SCHD vs VOO: The DCA Backtest
The identical plan — $100 on the first trading day of each month — run on both assets over their shared history (Oct 2011 → Aug 2026, $17,900 invested each). Every number below is computed from real daily closes; nothing is annualized away or cherry-picked.
Verdict on this window: $17,900 invested into VOO grew to $60,855, versus $52,406 in SCHD. Different start dates shuffle this result — the rolling analysis below shows how often.
The same $100/month, side by side
Both positions month by month across the shared window: the dashed line is cash paid in ($17,900 total), the two curves are what SCHD and VOO were worth along the way. Where the curves separate is where the decade's story lives.
Does the winner depend on when you started?
One full-window result can mislead — maybe the winner just had a better final year. So we ran the head-to-head across EVERY possible 5-year start month in the shared history:
Side-by-side numbers
Data through Aug 2026, refreshed daily.
Dividend screen versus the plain index
SCHD filters ~100 dividend-growth names on balance-sheet quality; VOO simply owns the market. In growth-led regimes (most of this shared window) VOO's tech weight pulls ahead; in value-led stretches like 2022, SCHD's tilt cushions the drawdown — you can see exactly that trade in the overlay's divergences. Neither behavior is a flaw; they're different exposures wearing similar clothes.
One honesty note this pair needs: our adjusted-close data reinvests SCHD's distributions implicitly, which is exactly how a DCA accumulator should read it — but income investors comparing 'yield on cost' are asking a different question than this page answers. On pure total return with identical monthly buys, the table above is the answer.
FAQ
On the shared window measured here, VOO finished ahead (SCHD: +193% vs VOO: +240% on identical monthly buys). "Better" is window-dependent — the rolling head-to-head above tells you how stable that verdict was. Past performance doesn't predict the future; this page tells you what happened, not what will.
Yes, and if the pair is highly correlated the blend will behave like either one alone — check how similar the two curves above are before assuming a split adds diversification. Our portfolio calculator lets you backtest any weighting of the two on the same real data.
Real dividend- and split-adjusted daily closes for SCHD and VOO, compared strictly over their shared history (Oct 2011 → Aug 2026), refreshed daily and validated for gaps and staleness. Fees, spreads and taxes are not modelled — see the methodology page.
Run the plan on a real exchange
Five exchanges where DCA — and tokenized stocks & ETFs — actually work, each with a real discount. Pick one, copy the code, trade cheaper.
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