Conservative Dividend Investing

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jeffreyalan
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Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by jeffreyalan »

I finally have quite a bit of money in savings and a high savings rate so I am ready to add some significant money to my investment portfolio. My plan is to just keep a wad of cash and a portfolio of safe, conservative dividend stocks. I started investing many years ago after reading the stories of average people like Anne Scheiber, a woman who never made more than $4,000 a year but bought several dividend stocks early in life, never ever sold them and died a multi-millionaire.

http://www.thecompoundinvestor.com/article-archives/

With ultra low interest rates, now might be the time for an old-fashioned investing approach where you buy shares of a company like an owner and hold on to them for years instead of playing with stocks like they are just asset classes via index funds.

I have thought about the uncertainty of the future, the low volatility of the balanced stock/bond/gold portfolios and the all-weather nature of them. However, I feel like volatility is not relevant to me because once I buy a stock, I am in it forever. I pay no mind to the ups and downs in price, only to the dividend payments I receive which actually went up in 2008 and in 2020 when the market itself went down double digits for a time. I feel like I am buying myself (and my heirs) a perpetual annuity which will pay out increasing dividends for the remainder of my life and my family's life. A sample of some of my stocks would be things like Linde, 3M, JNJ, Union Pacific etc. And even if I did care about the gyrations of the portfolio value, stocks put me so far ahead of balanced portfolios that when they do have a -30% bear market I am STILL ahead of where I would have been with a balanced portfolio.

What are your opinions?
GibsonL6s
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by GibsonL6s »

I think it is great that you are considering investing in stocks, historically they have done well.

With respect to dividends, I personally think they are great however, studies have show that most "active" managers do not beat their index. You will have to be the exception and pick a portfolio of stocks which will provide you diversification and beat an index. I would suggest reading this site and simply buying an index fund and adding to it over time and holding it forever, much simpler.

Good luck.
Mister A
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Mister A »

My inclination would be to choose a good dividend index product like VYM or SCHD.

If you've settled on dividends as a strategy over total return, why invest in a select few companies screened for dividend performance when you can invest in a bunch?

Bear in mind that "conservative" implies, in part, choosing diversification over yield-chasing.
Last edited by Mister A on Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Godot
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Godot »

jeffreyalan wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:09 pm I finally have quite a bit of money in savings and a high savings rate so I am ready to add some significant money to my investment portfolio. My plan is to just keep a wad of cash and a portfolio of safe, conservative dividend stocks. I started investing many years ago after reading the stories of average people like Anne Scheiber, a woman who never made more than $4,000 a year but bought several dividend stocks early in life, never ever sold them and died a multi-millionaire.

http://www.thecompoundinvestor.com/article-archives/

With ultra low interest rates, now might be the time for an old-fashioned investing approach where you buy shares of a company like an owner and hold on to them for years instead of playing with stocks like they are just asset classes via index funds.

I have thought about the uncertainty of the future, the low volatility of the balanced stock/bond/gold portfolios and the all-weather nature of them. However, I feel like volatility is not relevant to me because once I buy a stock, I am in it forever. I pay no mind to the ups and downs in price, only to the dividend payments I receive which actually went up in 2008 and in 2020 when the market itself went down double digits for a time. I feel like I am buying myself (and my heirs) a perpetual annuity which will pay out increasing dividends for the remainder of my life and my family's life. A sample of some of my stocks would be things like Linde, 3M, JNJ, Union Pacific etc. And even if I did care about the gyrations of the portfolio value, stocks put me so far ahead of balanced portfolios that when they do have a -30% bear market I am STILL ahead of where I would have been with a balanced portfolio.

What are your opinions?
These great American companies also had "safe conservative dividend stocks": Kodak, J.C. Penney, RadioShack, Washington Mutual.
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Destiple
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Destiple »

Mister A wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:28 pm My inclination would be to choose a good dividend index product like VYM or SCHD.

If you've settled on dividends as a strategy over total return, why invest in a select few companies screened for dividend performance when you can invest in a bunch?

Bear in mind that "conservative" implies, in part, choosing diversification over yield-chasing.
Hi
Can you please elaborate whY you recommend VYM or SCHD
Thanks
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retired@50
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by retired@50 »

jeffreyalan wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:09 pm ...
Linde, 3M, JNJ, Union Pacific etc.
...
What are your opinions?
I've known people who invested this way, but you have to be willing to walk away from a real dud, if you happen to own one. Look at the long term results for GE, which would have been on your list 20 or 30 years ago. The dividend now is a penny per share. It's sad how far some fall...

Maybe consider a fund that does the work for you?

