Do you always take the dividend if it is less than your yearly spending when retired?

[NW-Bound]

I have lots of individual stocks and ETFs, in addition to some MFs from way back when.

Most of them pay dividends, and this money commingles with the cash that I have in each account. And about 25% of my stash is in cash and cash equivalents. And my cash level goes up/down due to my option selling activities and the options getting assigned.

The only way I know how much dividend I received in total is to go to Quicken -> Investing -> Portfolio -> Report -> Investment Income -> Last Year

Just did that and found out that dividend+interest income was 2% for me last year. And I withdrew less than that, so it is all good.

PS. It just occurred to me that the S&P pays only 1.3% in dividend. I got way more than that, and I am not even 100% invested. I guess I must have a lot more dividend paying stocks than I realized. I have lots of tech stocks and did not think I get that much dividend overall.

There's no way I could manage without Quicken.

PPS. I do not buy a stock for its dividend. I buy stocks based on their P/E in relation to their growth prospect. Some pay a high dividend, some don't.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donheff I have almost everything in mutual funds instead of ETFs because that's where I started out and I don't trade very often. I don't understand why ETF distributions present less of a surprise than mutual funds. Don't they both just aggregate the underlying stock distributions?

No. There is a structural difference where in a mutual fund other people selling causes you to have a declared capital gain. When other people sell their ETF shares it doesn't affect others.


https://www.investopedia.com/article...tual-funds.asp

"The ETF structure results in more tax efficiency, too. Investors in ETFs and mutual funds are taxed each year based on the gains and losses incurred within the portfolios. But ETFs engage in less internal trading, and less trading creates fewer taxable events (the creation and redemption mechanism of an ETF reduces the need for selling). So unless you invest through a 401(k) or other tax-favored vehicles, your mutual funds will distribute taxable gains to you, even if you simply held the shares. Meanwhile, with an all-ETF portfolio, the tax will generally be an issue only if and when you sell the shares. "

[Koolau]

Since I own only one individual stock, it's the only dividend stock which I "extract" the dividends from - primarily to simplify my basis calculations. Otherwise, dividends are just reinvested in my Roths or 401(k) funds.

Otherwise, I never think of dividends - I only think of overall growth of my funds. YMMV

[Badger]

All the dividends from all MF and individual stocks go into MM accounts. I am past time for the need to buy more shares of those funds/stocks. Of course if the market drops significantly I may use some of the cash for new purchases that will be part of inheritance. For the moment everything is on autopilot.


Cheers!