Comments on Dividend Growth Investor: Benchmarking Dividend income

Anon, The purpose is to benchmark your dividend p...

2010-06-30T17:49:50.059-07:00

Anon,

The purpose is to benchmark your dividend portfolio income to the dividend income of S&P 500 dividends. I didn't suffer drops in income in 2008, 2009 or 2010 (so far) mostly due to dividend increases and due to replacing dividend stocks sold with other dividend payers that had similar yields.

Robert,

I share your concerns that not all S&P 500 companies pay dividends. You might consider using Dow Industrials as a benchmark, as only 1 stock there doesn't pay dividends. Using SDY as a benchmark might be the best idea. Unfortunately it is difficult to find reliable historical data showing dividends. Some distributions that SDY has done include returns of capital, which distort the data.

Because there are many S&P500 stocks that do n...

2010-06-30T17:03:59.416-07:00

Because there are many S&P500 stocks that do not offer dividends, I wonder if it's the best measure. (It is, however, the one I'm using at present!) S&P Dividend Stocks (Index/ETF) might be the better choce? Is there a resource that shows dividend growth for dividend stocks, as a single list, or a look-up?

This is an interesting angle to dividend investing...

2010-06-30T04:56:12.457-07:00

This is an interesting angle to dividend investing that is worth exploring further. I'm not sure where you're going with it, though. How do the stocks that you feature stack up against the benchmark?

Thanks!