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How I Became A Successful Dividend Growth Investor

Last Updated: March 21, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 32 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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How I Became A Sucessful Dividend Growth InvestorHello! Dividend investing is a very interesting topic. Today, I have an expert who has appeared on Forbes, Motley Fool, MSN Money, TheStreet, and more, and he is going to share tons of great information on this subject. This is a post from Ben Reynolds at Sure Dividend, a dividend growth investor. Sure Dividend uses The 8 Rules of Dividend Investing to systematically build high quality dividend growth portfolios.

There are a seemingly endless amount of ways to invest.  There are mutual funds, ETFs, growth stocks, value stocks, dividend stocks, preferred shares, options, bonds, currencies, commodities…  This list goes on.

All of the options can be a bit overwhelming.  Saving and investing is important, whether you are saving $100 a month, or pulling down $300,000+ a year and saving larger amounts.

As you might have guessed, I believe dividend growth investing is an excellent investment strategy for those looking to compound their wealth through time.

Related:

  • What Are Dividends & How Do They Work? A Beginner’s Guide
  • 12 Passive Income Ideas That Will Let You Enjoy Life More

The efficacy of dividend growth investing will be examined in detail in this article.  First, I’d like to tell you a little bit about why I started Sure Dividend.

Sure Dividend was founded in March of 2014.  I started Sure Dividend because I was frustrated with the high fees and lack of transparency that is prevalent in the investment industry.

The ‘normal’ investment approach is to talk to a financial advisor who will put your money into mutual funds that typically charge you 1% or more of assets under management.

1% doesn’t sound like much…  But it is.  The S&P 500 has averaged inflation adjusted compound returns of 6.8% a year over the long run.  Paying 1% a year is giving up 14.7% of your returns. 

That’s a high price to pay, but you get what you pay for, right?  Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.  Low cost funds have historically outperformed high cost funds regardless of asset class, on average.  The more you pay, the worse you will do over time.

I started Sure Dividend to raise awareness about dividend growth investing.  Buying and holding great businesses that pay you growing dividend income over time can be done without paying wall street (or your financial advisor) any management fees at all.

When you own individual securities, there is no fee to hold them.

Many investors get scared away from investing in individual securities because it seems complicated and confusing, but it doesn’t have to be.

Sure Dividend simplifies the process of investing in individual businesses with shareholder friendly managements that trade at fair or better prices.

 

My Journey To Become a Dividend Growth Investor

That’s the story of why I started Sure Dividend.  The truth is, I wasn’t always a dividend growth investor.

I first caught the investing ‘bug’ in college.  It wasn’t because I had a lot of money to invest – rather, it was extremely intellectually stimulating to me.  I read everything I could about investing.

Value investing in particular was appealing to me.  Value investing is the process of finding businesses you believe are trading for less than their worth.  You invest in the businesses you perceive to be undervalued, and hold on until it reaches fair value.

Benjamin Graham is the father of value investing.  The name is probably not familiar to those outside of the investing world.  Benjamin Graham’s most famous pupil is much more well-known:  Warren Buffett.

 

From Graham To Buffett

Warren Buffett has several excellent quotes that distill value investing to its essence.  One of my favorites is below:

Price is what you pay.  Value is what you get.

Benjamin Graham became a multi-millionaire from his value investments and investment fund that he managed.  That’s amazing success.

Warren Buffett became a multi-billionaire (he’s now worth well over $60 billion) by tweaking Benjamin Graham’s value investing style.

Benjamin Graham preferred to invest in businesses that were trading below liquidation value.  That means businesses that could sell everything they have and have enough cash left over to pay off all debt and buy back all shares and still have money left over.  Businesses that get this cheap are usually pretty terrible businesses.  Most of the time, they are losing money.

Warren Buffett tweaked Benjamin Graham’s style by applying a value-centered approach to great businesses.

It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price. – Warren Buffett

I’ve tossed around the phrase ‘great business’ a few times in this article…  You might be wondering what that actually means.

A great business is a business with a strong and durable competitive advantage.  A strong and durable competitive advantage is something that sets the business apart from its rivals and is likely to be in place for a long time.  An excellent example is Coca-Cola’s (KO) brand equity.  Anyone can make a brown sugary cola (think RC Cola or similar), but you can’t replicate Coca-Cola’s success because of the company’s strong brand-based competitive advantage.

