Dividend Investing Resources I Use

I am frequently asked by readers about resources I use. While I have discussed before the resources I use to monitor my holdings, and I have compiled before information on resources before, those lists are forever changing. As I have done this for over a decade, I continuously add, test and remove tools from my list. However, I also have to keep in mind the fact that this site is read by investors with varying levels of experience. Therefore, I have decided to list a few free resources that may be helpful for any dividend investor out there.

The first resource that I have been using for several years is the list of Dividend Champions, Contenders and Challengers, that used to be maintained by Dave Fish. Dave had painstakingly updated and improved on that monster spreadsheet every month for a decade! Unfortunately, Dave passed away last month. The list is now published by someone else. 

The site also includes links to some international dividend growth stock lists focusing on UK, Canada, Swedish securities.

The second resource I have leveraged is Morningstar. I have found Morningstar to be helpful in providing a quick ten year snapshot of a company’s financials. Under the following link, you can view the ten year financials for Johnson & Johnson.

Morningstar also has some good articles on general investing. They also have some newsletters targeting various strategies, which could be helpful to some readers. They had a guy named Josh Peters, who frequently had interviews on dividend investing, but he has since left to manage a dividend mutual fund.

Another helpful resource that shows historical financial information for US and Canadian companies that goes further than the past ten years is from The Globe and Mail. Here you can find a summary of the historical financials for Johnson & Johnson going as far back as 1978

Of course, this is just the beginning for you. I would go back and review quarterly press releases on the company’s website for more information on large changes in earnings per share from year to year.
Alternatively, you can use the SEC website to find old annual and quarterly financial information going as far back as 1994.  In my research, I have leveraged SEC’s website extensively to obtain information on companies that are no longer publicly traded. Those filings have a lot of detail, management comments and footnotes for the really serious full-time investor out there. I doubt most readers would benefit from reading historical footnotes, but if that is your passion, who am I to be the obstacle to your true happiness. In the case of Johnson & Johnson, you can find annual, quarterly and other SEC filings going as far back as 1994.

I have recently started using the following resources more:

Gurufocus - It shows historical data for companies I am researching, going as far back as decades. For example, I can chart earnings per share data for Johnson & Johnson going as far back as 1991. Just select a metric from the drop down menu, and you can find things like historical revenue, number of shares outstanding etc. The site also shows a good collection of articles on investing.

I have found the following resources invaluable in identifying dividend increases:

Wall Street Journal – The Wall Street Journal offers a breadth of information on a variety of topics. I find their dividend section to be very helpful in monitoring dividend increases. However, this section sometimes is late by a few days in reporting dividend increases. In addition, when companies like PepsiCo announce their intention to do a dividend increases a few months in advance, WSJ reports it when declared many weeks later.

Seeking Alpha – Seeking Alpha is quickly becoming a one stop shop for the needs of dividend investors. You have articles, comment sections and news on important topics occurring in real-time. They also have a feed of dividend news as they happen. You can learn pretty much all notable dividend news such as dividend declarations and dividend increases by scrolling through that feed. The problem is that they just decided to charge $200/year to access the site.

Street Insider - This is another source that is paid. However it offers a real-time view of dividend announcements such as dividend increases and dividend cuts. 

I used to frequent Yahoo Finance religiously over the past twenty years. The site is helpful to me, because I can create portfolios that include various metrics such as P/E ratio, dividend yields, prices etc. This makes it super easy to navigate the list of dividend champions, and screen for quality companies using my entry criteria.

In addition, I use Yahoo Finance to obtain historical quotes and dividends. I always check the data however, in case there are issues with the data.

Unfortunately, Yahoo! Finance has been unveiling new features which in my opinion have made the site less usable.

If you like to socialize and interact with other dividend investors, there are several online communities that would get the job done.

Dividend Growth Forum
Seeking Alpha comments under articles on dividend investing
Drip Investing
Motley Fool
Morningstar Income & Dividend Investing


I also want to warn you that this is not an all inclusive list of resources for dividend growth investors. I read blogs and follow people on Twitter, who frequently mention items in real-time that may not be available in other resources above. In addition, I also use the services of my broker, which shows me expected dividend increases for companies I own.

Going through all of these resources takes time and effort. This is where the value proposition of this site comes up - I read that all for you, and then synthesize the information by adding some actionable steps.

Relevant Articles:

- How to monitor your dividend investments

- Dividend Investing Resources

- How I Manage to Monitor So Many Companies

- Dividend Aristocrats List for 2018

Best Dividend Investing Articles For July 2018

For your reading enjoyment, I have highlighted several articles that the readers found of particular interest this month. I have included the article title, as well as a short description.

1) Introducing Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter
Last month, I created my own dividend investing newsletter. It features ten quality companies for the long-term each month. This newsletter features companies that I am investing in every single month. This dividend portfolio would be a great teaching exercise on building a portfolio from scratch. We would also discuss diversification, how to allocate new cash towards new or existing position and how to monitor and manage the portfolio. Subscribers of the newsletter received a report listing the ten dividend paying companies I bought last week.

