Get Rich with Dividends Archives - Wealthy Retirement https://wealthyretirement.com/tag/get-rich-with-dividends/ Retire Rich... Retire Early. Fri, 07 Apr 2023 19:03:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 Let’s Hear It for Marc Lichtenfeld! https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/lets-hear-it-for-marc-lichtenfeld/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/lets-hear-it-for-marc-lichtenfeld/#respond Sat, 08 Apr 2023 15:30:06 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=30460 Let’s hear it for our fearless leader, Chief Income Strategist Marc Lichtenfeld!

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I’d like to take a break from our regularly scheduled content to do something that Chief Income Strategist Marc Lichtenfeld would normally never let me do…

Make it all about him.

You see, this was a big week for Marc…

On Tuesday, the third edition of his No. 1 bestseller Get Rich with Dividends was finally released.

Previous editions of his book have been translated into four other languages, including Japanese. And in 2016, Get Rich with Dividends was named Book of the Year by the Institute for Financial Literacy.

The third edition was fully revised and updated to reflect the ever-changing nature of the stock market. It even has a new chapter on dividend-paying cryptocurrencies.

It hit bestseller status almost immediately.

Image of Get Rich with Dividends listing on Amazon

In his review of the book, Larry Kudlow, host of Kudlow on Fox Business Network, said, “This is the type of financial education you just don’t get in school.”

If you haven’t already ordered your copy of Get Rich with Dividends, then this is your sign to do it. Click here now.

This was also a big week for Marc because it was the 10th anniversary of his newsletter, The Oxford Income Letter.

In a recent survey, his readers sent me pages and pages of praise and thanks for Marc and his hard work over the last decade.

Here’s what a few of them said…

“My investing has significantly benefitted from Marc’s recommendations, which I have followed for decades, and continue to do so, because he’s the best.” – J.S.

“I have read many different articles over the years by many investment advisors. When I found Marc years ago, he became my most favorite of all time… I look forward to State of the Market every week because of the lighthearted attitude Marc brings and the funny video clips his staff comes up with.” – L.C.

“Marc has taught me how to build a portfolio to retire with compounding dividends, fixed income with bonds and stocks, and supplementing my income in other ways.” – B.M.

“Marc has brought clarity and common sense to my financial life.” – Anonymous

“Marc has a great newsletter and has not only made me a lot of money but has made me more confident about the market and investing.” – J.G.

I could go on… but you get the picture.

I’ll even add my own testimonial to the mix.

In the six years that I’ve known Marc, he has personally helped me become more financially savvy. Before I started working with him, I had no clue what a dividend reinvestment plan, or DRIP, was.

The first thing I did after learning this from Marc was call up my financial advisor and say, “Hey, can you set this up?” Now I’m putting the power of compounding dividends to work in my portfolio and saving for my future.

So, Marc, from me and all of your readers, we just want to say thank you.

If you have a minute, I’d love to know how investing alongside Marc has benefited you.

Simply leave a comment here. I promise that I’ll read every single response and will share your stories with our fearless Chief Income Strategist.

Here’s to another 10 years!

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Why This “Dividend Guy” Relies on Bonds https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/stay-rich-with-bonds/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/stay-rich-with-bonds/#respond Wed, 29 Mar 2023 20:30:03 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=28088 You need some stability in your portfolio...

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If you’ve read my Safety Net column or my other work on Wealthy Retirement, you know I’m the dividend guy.

I believe so strongly in the power of investing in Perpetual Dividend Raisers that I spent two years writing Get Rich with Dividends to show investors why they must include this wealth- and income-building machine in their portfolios.

I write about dividend-growth stocks here and in various other places every week. I invest in these types of stocks for myself and for my kids.

So it may surprise you to know that I also own some bonds.

I have a mix of bonds, including corporate, Treasury and municipal bonds.

My Treasurys have extremely short maturities – less than a year. I basically treat them as a place to park my cash but earn a little extra income.

My corporates and municipals also have short maturities but not as short as those of the Treasurys. I’ll typically buy bonds with three-year or shorter maturities. Since we’re in a rising rate environment, I don’t want to be locked in at a lower interest rate for too long.

Most of the time when I buy bonds, I plan on owning them until maturity. I’m not interested in trading them.

