Enter the Dividend Investor

ManjaroKDE

Member
The markets have been brutal recently. Being a dividend investor has it's quirks, patience is a virtue of which I had a sharp learning curve to overcome. I've been buying recently so I wanted to see what the damages were. The DOW is down over 12% since my current record keeping started. My portfolio (which has a 7.7% yield) is down 4.4%. Just updated all my positions to reinvest the dividends for those currently active. My pension provider manages all my accounts, management fees are free.

Remembering that 12 months is the important number for taxes and 'Capital Gain' reporting, I only hope things right themselves during the next 10 months. The saying goes 'Buy, when there's blood in the streets even if it's yours'. Someone from the Rothchild family is credited with uttering such drivel, so who am I to complain. I had some savings that were languishing in the 1-1.5% range and it felt like watching someone with a nervous tic. Cost more to keep track of and send me a statement.
 

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I remember when the Dow closed above 1,000.

Patience is indeed a virtue. ;)

calvin-and-hobbes-sleep-under-a-tree-mathew-d-jensen.jpg


Good luck!
 
Safe thoughts or so you would think, a few months ago my wife got a charge for inactivity. She was charged the fee since she had made no deposits within the year. It about wiped out her interest for 2021. It's called creative accounting. Now since she doesn't want more charges she has to make at least a $25 deposit every so often to avoid it.
 
Speaking about 'DRIPS', many years ago I gave those a try, made a little money, Not so you'd notice, I still have one share that pays me less than $2 annually. It's a foreign health stock (GSK) I've made all my investment back but sure was humbling depositing those $.52 checks quarterly. Still have it but would cost too much too sell it through a broker. I did direct them to deposit my dividend into my pension/brokerage account.
 
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Speaking about 'DRIPS', many years ago I gave those a try, made a little money, Not so you'd notice, I still have one share that pays me less than $2 annually. It's a foreign health stock (GSK) I've made all my investment back but sure was humbling depositing those $.52 checks quarterly. Still have it but would cost too much too sell it through a broker. I did direct them to deposit my dividend into my pension/brokerage account.
"sure was humbling depositing those $.52 checks quarterly." OMG! My sister and I did dental studies for GSK (in the U.S.) for several years. I know that it's a large, global company so I can't understand why your dividend check would only be 52 cents unless you only have one share or were joking about the amount. Here's their dividend history for the last year (per share) according to Yahoo Finance.
DateDividends
May 19, 20220.35 Dividend
Feb 24, 20220.622 Dividend
Nov 18, 20210.523 Dividend
Aug 19, 20210.53 Dividend

"Still have it but would cost too much too sell it through a broker." I'm a self directed investor who after trial, error and going through several brokerages, found the one that works best for me....Schwab. I also use TD Ameritrade but didn't transfer shares because they charge a ridiculous $75 fee (no other brokerage has ever charged a fee to transfer) and they are in the process of merging with Schwab. I can trade anytime I want, no fee when I make the trades online. So are you obligated to use a broker due to the pension arrangement?

I agree with the "buy when there's blood in the streets tactic" (though I never heard it put that way). That means you are getting a bargain. I did that a couple of years ago and even considering the current crash, one is up by $7.50 a share and the other by $1.70 a share. Before the market started to slide they were up by $33.65/share and $4.53/share, respectively. I have no doubt they will reach those levels again, though it will take time.
 
Yea it's an ongoing personal joke, I OWN ONE SHARE OF GSK QUOTED PRICE IS OR WAS $41 a share I paid less than $35 for the share. I had probably 20 stocks @ the time 1 to 3 shares each. I've owned GSK for at least 15 or 20 years, I get proxy requests all the time from them. The dividend was somewhere close to $2 divided into 4 quarters a year hence $2 divided by 4 = $.50 to maybe $.60 every three months. I think by now I've more on GSK than the others.

