How to make money on dividend stocks

how to make money on dividend stocks

Buying dividend stocks can be a great approach for investors looking to generate income or those simply looking to build wealth by reinvesting dividend payments. It can also be appealing for investors looking for lower-risk investments, which can often be found in dividend stocks. But there can be pitfalls along the way, and dividend stocks can be risky if you don’t know what to look. This is because of the two-pronged mnoey of the way makr investing rewards investors: recurring dividend payments and capital appreciation. Let’s look at an example. What you choose to do with your dividends is up to you: You could reinvest them in shares of the company, buy stock in a different company, or buy some pizza. Regardless of whether the company’s stock price went up or down, you receive those dividend payments so long as the business is able to support. The beauty of dividend stocks is in the predictable nature of at least part of your returns, particularly if you own a diversified collection of dividend stocks across industries and risk profiles.

One of the basic fundamentals of good investing involves making money from dividend-paying stocks. Too often, however, new investors don’t fully understand dividendshow dividends work, and how dividend stocks can add a stream of income to their bank account. The following overview describes the general principles behind making money from these types of investments. Companies have money to fund dividend payments once they earn a profit. The Board of Directorselected by the stockholders, or owners, has a meeting and listens to management’s recommendation about how much of the profit should be reinvested in growth, how much should be used to pay down debt, how much should be used to buy back stockand how much should be distributed out to the owners or shareholders. The last part, the money distributed to the owners, is called a dividend. The process of making money through dividend investing involves searching for companies that have a good chance of increasing their dividend payments year after year, causing more money to flow into your bank account. As sales and profits grow, so too does the dividend, at least in some cases.

If you earn dividend income outside of a retirement account, your dividends can be reinvested, used to pay household bills, send a child to college, start a business, pay for vacations, or given to charity. The more shares you own of high-quality dividend stocks, the more money you make from dividends. In effect, dividend investors collect this specific type of investment over time like a child might collect baseball cards. Done correctly, the dividend investor’s net worth and household income continue to expand and grow as time passes. Over 30, 40, 50 years or longer, it would be possible to earn a substantial amount of money each year, from dividends. To see how this works, imagine a young man named Anthony. He’s 18 years old and has just joined the workforce. He decides that he wants to start making money from dividend stocks so he begins investing whatever he can afford into shares of high quality, blue-chip companies that show healthy growth, strong balance sheets, and which have a history of increasing the dividend paid to stockholders over time. He wants to avoid taxes so he opens a Roth IRA to hold his dividend stocks, making sure to get the maximum tax advantage by meeting the Roth IRA contribution limit each year.

how to make money on dividend stocks

Don’t Reach for the Highest Yields

Of course, I’m talking about dividend-paying stocks: Companies that reward their shareholders with routine cash payments just for owning their shares. Numerous studies have shown that investors could have handily beaten the market just by knowing nothing more than whether a stock paid a dividend or not. If you invested only in stocks that paid dividends, and eschewed all others, you’d end up with a better-than-average return, topping most professionally managed mutual funds and the stock market as a whole. Yes, it really was that simple. Over multidecade periods, dividend stocks have simply crushed stocks that don’t pay dividends. Of course, investors can do even better by digging deeper than just dividend yields. In the article below, we’ll explore the world of high-yield stocks for long-term investors, and how to create a stock portfolio that generates passive income that can grow over time. We’ll start with the basics and work our way out. Dividends are money that a company pays its shareholders, typically every month, quarter, or year. Because many established companies earn more money than they can reinvest back into their business, they choose to return some of the extra cash to shareholders rather than stuff it under the mattress or plow it into unprofitable research and development. Apple is an excellent example of a highly profitable company that earns far more than it could ever reasonably reinvest back into its business. But Apple simply earns too much money to find a productive use for all of it. At a certain point, a company simply runs out of good ways to reinvest its earnings power. But the returns are likely to be poor, so shareholders would rather receive a dividend than watch their money disappear on silly science projects.

The complete guide to building a dividend portfolio for passive income from the stock market.

One of the ways to make money with stocks is by investing in companies that pay dividends. Dividends are profits the company distributes to shareholders. The companies don’t do this out of the kindness of their hearts—a company is about making money for the owners. Dividends usually don’t represent all of a company’s profits. The company retains some portion for future use—in acquisitions or to retire debt, for example. Most companies pay dividends in the form of cash, although you may hear of occasions when a company uses stock instead. Many investors are attracted to stocks with a good history of paying dividends. These companies are usually well established and profitable, but they may not offer much in the way of growth potential. Stocks that pay dividends are attracting increased attention in because the escalating tariffs and trade wars and uncertainty they are creating in international markets is motivating some investors to seek out safety. The company’s board of directors sets the dividend at a quarterly meeting. It is important to note they are under no obligation to pay a dividend. If the company is hurting financially or the board is concerned about future prospects, it can forgo the dividend.

DIVIDENDS! — The Easiest Way to Get Rich #1


Lately it’s been hard to go wrong with dividend-paying stocks. Many companies are being generous with their payouts, and their stocks have generally performed. But if your dividend holdings look a lot like your Grandma’s—perhaps a smattering of utility and consumer-staples stocks— it’s time to update your strategy. One reason to revamp your approach: Some of the more traditional dividend-paying sectors, such as utilities and telecom services, may fare poorly when interest rates rise. What’s more, income-starved investors have been snapping up higher-yielding stocks, leaving many of these shares looking pricey.

Own 10 Rental Properties that Net You $420 Per Month Each

And investors who limit their dividend hunt to the usual suspects are overlooking some companies with great dividend-growth potential. Some stocks that Grandma never dreamed of buying—including many technology companies—have become reliable dividend payers. Income-focused fund managers who have a lot of flexibility to invest in stocks, bonds and other asset classes have lately made some big moves toward dividend-paying stocks. But they’re largely focused on finding future dividend growthnot the highest current yield.

Comments