Updating Expected Dividends?

[dlevy]

I get transactions from my brokerage firm's OFX feed. I hoped that a dividend transaction would update the income tab on the investment properties dialogue. That appears not to be the case. When dividends are increased, it seems I need to update the dividend amount by hand. Is that correct? Thanks, David

[Mark]

Hi David,

Yes, that is correct. The income properties are not automatically updated based on retrieved dividends. Might be an interesting option...

[dlevy]

I would find it hugely helpful as I am projecting 2019 income for estimated tax purposes.

[erlconsult]

I would also find a way of automatically updating the expected future income from dividends extremely useful. In order to reduce the effort involved in maintaining the dividends, I only enter the annualized dividend rate, so I would prefer to be able to import a file which updates the income amount. Being able to project expected income is important to us, so I try to keep the dividends current, but it is difficult and and can be time consuming.

[aviator]

Mark, I too would like to chime in on this.

Having the option to update expected income automatically would be very helpful. And while the OP specifically mentioned dividends, I humbly suggest that bond interest be included also. Thanks for listening.

[Mark]

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback. Any suggestions on a freely available source for this type of data?

[dlevy]

I'm glad to see others are interested in the topic.

Yahoo has dividends available. Example: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IBM/history?period1=1510732800&period2=1573804800&interval=div%7Csplit&filter=div&frequency=1d.

Perhaps better would be to use the broker's OFX feed to calculate the dividend rate.

In both cases, care would be required to distinguish special dividends from regular quarterly dividends, and to handle mutual funds and ETFs where the quarterly dividend is not predicative of future dividends.

[aviator]

Hi Mark,

Respectfully, I'm not sure you understand what I'm suggesting (can't speak for the others).

What I want is the ability to populate the Income Tab data from history. I want FM to review income from x months back (quarters, years, what have you) and from that review suggest what should be populated in Income tab. Both amounts and dates.

For those of us who rely heavily of the income features of FM this, I believe, will provide the best way to project future income.

What you suggest would be great. However, I have no idea where that information exists and know of no other software that provides it (including my own brokerage house).

Thanks.

[Mark]

What I want is the ability to populate the Income Tab data from history. I want FM to review income from x months back (quarters, years, what have you) and from that review suggest what should be populated in Income tab. Both amounts and dates.

Ahh, okay. Maybe in the "Income" tab there could be another button that prompts for some variables, like how far back you'd like to go in order to make the estimate, and then can fill in the expected dividends from that.

In both cases, care would be required to distinguish special dividends from regular quarterly dividends, and to handle mutual funds and ETFs where the quarterly dividend is not predicative of future dividends.

Fund Manager can already retrieve dividends from Yahoo (required Pro or Adv versions and use Yahoo (Historical)), and can retrieve dividends from your broker. These are all past dividends though. There is no data available for expected future dividends in the OFX feed.

[dlevy]

I was not clear on my suggestion for using OFX data.

You can look at actual dividends paid for the OFX transaction, calculate the per-share dividend rate (based on shares held), and update the Income tab on Investment Properties. The best estimate of future dividends is current (regular) dividends. I do this by hand a couple of times a year, and would like to see it automated in FM.

Ahh, okay. Maybe in the "Income" tab there could be another button that prompts for some variables, like how far back you'd like to go in order to make the estimate, and then can fill in the expected dividends from that.

This would still require the user to go into each investment. I would like it to happen automatically or on request for all investments.

[Mark]

Okay, thanks for the clarification.

[dlevy]

Thinking about this more over the weekend, here is what **I** would find most useful:

When importing transactions from my broker's OFX feed, FM could check any dividend transactions against the expected dividend on the Income tab of the Investment Properties window.

If the dividend is different from the amount expected, FM could prompt "Do you want to update expected dividends for this investment?" This would let the user determine if the dividend is regular or one-time. You'd have to be a bit careful with payment dates which can vary a bit from year to year.

I haven't given much thought to fixed income investments. For example, there are types such as TIPS and mortgage-backed securities where the principal varies and it's harder to project interest payments. I would think you'd want to avoid ETFs and Mutual Funds with their dividends varying greatly in amount year to year.

Anyway, just one user's thoughts....

[Mark]

Hi dlevy,

Interesting, thanks for the idea. We'll have to give this some thought...