Like this one from Vanguard: https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-fu ... file/VHYAX

Regards,
If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -George Orwell
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climber2020
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by climber2020 »

What happened to your "All Treasury Portfolio" from 2018?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=252517&p=3989467#p3989467
gougou
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by gougou »

I like building an income stream of iron ores, oil & gas and rent. My current holdings include RIO, BSM, EPD, MMP, DMLP, ALX. These are some pretty high yield stuff (6% to 10%+) and might not be very consistent due to commodity price volatilities.

My recommendation is that you should focus on the quality of the company and its pay out ratios. You should always buy companies that has low debt, low payout ratio and growing business.
The sillier the market’s behavior, the greater the opportunity for the business like investor.
aristotelian
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by aristotelian »

Dividend stocks are not safer or more conservative than the total stock market. For example, SPYD has had lower return and higher volatility than SPY since 2016. SPYD had a max drawdown of close to 50% in March 2020. It is true that dividends are more stable than prices but that is really not relevant except psychologically.
FactualFran
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by FactualFran »

The approach may be acceptable to those who plan to never sell and die a multi-millionaire. However, many will sell to maintain a desired standard of living and prefer not to leave a very large amount to beneficiaries, who should be able to provide from themselves.

Along the lines of others who have listed some "safe conservative dividends stocks" of years ago, I suppose some who lived a century or so ago would have proud to have bought and never sold shares of (hypothetical) US Buggy Whip when it was a conservative investment. There would always be a need for buggy whips, right?
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arcticpineapplecorp.
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by arcticpineapplecorp. »

retired@50 wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:32 pm
jeffreyalan wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:09 pm ...
Linde, 3M, JNJ, Union Pacific etc.
...
What are your opinions?
I've known people who invested this way, but you have to be willing to walk away from a real dud, if you happen to own one. Look at the long term results for GE, which would have been on your list 20 or 30 years ago. The dividend now is a penny per share. It's sad how far some fall...

Maybe consider a fund that does the work for you?

Like this one from Vanguard: https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-fu ... file/VHYAX

Regards,
i was right there with you (was gonna post something similar about GE) until you got to VHYAX. That fund only goes back to 2019 so not a long track record. And if you compare it to how the stock market did since it's inception, not sure why you'd get excited about it (it did worse than the market over the past 2 years).

Portfoliovisualizer suggests going back further using VYM instead, which goes back to Dec 2006, but even then would you have rather owned that or just owned the market as a whole:

Image

source:
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/bac ... ion2_2=100

better return with total stock market, better higher risk adjusted return too.

for 10 years VYM kinda hugged the market, but it was less diversified 412 stocks only and costs more (.06%).
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retired@50
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by retired@50 »

arcticpineapplecorp. wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 3:25 pm
retired@50 wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:32 pm
jeffreyalan wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:09 pm ...
Linde, 3M, JNJ, Union Pacific etc.
...
What are your opinions?
I've known people who invested this way, but you have to be willing to walk away from a real dud, if you happen to own one. Look at the long term results for GE, which would have been on your list 20 or 30 years ago. The dividend now is a penny per share. It's sad how far some fall...

Maybe consider a fund that does the work for you?

Like this one from Vanguard: https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-fu ... file/VHYAX

Regards,
i was right there with you (was gonna post something similar about GE) until you got to VHYAX. That fund only goes back to 2019 so not a long track record. And if you compare it to how the stock market did since it's inception, not sure why you'd get excited about it (it did worse than the market over the past 2 years).

Portfoliovisualizer suggests going back further using VYM instead, which goes back to Dec 2006, but even then would you have rather owned that or just owned the market as a whole:

Image

source:
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/bac ... ion2_2=100

better return with total stock market, better higher risk adjusted return too.

for 10 years VYM kinda hugged the market, but it was less diversified 412 stocks only and costs more (.06%).
I agree with the total market approach. I use it myself.

I think using VHYAX or VYM is better than selecting individual stocks, which was the direction I was trying to nudge the OP.

Regards,
If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -George Orwell
02nz
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by 02nz »

The main reason VYM has underperformed the total stock market is that growth stocks have had a great run recently, whereas dividend-yielding stocks tend to be value stocks. No one knows if that will continue. But this points to one of the problems with chasing dividends - many dividend investors probably don't realize they are actually decreasing diversification and taking on more risk.
alex_686
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by alex_686 »

jeffreyalan wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:09 pm I finally have quite a bit of money in savings and a high savings rate so I am ready to add some significant money to my investment portfolio. My plan is to just keep a wad of cash and a portfolio of safe, conservative dividend stocks....

What are your opinions?
That this is a common misspecification of the question. You want to focus on total return and risk.

