Quicken - Total Return

[trixs]

Hey All,

I have a question which is probably very newbish for this forum! I own many individual stocks that pay a higher dividend(MO, BAC, PFE, ect). Fidelity and quicken both seem to report Unrealized gains viaa cost basis that includes dividends . Here is an example from fidelity:


T AT&T INC COM 135.7210 $5,047.46 $3,750.53 $1,296.93 34.58% Cash

03/24/2006 130.0000 $27.47 $4,834.70 $3,571.55 $1,263.15 35.37% Short

05/01/2006 1.6520 $26.17 $61.44 $43.23 $18.21 42.12% Short
08/01/2006 1.4700 $29.78 $54.67 $43.77 $10.90 24.90% Short
11/01/2006 1.2910 $34.28 $48.01 $44.26 $3.75 8.47% Short
02/01/2007 1.3080 $36.48 $48.64 $47.72 $0.92 1.93% Short

The delima is I didnt actually put up any money with the dividend purchases yet they are reported as a cost basis. Is there away to find the total return from my original purchase amount in quicken?

Thanks,

Trixs

[saluki9]

The simple answer is no, quicken is using the correct methodology.

The fact is that dividends do add to your cost basis. If you want to change that (and make your taxes easier) stop reinvesting dividends.

[audreyh1]

What he/she want to know is her total return.

Maybe Quicken can do an ROI for you from the initial date to today. It handles reinvestments correctly in that calculation as long as they have been entered as reinvestments.

Audrey