Sure, if I get a spike in the price above par (the price at which the bond will be redeemed at maturity), I may consider selling early. But generally, I’m buying the bond to collect a consistent stream of income with the guarantee (in a Treasury) or near guarantee (in a municipal or investment-grade corporate) of getting my money back.

The important thing to remember when owning bonds is that you get the par value of the bond back at maturity… no matter what the bond, bond market or economy is doing.

For example, let’s say you buy a bond at par value ($1,000) yielding 4% that matures in two years. That means you’ll collect 4% interest each year and receive your $1,000 back at maturity.

If next year the bond declines in value to $900, that doesn’t matter. Because at maturity, you’ll get your $1,000 back. And you’ll still collect 4% interest. The interest rate you’ll receive does not fluctuate with the price of the bond.

I like that kind of stability for a small portion of my portfolio.

I keep my bond holdings fairly small because I’m still building wealth. I have years to go until retirement. Investors who have a lower tolerance for stock market risk might want to have a larger percentage of their portfolio invested in bonds than I do.

If you’re interested in bonds, I do NOT recommend bond funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These investments will lose value as interest rates rise. Individual bonds may also lose value, but at maturity, investors will get their money back. There is no maturity on a bond fund or ETF, so you will very likely lose money in a rising rate environment.

It’s important to note that your bond positions aren’t likely to grow your wealth much, unless you buy bonds that are undervalued. You’re not going to get rich buying bonds. But you may stay rich.

Bonds are a useful way to generate some good income while preserving your capital. Just keep your maturities short while rates are still rising and buy bonds that are high quality.

Take it from the dividend guy.

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The Simplest Strategy for Making Money in the Market https://wealthyretirement.com/dividend-investing/simplest-strategy-making-money-in-market/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/dividend-investing/simplest-strategy-making-money-in-market/#respond Tue, 10 Jan 2023 21:30:48 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=30003 If you want to make good money in the stock market, it all comes down to this.

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Over the weekend, a friend told me his teenage daughter is getting interested in investing and asked for some basic advice.

A few hours later, another friend texted me, asking how he can “get rich with dividends.”

For people who have never invested, the markets can seem like a mysterious and intimidating force – one that can gobble up their money at any moment. But the fact is, investing doesn’t have to be complicated.

The secret to making money in the long term is extraordinarily simple…

Compounding.

When you invest and let your dividends and gains compound, the returns can be outstanding. To make it even simpler and easily digestible, I’ve created a strategy for selecting stocks in order to achieve excellent long-term results. It’s called the 10-11-12 System.

The goal with the 10-11-12 System is to generate 11% yields within 10 years. If you’re reinvesting the dividends, we’re aiming for a 12% average annual total return over 10 years.

Twelve percent may not sound like much, but it more than triples your money in 10 years. And it grows your wealth by 10 times over 20 years.

A 12% average annual return beats the pants off the market and the overwhelming majority of professional money managers.

The 10-11-12 System focuses on investing in what I call Perpetual Dividend Raisers – companies that raise their dividend every year.

The strategy has three important components: dividend yield, dividend growth and time. To earn 11% yields and 12% average annual total returns, you need to invest in stocks with decent starting yields (usually 4% or higher) and strong dividend growth, and you need to stay invested for years.

The higher the starting yield, the lower the dividend growth can be and vice versa.

I caution investors not to go for the highest yields they can find. Companies with high yields can be very risky. We’re aiming for quality companies that have long histories of raising their dividends every year and will very likely continue to do so.

For investors collecting dividends in cash, they’ll receive a raise every year. And if the companies boost their dividend by a meaningful amount, that increase should keep up with or beat inflation.

Investors who don’t need the cash right away should reinvest their dividends so that their investment compounds. The dividends will buy more shares, which will generate more dividends, which will buy more shares and so on…

At some point in the future, if the investor then needs to collect the dividends instead of reinvesting, all of those additional shares that were purchased will result in a higher cash payout.

Additionally, a company that is raising its dividend every year most likely has strong cash flows and growing earnings, which will result in not only higher payouts to shareholders but an increasing stock price.

The numbers can get quite large.

