Alas, I am reaching an age where dividends look at least as attractive as growth potential in a stock. So, I’m looking to transfer some of my holdings into some solid stocks that pay good dividends.
Anyone got some favorites? I’m especially interested in people who have the same motivation as I do (income producing stocks, rather than growth). And not to worry-- I’ve got plenty of other investments to round out my portfolio, but I’m not well versed in this area.
I’ve been doing some research, and a lot of the bank stocks look good (although the mortgage problem could have an affect on that) as well as companies like Pfizer or even GE (not the greatest dividend, but talk about stability). MSN Money has a search feature that turned up this list, which looks reasonable, but their search parameters are rather broad.
The problem with dividends in the U.S. is that the company is taxed on them as if it was profit…and then the stockholder is taxed on them as income. Bush lessened this effect somewhat, but it is still there. Also, the scare is that in 2010 (?) it may go back to the way it was.
Therefore, high dividend stocks are rare.
HOWEVER!!!
DO NOT buy a stock for your portfolio with a high divendend without looking at its price history! If you do this, you run the risk of buying the stock…only to have its dividend slashed. You can go to many sites to see a chart of price history (my favorite being bigcharts.com)
IMO, look in utilities and Real estate trusts. These historically have high dividends. I haven’t looked at real estate trusts in awhile and not sure how they are being affected by the subprime mess…but these are companies that buy commercial and industrial properties and rent them out to companies.
Utilities can be pretty safe, like CNP (centerpoint energy) with dividend of 4.2%. You can probably find higher dividend ones…I just put in my gas utility as an example.
I am not in that zone right now…but will spend a few minutes looking for ya if yalike.
I mostly have them because I like the companies. I’m not going to give you anything better than that list you provided. I like NYT’s price right now, though.
About 12% of my portfolio is spread across two bond funds (VBLTX and VBMFX). They pay a pretty decent monthly payment (which I currently reinvest) and make a yearly distribution.
You might also want to look at TIPS or other offerings from the treasury. TIPS are “inflation protected securities”. They’ll pay you like a bond, but the principal is guaranteed to be protected against inflation. That is, you don’t cash out $100 10 years from now, but $100 adjusted for inflation, while still receiving payments along the way.
