You invest in dividend-paying stocks by researching stocks by first understanding how they work and the terminology that accompanies them.
Today I want to offer some help for anyone who is feeling confused by all the information available on financial news platforms. I see many people with little investment experience jumping into the stock markets because truth be told, it’s the only game in town if you want to grow your portfolio or turn retirement savings into retirement income.
My Dividend Hunter service focuses on helping investors build a sustainable, high-yield income stream. A big part of what I do is to educate my subscribers. Through the hundreds of emails I receive and the questions frequently repeated during my webinars, I find that many investors are fairly new to the markets and are not sure about the characteristics of the investments they own.
The financial news media can provide entertainment about the markets, but that’s what it is: entertainment. If you take your investing cues from the mainstream financial outlets, you are bound to fail. And failing means losing your hard-earned money.
The financial markets are tremendously complicated. Take a look at this list of basic terms and see how many you understand:
- common stock shares
- preferred stock shares
- exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
- exchange-traded notes (ETNs)
- closed-end funds (CEFs)
- master limited partnerships (MLPs)
- real estate investment trusts (REITs)
- business development companies (BDCs)
- put and call options
If you want to invest for income, all of these terms should be part of your informed vocabulary.
On top of that, I know that investors get confused about yields vs. dividend amounts, dividend declaration dates, the ex-dividend date, and when dividends are paid. For example, you must own shares before the ex-dividend date to earn the next dividend payment.
Success for my subscribers is a huge goal of mine. Because of that, I think educating investors about the details of the investments I recommend will be as important as the investment recommendations themselves.
If you are new to investing, I highly suggest joining my Dividend Hunter service. During the first year of your subscription, make an effort to absorb all of the education I provide about being an intelligent, informed investor. The education alone will be worth many times the small amount it costs to subscribe. You may even like some of my high-yield investment recommendations!