 

Back To My Dividend Investing Growth Journey

Of course, I didn’t immediately ‘see the light’.  I preferred the idea of buying a business worth $1.00 for $0.70.  It sounds so easy.

But markets are very efficient.  I had some successes, but also some failures.  Above all else, value investing takes a lot of time.

This article makes it sound like I only studied and applied value investing, but that’s not the case.

I’ve also had a long interest in quantitative rule-based investment methodologies.  From this led to a deep interest in optimal portfolio diversification and a wide range of ETF based strategies.  The details of these are beyond the scope of this article.

I actually didn’t ‘convert’ to dividend growth investing until I began researching how to minimize investment costs.

Every time you buy or sell a security, you pay more than you’d think in the way of frictional costs.  A list of frictional costs from buying and/or selling is below:

  • Slippage
  • Brokerage fees
  • Bid-Ask spread
  • Tax consequences
  • Opportunity cost of wasted time

A study by Barber and Odean found that when individual investors sell a security and buy a new one, the new security underperforms.  Individual investors tend to largely underperform the market in large part due to excessive trading.

The lesson is – don’t needlessly buy and sell securities.  Once again, Warren Buffett says it best:

When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.

One of the hidden benefits of buying and holding is that the money you would be paying in capital gains if you sold taxes (if you have a taxable account) is left to compound in the security in which you are invested.  This is not often discussed, but it is very powerful.  I believe this to be one of the primary reasons Buffett sells his core holdings so rarely.

Dividend growth investing is uniquely suited to buying and holding.  Dividend growth stocks tend to pay you more dividends every year.  The longer you hold, the higher your dividend income becomes.  This disincentives you from selling – and being your own worst enemy.

The low-cost nature of dividend growth investing (due to very few frictional costs) is compelling.  The historical record of dividend growth investing is even more compelling; that’s what really made me switch to being an advocate (and practitioner) of dividend growth investing.

 

The Evidence for Dividend Growth Investing

I’ve quoted Warren Buffett quite a bit in this article.  Few people realize that Warren Buffett is primarily a dividend growth investor.  Over 90% of his portfolio is invested in dividend paying stocks – and most of them have long dividend histories.  Buffett’s amazing success is anecdotal evidence of the efficacy of dividend growth investing.

Here’s a very compelling reason to be a dividend growth investor.  A study from 1972 through 2014 found the following compound total returns:

  • Non-dividend stocks had compound total returns of 2.3% a year
  • Dividend paying stocks had compound total returns of 9.2% a year
  • Dividend growth stocks had compound total returns of 10.1% a year

Why have dividend stocks in general performed so well?  I believe it is because a business must be generating actual income and be relatively sound to comfortably pay shareholders money every year.  Businesses with a long record of paying rising dividends must be even better off – they can reward shareholders with ever higher income.

There is a select group of businesses that have increased their dividend payments for 25+ consecutive years in a row.  This group of businesses is called the Dividend Aristocrats.  There are currently 50 Dividend Aristocrats.

The Dividend Aristocrats Index is comprised of well-known high quality businesses like:

  • Clorox (CLX)
  • PepsiCo (PEP)
  • Wal-Mart (WMT)
  • Procter & Gamble (PG)
  • Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

The performance of the Dividend Aristocrats Index has been nothing short of phenomenal over the last decade.  The Dividend Aristocrats index has averaged returns of 9.8% a year over the last decade – versus 6.4% a year for the S&P 500. 

The Dividend Aristocrats Index has generated these market-beating returns with lower stock price volatility.  The index’s stock price standard deviation over the last decade is 14.0%, versus 15.2% for the S&P 500.  It is very rare to find an investment method that can outperform the market over long periods of time with lower stock price volatility.

The historical evidence of efficacy and low cost of implementing a dividend growth portfolio is what ultimately made me become a dividend growth investor.

 

Final Thoughts – Financial Freedom Through Passive Dividend Income

I hope you don’t read this post and get the idea that dividend growth investing is some sort of get rich quick scheme.

It is anything but that.

Dividend growth investing takes time.  Over time, it will compound your wealth if you have the discipline to hold your high quality businesses and let their dividend income rise – and not sell during stock price declines.

You can reach financial independence with dividend growth investing.  Once your dividend income covers all your bills and you are invested in businesses that will very likely pay you higher dividends every year, you are completely and truly financially independent.