2) Screening The Dividend Champions List For Bargains
I ran my screen against the list of dividend champions from June 2018, in order to identify bargains. The list of dividend champions includes companies that have managed to increase dividends to shareholders for at least 25 years in a row. The dividend champions list is more comprehensive than the list of dividend aristocrats, which is why I prefer to use it for my investing process. In this article, I discussed my approach to screening large groups of dividend growth stocks. Not surprisingly, I focus on qualitative and quantitative criteria to come up with a list of companies for further research.

3) Dividend Champions List For June 2018
I updated the list of dividend champions on June 30, 2018. I discussed the process I took to do the updates, which is mostly manual in nature. I discussed this in an effort to educate investors how to maintain their own lists if noone updates it for the community on a go forward basis. After going through the process of just updating the list of dividend champions, I have a lot of respect for the amount of work that David Fish did on a monthly basis for a decade, in updating the champions, contenders and challengers lists. He will be missed.

4) Three Dividend Growth Stocks Rewarding Shareholders With A Raise
In this article, I highlighted three dividend growth stocks with a ten year record of annual dividend increases. Those companies had raised dividends in the preceding week. I review the dividend increases that interest me, as part of my monitoring process. I own two of the three companies mentioned in the article, and recently added to my position in one of them.

5) How to retire in 10 years with dividend stocks
In this article, I shared a simple model for forecasting dividend income using a few simple inputs such as dividend yield, dividend growth and the impact of regular contributions to a dividend portfolio. While the future is seldom linear, this model gives at least a ballpark estimate of what can be expected if certain assumptions are made. When playing with models, I have found it very helpful to change assumptions, and see what the overall impact to the end result turns out to be. It is always helpful to stress test assumptions.

Relevant Articles:

- Best Dividend Investing Articles For June
- Dividend Investing Resources I Use
- Best Dividend Investing Articles For May
- Help! I have a serious spending addiction

Best Dividend Investing Articles For June

For your reading enjoyment, I have highlighted several articles that the readers found of particular interest this month. I have included the article title, as well as a short description.

Four Cheap Consumer Staples For Dividend Investors
The consumer staples sector has been hated by investors over the past year or two. There are several headwinds that appear to have depressed the share prices for many quality consumer staples with reliable dividend payments. Some of these headwinds include slowing growth, threats of product obsolescence, rising interest rate and a general decrease in investor demand for these securities. After performing some reviews, I came up with a list of companies in the consumer staples sector, which are attractively priced today. I believe that each one of these companies has sustainable dividends. Each one of those companies is also growing earnings per share, which will be helpful for future dividend growth and to increase the intrinsic value of our share investments over time. All of those companies are priced below 20 times forward earnings.

Historical Performance Of The Dividend Kings List
The dividend kings list includes the most elite dividend growth companies in the US. A dividend king is a company that has managed to increase its dividends to shareholders for at least 50 years in a row.

This is a testament to the endurance and resilience of those businesses over the past 50 years. This great track record make each dividend king an excellent case study on what makes for a successful and lasting investment. For the purposes of this article, I calculated to total returns performance per year for each group of dividend kings. I assumed that portfolios were equally weighted in a tax-deferred account that qualified for commission free trades. The results were very interesting. But I like crunching data.

Dividend Investing Resources I Use
I am frequently asked by readers about resources I use. While I have discussed before the resources I use to monitor my holdings, and I have compiled before information on resources before, those lists are forever changing. As I have done this for over a decade, I continuously add, test and remove tools from my list. However, I also have to keep in mind the fact that this site is read by investors with varying levels of experience. Therefore, I decided to list a few free resources that may be helpful for any dividend investor out there.

Five Consumer Staples to Consider On Dips
I shared a list of five consumer staples with good track records of dividend growth and solid earnings growth. Unfortunately, these shares were either overvalued or close to the top of the valuation range. In general, I prefer to buy shares at a P/E ratio below 20. However, the lower the entry price, the better my chances of earning good returns and locking in a higher yield from the start.

Question to readers:

I also wanted to ask the readers about helpful articles on dividend investing they have recently read. For this exercise, please use articles from other authors. Please feel free to email me at dividendgrowthinvestor at gmail dot com.

Relevant Articles:

- 2018 Dividend Kings List

- Dividend Aristocrats for 2018 Revealed

- Best Investing Articles For 2017
- Best Dividend Investing Articles For April

Dividend Champions, Contenders & Challengers: The most complete list of US dividend growth stocks available

A long streak of annual dividend increases is a filter to weed out unwanted companies. Companies that pay dividends are able to do that based on earnings growth. A company cannot grow dividends for 25 years in a row, if earnings are not increasing. This company is thus focusing on only the projects with the most potential, when they invest their cash.

If you put money in a dividend stock, you earn higher dividends for decades. The growing earnings stream supports the higher dividend payments, and results in intrinsic value growth over time.

Early in my journey as a dividend growth investor, I was limited to using the Dividend Aristocrats and the Dividend Achiever indexes. The dividend aristocrat index is maintained by McGraw Hill/S&P Global, who also owns the rights to the S&P 500 index. It included companies which were part of the S&P 1500 index, and which had raised dividends for at least 25 years in a row.

