re: Dividend stocks and DRIPs as a long term investment vehicle

Wegotdatwood, Im by no means a financial advisor, but I like your plan, it's for the man who wants to take charge and do it on his own. I personally stay on top of my investments bc you never know when things are going to change within a company, so if you're willing to be on top of your investment your choices are very good. I personally feel all the companies you listed are in good financial shape and have a great history of paying increasing dividends and that's why I've mentioned them.

As for your current list I feel

PM is a great buy all the way up to $92 bc that would leave the forward september yield at 4%.

I feel Chevron is a great buy under $120 with a 3.4% yield.

I feel Mcdonalds is a decent buy with a yield over $3

I feel Visa is a good buy under $180

I feel KO is a good buy at $35 or less, right now its steep

Everyone keeps calling for a correction, the dow fell 1000 pts off its highs in the past week, could it go further? sure but thats why Im happy as a dividend growth investor, a drop in price means the ability to acquire more shares which will grow their dividend at a lower price, the ability to have my dividend purchase more shares as well, and the ability add a bigger percentage of companies towards my end goal which is a higher retirement income.

See dividend investing is about reverse engineering future dividend payments based on past historical increases which allows you to plan on future income in today's share. What I mean is, PM for instance is projected to pay $8.91/share in dividend in 2023, what that means is if I own 11,000 shares of PM by that time, I will collect $100,000/yr in dividend income.

So understanding the power of dividend growth along with the power of compounding new shares is just part of the fun with dividend growth stocks, the final result is what we're all after as investors. I personally see no change over the next decade in any of those companies, but that's why I say that you have to stay on top of things. I read barron's, seeking alpha and CNN Finance daily, I stay on top of my companies and I would suggest you do to if you choose to go the solo route.

In the long run if you can, you will be better off in terms of knowledge and in terms of money saved on fees from ETF's,mutual funds, and advisors.

Hope that helped