Payout Impact Calculator

This page recalculates one fund at a time. The Snowball Tracker spreadsheet runs the same math across your whole portfolio — every fund, every payment, income totals and progress toward your goal, updated as you log each check. One-time $14, yours forever.

Nobody — including us — can tell you whether to sell or ride it out. But four questions, each answered by real data in one click, turn a panic into a decision:

1. Is it one check, or a trend? Option-income checks wobble by design — one small payment is noise; four in a row is a message. The fund's payment-history chart answers in five seconds.
2. Is the share price eroding too? A cut while the share price holds is volatility breathing. A cut plus steady price decline means the fund is shrinking in both dimensions — a different situation entirely. Check it on the Erosion Index.
3. What has it actually paid you? Someone whose distributions have returned 130% of their money experiences a cut very differently than someone at 20%. Run your real numbers in the House Money Calculator.
4. Why do these funds cut at all? This isn't a company slashing its dividend in distress — option income is fueled by market volatility, and it breathes with it. Checks often recover when volatility returns. The mechanics, in plain English: Return of Capital & NAV Erosion.

One practical note while you think: a cut is not a taxable event — selling is. There's no clock forcing a same-day decision.