Ten years ago, I launched The Oxford Income Letter. I recommended Texas Instruments (Nasdaq: TXN). The stock has returned 564%. A month later, I recommended Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX). It has returned 451%. That’s the power of investing in Perpetual Dividend Raisers.

It all comes down to this…

If you want to make good money in the market, own quality stocks of companies that raise their dividend every year. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

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The ONE Thing You Should Do in 2023 https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/the-one-thing-you-should-do-in-2023/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/market-trends/the-one-thing-you-should-do-in-2023/#respond Tue, 03 Jan 2023 21:30:14 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=29963 If you’re a new investor, start now. If you’re experienced, continue putting money to work.

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While speaking at a conference in Tokyo last month, I mentioned that I started investing when I was 22 years old. During the question-and-answer session, I was asked what motivated me to invest at such a young age.

My answer: “Fear.”

I wasn’t making much money in my first job out of school, working for a small ad agency in very expensive New York City. At the time, I couldn’t imagine how I’d ever retire. When I stumbled across a few investment articles that outlined how much my money could grow over the long term, I had my answer.

I started right away, and I haven’t stopped since. I started small. I was making only $18,000 a year – before taxes. But that $100 or so I invested each time I had it was the initial seed that made my portfolio grow to what it is today.

What You Can Do

No one knows for sure how the market will perform in 2023. But the most important thing you can do for your wealth and your family is invest this year.

If you’re a new investor, start now. If you’re experienced, continue putting money to work.

It doesn’t matter whether you believe the country or world is falling apart, a recession is imminent, or the market is overvalued or undervalued.

We know definitively that time is the most important element to an investor’s success. The longer you’re invested, the more wealth you’ll accumulate.

Can the market be scary?

Absolutely. Sometimes it goes down and it can make your stomach feel like you ate a bad batch of clams casino. But consider…

  • From 1974 to 2017, the market generated negative five-year returns in just seven out of those 44 years. And the largest annualized loss over five years was just 2%.
  • During the same period, the average five-year annualized gain in the other 37 years was nearly 11%. The median was 14%, which would double your money every six years.
  • Since 1975, the market has ended the year down only 11 times out of 47.
  • Since 1927, over 10-year periods, the market has been down only seven times. Each occurrence was when the 10-year period ended during the Great Depression or Great Recession. So you would’ve had to have had historically terrible timing to lose money over a 10-year period in the last 95 years.

And remember, during all of those periods, we had war, political unrest, financial disasters and plenty of other reasons to believe everything was rotten. And yet the market continued to chug higher, posting excellent long-term results.

How to Do It

My go-to strategy is investing in dividend growth stocks. My goal, using my proprietary 10-11-12 System – featured in my book Get Rich with Dividends and my newsletter, The Oxford Income Letter – is to generate 12% average annual total returns with dividends reinvested.

If you were to earn 12% per year, look at how your money would grow. An investment of $10,000 earning 12% per year would be worth…

  • $17,623 in five years
  • $31,058 in 10 years
  • $54,375 in 15 years
  • $96,463 in 20 years
  • $170,000 in 25 years.

And as I’ve shown you, the odds of the market cooperating over five years are very strong. Over 10 years, it’s practically a lock – unless that 10-year period ends during a financial calamity.

Remember, people still made money when they were invested during the Great Depression and Great Recession as long as they didn’t take their money out near the bottom. If you had withdrawn your funds in 2010, shortly after the Great Recession ended, you’d have still made money.

If you’re new to investing, you don’t have to do it all at once. Start with a little bit now, and add more to your portfolio either once per month or once per quarter. If you’ve already invested, continue to add funds on a regular basis.

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results, but nearly a century of data is a pretty good sample size.

You don’t have to be 22 years old to take advantage of what the market has to offer. Even growing your portfolio by 76% over five years can make a very meaningful difference in your and your family’s life.

The most important financial decision you can make in 2023 is to ignore all of the news and invest now.

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Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/are-you-smarter-than-a-fifth-grader/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/are-you-smarter-than-a-fifth-grader/#respond Sat, 23 Jul 2022 15:30:34 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=29166 It’s so easy, a 10-year-old can do it.

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In fifth grade, Chief Income Strategist Marc Lichtenfeld’s son set up an account following the system that Marc outlines in his book Get Rich with Dividends.

