SCHD vs VYM vs DGRO: Dividend/Income Calculator Comparison

Which one fits whom

These three are variations on one idea — own quality dividend payers and let the payout grow — dialed to different settings, so the right pick tends to follow what you weight most. On the current anchors, SCHD starts with the highest yield (~3.3%) and a ~7% recent-years growth anchor, so in the reinvested projection above its income line generally sits above the other two from year one; someone who wants the larger, sooner-compounding payout and does not mind a heavier current-year tax bill in a taxable account leans SCHD. VYM holds the widest basket (roughly 500-plus names) with the lowest 0.04% fee, but its ~6% dividend growth is the slowest here, so it reads as the diversified middle — a plausible fit for someone who values breadth and cost over the steepest income ramp. DGRO starts with the lowest yield (~2.1%) because its screen drops the highest-yielding names, which is why the model pairs it with the highest forward price-growth assumption; it can suit an accumulator who prefers a growthier tilt and a smaller taxable distribution while still building. None of the three is a yield-for-safety trade the way a covered-call fund is — all are plain qualified-dividend index funds with no structural NAV erosion.

SCHD vs VYM vs DGRO: what actually separates them

Yield versus dividend growth

The usual two-way framing — high yield or high growth — does not cleanly sort three funds, because they do not line up on a single axis. On the sourced inputs DGRO carries the fastest dividend-per-share growth (~9.2% trailing), SCHD a ~7% recent-years anchor, and VYM the slowest at ~6%; on yield the order is SCHD ~3.3%, VYM ~2.5%, DGRO ~2.1%. That produces two different contests at once. Between SCHD and VYM there is no income crossover: SCHD starts higher and grows faster, so its distribution stays above VYM's the whole way and the dollar gap widens as the faster rate scales a larger base. The more interesting race is VYM versus DGRO — VYM starts higher (~2.5% vs ~2.1%) but grows slower, so DGRO's faster-compounding payout tends to overtake VYM's fairly early on the base-scenario path — often within the first several years of reinvesting; watch where the two income lines cross on the charts above and try lengthening the time-horizon slider. The construction explains the spread: SCHD tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100, screening for ten straight years of dividends and then ranking on cash-flow-to-debt, return on equity, yield, and five-year growth; VYM tracks the FTSE High Dividend Yield index, a broad market-cap-weighted cut of above-average yielders; DGRO tracks the Morningstar US Dividend Growth index and deliberately excludes the very highest yielders, which is exactly why its starting yield is lowest and its assumed price growth highest.

Tax treatment — qualified across all three

Here the three are genuinely alike, which is worth stating plainly rather than inventing a difference. All distribute overwhelmingly qualified dividends, taxed at the 0/15/20% long-term capital-gains rates in a taxable account rather than at ordinary marginal rates — the opposite of a covered-call income fund, whose option-premium distributions are taxed as ordinary income up to 37%. So the account toggle moves every projection the same way: in a taxable account each year's qualified-dividend tax is subtracted before the DRIP reinvests, and inside an IRA or Roth all three compound untaxed. The one honest, directional nuance is that the tax bill tracks the payout — because SCHD distributes the most, it also generates the largest annual tax drag in a taxable account, which tightens its after-tax lead relative to its pre-tax lead, while DGRO's lower current income is its only tax edge: less taxable distribution each year is less to tax while you are still accumulating. VYM sits between them on both counts.

NAV erosion and total return

None of the three funds pays its dividend out of principal, so none carries the structural NAV erosion that drags a high covered-call yield — the erosion column reads — for all three, and the yield you see is earned, not returned capital. What this calculator surfaces is that the "which ends with the most money" answer is not fixed; it can move with the DRIP toggle. With reinvestment on, SCHD's larger distribution buys more shares every year and, compounding on its ~7% growth anchor, it tends to hold the total-value lead as well as the income lead. Switch DRIP off — spending the dividends instead — and DGRO's higher assumed price growth (net of its 0.08% fee, against SCHD's 0.06% and VYM's 0.04%) can let its share value pull ahead even while it pays the least income. VYM's rock-bottom fee helps it most in that spend-the-income case, though its slower dividend growth still caps its income ramp. So the ordering depends on inputs you control, and the price-growth edge that powers DGRO's side is an editorial preset assumption, not a forecast. Every figure above is an illustrative projection of each fund's current yield, trailing dividend growth, and expense ratio asOf 2026-06, framed as a low–high scenario range rather than a prediction. For the fund-by-fund detail behind each side, see the individual calculators below.