Once after letting them sit for a year or so they sent me a check for $5. As I stated I made a little not much. For each check I had to get my wife to endorse it since both our names are on it. I keep it as a reminder of some of the stupid things I've done after 50+ years of marriage. I was able to sell the other stocks but that being a foreign company they wanted me jump through hoops, then pay as much as $15 to get the rest. Not worth my time so I'll just keep it as a conversation piece, and tell people I'm part owner in a foreign drug company.

Yes to the pension question. They deposit my monthly check there, I have a 2% any time, high limit reward card along with a debit card . They reimburse me if I encounter ATM fees, free checks for life. They've finally stopped sending me large low interest loan offers, they just end up in the trash anyway.
 
Yea it's an ongoing personal joke, I OWN ONE SHARE OF GSK QUOTED PRICE IS OR WAS $41 a share I paid less than $35 for the share. I had probably 20 stocks @ the time 1 to 3 shares each. I've owned GSK for at least 15 or 20 years, I get proxy requests all the time from them. The dividend was somewhere close to $2 divided into 4 quarters a year hence $2 divided by 4 = $.50 to maybe $.60 every three months. I think by now I've more on GSK than the others.

Once after letting them sit for a year or so they sent me a check for $5. As I stated I made a little not much. For each check I had to get my wife to endorse it since both our names are on it. I keep it as a reminder of some of the stupid things I've done after 50+ years of marriage. I was able to sell the other stocks but that being a foreign company they wanted me jump through hoops, then pay as much as $15 to get the rest. Not worth my time so I'll just keep it as a conversation piece, and tell people I'm part owner in a foreign drug company.

Yes to the pension question. They deposit my monthly check there, I have a 2% any time, high limit reward card along with a debit card . They reimburse me if I encounter ATM fees, free checks for life. They've finally stopped sending me large low interest loan offers, they just end up in the trash anyway
"I had probably 20 stocks @ the time 1 to 3 shares each." Wow! You must be more skittish than me about individual stocks. The only ones I ever bought were Facebook, Apple, Fitbit and more recently Canon, which is based in Japan. Facebook, though it paid no dividends was the best performer for awhile and was up by 534% until last year. I only bought 14 shares of that at the IPO and wound up selling a couple of months ago as share price started dropping, still with a gain of $179 gain per share. I bought 15 shares of Apple but they did a 4 for 1 split in 2020. I bought a few more shares along and along after the split and now I have 90+. (current gain is 132.67%) Fitbit was a dog and was the only one I bought due to "experts'" recommendations. I'll never do that again! I lost money on the 45 shares I bought. Strange thing is that Fitbit was all the rage back then and should have been doing well. Luckily I sold before it bottomed out. Canon is doing well... not mimicking the crash at all. I broke my own rule and bought 160 shares of that. I haven't owned Canon a year yet and the gain is 7.85% as of Friday.
@Pecos
 
I've only been dividend investing since the 1st part of April 22, I'm obsessive, so I like to keep my share holding balanced. I have 12 holdings of 30 shares each. I'm sticking with well known companies. That led to a small moral decision. I bought a tobacco company stock, I was raised in a religious environment that preaches against those vices, don't smoke, don't drink or do drugs. But live in a legal use state I realized that the tobacco companies are flush with cash they will be the big players in the legal weed production, just as well get on that train.

I have been DCAing most of the holdings to minimize my losses. Started with 10 shares each and bought more when the time was right. Back in the 90's I done real well playing Iomega stock and doing a little day trading, got nervous and quit that, too risky! Lost interest during the early 2000's got back in and made myself and a few friends a bundle of cash moving our 401K's around daily. Got stopped by management because I was embarrassing our corporate investors, there's more to that story, but not here, luckily I didn't lose my job over that.

DCA - Dollar Cost Averaging.
 
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I have plenty of other investments but my severance was paid in Carnival Corporation stock. It was a bit over $14 a share in June 2020 when I was let go and it was decent sum. My financial advisor and I agreed that I should hold onto it. I figured it would be my "mad money" for things like home improvement and travel. It reached $22 a share a few months ago and I sold off a small amount. It is now at just over $9 per share. The cruise industry has been hit particularly hard, and any major expenditures will have to wait most likely for a couple of years. :(

It is actually a dividend stock but CCL hasn't paid dividends for some time. I have other investments that do that.
 
