SCHD calculator
Historical growth of Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF using Dow Jones US Dividend 100 return series. Dividends reinvested at year-end; expense ratio drag negligible at 0.06%.
$10,000 invested in SCHD at inception (2011) with dividends reinvested through end of 2024 would be worth approximately $59,951 nominal ($41,673 in 2011 dollars). Annualized nominal: 13.65%; real: 10.73%.
Uses annual S&P 500 total return (with dividends reinvested) and CPI-U inflation, 1928–2024. Source: Damodaran (NYU Stern) + Shiller CAPE + BLS. Excludes fees, taxes, and bid/ask. Real return = nominal ÷ cumulative CPI.
SCHD at a glance
| Full name | Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF |
| Provider | Schwab |
| Expense ratio | 0.06% |
| Inception | 2011 |
| Assets under management | $60B |
| Dividend yield | 3.50% |
| Return series used | Dow Jones US Dividend 100 |
What dividend funds optimize for
Dividend ETFs screen for yield and payout consistency, which tilts them toward mature value sectors — utilities, staples, financials — and away from the tech mega-caps that drive S&P 500 returns. The result: lower growth, higher income, smaller drawdowns in bear markets, and a persistent gap versus the broad index in bull markets. In taxable accounts, remember every distribution is a taxable event; total-return investors often do better selling shares on their own schedule.
What 0.06% costs over 30 years
Expense ratios compound against you exactly the way returns compound for you. On a $10,000 position growing at a 10% gross return for 30 years, SCHD's 0.06% fee quietly consumes about $2,833 of the final balance. That is the lowest fee in its category on this site — fee drag is one variable you fully control.
SCHD vs same-category peers
| Fund | ER | Yield | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCHD (this page) | 0.06% | 3.5% | 2011 |
| VYM | 0.06% | 3.0% | 2006 |
| DVY | 0.38% | 3.8% | 2003 |
How this calculator works
For each start year, we apply the year-by-year total return of the Dow Jones US Dividend 100 to the entered starting amount, compounding annually with dividends reinvested at year-end. This mirrors what an actual buy-and-hold SCHD holder would have experienced, before fees and taxes. Expense ratio is intentionally excluded from the historical result to keep the underlying series comparable across ETFs; for a full lifetime fee estimate at 0.06%, use the projection tab in our fund fee analyzer.