I am a noob when it comes to dividend investing. I have done a lot of research to assure myself that it isn’t that risky and last year, I finally took the plunge and started my dividend investing portfolio last year.
I have always been amazed with dividend investing. Getting passive income is always a thrill for me. But I am also a scary cat. And I worry a lot. This is why I decided that I would take the dividend growth rate approach. This focuses on long-term benefits by investing in companies that has a low dividend pay out. This approach feels familiar to me and since I am still at least 10 years away from retiring early, I am comfortable with watching the companies grow. A good example of such would be Starbucks or Orix.
I started my dividend investing through my SBI account. One of the disadvantages of SBI is that they do not have DRIP plan. With a DRIP plan, I can set it so that my dividends are automatically reinvested into whatever stock I bought. The lack of such plan, means I have to do it manually. SBI does have the option of doing the taxes for you, so I am taking advantage of that.
As I grow my portfolio, I am hoping that it can help me meet my retirement goals. Reinvesting my dividends will help me build a stronger portfolio and hopefully, will help me maximize my retirement savings.
So what’s new in 2021?
To be honest, nothing much. I caved and started putting a bit of money into NIO. Thought I am looking more into investing in the growth of EV without picking an EV constructor. NIO is the newest additional and is my “fun” additional even though it doesn’t give out any dividends at the moment.
I will continue to hold and reinvest in my US investments of APPL, SBUX, MSFT, DIS and JNJ. I have been looking into Japanese dividends as well and have some investments in JT, ORIX and Asahi. Japanese investments are done in increments of 100 so I have shy away from it for the longest time.
I am hoping to diversify my portfolio more this year.
2020 was an interesting and surprising year in the market. Who knows what 2021 will bring? But I will continue to hold steady with researching and finding brands that can hold steady and have increased their dividend each year.
Are you interested in dividend investing? Any thoughts on my beginners thoughts and method? Let me know in the comments!
Forever Friday- Retire in Japan 
I enjoy dividend investing. It’s a great feeling to get dividends, and to see them grow over time. However, it is not as tax-efficient as buying index funds, particularly in Japan where dividends can be reinvested internally without being taxed.
I made a rule for myself a couple of years ago that I would only buy stocks that pay dividends, and once I bought them I would never sell them. This makes it very easy to manage the portfolio, as I only need to worry about what to buy, not whether I should consider selling something.
Most of our investments are in index funds, and only a small proportion are single shares. I’m hoping to eventually get about 1 million yen a year in dividends (after tax) which should supplement our pensions to give us a base level of income in retirement.
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I am also going to use the buy and not sell method. I am probably also going to limit my investing to about 10-12 different companies max.
Are you reinvesting manually or do you use an account that does it automatically for you? That’s one of my biggest regrets with going to SBI, is that I have to do it manually myself.
Most of my investments are also in index fund and I just started investing in dividends early last year.
1 million yen in dividends in a year sounds like a nice goal. I might have to copy you on that!
By the way, do you use any apps to keep track of your dividends? I use an app called “stock events” that gives me the information about dividend dates and projected dividends for the year. Was wondering if there are any other good apps out there.
Thanks for your insight! I am still working on shaping my portfolio so your thoughts are super helpful!
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Dividends are a great way to invest. You should look into stocks that payout Monthly rather than Quarterly for a more steady income stream. ETN’s can potentially payout a hefty coupon as well.
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