The index included some of the best known dividend stocks such as Coca-Cola(KO), Wal-Mart (WMT), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) to name a few. Since I was a new investor, I had a list of about 50 companies to research, which made it easier to focus on those and choose only the ones that fit my value criteria. The problem was that it didn’t seem to be including other quality companies with long dividend growth streaks such as Altria (MO), Colgate Palmolive (CL) to name a few. As a result, I was potentially missing out on other companies. By focusing on dividend increases every week, I was able to uncover more companies which were never part of Dividend Aristocrats index. I then created my own list of companies to follow, but this took a lot of extra time, which I already didn’t have. I am not sure why S&P committee excludes certain companies. I believe it has to do with the index requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Dividend Investing

I have highlighted below several frequently asked questions about dividend investing. This is not an all inclusive list, but more of a running total of questions I am usually asked about dividend investing, dividend growth stocks and my strategy. The answers pertain to my investing, strategy and experience, and I have tried to respond to the best of my knowledge and intentions. As I get new recurring questions asked, I would add them to this list.

Why should you focus on dividends?

A company that pays dividends is less risky than a company that has never paid a dividend. A company that pays dividends pays with actual cash, which cannot be easily manipulated like earnings. Dividends are a more stable part of total returns, and are always positive, which is what makes them ideal for retirees who want to live off their nest egg. Paying a dividend imposes discipline on management, that makes them evaluate the cash flow impacts of new projects and make them only focus on the best ideas. This dividend payment makes management less likely to engage in empire building, and less likely to simply hoard cash or mindlessly expand/acquire companies which are not accretive to returns. Few US managements are willing to cut a dividend – doing so sends signals that the company is weak financially.

The real risk behind international investing

It seems like international investing is all the rage these days. It seems like everywhere I look, someone is recommending investors to add an allocation to foreign stocks. Many “experts” have claimed that individual investors should not be picking individual stocks, but they should be picking separate asset classes instead. In other words, rather than create my own portfolio of 30 – 60 individual dividend paying stocks and some fixed income, I am told that I should pick a portfolio of 10 – 15 separate asset classes, and then pay someone else to hold the stocks for me and charge me annual management fees for this "service". These experts have cost investors millions of dollars in missed opportunities. Over the past decade that I have been investing, my international stocks have done much worse than my exposure to US securities and US fixed income. I am lucky that my allocation of foreign equities has always been low. This is because I have focused my effort on US multinational companies, which generate a large portion of revenues and profits from abroad.

My other issues with international companies is that the culture of regular dividend increases that we have in the US is not prevalent. Most foreign companies pay fluctuating dividends. These dividends vary from year to year in local currencies. They fluctuate as well, when converted to US dollars. I spend US dollars. Therefore, i have less confidence in the predictability of the amount of my foreign dividends.

There is some research, which states that investors are not investing abroad, because of their home bias. I personally believe that the studies on biases are given more credit in the field of investing, than they deserve. This is because studies on biases are always quick to judge and jump to conclusions, without really offering much in terms of improving results. Most studies seem to be too backwards looking, and quick to provide explanations for things, whether this knowledge is useful for decision making or not. I came to the conclusion that biases are useless, after observing experts that shame investors into admitting how biased they are ( and selling them something in the process). However, when real money is on the line, the experts exhibit the same behaviors themselves ( which they shamed investors for in the first place). So if the experts do not use their research when money is on the line, then how good is that research? But this is not the point of this article…

In the case of adding international stocks to US portfolios, we have seen that this has been a bad decision for US investors over the past 20 years. In my personal retirement account, the small exposure to foreign stocks has turned out to be a bad decision over the past decade. In fact, buying Kinder Morgan in 2008 and 2009 has turned out to be a much better decision that buying an international index fund.

The Dividend Kings List for 2014

The dividend kings list includes companies which have managed to raise dividends for at least 50 years in a row. This is a huge accomplishment, since it shows a business model that has endured the destructive forces of several recessions, oil shocks, wars, market crashes and changes in technology. I would strongly encourage every dividend investor to study the success of each of those companies, in an effort to learn about the characteristics that made each company able to afford rewarding shareholders with a raise for over half a century.

There were two companies, which became dividend kings in 2013 – Colgate Palmolive (CL) and Nordson Corp (NDSN). This brings the total number of components to 17, which I believe is a record. There were no deletions in 2013, as no components cut distributions. The two new additions include:

Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL), together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets consumer products worldwide. The company operates in two segments: Oral, Personal and Home Care; and Pet
Nutrition. Over the past decade, the company has managed to raise dividends by 11.40%/year. Currently, shares are overvalued at 26.70 times earnings and yield 2.10%. Check my analysis of Colgate-Palmolive for more information on the company.

Nordson Corporation (NDSN) engineers, manufactures, and markets products and systems for dispensing and processing adhesives, coatings, polymers, sealants, biomaterials, fluid management, testing and inspection, surface treatment, and curing. Over the past decade, the company has managed to raise dividends by 8.10%/year. Currently, shares are overvalued at 21 times earnings and yield 1%.

Given the fact that the next companies that are close to the 50 year mark have only raised distributions for 48 years in a row, it looks like there won’t be any additions until sometime in 2016. If there is a change in the list prior to that, it would only be because a component cuts or freezes distributions.

