.
Additionally, most of the tracker software today is very easy to use; you don’t have to be a computer wizard to be able to do this. You just need to know how to track income from investments and then invest accordingly. The software will automatically update you as the market changes so that you can maximize your profits and cut your losses to keep you from losing money.
- Create A Tracking Spreadsheet
Although dividend tracker software is helpful, nothing beats the customization you can do in creating your software.
With the use of Google Sheets or Excel, you can build a customized dividend tracking spreadsheet that’ll provide you with insights on your income and portfolio growth. As a tip, you can use pivot tables so you can easily create graphs as you add more data along the way.
- Sign Up On Dividend Tracking Websites
If you’re not a fan of looking at spreadsheets and want to instantly see how your portfolio is doing, you can also sign up on dividend tracking websites. These sites provide easy-to-read dashboards and charts so you can easily see the progress of your investments. You can also easily track your portfolio value and dividend income. If you want to further breakdown your assets, you can also set this up on the website.
Most websites also offer other information and tools to help manage your portfolio and dividend income. These websites can help your find insights on upcoming dividends, future values, dividend payments, and diversification of assets. Some websites can also track mutual funds and bonds. Price updates are automatic since these sites are connected to the market.
Some sites let you link your bank accounts and credit card statements so you can easily track your income. Premium services come with a price, so you can expect to pay at least $60 annually for website tracking services.
- Use Dividend Tracker Mobile Apps
If you’re always on the go, you can utilize dividend tracker mobile apps. There are free and paid apps you can choose from in the app store. Most of the free dividend tracker apps offer basic services like calculating your income from dividends when you input relevant data.
If you want to maximize the use of dividend tracker apps, you should go for paid versions. Paid app versions offer daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual breakdowns of your dividend income. Some apps also let you set your dividend income goals and document your progress to help you identify the strategies that work.
Most of the apps are connected to the market so they can alert you with upcoming dividends and important announcements from the stocks you’ve positioned in.
Final Thoughts – Why You Should Track Your Dividend Income
As an investor, you need to track all income and dividends to maximize the profit that you’ll make. By tracking your income, you’ll also get to know which sectors of the market are doing well. This will give you an insight as to which stocks you should buy and which ones you should stay away from. This is also important especially if you’re just starting with small investments.
There are four ways you can use to track your dividends. You can create your spreadsheet and customize it according to your needs. You can also use dividend tracking software or sign up on a dividend tracking website so you can monitor your dividends in real-time without the need for building sheets. If you’re always on the go, you can use dividend tracker apps that also alerts you on the next dividend release.
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