The strategy is Marc’s 10-11-12 System. It shows investors how to earn 11% yields within 10 years or 12% average annual returns in 10 years with dividends reinvested.

Eleven years later, and Marc’s son didn’t earn 12% per year…

He earned more than 13%.

In this week’s episode of State of the Market, Marc demonstrates how easy his system is to follow (after all, a 10-year-old could understand it).

He also shares the three places where he encourages investors – including his now-21-year-old son – to park their cash.

Tune in to this week’s State of the Market above.

Good investing,

Rachel

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How to Be a Smart Speculator in a Tough Market https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/how-to-be-a-smart-speculator-in-a-tough-market/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/how-to-be-a-smart-speculator-in-a-tough-market/#respond Mon, 11 Jul 2022 20:30:49 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=29085 Play both sides of the market...

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I have two sides of me that are almost polar opposites, and they often surprise people, depending on how well they know me.

In my everyday life, I’m laid back. Most things roll off my shoulders. And I’m never the guy who talks just to hear himself speak.

On the other hand, I’m the lead singer in a rock ‘n’ roll band and am one of the top boxing ring announcers in the sport, where my job is to whip the crowd into a frenzy.

My investing strategies mirror my dual personality.

Most people know me as the dividend guy. After all, I wrote the international bestselling book on the subject – Get Rich with Dividends. I strongly recommend investing in dividend growth stocks. I pound the table on it whenever I can. It’s a steady and reliable way of generating income and growing wealth.

But once I know the long term is taken care of, my rock ‘n’ roll side comes out…

And I speculate using options.

Some investors have heard that options are too risky. And options can be risky if they’re used incorrectly. They can be volatile, and their prices can move sharply in a short period of time.

That’s why I prefer to trade small amounts of options that are each priced for less than $5 – options that I call “penny options.”

These are not options on penny stocks. Penny options are inexpensive options on quality companies.

The benefit to trading penny options is that an investor can speculate while lowering the amount of capital they have at risk.

If an investor bought 100 shares of a $50 stock, the purchase would cost $5,000. But if the same investor bought one call option (call options control 100 shares), it may cost $5 per share, or $500 for the total investment.

If the stock goes up, the call will make money – usually giving an investor a higher percentage gain than they’d get with the stock.

For example, if an investor owns 100 shares of stock at $50 and the stock goes to $55, they’d make $500, or 10% on their money. If the same investor owns one call contract instead, the call could be worth $10, meaning the investor would make the same $500 profit but 100% on their money. The investor had the same size gain as they would with stock, but with 90% less money at risk.

With penny options, you get all of the upside of stocks with significantly fewer dollars at risk than if you buy stocks outright.

And with inflation surging and the market giving investors a hard time, we’re all looking for ways to put some extra dollars in our account without taking on much risk.

You should continue to be a thoughtful, deliberate long-term investor. But if you have that rock ‘n’ roll side (and most of us do, no matter our age), then trading cheap options is a smart way to speculate. You can make just as much (or more) as you would with stocks, but with far less capital at risk.

That’s a smart way to speculate.

Rock on.

Good investing,

Marc

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Hitting Your Goals in Retirement https://wealthyretirement.com/dividend-investing/secret-path-to-wealthy-retirement/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/dividend-investing/secret-path-to-wealthy-retirement/#respond Mon, 04 Apr 2022 20:30:16 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=28178 What a change one little difference can make...

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I was recently forwarded an email by Julia Guth, CEO of The Oxford Club and Chair of the Board of The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic. The email came from one of Julia’s friends who stated their goal was to “completely live off of dividends and continue to support the Clinic,” which provides healthcare and helps the community with clean water, nutrition and other services in Nicaragua.

It’s a fantastic goal – to be able to live off the income produced by your investments and help those who need it.

My goal – whether I’m writing about dividends here in Wealthy Retirement, coaching you on them in my book Get Rich with Dividends or making specific stock recommendations in my newsletter, The Oxford Income Letter – is to help investors do exactly what Julia’s friend hopes to achieve.

I want to help you generate enough passive income from dividends that you never have to worry about money again and can do the things you yearn to do, like travel, buy some new toys or support worthy organizations.

