Notes on living off your dividends.
Clear, unhurried writing on dividend investing, ETFs, diversification and tax, from the team building Cadances, the portfolio tracker.
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Reinvest Dividends or Take Cash? A Decision by Life Stage
Reinvest while you are building the portfolio, take the cash once the income is what you live on, and use the years in between to reinvest only where you are underweight. Twenty years of numbers show why, and three signals tell you when to stop.
How Many Dividend Stocks Should You Own? 20 to 30, and Why
Twenty to thirty dividend stocks across at least eight sectors, or fewer on top of a broad ETF core, is the rule of thumb. Here is the reasoning behind it, what one dividend cut costs at each portfolio size, why to weight by income rather than by value, and three shapes that work.
How to Rebalance a Dividend Portfolio Without Paying for It
In an income portfolio, drift shows up in your dividends before it shows up in your portfolio value. Here is how to spot it with a worked example, the three triggers that tell you when to act, and the four ways to rebalance, from the one that costs nothing to the one that costs capital gains tax.
Dividend Yield vs Dividend Growth: Which Wins, and When
High yield pays the most for the first decade, dividend growth pays the most after it, and a balanced payer sits between the two. Here is the ten-year arithmetic across three profiles, the risk each one carries, and a rule for choosing by when you need the income.
What Happens to Dividends in a Recession?
Dividends fall in a recession, but far less than share prices, and the damage is concentrated in a few sectors. Here is what 2008 and 2020 did to dividend income in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, which sectors cut, how long recovery took, and how to build a portfolio that keeps paying.
A Dividend Income Portfolio Example: 100,000 Across Ten Sleeves
A worked model portfolio of 100,000 split across ten sleeves, with the weight, yield and income of each, the share of income that two sectors quietly carry, what the calendar and the tax bill look like, and what the income becomes after ten years of growth and reinvestment.
How to Tell If a Dividend Is Safe: A Six-Point Checklist
A dividend cut costs you the income and a chunk of the share price on the same day. Six numbers, most of them free to find, tell you months in advance whether a payout is covered, growing and funded by cash, or a trap dressed up as a high yield.
Ex-Dividend Date Explained: The Four Dates Behind Every Dividend
Every dividend runs on four dates: declaration, ex-dividend, record and payment. The ex-dividend date is the one that decides whether you get paid. Here is what each date means, why the share price drops on the ex-date, and why buying the day before does not make you money.
How Much Do You Need to Invest to Live Off Dividends?
Living off dividends comes down to one division: your annual spending divided by the yield your portfolio can safely pay. Here is the arithmetic, the tax and inflation corrections most people skip, and how long it takes to build the number from a monthly contribution.
Dollar-Cost Averaging: Investing on a Fixed Schedule
Dollar-cost averaging means putting the same amount in on a regular schedule, whatever the market is doing. Here is the arithmetic behind it, what it is genuinely good for, and how it compares to investing a lump sum.
Nvidia Trades at 15 Times Earnings and Is Still Expensive
The same forecast makes Nvidia look cheap on a P/E and 23% overvalued on a cash flow model. The gap is not an opinion. It comes from three inputs, and one of them is a number most models still get wrong.
Is PepsiCo's Dividend Safe? What the Payout Ratio Hides
PepsiCo has raised its dividend for 54 straight years, and its earnings payout ratio looks comfortable. Its cash tells a tighter story. Here is the five-part check that separates a dividend a company can afford from one it is borrowing to protect.
Cadances vs Sharesight: Which Portfolio Tracker Fits a Dividend Investor?
Sharesight is the best-known portfolio tracker on the market. Cadances is built around dividend income and the tax that comes with it. Here is an honest look at where each one wins, so you can pick the right tool for the way you invest.
Why Diversification Reduces Portfolio Risk
Spreading money across many investments does not just feel safer: there is a structural reason it lowers risk without necessarily lowering expected return. Here is the intuition.
Understanding Dividend Yield: What It Measures and What It Misses
Dividend yield is one of the first numbers income investors look at, but on its own it can mislead. Here is what it actually measures, and the context you need around it.
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