How do I add dividend yields to calculate a monthly return?

First make sure that those yields are quoted monthly. Typically a dividend yield on a stock is quoted as an annual rate, so 2.45% would imply 2.45% every 12 months, not every month. So if the stock pays 2.45% annually, you need to divide that by 12 to get a monthly return. 2.45% / 12 = 0.204% monthly ---------------- Do this for all 3 stocks to figure out the monthly return for each stock. Finally, you are going to want to use a weighted average based on how much of your portfolio each stock takes up. Weighted average means if one stock is half of your portfolio you multiply its return by (1/2). Then you add it to the others - which are weighted as well. For example, Stock 1 - div yield = 4% - occupies 60% of the portfolio value Stock 2 - Div yield = 5% - occupies 40% of the portfolio value Weighted average = (4% X 60%) + (5% X 40%) Weighted average = 4.4% Notice that it isn't the average between 4% and 5%. It is actually weighted more toward 4% because that stock takes up a larger portion of the portfolio.