Sure Dividend is more than just a business to me.  I have 100% of my personal funds invested in dividend growth stocks.  All of my personal holdings have ranked in the Top 20 or higher based on The 8 Rules of Dividend Investing at the time of their purchase.  I believe dividend growth investing to be the most effective way for individual investors to compound their wealth over time – for myself, and for everyone else.

Are you interested in dividend investing and becoming a dividend growth investor? Why or why not?

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32 Comments
Filed Under: Budget, Extra Income, Retirement Tagged With: Budget, Extra Money, Retirement

About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. The Green Swan says

    May 20, 2016 at 4:15 am

    Interesting argument for dividend growth investing. I’ve never looked into it so specifically before but I might now. How many stocks do you hold and is there anything you do in particular to make sure your holdings are diversified by sector? Thanks for the post.

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 20, 2016 at 7:54 am

      Hi Green Swan,

      The choice of how many stocks to hold is up to the individual. It’s a balance between what you can track (the fewer, the easier), and diversification (the more, the better). Generally, around 20 stocks is a good happy medium to me, but that is different for everyone.

      I don’t specifically look to equally weight sectors. Over the long run, I would prefer to be overweight health care and consumer goods as those two sectors have historically (over 50+ years) outperformed other sectors – and likely will continue to do so.

      Reply
  2. Vivek @ LifeAfterFI says

    May 20, 2016 at 6:33 am

    Nice… enjoyed the post! I wish the post also covered tactical details of how you execute your dividend investment strategy? Are you investing through a vanguard index fund? Perhaps to get all these answers, we should visit your website 🙂

    Cheers for the wonderful post!

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 20, 2016 at 7:56 am

      Thanks, glad you found it useful!

      I prefer investing in individual dividend growth stocks (The Dividend Aristocrats List is a great place to start looking). The advantage of stocks versus ETFs is stocks have no cost to own, and can provide better customization.

      For those who want to devote less time to their investment accounts, I detailed my favorite dividend ETFs here: http://www.suredividend.com/best-dividend-etf/

      Reply
  3. Aliyyah @RichAndHappyBlog says

    May 20, 2016 at 9:26 am

    I am definitely interested in dividend investing. I recently investing in some dividend stocks through Motif Investing. I’ll post an article about it on my blog next week.

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 20, 2016 at 4:06 pm

      Sounds good, dividend investing and dividend growth investing is a very in-depth topic!

      Reply
    • DNN says

      May 21, 2016 at 9:47 am

      Alliyah,

      You’re kinda cute. Hope to see you someday at an internet marketing event on the East Coast. Have you ever been to an event before? 🙂

      Reply
  4. Norman says

    May 20, 2016 at 9:45 am

    Many people are obsessed with the sexy growth stocks and price appreciation but don’t realize that the steady, dividend payers generally end up doing better. The power of reinvesting and compounding of dividends is usually overlooked. Thanks for the article!

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 20, 2016 at 9:47 am

      Thanks, glad you found it useful!

      Reply
  5. DNN says

    May 20, 2016 at 10:18 am

    Do you think there’s financial stability in Forex markets and offshore banking?

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 20, 2016 at 4:06 pm

      Hi DNN, That’s not my area of expertise.

      Reply
  6. Millennial Moola says

    May 20, 2016 at 3:03 pm

    I started moving away from index funds to individual dividend paying stocks around late 2013. I have to say the performance results since then have not been encouraging as value has underperformed. Emerging market stocks have also been very difficult to hold onto. Oil stocks that had great dividend growth records have had trouble continuing to pay out this cash. Perhaps the larger dividend payers are a safer bet if you’re looking for passive income without having to worry about it.

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 20, 2016 at 4:05 pm

      Oil companies have done poorly lately. The 2 oil Dividend Aristocrats (XOM and CVX) have continued to raise their dividends through the recent oil price decline. They have a long history (~30 years for each) of raising dividends. If you are looking for consistent dividend growth, the highest quality (which often – but not always – means larger stocks) businesses are likely the best choice.

      Reply
  7. Visionary Money says

    May 20, 2016 at 4:28 pm

    Time and dividends have proven successful. You can’t guarantee the outcome but you can pretty much take the risk out of investment with these two things.

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 21, 2016 at 8:00 am

      I agree, dividend growth investing minimizes long-term risks. Your stocks will still fluctuate in value in the short-run, but there’s no reason at all to sell when something goes down in price (if anything, you should buy more when great businesses go on sale).

