Forget Yield -- Dividend Growth Is The Metric That Matters For Retirement Income

Income investors had a little scare in May and June. Bond prices took a tumble and dragged down assets that have come to be viewed as bond substitutes—including popular dividend-paying stocks, MLPs and REITs.

Now that the dust has settled and the income markets have regained some semblance of normalcy, let’s take a step back and review the case for income stocks.  With the Fed’s quantitative easing eventually coming to an end and with bond yields likely to rise in the years ahead, does it still make sense to look to the stock market for income?  Or might investors be better off buying and rolling over a bond ladder to meet their income needs? READ MORE

Disclosure: Long O, WMT

TAGS: [O] [WMT] [JNJ]

Dividend Investors Should Ignore Price Fluctuations

In this day and age we are bombarded with stock market information anywhere we go. You can find stock prices on many TV channels, newspapers, the internet and mobile phones or tablets. This excess of information creates information overload which creates the urge to buy and sell stocks in nanoseconds. This could prove hazardous to your wealth however. Research has shown that investors who actively trade the markets generate lower returns that index funds. In fact, investors would be better suited to just ignore price fluctuations and simply focus on fundamentals. READ MORE

Disclosure: Long WMT, MCD,ABT

TAGS: [KO] [WMT] [MCD] [JNJ] [ABT] [PG]

Dividend Growth Investing is a Perfect Strategy for Young Investors

Imagine your perfect day. You wake up when you are rested, without the need of any alarm clocks. You then do some working out , followed by having a nice healthy breakfast. You then read at your leisure, have a lunch later in the day to beat the 11:30 – 1 pm crowds, and then review your brokerage accounts. You notice dividends from several companies are deposited today, and you decide to transfer them to your checking account. You check for any major items concerning your portfolio holdings, and spend a few hours researching a new dividend stock.

After that you get more time to concentrate on your activities, be it volunteering at the local homeless shelter, mentoring high school students, learning a new language or simply catching up on some good books. Later that day, you might decide to enjoy a few with your mates/gals. This dream is brought to you by dividend investing.  READ MORE

Disclosure: I am long KMR

TAGS: [KMI] [KO] [PM] [PG] [JNJ] [KMR]

A Reminder Of Why You Stick With Dividend Stocks

Sorry for the long delay since my last post. I've been very busy and I've had little time to dedicate to original posts of my own. I'm slowly working on analyzing additional banking stocks to consider for my dividend growth portfolio and hope to have that completed soon. In the meantime, here is a Seeking Alpha article from an author I've enjoyed reading.

One of the unfortunate side effects of buying an overvalued stock is that, almost by definition, there will be a period of time in which the total return rate that the investor enjoys will likely trail the growth rate of the firm (provided prices are rational and do not transition from "overvalued" to "more overvalued"). This fact can make it worthwhile to pose the following question: If I currently own a stock that is trading above a price that I would be willing to pay to purchase additional shares, what is the point of continuing to hold it? READ MORE

Disclosure: I have no position in the stocks mentioned in this article

TAGS: [CVX] [JNJ] [PG] [XOM]