Dividend investing will undoubtedly change your life, but it won’t happen overnight. In fact, it will probably take a substantial amount of time before you see tangible results.
So how do you stay motivated as you work your way up from a “dividend drip” to a “dividend stream?”
You simply work on increasing your dividends, paying one bill at a time. Start with a small bill like Netflix and keep going until it can pay all of your household expenses. It will be a fun ride, trust me.
Stock Market Investing 101
Getting started with dividends. Dividends are company profits that they pay to shareholders. To earn dividends, you must invest in these dividend-paying companies.
I split dividend investing into three categories: index funds, dividend growth, and income investing. Each one requires a different level of knowledge, experience, and attention.
I utilize all three types of dividend investing on a daily basis, with a strong preference for income investing. Investing for income feels like coming home after a long day of work and having a warm meal ready for you.
But your results may vary. What won’t change is the amount of money you’ll need to start getting results. Dividends are the most passive of passive income streams but require the most money to see results.
Stock Market Investing 102
How much money do you need to start dividend investing? You don’t need much money to start dividend investing. You can begin by putting less than $100 into your STASH (affiliate), M1 Finance (affiliate), or Cash App (affiliate) account.
I like to use the 4% as a general rule of thumb. If you invest $100 into a dividend-paying company that yields 4%, you’ll earn $4 per year. Yes, $4 per year.
Because most companies pay a dividend quarterly, you’ll receive $1 per quarter. Does $1 every quarter sound like a lot of money to you?
Stock Market Investing 103
Don’t be like most people. Most people will scuff at receiving $1 every quarter, but you have to view it differently if you want to succeed.
Let’s say you work your way up to $100 per quarter or $400 per year. Using quick math (400/.04), you will need $10,000 in the bank to achieve this amount.
How many hours will it take for you to earn $100? It is close to four work hours ($25/hour). Now you are talking about serious passive income.
The feeling of receiving dividends. Nobody can dispute the feeling of receiving dividends; it feels incredible!
Financial Independence 101
I have been earning dividends for almost four years, and my love has grown deeper over time. It feels like a life hack that nobody else is tracking.
Our parents taught us to work hard for money, so dividends feel like you are robbing someone for “free money.”
I got my wife into dividend investing by helping her start a dividend debit card with Cash App. Every month, We wait for our huge payments from AGNC (AGNC), Altria (MO), Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), and Ares Capital (ARCC).
Paying bills with dividends. Nobody likes paying bills, but it feels darn good to finish paying them. We should all have a tight budget for paying bills, food, and entertainment.
Maximum Leverage: Buy Homes with No Money Down
Dividends can help you on the back end by reimbursing you for your trouble. Each month, if you continually invest, your dividend income will increase.
I remember receiving my first dividend from Papa John’s for $0.25 in August 2019. I stared at the screen for hours on end. I was fascinated by passive income.
To be honest, earning that first dividend was one of the best things I have done in my life—a truly noteworthy event.
I remember my dividends growing, like receiving my first $5 dividend on my Cash App card. I bought a sandwich at the shop on base just to spend the cash and shared it with my Facebook Group.
Start a Home Business
The key to dividend survival is taking small victories in each payment. What can you pay for with $5, $10, or $100? What you reward, you repeat, so keep patting yourself on the back.
Building up to pay all your expenses? Can you use dividends to pay all of your household expenses? You sure can; it just takes a lot of money to get there.
In December 2022, my wife and I earned $1,850 in dividends. Our household expenses are roughly $1,000/month without food and gas.
We have roughly $210,000 in dividend-paying accounts. Is this a lot of money? Don’t focus on the total amount; focus on the income it produces.
Success is a Habit: What is Your Daily Routine?
Each month, focus on producing more and more dividends. You should reinvent 60-80% while you are growing your income. Let’s do the math.
- Start with trying to pay your Netflix bill.
- Determine how much we need to earn $22/month.
- Start by making it an annual amount ($22 x 12 = $264).
- Then divide the yearly amount by the yield ($264 / .04 = $6,600).
So you will need $6,600 to pay for your Netflix. However, you can do it much faster with income investing. At a 10% yield, you’ll only need $2,640.
However, chasing yield won’t get you great results. You have to understand these income-investing products to achieve any type of long-term success.
Investing for Dividends 103: The Magic of Reinvesting
I recommend starting with high-yield blue-chip dividend-paying companies (I call them Blue Yield). Companies like Kinder Morgan (KMI), AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ), Ares Capital (ARCC), British Tobacco (BTI), and Altria (MO) all pay between 6-8%
These companies have slow growth but have been around for decades. You can truly reach the cashflow-promised land with these great companies.
Conclusion. Once you invest in these products for a year, try your hand at income investing. Income investing takes a lot of knowledge (and reading) to understand why prices fluctuate.
Getting reimbursed for your bills with dividends is life-altering behavior. Waking up to find new money in your account is almost unheard of in middle-class households.
Start a Luxury Vehicle Business
I wrote an article two years ago titled “An Account that Pays You?” about my Wells Fargo brokerage account. Back then, it paid me roughly $30 or $40 per month.
Today, if I left my Wells Fargo account for a year, I would return to have $4,000. It requires nothing else on my part except to invest in more dividends or take it out in cash.
How amazing would it be to receive $4,000 every year for doing nothing? That is the power of dividend investing.
The sooner you hop in, the faster you can start building your dividend income. You can do whatever you like with dividends, including paying bills or spending frivolously. You can have it your way. Good Luck!
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing
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