Just a reminder that investing doesn't have to be all that complicated

Dividends is a losers strategy. You leave too much on the table when you can buy something like ITOT and share the market return while at the same time earning dividends.

ETA: unless you’re retired and you’re using it as an income source then a dividend play is more acceptable although it should still only be a portion of your portfolio.

Ever since I started buying the spy and qqq on dips, I have done much better than I used to do. No more need to pick winners.

I admit that I still like to dabble on a stock here or there but generally, I just buy the market

Dividends is a losers strategy.



"The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat index was launched by Standard and Poors in May 2005, and has historically outperformed the S&P 500 index with lower volatility over longer investment time frames. For example, over the past 10 years through the period ending September 30, 2019, the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat index has returned 14.67% on an average annual basis whereas the S&P 500 index has returned 13.24% annually during that same period. The risk factor commonly called the standard deviation of the S&P 500 during this same 10 year period was 12.55% while the Dividend Aristocrats' was 11.28% (10.12% lower)."

Am I missing something? This NOBL etf shows a sub 1.5% dividend...

I’m getting 3.3% from VYM.

Is it overall gains we’re looking at?

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Dividends are great and have their time and place, but this is a BS statement. Buffett didn’t make his money off dividends he made his money off of growth.

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It's both. Berkshire made 3.8 billion dollars off of dividends last year...

Ten largest holdings:
1- Apple (dividend)
2 - Bank of America (dividend)
3 - Wells Fargo (dividend)
4 - Coca Cola (dividend)
5 - American Express (dividend)
6 - Kraft Heinz (dividend)
7 - US Bancorp (dividend)
8 - JPMorgan (dividend)
9 - Moodys (dividend)
10 - Bank of NY (dividend)

I don't think it's just a coincidence that ALL of his ten largest holdings pay dividends.

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Certainly, but they have what it looks like is $708 billion in assets? So that's 0.5% off of dividends? That's just with a quick google search so I may be off?

Another quick search shows Berkshire holding about 252 million shares of Apple. Apple has gone up 60% ytd from 157 to $260. If their holdings are correct, they've made over $25 billion on Apple's Growth.

I'm not arguing that Dividends are bad as they are great. My only point is that it is not fair at all to say that Buffett got rich off of dividends, that's a very small portion of his earnings overall.

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Gotcha. Yes, I'd agree that the "growth" has added more cumulative value to his wealth. However, people often conclude that you can't get "growth" from dividend stocks and thats simply not true.

^^ By the way, i'm not saying you implied that.

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Dividends are great and have their time and place, but this is a BS statement. Buffett didn’t make his money off dividends he made his money off of growth.

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This is correct.

Buffett has for years said he favors putting money back into projects that grow revenue or improve efficiency over dividends. The closest he gets to dividends are stock buybacks due to tax efficiency.

The somewhat under stated benefit of many high dividend stocks is they are often ‘safer’ picks. There is often less volatility because they pay a higher dividend often times due to not needing the money to invest back into the company.

Therefore the risk in a major decline in the stock price is lower. Many retirees like them because they can have a higher stock allocation due to that reason. This is another reason why guys like Buffett like them.