Out of curiosity

Although we must acknowledge that past results mean do not indicate future ones, out of curiosity today I prepared an excel table for where $1000 invested 25 years ago in NAB would have taken you today, assuming full use of the DRP plan. The results are interesting:

	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5	Column 6	Column 7	Column 8	Column 9	Column 10
0	Dividend	Cents Per Share	Franking	Div Pay Date	Value Shares	Shares held	Total Divs	DRP Price	New Shares	Rem
1	Final	12		16/12/1983	$   1,256	364	43.68	3.45	12	2.28
2	Interim	12.5		26/06/1984	$   1,113	376	49.28	2.96	16	1.92
3	Final	12.5		14/12/1984	$   1,305	392	50.92	3.33	15	0.97
4	Interim	13.5		12/07/1985	$   1,661	407	55.92	4.08	13	2.875
5	Final	14		23/01/1986	$   1,865	420	61.68	4.44	13	3.955
6	Interim	14.5		11/07/1986	$   2,338	433	66.74	5.40	12	1.94
7	Final	14.5		23/01/1987	$   2,514	445	66.47	5.65	11	4.315
8	Interim	12.25	100	10/07/1987	$   1,988	456	60.18	4.36	13	3.495
9	Final	12.5	100	27/01/1988	$   1,871	469	62.12	3.99	15	2.27
10	Interim	15	100	15/07/1988	$   2,643	484	74.87	5.46	13	3.89
11	Final	17	100	25/01/1989	$   3,096	497	88.38	6.23	14	1.16
12	Special Scrip	18	100	25/01/1989	$   3,184	511	93.14	6.23	14	5.92
13	Special Cash	10	100	17/03/1989	$   3,061	525	58.42	5.83	10	0.12
14	Interim	25	100	14/07/1989	$   3,050	535	133.87	5.70	23	2.77
15	Final	25	100	24/01/1990	$   3,421	558	142.27	6.13	23	1.28
16	Special Scrip	10	100	24/01/1990	$   3,562	581	59.38	6.13	9	4.21
17	Interim	26	100	13/07/1990	$   3,463	590	157.61	5.87	26	4.99
18	Final	29	100	24/01/1991	$   2,920	616	183.63	4.74	38	3.51
19	Interim	22	100	12/07/1991	$   3,937	654	147.39	6.02	24	2.91
20	Final	23	100	22/01/1992	$   5,004	678	158.85	7.38	21	3.87
21	Interim	22	100	10/07/1992	$   4,900	699	157.65	7.01	22	3.43
22	Final	23	100	20/01/1993	$   4,982	721	169.26	6.91	24	3.42
23	Interim	24	100	9/07/1993	$   6,780	745	182.22	9.10	20	0.22
24	Final	26	100	19/01/1994	$   8,369	765	199.12	10.94	18	2.2
25	Interim	35	100	8/07/1994	$   7,971	783	276.25	10.18	27	1.39
26	Final	39	100	18/01/1995	$   8,303	810	317.29	10.25	30	9.79
27	Interim	40	100	12/07/1995	$   9,097	840	345.79	10.83	31	10.06
28	Final	43	100	24/01/1996	$ 10,339	871	384.59	11.87	32	4.75
29	Interim	43	100	10/07/1996	$ 10,222	903	393.04	11.32	34	8.16
30	Final	44	100	22/01/1997	$ 13,605	937	420.44	14.52	28	13.88
31	Interim	45	100	22/07/1997	$ 18,586	965	448.13	19.26	23	5.15
32	Final	49	100	17/12/1997	$ 19,098	988	489.27	19.33	25	6.02
33	Interim	49	100	22/07/1998	$ 21,688	1013	502.39	21.41	23	9.96
34	Final	53	100	16/12/1998	$ 24,760	1036	559.04	23.90	23	9.34
35	Interim	54	100	21/07/1999	$ 26,687	1059	581.20	25.20	23	1.6
36	Final	58	79	15/12/1999	$ 25,265	1082	629.16	23.35	26	22.06
37	Interim	59	100	5/07/2000	$ 28,420	1108	675.78	25.65	26	8.88
38	Final	64	100	13/12/2000	$ 33,442	1134	734.64	29.49	24	26.88
39	Interim	67	100	4/07/2001	$ 39,604	1158	802.74	34.20	23	16.14
40	Final	68	100	12/12/2001	$ 37,757	1181	819.22	31.97	25	19.97