Since it’s tax time, I’ll put this out there too – if your income is derived mostly from dividends and held in a taxable account, you’ll be taxed at the lower dividend tax rate than the likely higher ordinary income tax rate.

If the dividend payers are in a Roth IRA, you won’t pay any tax on the money.

If the stocks are held in a regular IRA or 401(k), you will be taxed at the ordinary income rate.

So how do you get to the point where you can live off dividend income?

Obviously, a lot will have to do with your lifestyle. But the longer you invest, the more your money will grow.

The key is to own Perpetual Dividend Raisers. These are stocks that raise their dividends every year. And you want to own the ones that raise their dividends by a meaningful amount so the increases are at least keeping up with inflation.

If you invest $100,000 in a portfolio with a starting yield of 4%, dividends growing at an 8% annual clip and stocks performing in line with the S&P 500 historical average, after 10 years, your investment would be worth $229,032 and you’d be earning $7,996 annually in dividends.

After 20 years, your nest egg would be $524,559 and your annual dividends would be $17,262.

With a 30-year time horizon, you’re looking at $1,201,414, which will generate $37,269 in annual dividends.

Now watch what happens if you reinvest your dividends. If you don’t need the cash spun off by these stocks yet, you can automatically reinvest the dividends. You just tell your broker that’s what you want to do. It’s very simple.

When you reinvest the dividends, you automatically buy more stock with the dividends (nothing out of pocket). You buy more shares and generate more dividends to buy more shares and generate even more dividends…

Look how big the numbers get when you reinvest.

After 10 years of reinvesting, instead of the solid $229,032 producing $7,996 in annual dividends, you would have $334,911 that’s spinning off $11,588. At the 20-year mark, you would have $1,097,596 in your account, nearly double the $524,559 if you didn’t reinvest. And the income generated totals $35,824, which is more than double the $17,262 in the earlier example.

At 30 years of reinvesting, you’d be sitting on $3,524,108, nearly triple the $1,201,414 you would have if you didn’t reinvest. And you’d be collecting $107,572 per year in dividends – on an original investment of $100,000.

Chart: Annual Dividend Income of Our Reinvested $100,000
Keep in mind, you can stop reinvesting dividends anytime you need and start taking them as income. So if you’re reinvesting dividends, your circumstances change and you need the cash flow from your dividends, simply quit reinvesting and start collecting the dividends.

If you don’t have the time horizon to reinvest dividends, Perpetual Dividend Raisers will still help you a great deal.

Imagine getting a big 8% or 10% bump in your income every year. Maybe that will happen with Social Security if inflation is sky-high. With Perpetual Dividend Raisers, it happens year after year, boosting your buying power.

The best part about living off your dividends is never having to touch the principal since your nest egg spins off enough income every year to live on.

Whether you’re years away from retirement or you’re already retired, Perpetual Dividend Raisers should be an important part of your retirement plan. Maybe they’ll help you end up like Julia’s friend, carefree about your investments and supporting organizations you care about.

Good investing,

Marc

P.S. If you’d like to see the good work done by The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic or help out with a tax-deductible donation, click here.

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The Best Argument Against Dividends Doesn’t Hold Water https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/the-advantages-of-dividend-investing/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/the-advantages-of-dividend-investing/#respond Fri, 14 Jan 2022 21:30:46 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=27721 Dividends and earnings go together better than peanut butter and jelly...

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The most common argument I hear from investors who aren’t interested in dividends is that the company should be able to find something better to do with its cash than give it back to shareholders.

They say that the funds should be used to grow the business either by investing in the business itself or by acquiring new ones.

As President Joe Biden says, “That’s a bunch of malarkey!”

Let’s look at why that argument doesn’t hold water.

Obviously, I’m not opposed to a management team investing in its business for growth or even buying other companies, so long as it will add to long-term profitability and cash flow.

But often, executives spend shareholders’ capital on ill-fated acquisitions because the money is there.

In my book Get Rich with Dividends, I mentioned a discussion I had with then-chief financial officer Scott Kingsley of Community Bank System (NYSE: CBU). He explained to me why the company has a policy of consistently returning capital back to shareholders in the form of dividends.