Dividends can be one of the drivers of return. And sometimes not. There are safe companies that pay dividends. There are speculative companies that pay a dividend. There are safe companies that don't pay dividends. Some companies pay constant and increasing dividends - until they stop.

In short, dividends are so simple and intuitive that it is easy to come up with the wrong answers. Like the "fact" that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones. As a predictor, dividends have historically have a very low power to predict anything.

There are 2 better answers.

The first is to research the factors "Low Volatility" and "Quality". There are issues with these factors but they are far better than the dividend factor.

The second is to start doing fundamental research. Lots of fundamental research. Tear apart balance sheets, income statements, and annual reports. Start reading research papers and stock analysis reports. Brush up on your accounting skills.
Former brokerage operations & mutual fund accountant. I hate risk, which is why I study and embrace it.
TropikThunder
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by TropikThunder »

aristotelian wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:45 pm It is true that dividends are more stable than prices but that is really not relevant except psychologically.
Is that stability in terms of yield (i.e., percentage) or in dollar terms (dollars/share)? A lot of times I see pro-dividend folks saying that the yield of stock X only declined 20% during the GFC etc but they seem to be quoting the percent yield. It doesn't really help to still be getting 4% or whatever when the share price cratered because now it's 4% of a smaller number.
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

SCHD is a much better alternative. Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF. This way, the Polaroid/Enron/GE/GM dividend stocks of yesterday (who all went to zero, so what good is a 10% quarterly dividend if it's 10% of zero?) can be mimic'd today with other big dividend stocks, some of which are going to go out of business. With the ETF, you have the diversification with the dividends (and forced taxation) you're looking for.

Personally, I invest opposite of what you're looking at. Non-dividend paying stocks like BRK/b don't pay dividends, thus don't force you to pay taxes every single year. I'm slowly moving my investments from these tax inducing funds over to non-dividend paying ones. There are plenty of companies who do this, so do your own research and decide for yourself.
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Grt2bOutdoors
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

Godot wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:30 pm
jeffreyalan wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:09 pm I finally have quite a bit of money in savings and a high savings rate so I am ready to add some significant money to my investment portfolio. My plan is to just keep a wad of cash and a portfolio of safe, conservative dividend stocks. I started investing many years ago after reading the stories of average people like Anne Scheiber, a woman who never made more than $4,000 a year but bought several dividend stocks early in life, never ever sold them and died a multi-millionaire.

http://www.thecompoundinvestor.com/article-archives/

With ultra low interest rates, now might be the time for an old-fashioned investing approach where you buy shares of a company like an owner and hold on to them for years instead of playing with stocks like they are just asset classes via index funds.

I have thought about the uncertainty of the future, the low volatility of the balanced stock/bond/gold portfolios and the all-weather nature of them. However, I feel like volatility is not relevant to me because once I buy a stock, I am in it forever. I pay no mind to the ups and downs in price, only to the dividend payments I receive which actually went up in 2008 and in 2020 when the market itself went down double digits for a time. I feel like I am buying myself (and my heirs) a perpetual annuity which will pay out increasing dividends for the remainder of my life and my family's life. A sample of some of my stocks would be things like Linde, 3M, JNJ, Union Pacific etc. And even if I did care about the gyrations of the portfolio value, stocks put me so far ahead of balanced portfolios that when they do have a -30% bear market I am STILL ahead of where I would have been with a balanced portfolio.

What are your opinions?
These great American companies also had "safe conservative dividend stocks": Kodak, J.C. Penney, RadioShack, Washington Mutual.
Oh please! Those were never “great” companies. A better example would be General Electric and Kresege (K-Mart) and Sears (though Sears did create several successful spin-offs - AllState and Dean Witter Discover).
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Grt2bOutdoors
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

TropikThunder wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:37 pm
aristotelian wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:45 pm It is true that dividends are more stable than prices but that is really not relevant except psychologically.
Is that stability in terms of yield (i.e., percentage) or in dollar terms (dollars/share)? A lot of times I see pro-dividend folks saying that the yield of stock X only declined 20% during the GFC etc but they seem to be quoting the percent yield. It doesn't really help to still be getting 4% or whatever when the share price cratered because now it's 4% of a smaller number.
You can be very successful in purchasing quality dividend paying companies IF you are prescient in selecting the baby that gets thrown out with the bath water. Mispricing is common in all out bloodbath sell-offs, resulting in abnormally high yields - one could look back to March 2020 for a number of companies who’s yields went to 8,9,10 percent only to come back to the normal 3-4 percent they were paying in February 2020. The yields didn’t decline because of a dividend cut rather the mispricing was recognized by the marketplace and found its equilibrium based on the earnings capacity of the company.

