Passive income from stocks: Handelsblatt releases customizable calculator for investors

Herz — Business Desk · 16 July 2026 at 09:40 · 30s summary · 2 min read

What we know

German business journal Handelsblatt published on July 16, 2026 an interactive calculator to help investors plan their passive income from stocks. The article is authored by four journalists: Johanna Escobar Hartmann, Andreas Neuhaus, Philipp Ninh, and Michel Penke.

The tool integrates five distinct ways to generate passive income from financial markets.

How the tool works

Investors begin by selecting the amount to invest, then define their investment horizon — capped at a maximum of 20 years. Three profiles are then offered: a conservative strategy (low loss risk, modest returns), an aggressive strategy (higher returns, greater default risk), and a fully customizable individual strategy.

The individual strategy allows combining individual stocks, dividend ETFs, bond ETFs, and money market ETFs.

The methodology

The calculator applies rolling time series: for a ten-year horizon, all available historical windows of ten consecutive years are constructed, dividends paid are reinvested, and then the maximum, minimum, and median are extrapolated. The dividend yield used is based on the historical weighted distribution rates of selected assets — not a flat rate.

Performance and inflation data come from the World Bank and LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), the London-based global provider of financial market data and infrastructure. All values are adjusted for historical inflation: projections reflect the investor's current purchasing power.

Concrete example: €200,000 in dividend ETFs

The article illustrates the tool with a specific example. An investor placing €200,000 across three dividend ETFs — VanEck Developed Markets (35%), Vanguard High Dividend (35%), and iShares Global Dividend (30%) — would be exposed to approximately 26% U.S. stocks, 20% Eurozone countries, 8% United Kingdom, and 7% Japan.