Stock Rover Future Income Tool

Introduction

We have added a powerful new capability to Stock Rover called Future Income. Future Income is available in two places in Stock Rover. First as a new tool in the Portfolio Tools section of Stock Rover, and secondly as a new section in the Dashboard.

So what is the Future Income Tool?

The Future Income Tool projects your future dividend income on a monthly basis for the portfolios you select. The monthly income in turn is computed from the individual stocks, ETFs and mutual funds you own.

The computation is based on recent dividend payment history. The projection assumes no increase or decrease to the current dividend rate a company, ETF or fund pays. Companies for the most part try to increase dividends over time, so the projections can often be considered conservative.

On the other hand, companies, ETFs and funds can vary dividends. Also companies, when under financial stress, can cut dividends sharply or eliminate them, so there may be situations where the projections are optimistic. It really depends on what a portfolio holds.

The Dashboard

The Future Income display in the Dashboard is available to all users.

We have added a summary Future Income display to the last section of the Stock Rover Dashboard. The portfolios selected for display in the Dashboard are the portfolios that are included in the future income computation. An example of the Future Income section of the dashboard is shown below.

The Future Income Tool

The Future Income Tool is included in our Premium and Premium Plus subscription plans.

Let’s dive into the Future Income Tool. Future Income appears as a new item in the Portfolio Tools section in the grey selector menu as shown below.

When you select Future Income from the grey selector menu on the left side of Stock Rover, you are presented with a display with two sections: the Navigation Panel which lists the available and selected portfolios, and the Future Income Table. You can see this in the screenshot above.

The Navigation Panel

The Navigation Window displays your portfolios in a tree-like structure. This is where you select the portfolios you want to include in your future income calculation. You select a portfolio by clicking on the checkbox next to the portfolio. You can include or exclude any combination of portfolios you like.

The Future Income Table

The Future Income Table shows the actual projected future income, starting at the current month and continuing through the end of the following year. There are three tabs above the table: Summary Level, Portfolio Level and Holdings Level which allow you to display the future income table at increasing levels of detail.

The Summary Level

The Summary Level tab shows you projected dividend income on a monthly basis with quarterly and yearly summaries as shown below.

On the blue header bar, you can also see controls to export the data to a spreadsheet, automatically resize columns to fit the display width and detach the Future Income Tool into its own separate window. These controls also are available at Portfolio Level and the Holdings Level, described below.

The Portfolio Level

The Portfolio Level tab goes one level deeper than the Summary Level. It shows you within each month how much each portfolio contributes to the overall monthly projected dividend income, as shown below.

You can sort in ascending or descending order, by either Portfolio Name or by Income within a given month by clicking on the corresponding column header. Clicking on the column again flips the sort order.

You can also ungroup by month by right clicking on a column header and clicking Group By None as shown below.

This will get rid of the default monthly grouping. Now you can sort the table by the Portfolio Name or Income column by clicking on them. Clicking again reverses the sort. The screenshot below shows a sort by income per month, listing the largest income months at the top.

To get back the monthly grouping, right click on any column and select “Group by Month” as shown below.

The Holdings Level

The Holdings Level tab goes another level deeper still and shows you each holding within each portfolio that will generate dividend income in the given month. The amount that is expected to be paid and the estimated payment date are included, as shown in the screenshot below.

You can sort in ascending or descending order within a given month by clicking on the corresponding column header.

If you ungroup by month (described in the previous section), this will get rid of the default monthly grouping. Now you can sort the table by the Estimated Payment Date, Portfolio, Ticker, Company name or Income amount. The screenshot below shows a sort by Estimated Payment Dates.

To get back the monthly grouping, right click on any column and select “Group by Month” as shown previously in the Portfolio Level section above.

Limitations

While we think the new Future Income feature is a great addition to Stock Rover, it is necessary to keep in mind that projections are, well, just that – projections. Reality can and likely will differ. Dividends, dividend pay dates and even dividend frequencies can change. This in turn can change the amounts and/or the timings of actual dividend income realized relative to projections.

Also note that the Future Income calculation does not include any income from assets in your portfolios that may produce additional income, such as coupons from individual bond holdings.

Summary

We are really pleased to offer you the new Future Income feature in Stock Rover. It will give you a powerful tool in helping estimate your future investment cash flows. The tool is fast, flexible and powerful. We hope you take it out for a spin. When you do, please let us know what you think.