Certain real estate investment trusts (REITs) can be an excellent way for investors to meet their income needs, especially for folks living off dividends during retirement. That being said, as with all investments, it's important to be careful and focus on high quality stocks with a long-term-focused management team, a safe dividend, a strong [...]
In the world of income investing dividend aristocrats, S&P 500 companies that have raised payouts for 25+ consecutive years, are often relied upon for creating the bedrock of a safe, long-term portfolio. However, there is another group of dividend growth stocks that is even more highly prized and rarer (there are only 22). These are [...]
Certain dividend aristocrats and dividend kings can make excellent core holdings for a long-term dividend growth portfolio. With predictable and steadily growing business models, these companies have not only stood the test of time in all manner of economic environments, but they have also proven to have shareholder-friendly corporate cultures. And when it comes to [...]
Many dividend investors have never heard of LyondellBasell Industries (LYB), even despite its 4.5% yield and 18.5% annual dividend growth rate over the last three years. However, many times the best long-term investments aren’t necessarily the best known stocks. Rather, they are boring industrial firms that toil in obscurity and supply the lifeblood [...]
Dividend aristocrats such as ExxonMobil (XOM) have long been a favorite among conservative income investors. The fact that a company has grown its payout for 25+ consecutive years tells you a lot about the predictability of a firm's business, the quality of its management, and how shareholder-friendly the corporate culture is. Investors can [...]
Warren Buffett once said, "Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.” In other words, a company with a highly predictable business model, durable competitive advantages, a shareholder-friendly corporate culture, and numerous opportunities for long-term growth. Of course finding such companies isn't always that easy, [...]
Dividend investing has proven to the be an effective way for investors to compound their wealth and income over time. And when it comes to dividend growth stocks, they don't get much more consistent than the dividend aristocrats and dividend kings, groups of companies that have raised their dividends for at least 25 and 50 consecutive [...]
Hormel Foods (HRL) is one of the truly elite stocks when it comes to consistent dividend growth and shareholder value creation. Thanks to 51 straight years of dividend increases Hormel is now a dividend king, a group of stocks that have historically been some of the most successful at growing investor income and wealth. Best [...]
General Electric (GE) announced its CEO Jeff Immelt is stepping down on August 1 and will retire from his role as chairman of the board at the end of 2017. Immelt had served as GE's CEO for 16 years and wasn't exactly the most popular executive with investors, to put it nicely. Questionable capital [...]
Some of the best long-term investments are shareholder-friendly companies that consistently reward income investors with decades of dividend growth. These include such legends as dividend aristocrats and dividend kings, which have been raising payouts for decades in all types of economic and interest rate environments. Let's take a look at Wal-Mart (WMT), whose epic 44-year history [...]
History has shown that dividend growth stocks are one of the best ways for regular investors to grow their wealth and income over time. Among dividend growth blue chips there is a special class of companies, known as dividend aristocrats, which have shown extraordinary dedication to rewarding dividend lovers with decades of uninterrupted annual payout increases. [...]
Investing in dividend-paying stocks, especially those with high yields, can sometimes cause investors to focus too much on current income at the expense of total return. Total return is one of the most important concepts in finance, and it involves more than just the dividends a company pays out. Let’s take a closer [...]
As 10,000 Baby Boomers per day reach retirement age, the question of how Americans will be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle is among the most important of our age. Over the past several decades, plenty of academic studies have been done looking at several approaches to funding retirement via different investing approaches. Let's [...]
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are an appealing way for income investors to benefit from rental properties without any of the liquidity or landlord hassles that come with actually owning physical properties. Many REITs are generally far less volatile than the rest of the stock market as well, making certain REITs a reasonable way to [...]
Food stocks can often make excellent long-term dividend growth investments, thanks to the highly defensive nature of their businesses. After all, everyone has to eat no matter what the economy or interest rates are doing. This is why many well-known food blue chips are among the list of dividend aristocrats and dividend kings, which have track records [...]