Dividend investors typically look for total returns but will only spend the distributions. There’s many ways to invest, so long as it works for you and you don’t mind paying taxes. As for the person quoted in the OP’s opening statement-the trick is to find companies in their infancy with similar attributes-good luck with that.
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JoMoney
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by JoMoney »

Yahoo! Finance had this article headline for me this morning,
7 Dividend ETFs To Buy And Watch For 2021
"Looking for a steady income stream to provide stability in your portfolio? Here are seven of the best dividend ETFs to invest in the coming year, ranked by assets."

https://finance.yahoo.com/m/04073309-50 ... y-and.html
https://www.investors.com/etfs-and-fund ... src=A00220
At the top of their list of "seven of the best dividend ETFs to invest"
1. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)
"To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks." - Benjamin Graham
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patrick013
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by patrick013 »

Try these for individual stocks -

SO utility - only one of 2 utility stocks chosen by most large dividend funds. Completing a nuclear reactor installation for the future.

T ( AT&T) - 7% dividend, little LT debt, large company.

IP Intl Paper - supplies Amazon with shipping boxes. Amazon now twice as big as Walmart.

There's always AAPL, Starbucks, and First Trust internet index.
age in bonds, buy-and-hold, 10 year business cycle
delamer
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by delamer »

First, I have to say that I have no idea what this means — “playing with stocks like they are just asset classes via index funds.”

Comparing an all stock portfolio of individual stocks like you planning to implement to a typical Boglehead portfolio that includes both stock and bond indexes is the old “apples vs. oranges” comparison.

There’s two issues here — 1) should you have cash/bonds in your portfolio and 2) should you focus on dividends in your stock holdings rather than total return.

You can create an all stock portfolio with index funds. You can create an all stock portfolio using individual dividend-paying stocks. Pick A or B. The Boglehead recommendation is A.

Except for young investors, most Bogleheads have some bonds/cash in their retirement portfolios. They provide diversification, reduce volatility, and reduce (certain types of) risk. A chunk of cash plus stocks is fine. But a big cash position means that by definition you aren’t truly comfortable going all-in on stock volatility. Just like most Bogleheads.

Also, I find it really hard to believe that your dividends increased during the Great Recession…
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ExTx
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by ExTx »

patrick013 wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:49 am Try these for individual stocks -

SO utility - only one of 2 utility stocks chosen by most large dividend funds. Completing a nuclear reactor installation for the future.

T ( AT&T) - 7% dividend, little LT debt, large company.

IP Intl Paper - supplies Amazon with shipping boxes. Amazon now twice as big as Walmart.

There's always AAPL, Starbucks, and First Trust internet index.
T is cutting it's dividend next year.
Grt2bOutdoors
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Grt2bOutdoors »

patrick013 wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:49 am Try these for individual stocks -

SO utility - only one of 2 utility stocks chosen by most large dividend funds. Completing a nuclear reactor installation for the future.

T ( AT&T) - 7% dividend, little LT debt, large company.

IP Intl Paper - supplies Amazon with shipping boxes. Amazon now twice as big as Walmart.

There's always AAPL, Starbucks, and First Trust internet index.
T is cutting the dividend. It’s known, don’t buy T.
Buy VPU - owns SO and a whole bunch more.
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Boglegrappler »

It's worth noting that if you own the S&P500 that somewhere around 85% give or take of the component stocks pay a dividend.

These types of posts raise the question of whether the investor is up to speed on his understanding of the total return idea. I have to admit that it seems nice to get cash payments sent to you and still own the same part of the companies, but my largest returns over the years have been from stocks that did not pay a dividend---because they were growing rapidly and had better uses for the cash than to send it to the owners.

The bottom line of this is that if you start thinking of stocks the way you think of CDs or bank accounts you will get pulled into low growth, low return investments.

It's also worth noting for some investors that, with the 0% bracket for capital gains, certain people should prefer not to receive dividends at all, and to simply harvest gains in that 0% space. Of course, your overall income has to be low enough to allow it, and to invest in equities with no dividends you'll have to abandon the broad index fund concept.
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by David Jay »

jeffreyalan wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:09 pmWhat are your opinions?
The biggest challenge in choosing to go with individual stocks will be recency bias. It is easy to forget about all the great dividend-paying stocks from years past that are either "gone" or mere shadows of their former selves - like GE.

It would seem like a high-dividend ETF would be a better long-term choice.
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by muffins14 »

This is not a good idea and is frankly a waste of your time. Just invest in a total market fund
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patrick013
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by patrick013 »

muffins14 wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:20 pm This is not a good idea and is frankly a waste of your time. Just invest in a total market fund
Bogle has made comments along the lines of why invest in other factors
including an equal weighted dividend factor, where total returns are
similar to the market portfolio. I can understand that - simplicity.