I buy investments for total return , not how much of my investment value they distribute back to me , which I could have pulled from any investment
I went back over my posts. I'm sorry, MY way of investing is not for anyone but myself. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to others, I ignore all the advice from investment gurus, they get paid to post their opinions and that's just that nothing more than opinions. Maybe it comes from MY gambling days (haven't been in a casino going on 12 years now), craps was my game of choice, there's always action happening, some days I walked away happy, most others were downers. I never planned to make it a vocation either.
 
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I've only been dividend investing since the 1st part of April 22, I'm obsessive, so I like to keep my share holding balanced. I have 12 holdings of 30 shares each. I'm sticking with well known companies. That led to a small moral decision. I bought a tobacco company stock, I was raised in a religious environment that preaches against those vices, don't smoke, don't drink or do drugs. But live in a legal use state I realized that the tobacco companies are flush with cash they will be the big players in the legal weed production, just as well get on that train.

I have been DCAing most of the holdings to minimize my losses. Started with 10 shares each and bought more when the time was right. Back in the 90's I done real well playing Iomega stock and doing a little day trading, got nervous and quit that, too risky! Lost interest during the early 2000's got back in and made myself and a few friends a bundle of cash moving our 401K's around daily. Got stopped by management because I was embarrassing our corporate investors, there's more to that story, but not here, luckily I didn't lose my job over that.

DCA - Dollar Cost Averaging.
Okay...so I see you're not shying away from stocks but you have your methods. As the old Excedrin commercial said "When something works...that's what you use". Well known companies is the way to go, although some have floundered in the past (G.E. for instance). Most of my holdings are in dividend and capital gains paying mutual funds and ETFs. 67% of my portfolio is in a Roth (did a conversion when I was working and added more until I retired in 1998). Since I started taking RMDs from my traditional IRA, which represents a relatively small portion of my portfolio, I've had Schwab send them directly to St. Jude so I don't pay taxes on those distributions since they are qualified charitable contributions. As it stands, I'm not paying taxes on most of my investment distributions. Except for the RMDs I don't take them.

I wouldn't have the patience or nerves for day trading. I'm Muslim and we are supposed to invest for the long term rather than day trade which is somewhat seen as gambling (of course that's forbidden too). Day trading seems like it needs to be a full time job to me. My Honoray Son did it for awhile. Muslims are also supposed to stay away from pork, alcohol, tobacco and gaming stocks as well as interest bearing investments, so I understand what you mean about the religious-moral decisions to consider. It is a good thing you didn't lose your job behind your activities. I dollar cost averaged for part of the time I was still working and investing. I'm blessed to get a pension. The State offered a Deferred Compensation plan as well, but not a 401K.
 
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Love a good quality dividend growth fund. Big believer in cash flow history rich dividend producing companies. Love em. To each his own. I own 'em...lol:

https://advisor.morganstanley.com/c...ch-christopher-francis/WhyDividendsMatter.pdf
Patience is a virtue, not my strong suit. I still watch the semi-exciting action of my holdings and it's more interesting than 'FreeCell'. I've never been one to stay the course. Hopefully I will this time around. Good luck with yours, though.

@OneEyedDiva just put a 10 share 'Buy' order in for 'BEN'. A little lower yield but growth is better.
 
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Any time someone writing an article to prove a point cherry picks a time frame or index for comparison , like the above article did be very Leary .

1991 to 2015 saw the s&p 500 return 9.84% cagr . 80% pay dividends

the russell 2000 index returned 12.82%
70% pay no dividends.

so one can find any set of data and indexes to try to skew a point
 
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I buy investments for total return , not how much of my investment value they distribute back to me , which I could have pulled from any investment
I think that is the right way to view investments. When I buy my groceries the store owner doesn't care if my dollars came from dividend, capital gains, interest, or selling my coin collection.
 