The other components of the index include:

Name	Symbol	Dividend Streak Yrs	10 year Div Growth	10 year EPS Growth	P/E	Yield
American States Water	AWR	59	5.6%	7.7%	17.35	2.9%
Cincinnati Financial	CINF	53	6.4%	6.9%	14.2	3.3%
Colgate-Palmolive Co.	CL	50	11.4%	8.9%	26.9	2.1%
Diebold Inc.	DBD	60	5.4%	-3.5%	-	3.4%
Dover Corp.	DOV	58	9.8%	15.9%	16.85	1.6%
Emerson Electric	EMR	57	7.7%	7.8%	24.66	2.5%
Genuine Parts Co.	GPC	57	6.2%	7.0%	18.3	2.6%
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	51	10.8%	6.0%	21.07	2.8%
Coca-Cola Company	KO	51	9.8%	9.4%	20.49	2.8%
Lancaster Colony Corp.	LANC	51	6.9%	2.5%	21.77	2.0%
Lowe's Companies	LOW	51	29.2%	10.0%	23.28	1.4%
3M Company	MMM	56	6.8%	9.8%	20.69	2.5%
Nordson Corp.	NDSN	50	8.1%	20.1%	20.72	1.0%
Northwest Natural Gas	NWN	58	3.7%	3.2%	18.57	4.4%
Procter & Gamble Co.	PG	57	10.6%	9.6%	20.33	3.0%
Parker-Hannifin Corp.	PH	57	13.4%	23.6%	19.94	1.4%
Vectren Corp.	VVC	54	2.5%	1.4%	22.61	4.0%

Again, this list is not a recommendation to buy these shares. Businesses do change over time, as models are subjects to competitive pressures and constant changes in the business environment.

Relevant Articles:

- The Dividend Kings List Keeps Expanding
- Colgate-Palmolive (CL) Dividend Stock Analysis 2012
- Eleven Dividend Kings, Raising dividends for 50+ years
- A long streak of dividend growth is an indication of a business with exceptional fundamentals
- Complete List of Articles on Dividend Growth Investor

These Books Shaped My Investing Strategy

My journey to becoming a dividend growth investor was a very long and arduous one. I have been following the stock market for years, but didn’t really gain an understanding of it, until a few years ago. The following books helped me to learn about investing from people who are practicing it and are successful at it. I then used the lessons from these books to craft my own dividend growth strategy, that is unique to my investment goals and objectives of living off dividends in retirement. The books that shaped me as an investor include ( in no particular order):

Stocks for the Long Run : The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies, by Prof Jeremy Siegel

The Ultimate Dividend Playbook: Income, Insight and Independence for Today's Investor, by Josh Peters

The Dividend Rich Investor: Building Wealth With High-Quality, Dividend-Paying Stocks, by Joseph Tigue

The Single Best Investment: Creating Wealth with Dividend Growth by Lowell Miller

One Up On Wall Street : How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market

Beating the Street, by Peter Lynch

Stop Working : Here's How You Can!: Using the Strategy of Canada's Youngest Retiree, by Derek Foster (Check my review of the book)

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, by Alice Schroeder

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits (Revised Edition), by Philip Fisher

The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel by Graham, Benjamin

Damn Right! Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger, by Janet Lowe

In the future, I plan on posting my reviews of these books to my site. Please check the post as it would likely expand over time, and would also include links to my book reviews.

Personal Finance Focused Books

Cashing in on the American Dream: How to Retire at 35, by Paul Terhorst

Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, by Joe Dominguez

In addition, I would also encourage you to check the Warren Buffett investing resource page, which includes links to his shareholder and partner letters, plus notes from Berkshire’s shareholder meetings.

Best Brokerage Accounts for Dividend Investors

When I first started dividend investing, I was looking for the lowest commission possible. I ignored any other features of a stock brokerage, since I viewed the brokerage industry as one that provides a commoditized service. Back in 2008 – 2010 I was a big fan of Zecco, mostly for their free trades. Since then I have branched out to other brokers. Before I was a dividend investor, my investing was concentrated on buying mutual funds in a 401 (k).

The chart above summarizes brokers I have personally invested through since I started my site to document my dividend investing journey.  In addition, the information above is not intended to be complete in any means. I have rated the brokers above based on my experience with them, with Schwab being the best, while Sogotrade having room for improvement. Sogotrade charges $5 for trades, but $3/trade if you prepay. The chart shows the commissions for each broker for stock trades, and assumes an individual investor does less than 10 trades/month. It also lists the minimum amounts an investor needs to deposit, in order to open a cash account. The next column shows whether the broker offers dividend reinvestment of partial shares. Tradeking does allow dividend reinvestment per my experience, but not for partial shares. The next to last column shows the length of time that trade history and trade statements are available to the customer. In some cases, the trade history is limited to my own experience with the broker. In other cases, this is based on information available on the broker website. The last column shows that none of the brokers had any inactivity fees at the time I wrote this article.

The story below discusses my experiences with brokers, which could be different than your experience.

I believe that brokers should offer a commission that provides value to customers and also a decent rate of return to the brokerage company itself. A low commission is typically associated with rudimentary platforms which could be very confusing to the investor. Of course, if you are an experienced investor who knows what they need and doesn’t need much hand holding, then you should do fine with simply the lowest cost broker. However, when something goes wrong, and it usually will, you will start regretting your decision.