He said, “We are very ‘capital efficiency’ conscious. We believe ‘hoarding’ capital to potentially reinvest via an acquisition or some other use can lead to less-than-desirable habits.”

He went on to say that because of the company’s dividend policy, when management wants to make an acquisition, it usually must go to the capital markets for financing, which forces it to closely examine whether the transaction really makes sense.

Let’s Make a (Bad) Deal

How many horrible acquisitions can you name?

Chances are that management made them because it had the cash on hand, so what the heck? Got to spend it on something, right?

In 1994, Quaker Oats (now part of Pepsi) bought Snapple for $1.7 billion. Just three years later, the company sold Snapple for $300 million, losing 82% of its investment. That means $25 per share of Quaker Oats’ shareholders’ money went out the door and into the pockets of Snapple’s owners. Would Quaker Oats’ shareholders have preferred a dividend instead? I’m not a mind reader, but I’m going to guess yes.

Similarly, in 2007, Clorox (NYSE: CLX), which does have a solid track record of returning cash to shareholders, paid $925 million to acquire Burt’s Bees. Four years later, it took an impairment charge on the acquisition of $250 million, or $2 per share.

Would Clorox’s shareholders have appreciated a $2 per share dividend? I’m sure they would have.

Now, that doesn’t mean Clorox would have issued a $2 dividend had it paid the right price for Burt’s Bees, but you can see that companies can be easily tempted to spend shareholders’ money, no matter the price, in order to land a prized acquisition.

Dividends = Stronger Earnings

Studies have shown that companies that pay dividends have more reliable earnings than those that don’t.

Douglas J. Skinner and Eugene F. Soltes, professors at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, respectively, concluded…

We find that the reported earnings of dividend-paying firms are more persistent than those of other firms and that this relationship is remarkably stable over time. We also find that dividend payers are less likely to report losses and those losses that they do report tend to be transitory losses driven by special items.

So non-dividend-paying companies may use their cash to acquire growth, but dividend-paying companies have stronger and more consistent earnings. And a vital rule of investing is that stock prices follow earnings.

If earnings are better and more reliable for dividend-paying companies, that should mean dividend-paying companies’ stocks perform better.

And we know that they do. Companies that have grown or initiated dividends have outperformed the general market by 170.6% over the past 45 years, while the companies that did not pay dividends barely budged over the same time period.

Dividend stocks beat the pants off those that don’t pay dividends, and shareholders receive income while their stocks are in the process of issuing said beating.

So the next time a friend says a company should have better things to do with its cash than pay dividends, wish them luck with their investing and just know that you’ll likely be picking up the tab for lunch in a few years – because you’ll be the one who can afford it.

Good investing,

Marc

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Should You Swipe Right on Buybacks? https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/stock-buybacks-good-for-investors/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/financial-literacy/stock-buybacks-good-for-investors/#respond Mon, 15 Nov 2021 21:30:35 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=27392 Find an investment that treats you like Mr. or Ms. Right, not Mr. or Ms. Right Now...

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There’s a common comparison that equates stock buybacks to dating and dividends to marriage. I think that’s unfair to dating. Some people date hoping for a little action. But many people date looking for love and a long-term relationship.

I’d compare buybacks to Tinder, the dating app that is mostly used for one-night stands or casual hookups. See something you like? Swipe right, and you could have Barry White playing in the background in a few hours (though, I doubt most people who use Tinder own any Barry White albums).

While buybacks are popular, they’re often a terrible use of cash.

Share buybacks are a short-term catalyst to get investors interested in a company’s stock. It’s like putting on a tight-fitting outfit before a date.

A stock buyback is exactly what it sounds like. A company buys shares of its own stock in the open market. The purpose of this is to reduce the number of shares, thereby increasing the earnings per share.

If a company earns $10 million and has 10 million shares outstanding, it earns $1 per share. If it buys back 1 million shares, now it has 9 million shares and the $10 million in earnings are divided by 9 million shares, which comes out to $1.11.

So the company’s earnings per share jumped 11% even though its actual profits stayed flat. That’s management putting tight jeans on earnings.

Dividends, on the other hand, are usually a long-term commitment. When management pays a dividend, it is setting expectations that investors will continue to get paid well into the future, even when things aren’t perfect. Management knows that if it cuts the dividend, the stock will likely get punished.

