How to Use the Growth Projector to Model Your Income Portfolio

The first time I put a real number into the Growth Projector, the figure that came back made me double-check the maths. Fifty thousand dollars left to compound at SATA's 13% for twenty years lands somewhere near $664,000 — entirely from reinvested dividends, before a single dollar of price appreciation. That gap between "a 13% income stream" and "more than a tenfold return" is the whole reason I built the projector the way I did, and the reason I think it's the most useful tool on this site. Here is how I actually use it.

There are two projectors, one for each instrument I track — STRC and SATA — and they work identically. When the page loads, the yield box holds the current stated dividend rate: 11.50% for STRC, 13% for SATA. That is the dividend measured against the $100 par the share was issued at, and it is the sensible default — these instruments are new enough that the market data feeds don't report a reliable yield for them, so rather than guess, the projector anchors to the published rate. It won't resurrect a stale number either: it always loads today's rate, so STRC shows 11.50% and not the 9% it launched at in July 2025.

Almost nobody actually buys at par, though, which is what the Yield basis toggle at the top of the inputs is for. Leave it on Annual and the box behaves as above — you can type over the rate to test a scenario. Flip it to Effective and the box relabels itself "Effective Yield" and shows the yield you'd really be earning: the same dividend, measured against the price you actually pay rather than against $100. In plain dollar mode it works that out from the live market price — if STRC is trading below par your dollars buy more shares than they would at par, so the effective figure sits above 11.50%; above par it sits below. If you'd rather pin it to your own entry, switch the amount box from dollars to a share count and type your cost per share, and the effective yield is calculated from that instead. Flipping between the two is the fastest way to see what buying away from par does to the same starting stake. The box is read-only in Effective mode for a reason — it's a calculated figure, not one you set.

The inputs that matter

The amount is your starting capital, with a small dollars/shares switch beside it. In dollar mode you just enter a sum; in share mode you enter a number of shares plus your price per share — and that price is exactly what the Effective yield is calculated from. Next to it is a monthly box for regular top-ups, if you plan to keep adding to the position; leave it at zero to model a single lump sum and read the result as conservative.

The yield I've covered — stated by default, your real entry yield once you flip to Effective, and editable only in Annual mode since Effective is derived. It is still worth stress-testing in Annual mode: what happens if STRC's yield compresses to 10% as the price climbs back towards par, or holds where it is for five years? That one number swings the long-horizon outcome far more than the size of your stake does.

The time horizon runs from 1 to 20 years, and the compounding only really shows its teeth past the ten-year mark — before that, the reinvested and cash-out lines sit closer together than people expect. The reinvestment control is a slider, not an on/off switch, and it is the most consequential input on the page: at 100% every dividend buys more shares, at 0% you take it all as cash and your share count never changes, and anywhere in between splits the difference.

Reading the two lines

With reinvestment off, you're looking at a flat value line and a steadily climbing cumulative-income figure underneath it. That is the honest picture of an income stream: your share count is fixed, so if the price stays near par your portfolio value sits roughly still while the cash you've collected ticks up. On $50,000 at STRC's 11.50%, that's about $5,750 a year — $57,500 over a decade, with your original stake still in shares throughout. If you're drawing the income to live on, this is the line you care about, and the projector makes it easy to check whether that annual figure clears your target.

Flip reinvestment on and the value line bends upward instead of running flat. Each month's dividends buy more shares, those shares pay their own dividends, and the curve steepens as it goes. Run SATA's 13% out to twenty years and the $50,000 reaches roughly $664,000; the same stake in STRC at 11.50% gets to around $493,000. The 1.5-point yield difference looks small on day one and turns into a six-figure gap by year twenty — which is exactly why I don't treat the starting yield casually.

Where the model stops

I'd rather be straight about what these numbers are not. The projector holds the yield fixed for the entire run, and reality doesn't. STRC's rate has stepped up every month since its July 2025 IPO — 9%, then 10%, 10.25%, 10.50%, 11%, 11.25%, and now 11.50% — and SATA has moved to 13% from its launch rate. Hold either constant for twenty years in the model and you're answering "if conditions roughly persist, what does this trajectory look like?" — not "what will happen." It's a planning frame, not a forecast, which is why I tend to run three versions of every scenario: the live yield, two points below, and two points above. The spread between those three tells you more than any single headline number.

It also ignores tax, which for most people is not a rounding error on a dividend this size, and it doesn't model transaction costs, currency, or what the share price itself does beyond the income-driven growth on the chart. If you want to judge whether the extra yield is worth the extra risk in the first place, that comparison lives on the vs Treasuries page, not here.

One small convenience: your inputs save to your browser automatically, so your last scenario is waiting when you come back. I use that to keep a baseline scenario pinned, then edit the stated rate in Annual mode whenever it moves — STRC's has stepped up nearly every month since launch — so the projection keeps pace with reality instead of freezing on the day I first ran it.

I track STRC and SATA daily and hold positions in their parent issuers (MSTR and ASST). The way I use the projector above is how I plan my own scenarios — it isn't financial advice.

This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Projections are illustrative and are not a guarantee of future returns. Always consult a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.