Money Matters – Dividend Paying Stocks: How They Work and What to Do with Them

by | Jul 25, 2018 | Business News

 Let’s say you have shares of $250,000 in “dividend” paying stocks which pays dividends at five percent per year. This translates to an annual interest payout of around $12,500 meaning you can supplement your retirement income by $1,000-plus a month. If you don’t need the cash immediately, you can re-invest those dividends back into the company.
All dividend stocks give investors the option to invest the dividends back into the company. This is typically a good idea, unless you have a large holding.
Three Key Benefits
1. If you’re in it for the long-term, dividend investments can be especially rewarding. Dividends can make up roughly 45 percent of your total return if you re-invest. (Total return calculates dividend payments.)
2. Investors who build up a portfolio of dividend-paying stocks over a long period of time should have many shares by retirement age—and more shares means more income. Over time, $50 in dividend income grows to $100, then eventually to $1,000 and beyond. It adds up. In 10 years, that’s over $10,000 in dividend income that gets rolled into equity.
3. Dividends are less volatile than earnings over time. The companies that offer them don’t like telling investors that they’re not going to get them any longer, so the firms that tend to issue dividends – even on the lower end of the credit rating scale – are generally established, cash-rich and can ride out tough markets.
Key Risk Factor
• When your dividend fund pays you, it goes into the entire portfolio. If the prices are high at the time of reinvestment, you’ll potentially be stuck buying at the top. The fund will distribute the cash across the weighting in the portfolio, meaning that you can’t simply buy more shares of your favorite firms in the fund.
If you like a little more control, you may want to work with an advisor to build your own portfolio with a range of investment-grade bonds to higher yielding firms and global equities rather than tracking an index.
Taxes
Dividends count as taxable income regardless of what you do with them after they’re paid out. For tax purposes, dividends are categorized as “qualified” or “nonqualified.”
Qualified dividends are:
• Tax-free for those in the 10 to 15 percent tax brackets so long as the income from those dividends does not push the investor above that tax bracket
• If it does, then dividend income is taxed at a 15 percent rate for those in the 25 to 35 percent tax brackets and 20 percent for those above it
Nonqualified dividends are simply taxed at regular income tax rates.
Investors get a tax form at the end of the year showing how much they received in dividend income.
How to Invest in Dividend Stocks:
Here are a couple options to get you started:
1. Dividend mutual funds are the most diversified way into the market. There are always fees associated with managed funds, so it’s important to research the options thoroughly. Beating the benchmark is becoming harder and harder for active money managers, no matter the type of fund.
2. Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are the cheapest way in. Like the mutual fund products, the ETF dividend product line runs the gambit from investment grade credit to speculative grade credit. Speculative grade bonds that trade below triple B are often referred to as “junk bonds.” In the equity world, high yield dividends tend to have lower credit ratings, which is how they earned the term “junk.” Depending on your appetite for risk, however, this type of corporate equity has the potential for a higher yield.
In sum, dividend-paying investments can be a powerful addition to your portfolio — especially when placed in tax-sheltered accounts like a rollover IRA.
For more information, please call Douglas J. Sedam at 1-866-549-3900, 661-295-2400 #1 or email: Doug.Sedam@ThePaseoGroup.com. You may also learn more at www.ThePaseoGroup.com.
Securities and Investment Advisory Services offered through Western International Securities which is a member FINRA/SIPC. OSJ Office: 19510 Ventura Boulevard #211 Tarzana CA 91356 818-996-3375 The Paseo Financial Group, Inc. and Western International Securities are unaffiliated companies.

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Douglas Sedam

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