41	Interim	72	100	3/07/2002	$ 43,585	1206	888.29	36.14	24	20.93
42	Final	75	90	11/12/2002	$ 39,877	1230	943.43	32.42	29	3.25
43	Interim	80	100	2/07/2003	$ 42,315	1259	1010.45	33.61	30	2.15
44	Final	83	100	10/12/2003	$ 37,536	1289	1072.02	29.12	36	23.7
45	Interim	83	100	14/07/2004	$ 38,414	1325	1123.45	28.99	38	21.754
46	Final	83	100	8/12/2004	$ 37,856	1363	1153.04	27.77	41	14.31
47	Interim	83	80	13/07/2005	$ 43,457	1404	1179.63	30.95	38	3.454
48	Final	83	80	19/12/2005	$ 46,613	1442	1200.31	32.33	37	4.2853
49	Interim	83	80	13/07/2006	$ 50,541	1479	1231.86	34.17	36	1.6561
50	Final	84	90	12/12/2006	$ 58,297	1515	1274.26	38.48	33	4.4161
51	Interim	87	90	12/07/2007	$ 62,771	1548	1351.18	40.55	33	13.0261
52	Final	95	100	18/12/2007	$ 62,244	1581	1514.98	39.37	38	18.9161
53	Interim	97	100	10/07/2008	$ 43,341	1619	1589.35	26.77	59	9.9161
54	Final	97	100	17/12/2008	$ 31,278	1678	1637.58	18.64	87	15.8961
55	Interim	73	100	9/07/2009	$ 37,948	1765	1304.35	21.50	60	14.3461
56	Final	73	100	17/12/2009	$ 50,626	1825	1346.60	27.74	48	15.0761
57	Interim	74	100	8/07/2010	$ 46,881	1873	1401.10	25.03	55	24.4461
58	Final	78	100	17/12/2010	$ 44,903	1928	1528.29	23.29	65	14.4361
59	Interim	84	100	6/07/2011	$ 47,852	1993	1688.56	24.01	70	7.8561
60	Final	88	100	19/12/2011	$ 46,768	2063	1823.30	22.67	80	9.6961
61	Interim	90	100	16/07/2012	$ 47,082	2143	1938.40	21.97	88	5.0361
62	Final	90	100	18/12/2012	$ 52,607	2231	2012.94	23.58	85	8.6361
63	Interim	93	100	16/07/2013	$ 67,118	2316	2162.52	28.98	74	17.9961
64	Final	97	100	18/12/2013	$ 81,786	2390	2336.30	34.22	68	9.3361
65	Interim	99	100	8/07/2014	$ 81,950	2458	2442.76	33.34	73	8.9361
66	Final	99	100	16/12/2014	$ 80,790	2531	2514.63	31.92	78	24.8661
67	Interim	99	100	3/07/2015	$ 87,688	2609	2607.78	33.61	77	19.8061
68	Final	99	100	15/12/2015	$ 76,497	2686	2678.95	28.48	94	1.8261
69	Interim	99	100	5/07/2016	$ 75,866	2780	2754.03	27.29	100	25.0261
70	Final	99	100	13/12/2016	$ 79,402	2880	2876.23	27.57	104	8.9461

I picked the furthest back point of information I could find for the starting point, it assumes that you bought $1000 worth at the Jun '83 DRP price of $2.75 (which is 364 shares) and calculates onwards from there. Its an ex div price so the table begins from next div in Dec '83. Most of the table headings are self explanatory, the Rem one is the change that is carried over until the next dividend. Note that there were also Franking credits rates at most of the time 100% from 1987 which were not added in. Assume that they were just used to pay your dividend income taxes, which were not taken into account either.

Interestingly the result is about 79x the intial investment!! Thats around 19% compounding interest per year. Other things to note were that the price went up and down, but the dividend yield was very roughly 6% most of the way through, which is incidentally roughly where we are at now.

In my view a pretty convincing argument not to dedicate too much of your portfolio to the risky plays, even if they are more fun.