Can we do this dividend stock thing one more time?

[Live And Learn]

I wanted to comment MichaelB's post about interest in this discussion. I have a lot of dividend ETFs and last week (or was it the week before) when the market was down a bit I bought some DIA instead of more dividend ETFs. Was that influenced by this particular thread ? No - but its discussions like this one that have me thinking about my investment habits.

As to dividend stocks re bonds. I have a 50/50 portfolio. The bond funds reduce volatility but if rates slowly rise that would result in a slow downward slope on my bond ETF principal (rather than big stock pops) - it makes me antsy to think about it so most of my bond funds are shorter duration (half 2 year, half 5 year). I'm hoping that helps reduce the long downward slope but the yields are close to the dividend stocks, certainly different than the days when bonds would yield 2x the dividend portion of the equity market.

[redduck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud I still understand the OPs point.... My mom has had Exxon since about 1982 and Texaco since 1984 (now Chevron).... She has not worried about the ups and down of their stock price.... and has been getting dividends from them all along... It is also not bad that the stock price has increased over 2,000%.... The problem that I see is that you do not know what will cause the stock to go down big time and you have to take a loss.... look at GM vs Ford... look at JPMorgan vs Citi (or any other big bank).... Which one of those would you have sold and which ones would you have held

Stocks going down big-time? I think there usually are warning signs --unless it's something like BP's oil spills. And, I'm assuming we are talking about, big, safe stocks going down big-time. From what I've read, I look for dividend freezes, dividend cuts, and dividends discontinued. I look to see trends re: dividends to net profits. I also look to see if there have been downgrades of Value Line's safety rating and financial rating for the stock in question. There are a dozen more things to look for. These are the ones that just came to mind--and they are basic and not very sophisticated. Hopefully some members here will come along and give you (and me) better guidelines.

Another test is: Have someone ask you why you are holding a particular stock. If you find you are stammering or stuttering or looking down at your feet as you answer, maybe that stock should no longer be in your portfolio. ( I guess that last suggestion doesn't really take the place of rigorous research or due diligence).

Oh, and to answer your question about which of those four stocks I would have sold or kept: I know this isn't quite fair, but I wouldn't have owned the car manufacturers--not stable enough. As for the banks, as an individual dividend investor, I'm not sure.

As for Exxon and Chevron: they both have the highest safety and financial strength rankings from Value Line. They have been increasing their dividends a very long time. Chevron is involved in a $11 billion lawsuit with Ecuador (Ecuador is suing Chevron). I'm not sure how significant that all is.

[redduck]

My Dividend Portfolio consisting of 24 stocks and XLU (ETF utilities) finished out the year up 7.62%

[Running_Man]

Just an update to this old thread, since Feb 2014 the S&P500 is up 18 percent DVY is up 33 percent and SDOG is up 36%, double the performance of the S&P500 from the same universe of stocks.

[NW-Bound]

When I used Morningstar, it said over the period of 2/2014 till now, a $10K invested in VFINX, the S&P MF, becomes $12,911 while DVY becomes $13,549 and SDOG $13,897.

So, I do not see the large performance disparity as the above post. Some Web site is wrong?

[redduck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo ... At your advanced age why are you trying to goose your income? Duck, I think maybe you need to.

Yep. A duck gotta' goose.

[redduck]

Using Pb4uski's recommended calculator, my dividend portfolio is up 22.35% since Jan 31, 2014. Since February 28, 2014, the dividend portfolio is up 20.33%. The calculator's default for months elapsed is 12, so that is what I used. It is possible that I may have calculated incorrectly regarding the elapsed months.

[Running_Man]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound When I used Morningstar, it said over the period of 2/2014 till now, a $10K invested in VFINX, the S&P MF, becomes $12,911 while DVY becomes $13,549 and SDOG $13,897. So, I do not see the large performance disparity as the above post. Some Web site is wrong?

Yep either I entered wrong symbols or the info was wrong, sorry about that used stockcharts.com

[Chuckanut]

Is a 2-3 year period enough time to prove the superiority of any investment method or idea over a long (10+ years) period of time?