My experience with Zecco was positive for a few years, while they were offering 10 free trades for accounts whose balance exceeded $2,500. Initially, back in 2006, Zecco offered 40 commission free trades to all customers. In 2009 Zecco changed its rules once again and only provided ten free trades to customers with account balances that exceed $25,000. In 2010, Zecco eliminated commission free trades for everyone except traders who made 25 trades/month. In the meantime, I had a few other brokerage accounts, but was considering Zecco to be my primary individual brokerage account. Then Zecco started going through platform upgrades and changed their clearing firm. In addition, Zecco never offered automatic dividend reinvestment that allowed your investments to compound. This was never an issue for me, since I like to accumulate my dividends and new funds, before I buy a security. The only problems that I had were with companies that were paying 5% stock dividends or companies like Kinder Morgan LLC (KMR) which paid distributions in fractional shares. Zecco used to provide these distributions in cash, thus creating a taxable event and negating any long-term compounding of my investments.

In the meantime, a lot of Zecco investors were unhappy with their platform, because it often crashed during periods of extreme market volatility. Back in late 2008, there were several times when I was unable to log into my Zecco account to place a trade. I was also unable to log into my Zecco account during the May 6, 2010 flash crash. I was able to log into my Schwab account however on both occasions. When Zecco upgraded platforms and changed clearing firms, this created some issues for me. Actually, this created a lot of headaches for me, because some of the shares I owned like Royal Dutch Shell (RDS/B), Brown-Forman (BF/B) and Nestle (NSRGY) were either not showing in my account, or had an incorrect symbol and the position amount was zero. It is a scary feeling to wake up and see that your equity holdings are not correct or simply not there.

A few months ago, Zecco merged with Tradeking. I was afraid that I would still have issues, but luckily this never materialized. The main issue with the merger was that I lost the ability to pull from the broker website all my historical account statements and all historical activity going back to when I first opened the account. Luckily, I keep good records, and have all of this information at my fingertips. However, it is important for long-term investors to choose a brokerage that provides you with all your account activity detail going as far back as possible. Otherwise, when you sell a stock that you have held for 20 or 30 years, figuring out your tax basis would be a nightmare. Tradeking does offer dividend reinvestment, but as I mentioned earlier, I typically reinvest dividends selectively.

As a result, I started adding all new funds to SogoTrade. I kept adding funds, until they made another change in their platform when they were purchased by Wang Investments in 2011. This change did not allow me to log in to my account for a day or two. After that, I was unable to withdraw funds easily. The process is still very cumbersome and one has to enter their account number twice, after they have logged on to the platform, in order to request an ACH transfer. In addition, changing your address is a very difficult thing to accomplish with Sogotrade. It requires you to download a form, fill it out, and then fax or email it to them. If you fax it to them, you run the risk of Sogotrade losing it, which is why it is best to email it. At $3/trade however up until early 2013, you could hardly beat them. Sogotrade does not offer fractional dividend reinvestment, but keeps all monthly statements going as far back as possible. A few weeks ago however, they raised their prices to $5/trade, although investors who pre-pay for trades could still end up paying as little as $3/trade.

For a new investor, I would consider Sharebuilder. They offer $4 trades if it is scheduled on a Tuesday. Sharebuilder provides free dividend reinvestment, fractional shares and offers historical records. Real-time trades used to cost $9.99, although this amount has decreased recently to $6.95/trade. My main problem with Sharebuilder was the fact that commissions were too high for real-time trades, and I didn’t want to be restricted to only trading on Tuesdays in order to get the low commission. Sharebuilder is ideal for someone who is just starting out dividend investing however.

Since my falling out with Zecco and Sogotrade, I have been adding new funds to Schwab. I still kept the old investments in the old brokerage accounts, but since I have new money coming it, that needs to be invested every month, I had to find a reputable broker. I like Schwab because they offer everything an investor can want, including research, a wealth of information, account records, dividend reinvestment and their customer service is very good. However, you do pay a high commission for this privilege. I do like the fact that Schwab is a publicly traded company, and that I can analyze its financials and monitor it closely. With Tradeking, Zecco and Sogotrade, I have no idea whether the companies are on the verge of bankruptcy. I also have an E*TRADE account, which provides a similar level of service as Schwab, but at slightly higher commission prices. I have mitigated the high commissions at Schwab by increasing my purchase or lot size per investment. If I bought shares in $1000 increments at Tradeking or Sogotrade, I now buy stocks in $2000 increments at Schwab.

As I discussed in an earlier article, I try not to invest more than $100,000 per brokerage, in order to add an extra layer of diversification to protect me against broker failures. While brokerage accounts are insured by SIPC up to $500,000, and most brokers also carry additional umbrella insurance, I find having multiple accounts helpful in case assets are frozen due to broker collapsing. Even if your money is SIPC insured, it could still take months before the money is recovered or available. If all of your funds are concentrated in one broker, you might be in a situation where you have a sufficient dividend income to pay your expenses, but you are unable to tap it because your broker failed.

Having many brokerage accounts is not too cumbersome. As a buy and hold dividend investor, I simply add up the total dividend income at tax time. I also try to keep certain securities such as MLPs and REITs in one specific account, in order to make it easier at tax time.