Now is a great time to look for growth / dividend stocks. Everything is on sale and the dividend paying stocks that wish to keep up the volume will increase their dividends to off set their stock loss. What I like to see is a high volume, sale priced stock, that has a nice dividend growth over years. Yes one likes to eat cake too. These stocks are out there now. It's nice to buy a stock that's low right now but even better is a long producer of dividends on top, to fold back into the stock as it rebounds. Now you do have to check stocks for dividend history, because some just gave out a years dividends just to keep the interest in there stocks. I like to make sure my bread stays buttered. Have fun!
 
Now is a great time to look for growth / dividend stocks. Everything is on sale and the dividend paying stocks that wish to keep up the volume will increase their dividends to off set their stock loss. What I like to see is a high volume, sale priced stock, that has a nice dividend growth over years. Yes one likes to eat cake too. These stocks are out there now. It's nice to buy a stock that's low right now but even better is a long producer of dividends on top, to fold back into the stock as it rebounds. Now you do have to check stocks for dividend history, because some just gave out a years dividends just to keep the interest in there stocks. I like to make sure my bread stays buttered.
nonsense ,

if you understood the mechanics of a dividend you would understand why dividends are a wash .
just like a fund that goes ex div and you have more shares at a lower price the next morning stocks do the same thing .

if you reinvest you have the same dollars compounding.

stocks tend to cut or suspend dividends when stocks get hit as well .

the bigger the dividend the bigger the price reduction when it goes ex div .

it is appreciation in share price that is what determines your return .

the dividend is only a withdrawal method
 
Patience is a virtue, not my strong suit. I still watch the semi-exciting action of my holdings and it's more interesting than 'FreeCell'. I've never been one to stay the course. Hopefully I will this time around. Good luck with yours, though.

@OneEyedDiva just put a 10 share 'Buy' order in for 'BEN'. A little lower yield but growth is better.
The share price is attractive and the yield is good. According to Yahoo Finance, it's 4.77% which is better than the yields for any of my investments. My highest is RDIV at 3.60%. Did or do you have investments with higher yields than that?
 
including all dividends BEN is down 25% ytd .

it has averaged a loss of 7% a year for the last 5 years and it has lost money for 10 years now

it’s ten year cagr return is minus 1% and that is including all dividends

wouldn’t touch it
 
including all dividends BEN is down 25% ytd .

it has averaged a loss of 7% a year for the last 5 years and it has lost money for 10 years now

it’s ten year cagr return is minus 1% and that is including all dividends

wouldn’t touch it
Good research MJ. Being I have no intention of investing in BEN, I didn't dig that far. I knew you'd be on it though. :LOL:
 
Don't know why the dividend stock discussion is like opening up a hornet's nest. Don't think most people believe the dividends are free money, but good growth dividend stocks are the backbone of the market. We are in a fund that has beat the S & P for over a decade and has had a 12% dividend growth rate. This year, its down, but down far less than the market and other basic index funds... the dividends so far are up.

Personally I detest seeing the wide swings of a basic broad based fund.

To each his own -
 
Don't know why the dividend stock discussion is like opening up a hornet's nest. Don't think most people believe the dividends are free money, but good growth dividend stocks are the backbone of the market. We are in a fund that has beat the S & P for over a decade and has had a 12% dividend growth rate. This year, its down, but down far less than the market and other basic index funds... the dividends so far are up.

Personally I detest seeing the wide swings of a basic broad based fund.

To each his own -
Most people you will find do think of it as free money in the sense of being like interest where it is added to your base amount .

it is not , it is money withdrawn from existing share value and handed to you no differenot then drawing money from a portfolio.

the portfolio is reduced by the amount of the withdrawal so it’s a wash .

few understand this…..

reinvesting when stocks are down also adds nothing more to the equation either .

how often have you heard the myth getting paid to wait ?

it’s a wash .

only new money added can take advantage of buying when prices are lower .

reinvesting only puts back the same dollars you had working for you …if you don’t reinvest then you made a withdrawal and have less dollars in that investment compounding
 


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