Is Your Equity Dividend Income Already High Enough?

[TheWizard]

No. It's only $13M.

Ouch, I need to have more coffee earlier...

 

[Jimq]

I never set out to be a dividend investor. About 20 years ago, I simply started buying quality dividend-paying stocks. Today, I have roughly twice as much money in my taxable accounts as I do in my 401(k).

Once my kids were out of the house, about 20 years ago, I began saving very aggressively. Around that same time, I paid off my house. I retired in 2019 and still haven't touched my 401(k).

For many years, I worried that I would never have enough money for retirement. Now I have the opposite problem—more money than I know what to do with, which is certainly a good problem to have.

Recently, I calculated the dividends generated across all of my accounts and was surprised to find they exceed $100,000 per year. I never really planned for that outcome—it just happened through consistent saving, investing, and letting time do its work.

I keep about five years' worth of cash on hand and invest the rest aggressively. At this point, I may need to start spending money on some fun and perhaps even a few foolish things.

 

[Midpack]

Dividends, interest, social security and RMDs way more than cover our spending. Can’t say I planned it that way, but here we are. I used to study withdrawal methodology, but it’s out of my hands after all.

 

[MRG]

By the way, my Merrill Edge Web page has a screen where all the income is totaled up across all accounts for me to see without doing any work. 78% of my investable assets are with Merrill Edge.

That sounds very interesting. I don't think I can get that view at Fidelity. Monthly income per account, sure. I don't seem to get any more granular than that.

Most graphical reporting tools support drill down into the underlying data. I thought it was a part of the report definition too allow drill downs. Somewhere in my past I was involved with a reporting system, those were dark days.

 

[RetiredHappy]

That sounds very interesting. I don't think I can get that view at Fidelity. Monthly income per account, sure. I don't seem to get any more granular than that.

Most graphical reporting tools support drill down into the underlying data. I thought it was a part of the report definition too allow drill downs. Somewhere in my past I was involved with a reporting system, those were dark days.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for. With Fidelity, when you view your positions and click on dividends, it gives you a breakdown of annual estimated dividends of every position, and total per account, and with a grand total at the bottom. It is annual and not monthly.

 

[MRG]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for. With Fidelity, when you view your positions and click on dividends, it gives you a breakdown of annual estimated dividends of every position, and total per account, and with a grand total at the bottom. It is annual and not monthly.

Im aware of the prediction. Its very inaccurate for certain securities. Like anything without a years history, MLPI, for example. It also has problems on Ex Date.

I want them to tell me what's been received from where. The data exists in my history, they're just not exposing it via reporting.

 

[COcheesehead]

The only place Fidelity gives you a reasonably accurate income summary is under the Performance tab. It will show you interest and dividends, monthly and annually. Under the dividend tab it leaves out interest and only shows annual total of dividends.
Click Performance, then Investment income - see all. It displays it in a table.