To summarize, while low commissions are important, they should not be the only factor in determining which brokerage to choose. Important factors include providing sufficient data support that would be beneficial during tax time, historical records, as well as a platform that is intuitive and easy to use. Automatic dividend reinvestment is an important feature as well, as is the ability to monitor your broker financial performance. As a result, I believe that Sharebuilder and Schwab are be the best brokers for dividend investors.

Full Disclosure: Long KMR

Relevant Articles:

- Stress Testing Your Dividend Portfolio
- Zecco Online Discount Stock Brokerage Review
- Reinvest Dividends Selectively
- Unlimited Free Trades at Zecco in October!

Top Ten Dividend Articles for 2012

As the year 2012 is coming close to its end, I am reviewing the statistics behind the site. I sorted through, and identified the ten most popular articles on dividend investing, as chosen by the readers. The articles are listed below, in no particular order:

• Dividend Aristocrats List for 2012
• Dividend Champions - The Best List for Dividend Investors
• Best Dividends Stocks for the Long Run
• My Dividend Retirement Plan
• Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) – an island of opportunity for dividend investors
• A dividend portfolio for the long-term
• Best Dividend Stocks for 2012
• My Entry Criteria for Dividend Stocks
• When can you retire on dividends?

I wanted to thank everyone for reading the site over the past five years. I hope I get to share my dividend investing experiences with you for at least five more years.

Happy Holidays!

Weekend Reading Links - June 19, 2011

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network over the past week:

Articles From DIV-Net Members

• Dividends4Life presented 4 Secrets To Finding The Best Dividend Stocks
• Dividend Growth Investor presented Why the best investment plans never turn out as expected
• Barel Karsan presented Profit Sources
• Buy Like Buffett presented Dividends Do Lie Sometimes
• Dividend Mantra discussed his most recent purchase.
• The Dividend Guy presented an analysis of British American Tobacco
• The Market Capitalist presented Dividends – Focus on the growth rate, not the yield
• Dividend Monk presented 6 Premium Dividend Payers to Buy on Dips or Drops
• Wax Inc presented Value Thoughts - Costco Wholesale Corporation
• Dividend Ninja presented Susan P. Brunner Interview – Part 2
• Sigma Swan presented Stock Analysis: Tiffany Company (TIF)

There are some really good articles here, please take time and read a few of them.

Weekend Reading Links - June 5, 2011

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network over the past week:

Articles From DIV-Net Members

• Dividends4Life presented My Top And Bottom Performing Dividend Growth Stocks
• Dividend Growth Investor presented How to live off dividends in retirement
• The Dividend Guy presented a free Dividend Investing e-book.
• Disciplined Approach to Investing presented Small Cap Valuations Getting Extended
• Dividend Money presented The Future of Global Growth
• 40percent 20years presented Claes Hemberg's criticism of His Majesty - and?
• The Market Capitalist presented Buying Good Companies on Corrections
• Dividend Monk presented 6 Significant Dividend Yields in the Health Care Industry
• Sigma Swan presented 6 Signs of a Good Dividend Yield: Part 2
• Compounding Returns presented The 15 Year Millionaire Plan: Year 7
• Dividend Partisan presented Investment Advice From an Unusual Source
• Dividend Mantra presented Goals Page Updated

There are some really good articles here, please take time and read a few of them.

Weekend Reading Links - May 22, 2011

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network over the past week:

Articles From DIV-Net Members

• Dividends4Life presented How To Build A Sustainable High Yield Portfolio
• Dividend Growth Investor presented Are dividend stocks a separate asset class?
• Buy Like Buffett presented A Property Insurance Company With A 5% Dividend Yield
• The Passive Income Earner presented Top 20 Dividend Stocks - May 2011 Edition
• The Dividend Guy presented Dividend Dad – Dividend Investing and RESP
• Disciplined Approach to Investing presented Why The Price Of A Gallon Of Gasoline Seems Elevated
• The Market Capitalist presented Again, Running With The Herd Isn’t Always The Best Idea
• Dividend Monk presented Novartis (NVS) Dividend Stock Analysis
• The Dividend Pig presented 5 Tech Titans Suitable for Every Income Investors Portfolio
• Dividend Mantra presented Why I'm Buying Wal-Mart
• Dividend Ninja presented the second part of his Interview with Derek Foster.

There are some really good articles here, please take time and read a few of them.

Weekend Reading Links - May 15, 2011

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network over the past week:

Articles From DIV-Net Members

• Dividends4Life presented 10 Stocks That Have Paid Dividends Since The 1800s
• Dividend Growth Investor presented Best High Yield Dividend Growth Stocks
• The Dividend Guy presented AT&T Stock Analysis
• The Dividend Pig presented You Are Not A Contrarian Investor, and You Don’t Know Squat
  
• The Div Guy presented How to become a Millionaire
• Disciplined Approach to Investing presented Positive Dividend Actions Now At 2006 Level
• Dividend Monk presented Step 5: Research
• Dividend Partisan presented Top 20 Stocks Watchlist Updated
• Whopper Investments presented Low EV / EBITDA microcap stocks

Another interesting website which has featured several articles of mine includes The Daily Crux. The site has a section that specifically covers Income Investing, featuring the best article from the web.

There are some really good articles here, please take time and read a few of them.

