Match each dividend to its payable month's price index.
For an assumed 1,000 eligible SCHD shares throughout 2025, the four issuer distributions total $1,047.60 gross. Converting each receipt with its payable-month CPI gives about $1,024.10 in December 2024 dollars. Using December 2025 CPI for every receipt instead gives about $1,020.29. The $3.81 difference is a choice of time alignment, not an extra payment or a broker fee. Totals are rounded only after summing unrounded conversions.
This historical worksheet assumes no trades, reinvestment, fees or taxes and eligibility for each listed distribution. It does not report your account cash or a future payout. The constant-rate purchasing-power model uses hypothetical inflation; here the price indices and per-share distributions come from two separate primary sources.
Keep the source rows and the assumed holding separate
The issuer's distribution table supplies payable dates March 31, June 30, September 29 and December 15, 2025, with per-share amounts $0.2488, $0.2602, $0.2604 and $0.2782. The 1,000-share count is our assumption. Multiplying each amount by that count gives gross model cash, not a verified personal deposit.
The BLS CUUR0000SA0 series is the all-items CPI-U for U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted. Its reference scale is 1982–84 = 100. We choose December 2024 as the money comparison base, with index 315.605; that chosen money base is distinct from the published index's reference scale.
For an event with nominal cash C and payable-month index I, the December-2024-dollar value is C × 315.605/I. March therefore gives 248.80 × 315.605/319.799 = about 245.537116 baseline dollars. December gives 278.20 × 315.605/324.054 = about 270.946543. The conversion changes the unit of comparison; it does not change the nominal cash.
| Payable date | USD/share | Nominal USD | Month CPI | Dec2024 dollars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-03-31 | 0.2488 | 248.8 | 319.799 | 245.537116 |
| 2025-06-30 | 0.2602 | 260.2 | 322.561 | 254.588810 |
| 2025-09-29 | 0.2604 | 260.4 | 324.800 | 253.028147 |
| 2025-12-15 | 0.2782 | 278.2 | 324.054 | 270.946543 |
Download source rows and exact event conversions · Download missing-index and zero-result tests
Why one year-end index gives another answer
The aligned sum is 248.80 × 315.605/319.799 + 260.20 × 315.605/322.561 + 260.40 × 315.605/324.800 + 278.20 × 315.605/324.054. It equals about 1024.100614 baseline dollars. The alternative is 1047.60 × 315.605/324.054, about 1020.286119. Subtracting the unrounded alternatives gives about 3.814495, displayed as $3.81.
The two methods answer different timing questions. One values each receipt using the average price level of its own payment month; the other applies a single December price level to the entire nominal sum. Neither calculation models interest earned while cash waits, what you actually bought, or when you spent it. Calling one method a lost dividend would mislabel a unit-and-time choice.
Do not let display rounding change the total
The event table displays six decimals, while the CSV preserves each exact fraction and a longer decimal rendering. If each converted receipt were rounded to cents first, the four displayed amounts would be $245.54, $254.59, $253.03 and $270.95, adding to $1,024.11. Our headline instead rounds the exact sum once to $1,024.10. That one-cent display difference is reproducible and is not assigned to the issuer or broker.
Changing the money base scales all four real values by the same index ratio. If December 2025 becomes the money base, multiply the aligned December-2024-dollar sum by 324.054/315.605. Converting that new result back by the reciprocal returns the original exact sum. This round-trip check tests consistent units; it does not mix two money bases in one total.
Missing CPI is unknown, not zero inflation
BLS marks October 2025 unavailable in this series with an X note concerning the lapse in appropriations. None of the four listed SCHD payable dates falls in October. We neither fill that missing month nor claim the series has an observed zero change there.
The boundary fixture adds a separately labeled synthetic $100 receipt dated October 15, 2025 to test missing-data behavior. Its nominal amount is known but its real conversion is unknown, so the complete real total remains unknown; the known subtotal from the other rows remains separately visible. Reusing September's index would introduce an unprovided observation, so the validator does not do it.
With zero assumed shares and all required indices present, nominal and real totals are zero. Missing shares, a missing base index or a missing required payment-month index stays unknown. Negative shares, a nonpositive index, an unexpected series identifier or duplicate event ID is invalid. The test also reverses row order and checks half the assumed holding: linear scaling must halve both totals without changing the conversion factors.
What does the monthly index leave out?
CPI is a monthly population index, not a daily price quotation on a dividend's payable date or a personalized household budget. This is a retrospective comparison; a payment month's CPI need not have been available on that payment day. It does not measure SCHD's total return or establish that future distributions will keep pace with prices.
A reader question about taking SCHD dividends while keeping up with inflation motivates separating nominal cash from purchasing power. The reader's holdings and commenters' growth claims are not inputs. Actual spending, share changes and taxes require a different account-specific record.
Evidence and scope
Official issuer distribution rows and BLS monthly indices were read October 30, 2026. Source links and dates accompany the downloadable ledger. Shares, choice of money base and synthetic boundary rows are labeled assumptions. Fraction arithmetic is checked independently with Decimal calculations. The source join, alternative timing method and boundary matrix are our additions within the freshly read three-site comparison, not a claim of whole-web originality.
When the two source dates cross a month boundary
The 2025 rows above share ex-date and payable months. The June2024 ex-date versus July payable-month example shows why the date-key convention matters, while keeping the nominal cash unchanged.