      Reply
  8. Financial Slacker says

    May 21, 2016 at 10:12 pm

    Currently, I hold a diversified portfolio consisting of US stock, bond, international, and REIT ETFs as well as a few alternative investments, but I am contemplating a dividend growth strategy.

    When you say 100% of your funds are invested in dividend growth stocks, do you have concerns about not having much asset diversification?

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 26, 2016 at 9:56 am

      I don’t. I can tolerate drawdowns and have a very long investment horizon. There’s no reason I’d need to sell any holdings if the market were to fall 20%, 35%, or even 50%.

      Reply
  9. DivHut says

    May 22, 2016 at 7:28 pm

    There are so many long term benefits to being a disciplined dividend growth investor. I am happy to have joined the ranks of Ben at SureDividend. The reality is that with patience and consistency anyone can create their own passive income stream to supplement their retirement years or even fully fund it. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 26, 2016 at 9:58 am

      Thanks DivHut, you run a great site as well.

      Reply
  10. Brittney @ Life On A Discount says

    May 22, 2016 at 8:27 pm

    Thank you for sharing this information. I am interested in investing (outside of my 401k and Roth IRA), but I am not very confident in my approach. I had heard a little about dividend growth investing, but hadn’t read much. Your synopsis was clear and to the point.

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 26, 2016 at 9:58 am

      Thanks, glad you found it useful!

      Reply
  11. Tylet @ Oddball Wealth says

    May 22, 2016 at 10:29 pm

    I have always strongly believed in buying and holding. Since the first few years I began investing that has always been my strategy, to buy and hold strong companies with a long and solid history of performance and paying dividends.

    You hit it right on the money with this article sir, cheers!

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 26, 2016 at 9:59 am

      Thanks, that is a sound strategy. Glad you liked the article!

      Reply
  12. F. J. says

    May 25, 2016 at 11:42 am

    Thanks for the artile, Ben. As you know, I have not done well being a buy and sell investor. I have lost money and I have been forever chasing the latest and greatest. WELL, I joined sure Dividend about 6 months ago and I am making money now! My only sore points have been my sells (just a few) – It shows that my best bet is buy and hold (I’m just too emotional when the market goes down) Now, I just keep thinking what it’s going to be like in a few years!

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 26, 2016 at 10:01 am

      That’s great, I’m happy Sure Dividend has worked out well for you. It can be difficult to hold during down periods. I find it useful to think of the underlying business and that stock price movement doesn’t reflect the true prospects of the business.

      Reply
  13. David says

    May 25, 2016 at 4:59 pm

    I own SPHD. Where does this fit into your categories of DG ETFs?

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 26, 2016 at 12:08 pm

      SPHD is a low volatility, high dividend ETF. It appears to be a good ETF overall, but doesn’t have as long a history as the ETFs I explore in this article: http://www.suredividend.com/best-dividend-etf/

      Reply
  14. Yash Kumar says

    May 25, 2016 at 11:10 pm

    A very well written article!

    Well, it;s true that investing in the dividend growth stocks for the longer duration one can definitely get the benefit of compounding. The main thing is regularly investing a fixed or growing amount of money into these stocks.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Ben at Sure Dividend says

      May 26, 2016 at 12:09 pm

      I completely agree, thanks for reading!

      Reply
  15. David says

    May 26, 2016 at 6:02 pm

    Hi Ben,

    You divided the dividend ETF like this:

    I divide the dividend ETF universe into 4 broad categories to determine performance:
    Traditional
    Growth
    High Yield
    International

    Which of these categories would you place SPHD?

    David

    Reply
  16. ZJ Thorne says

    June 7, 2016 at 6:38 pm

    I am less interested in dividend growth investing because I do not feel that I have enough time to get the knowledge necessary to do it well. I absolutely agree that buying and holding (most) assets is the best ticket to wealth.

    Reply
  17. CM says

    May 19, 2022 at 1:35 pm

    I used to be a dividend investor until I learned about how dividend payouts lower the value of a stock and actually reduce a stock’s value. Recently, I backtested some Dividend ETFs against a Total Market fund. For the past 15 years, total market has outperformed dividend payers for 14 of those years. Dividends are not for me

    Reply

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My name is Michelle and I'm the author/owner of Making Sense of Cents. Learning how to save money and make more money changed my life. It allowed me to pay off $40,000 in student loans, start my own business, and I now travel full-time.

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