Weekend Reading Links - May 8, 2011

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network over the past week:

Articles From DIV-Net Members

• Dividends4Life presented 7 Exceptional Dividend Growth Stocks With Quality Financials
• Dividend Growth Investor presented Six Dividend Stocks to Hold Forever
• Barel Karsan presented Lexmark: Another Falling Knife
• Dividend monk presented 20 Quick Ways to Check a Company
• The Passive Income Earner presented Dividend Yield: Bell Alliant (BA)
• The Dividend Guy presented Communications, Materials & Techno Stocks: Dividend Sector Winner Q1
• The Div Guy presented New Investment - Real Estate in CA
• Disciplined Approach to Investing presented Dividend Payers Outperform Non Payers In April
• Dividend Mantra presented his entry criteria for dividend stocks.
• Dividend Money presented Dividend Growth Model
• Compounding Returns presented Building Wealth is a Journey, Not a Destination
• Dividend Partisan presented Dividend Portfolio Update: May
• Whopper Investments presented An interesting but volatile value investment (APT)

There are some really good articles here, please take time and read a few of them.

Weekend Reading Links - May 1, 2011

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network over the past week:

Articles From DIV-Net Members

• Dividends4Life presented Are You Patient Enough To Be Wealthy? These 12 Dividend Stocks Will Help You Wait
• Dividend Growth Investor presented Highest Yielding Dividend Stocks of the S&P 500
• Barel Karsan presented Jewett Cameron: Buybacks Pay Off
• Dividend Monk presented Socially Responsible Investing
• The Passive Income Earner presented How To Use StockChase.com
• The Dividend Guy presented 7 Deadly Sins of Investments – 7 Investor Common Mistakes
• Disciplined Approach to Investing presented Invest In Emerging Markets Via High Quality Multinational Companies
• EPIC INVESTOR presented What To Do In The Current Inflationary Climate?
• Sigma Swan presented Price Leadership: What does it Look Like?
• Compounding Returns presented Building Passive Income with Dividend Growth Stocks
• Dividend Partisan presented The Three Levers to Reach $1 Million
• Whopper Investments presented Ben Graham Formula Stocks

I also wanted to highlight one blog which I have read religiously over the past year. It is written by James Altucher, who is an investor, entrepreneur, author and financial columnist. It covers topics such as business, investing, personal finance, entrepreneurship through the unique lense of the author. The blog is called The Altucher Confidential.

There are some really good articles here, please take time and read a few of them.

Weekend Reading Links - April 24, 2011

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network over the past week:

Articles From DIV-Net Members

• Dividends4Life presented 10 Dividend Stocks For Healthy and Wealthy Retirement
• Dividend Growth Investor presented Diversified Dividend Portfolios – Don’t forget about quality
• Barel Karsan presented The More You Know, The Much More You Think You Know
• Buy Like Buffett presented GE Increases Its Dividend
• The Passive Income Earner presented Dividend Income: April 2011
• 40percent 20years presented H & M - Latest Annual Report
• The Market Capitalist presented Apple & The iPhone (50%)
• Dividend Monk presented Abbott Laboratories (ABT) Dividend Stock Analysis
• Frankly Speaking presented Surprise! High frequency trading plays a dysfunctional role in the markets
• The Dividend Pig presented Industry Announcement: Major Integrated Oil and Gas Companies
• Dividend Ninja presented Can You Live Off Your Dividends?

There are some really good articles here, please take time and read a few of them.

Weekend Reading Links - April 10, 2011

For your weekend reading pleasure, the articles listed below contain some of the best dividend and value investing insights found on the web. They were written by various members of the Dividend Investing and Value Network over the past week:

Articles From DIV-Net Members

• Dividends Value presented 10 Dividend Stocks With With A 10%+ Dividend Growth Rate
• Dividend Growth Investor presented Dividend Macro trends: The Baby Boomer Retirement Investment
• Buy Like Buffett presented 3 Dividend Stocks That Offer Good Passive Income
• The Passive Income Earner presented How To Track Your Dividend Investment Performance
• The Dividend Guy presented Dividend Stocks Vs Corporate Bonds
• The Div Guy presented March Dividend Income Update
• Disciplined Approach to Investing presented Dividend Payers Underperforming Through First Quarter
• Triaging My Way To Financial Success presented Historical Canadian Bank Data
• 40percent 20years presented Small Cap Borsdata.se
• The Market Capitalist presented Regression Toward the Mean & Investing
• Dividend Monk presented Step 3: Identify Your Core Competencies
• Frankly Speaking presented How the Stock Market Works
• The Dividend Pig presented 8 Companies With Consistent Dividend Growth Over 20%
• Dividend Ninja presented High Yield Canadian Stocks: Part 1
• The Twenty Year Millionaire presented IBM: One of the Best Values on the Market

There are some really good articles here, please take time and read a few of them.

Interesting Dividend and Investing Sites to Consider

I read dividend investing stories every single day. A very good compilation of articles on many aspects of incoem investing could typically be found on Seeking Alpha, which is one of the largest blog aggregators on the web.

http://seekingalpha.com/tag/dividends

Another useful website for daily investment ideas is James Altucher's column on Daily Finance. From his bio page "James Altucher is a columnist for DailyFinance. He writes for The Wall Street Journal, was the founder of StockPickr, and formerly wrote and appeared in videos at TheStreet.com. He is the author of numerous investment books, including Trade Like A Hedge Fund and Trade Like Warren Buffett."

