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Imagine sitting on the board of your favorite company, attending the next meeting, clearing your throat, and asking “How much are we going to increase the dividend this quarter?”
Welcome to the company! Because that’s what it’s like to be an investor in a stock that cherishes its shareholders, its owners if you will, showing appreciation through regular dividends and dividend increases.
It’s nice to be appreciated, especially when stocks are a little shaky. Getting paid to be in them helps. A lot.
Which is why dividends are so important to every investor no matter their age or net worth.
Because imagine if this is the way it is for the stock market for the next sixteen years. It can happen, as it did from 1965 to 1981—a period of rising interest rates and inflation. And a good chunk of a retirement for many.
Quick side note. I was talking with a prospective client yesterday. He has followed Dick Young’s dividend-centric approach for a long, long, time. How long? He’s a Harley guy and a member of the NRA. Need I say more? This gentleman retired 30 years ago with $75,000 in his profit sharing plan and is living comfortably off of it today.
Don’t wring your hands over stock prices. It’s a waste of time. As you can see above, you can do a lot of good by being patient.
My goal, in my mid-40s, is to do what my prospective client has done, and compound money for 30-years, reinvesting dividends, and smile like he did yesterday explaining how I do it. It’s not easy. As Jack Bogle has said “Don’t just do something, stand there,” is hard to do.
Steve Perry, formerly of the band Journey, was interviewed this week. He co-wrote the band’s hit song “Don’t Stop Believin’” in 1981. David Chase used it in the last scene of the 2007 series finale of “The Sopranos” and it remains popular today. This month, Mr. Perry released his first album in nearly a quarter of a century, Traces. It is his first Top 10 solo debut, entering the Billboard 200 albums chart at No. 6.
As a dividend investor don’t waste your voice. Believe in what you’re doing whether it’s singing to the suits on the board, or a song on the charts.
Journey- Don’t Stop Believing
and from new album Traces- No More Cryin’