Your beloved may leave the seat up or squeeze the toothpaste the wrong way, but you know they’ll be there for you in sickness and in health. Same with dividends. A company may hit a rough patch and have some weak quarters, but if it’s managed correctly, investors will still receive a dividend regardless of what the stock price is doing.

And get this, stock buyback announcements aren’t even binding. It’s like setting up a date and then deciding not to show up.

When a company announces a buyback, it is not under obligation to actually buy back the shares. It can do it at management’s discretion.

And that discretion is up to management that has a track record of buying back shares at the absolute worst times – typically when stocks are high.

As you can see in the chart below, buybacks are at their highest when the market is at its highs, like in 2007. They are steadily rising during the current bull market.

S&P 500 Buybacks by Quarter

When the market tanked in 2008 and early 2009 and in early 2020, buybacks dried up. That’s precisely when companies should have been repurchasing their stock – when it was a bargain – instead of today with stocks at all-time highs.

When stocks crater, that’s the time for companies to repurchase shares – but that’s not what they do.

Because managements typically buy back shares at high prices, companies with buybacks have underperformed since 2009.

Professors Murali Jagannathan and Clifford P. Stephens of the University of Missouri and Michael S. Weisbach of the University of Arizona looked at an earlier period. They found that during the booms and busts of the 1980s and 1990s, repurchases increased during rising markets and fell during declines – the exact opposite of what you’d hope managements would do.

These three professors concluded, “Dividends are paid by firms with higher ‘permanent’ operating cash flows, while repurchases are used by firms with higher ‘temporary,’ non-operating cash flows.”

And in my book Get Rich with Dividends, I quoted a study by researchers Azi Ben-Rephael, Jacob Oded and Avi Wohl that showed managements of large companies do not buy back shares at lower-than-average market prices because large companies are “more interested in the disbursement of free cash.” In other words, they just want to show the market they are doing something with the cash instead of making repurchases that create shareholder value.

Since 1936, dividends have been responsible for roughly 40% of stocks’ total returns. Over the next decade, BofA Global Research expects that figure to increase.

That said, some people do find true love on Tinder. In the same vein, there are some companies that take their fiscal responsibility seriously and repurchase shares at opportune times when their stocks fall. But most companies buying back shares are simply slapping on a coat of makeup, putting on their most flattering outfit, and treating investors like Mr. and Ms. Right Now instead of Mr. and Ms. Right.

If you’re looking for long-term outperformance, ignore buybacks and invest in companies paying dividends.

Good investing,

Marc

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Fight Back Against Inflation With Perpetual Dividend Raisers https://wealthyretirement.com/retirement-planning/dividend-investing-solution-inflation/?source=app https://wealthyretirement.com/retirement-planning/dividend-investing-solution-inflation/#respond Sat, 25 Sep 2021 15:30:41 +0000 https://wealthyretirement.com/?p=27103 Protect your portfolio from inflation...

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State of the Market

Back in January, Chief Income Strategist Marc Lichtenfeld made a bold prediction for readers of his Oxford Income Letter: Inflation would rise higher and faster in 2021 than many people expected.

Now, with the U.S. inflation rate tapering off for the month at more than three times January’s reading and with prices at the grocery store and at the pump taking their toll on our wallets, many Americans would agree that rising prices are a serious problem.

But not to worry, says the Fed. It’s just “transitory” inflation – it won’t last.

In this week’s episode of State of the Market, Marc challenges that claim.

Marc argues that as trillions of new dollars flood the economy, and as rates remain at rock-bottom levels, inflation could go even higher than the 5%-plus reading we’re seeing now.

And when that means prices for everything from takeout to lifesaving medical care are set to soar, retirees and pre-retirees need to take notice.

Luckily, Marc has been preparing readers for this moment ever since he wrote his bestseller Get Rich with Dividends.

Investing in Perpetual Dividend Raisers – companies that consistently increase their dividend payments to shareholders – is a surefire way to generate more money every year and limit inflation’s toll on your retirement account.

In this week’s State of the Market video, Marc highlights two Perpetual Dividend Raisers, including one that boasts both ever-increasing income and impressive 10-year price appreciation.

Click here to watch.

Good investing,

Mable

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