The two best dividend blogs ( besides Dividend Growth Investor of course) that I check almost daily include Dividends Value and The Dividend Guy blog. These bloggers are also real investors, which let you observe their decision making process, which has helped them generate several thousand in annual dividend incomes.

For news items, I typically check TickerSpy, which has categorized press releases and other items neatly by ticker symbol.

One of the best value investing blog aggregators is Gurufocus. Besides blog posts related to value investing, the site also includes information about the recent moves of famous vaule investors such as Warren Buffett or Mohnish Pabrai.

Five Dividend Stocks for long-term dividend growth

In Six Dividend Stocks for current income I provided a list of higher yielding dividend stocks, which investors could use for current income. With a high current yield, the stock list could provide a decent stream of dividend income for retired individuals. There lies another problem however.

Most younger investors tend to ignore dividend stocks, which typically are mature, slower growing companies with dependable cashflows a portion of which are distributed back to investors. Younger investors view these dependable income stocks as boring and too slow moving, which don’t have anything better to do with their cashflows but send them back to owners in the form of dividends. Instead these investors prefer investing in growth stocks with high price earnings ratios and high expectations for growth. While most companies that distribute a portion of their profits in the form of dividends realize that double-digit growth cannot last forever, most growth stocks sell at rich valuations, supported by analysts who have perfected the art of predicting high growth rates for decades to come. As soon as the music stops, these growths stocks stumble, dragging investors fortunes with them.

On the other hand the dividend stocks would have kept growing, albeit at a slower pace, and would have kept sending a higher stream of dividend income to shareholders, to be used at their own discretion. Many investors do not realize that unlike capital gains, dividends are real cash that bolsters your return. Dividends have also accounted for 40% of the annual average total returns of the S&P 500 over the past century. A company, which grows its dividend year after year, could end up paying a double-digit yield on cost to long-term investors over time.

Companies that regularly pay dividends impose a discipline on managers to treat cash very carefully and thus make better decisions by adopting projects, which would generally improve the bottom line, without sacrificing return on equity.
Thus dividend stocks, which consistently grow their payments, should be in every investor’s portfolio, irrespective of their age. A stock that regularly grows its distributions provides an inflation proof source of income, which is much more reliable than the Consumer Price Index, on which TIPs (TIP) rely on.

A stock could afford to consistently raise distributions by selling products, which have a strong brand image, and thus are not easily substituted by others. Examples of such companies include Procter & Gamble (PG), Clorox (CLX), Pepsi Co (PEP), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Emerson Electric (EMR).

The Clorox Company (CLX) manufactures and markets a range of consumer products such as bleaches; cleaning products; water-filtration systems and filters; auto-care products; plastic bags, wraps, and containers; Over the past decade the company has managed to boost earnings per share at a rate of 13.60% annually. Clorox has paid uninterrupted dividends increased payments to common shareholders every year for 31 years. Dividends have increased at an average rate of 8.60% annually since 1999. Check my analysis of the The Clorox Company (CLX).

Emerson Electric Co. (EMR), a diversified global technology company, engages in designing and supplying product technology and delivering engineering services to various industrial and commercial, and consumer markets worldwide. The company operates through five segments: Process Management, Industrial Automation, Network Power, Climate Technologies, and Appliance and Tools. The company has been able to increase earnings at an average rate of 8.40% annually over the past decade. Emerson Electric Co. has increased payments to stockholders for 52 consecutive years. The ten-year dividend growth rate is 7% per annum over the past decade. Check my analysis of Emerson Electric Co. (EMR).

PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) manufactures, markets, and sells various snacks, carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, and foods worldwide. The company manufactures, sells, and distributes Pepsi-cola beverages and is enhancing its distribution channels through its acquisition of key bottlers. The company has been able to increase earnings at an average rate of 9.90% annually over the past decade. PepsiCo has been consistently increasing its dividends for 36 consecutive years. Dividend payments have increased by an average rate of 13.50% annually since 1999. Check my analysis of PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP).

The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), together with its subsidiaries, provides branded consumer goods products worldwide. The company operates in three global business units (GBU): Beauty, Health and Well-Being, and Household Care. The company has been able to increase earnings at an average rate of 12.20% annually over the past decade. Procter & Gamble has been increasing its dividends for the past 53 consecutive years. Dividend payments have increased by an average of 10.90% annually over the past 10 years. Check my analysis of Procter & Gamble (PG).

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) operates retail stores in various formats worldwide. It operates through three segments: Wal-Mart Stores, Sam's Club, and International. The company has managed to deliver an impressive 11.60% average annual increase in its EPS. Wal-Mart Stores has consistently increased dividends every year for 35 years. Dividends have increased at an average rate of 18.90 % annually since 1999. Check my analysis of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT).

While these companies are poised to deliver strong long-term dividend growth, don’t throw caution away. These stocks should be a part of a diversified dividend portfolio with at least 30 components in it.

Full Disclosure: Long CLX, EMR, PEP, PG and WMT

Relevant Articles:

- The Dividend Edge
- The case for dividend investing in retirement
- Clorox (CLX) Dividend Stock Analysis
- Reinvest Dividends Selectively