But when I factor in historical returns, lower portfolio beta, and
variable timing of returns I still think a large cap tilt to Quality
or Dividends has merit and not a bad idea either.

Dividends love bulls and Quality diversifies the portfolio as well in
a good way. The future market is the only way to find out while the
past is encouraging investors.
age in bonds, buy-and-hold, 10 year business cycle
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by kimura king »

delete
Last edited by kimura king on Fri Oct 01, 2021 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
muffins14
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by muffins14 »

patrick013 wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:51 pm
muffins14 wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:20 pm This is not a good idea and is frankly a waste of your time. Just invest in a total market fund
Bogle has made comments along the lines of why invest in other factors
including an equal weighted dividend factor, where total returns are
similar to the market portfolio. I can understand that - simplicity.

But when I factor in historical returns, lower portfolio beta, and
variable timing of returns I still think a large cap tilt to Quality
or Dividends has merit and not a bad idea either.

Dividends love bulls and Quality diversifies the portfolio as well in
a good way. The future market is the only way to find out while the
past is encouraging investors.
dividends is not a fama/French factor though, as far as I’m aware. Value, sure, but for this particular poster I don’t thing either is a good course of action given that dividends themselves are not really useful except to incur taxes.
Crom laughs at your Four Winds
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patrick013
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by patrick013 »

muffins14 wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 10:04 pm dividends is not a fama/French factor though, as far as I’m aware.
Other researchers have studied many factors, 6 or 7 if
I remember right. S&P, Russell and some others.
Some go back 40-50 years. Quality and small dividend
indexes always stand out. Bogle could see them too.

With COVID and the great returns in LC Growth it's hard
to compare anything. The 2 funder has great returns too.
age in bonds, buy-and-hold, 10 year business cycle
Da5id
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Da5id »

patrick013 wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:38 am
muffins14 wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 10:04 pm dividends is not a fama/French factor though, as far as I’m aware.
Other researchers have studied many factors, 6 or 7 if
I remember right. S&P, Russell and some others.
Some go back 40-50 years. Quality and small dividend
indexes always stand out. Bogle could see them too.

With COVID and the great returns in LC Growth it's hard
to compare anything. The 2 funder has great returns too.
If you have two otherwise identical companies one of which does buybacks and one of which does dividends it if odd if they have different factor loadings. I'd imagine the fact that buybacks have outstripped dividends could muddle a dividend factor to the extent that it exists different than value, quality, or low volatility.
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patrick013
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Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by patrick013 »

Da5id wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:45 am
patrick013 wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:38 am
muffins14 wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 10:04 pm dividends is not a fama/French factor though, as far as I’m aware.
Other researchers have studied many factors, 6 or 7 if
I remember right. S&P, Russell and some others.
Some go back 40-50 years. Quality and small dividend
indexes always stand out. Bogle could see them too.

With COVID and the great returns in LC Growth it's hard
to compare anything. The 2 funder has great returns too.
If you have two otherwise identical companies one of which does buybacks and one of which does dividends it if odd if they have different factor loadings. I'd imagine the fact that buybacks have outstripped dividends could muddle a dividend factor to the extent that it exists different than value, quality, or low volatility.
I don't know, I don't believe in factor loadings only factors
within reason. Factor loadings average things out to much.
So I am not a factor person.
age in bonds, buy-and-hold, 10 year business cycle
Da5id
Posts: 5066
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2016 7:20 am

Re: Conservative Dividend Investing

Post by Da5id »

patrick013 wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:54 am
Da5id wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:45 am
patrick013 wrote: Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:38 am
muffins14 wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 10:04 pm dividends is not a fama/French factor though, as far as I’m aware.
Other researchers have studied many factors, 6 or 7 if
I remember right. S&P, Russell and some others.
Some go back 40-50 years. Quality and small dividend
indexes always stand out. Bogle could see them too.

With COVID and the great returns in LC Growth it's hard
to compare anything. The 2 funder has great returns too.
If you have two otherwise identical companies one of which does buybacks and one of which does dividends it if odd if they have different factor loadings. I'd imagine the fact that buybacks have outstripped dividends could muddle a dividend factor to the extent that it exists different than value, quality, or low volatility.
I don't know, I don't believe in factor loadings only factors
within reason. Factor loadings average things out to much.
So I am not a factor person.
You raised factors, not me. I think factors seem reasonable/plausible, though I've not gone that way myself. I don't think there is much evidence for dividends as an independent factor.
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