Stargazer

What Are Your Dividend Investment Goals?

When I first started reading information available on S.A., I wasn't sure what I would get out of it. I hoped at the time a few pieces of helpful information would come my way once in a while.

Dividend Growth Investor was one of the first authors I started reading on here. Nearly all his articles have been helpful to me in some way. I've said it before (and I will say it again), but thank you D.G.I. for the time you put into your articles and the sharing of knowledge within them.

I still consider myself a novice at dividend investing. Probably will for many years, and that is alright. I've made my share of mistakes and still have a lot to learn. However, I must say that when those dividends are deposited into my accounts every month, it sure does feel good to think I am doing some right in my life for a change.

Long: JNJ, MCD, PG.

Pocket Change Portfolio Update: October 2009

I enjoy reading your progress with, as you say, "pocket change" portfolio. The biggest thing that I get out of reading this is motivation. It helps remind me that even small amounts of income invested into the right dividend stocks still leads to growth.

The saying goes how the companies will "nickel and dime" us for our wealth. Well, for me, your PCP proves that as a dividend investor I can "nickel and dime" the wealth in the "right" direction.

Looking forward to future installments of the PCP.

Long KO.

U.S. Multinationals: International Investing Without Leaving Home

D4L, as usual your articles are interesting and much appreciated.

You made a great point in the fact that when a company is diversified across many economies it can re-allocate resources from one economy to another as needed. That is a great advantage for any company. The military taught me that mobility is a key to survivability. I would say the same strategy applies to the economic world as well.

The worlds economies will not recover at an equal rate from the current situation. If a company could focus on faster recovering economies that should imply that it will recover economically faster.

Also if a company is diversified across many economies and one of them has a major natural disaster or civil upheaval/war; though such a company would suffer a loss, it will hopefully only be a small percentage of its overall cash flow.

I am basically re-stating what you wrote in your article D4L. However, the point you made is so important that I felt it was worth the time to reply and make this point: diversification is a main form of protection for any long-term (i.e. dividend) investor and that diversification can exist at many levels and forms in a investment strategy.

Again, your articles are much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to write them.

Long: KO, MCD.

Financial Stocks for Dividend Investors

Hello Mr. Sutfin,

You are correct in that Canada would have a withholding tax on dividends paid to an American -even if the stock in question is held with an traditional IRA or Roth IRA. Further, you are also correct that an American would lose the benefit of filling for a tax credit with this withholding if held in said IRA / Roth IRA.

I have a Roth IRA. It contains just domestic mid and large cap dividend paying stocks. At this point it is generating just $1000 a year in dividends. Not much, but it is all tax free. I have it setup so that all of the dividends are automatically re-invested into whatever stock issued a particular dividend. Works great. Some of the stocks that I maintain a position in are: BKH, CLX, JNJ, KO, O, and SO. Speaking of O, it is a wonderful stock to hold in an IRA since it offers monthly dividends. There are many articles about it here on S.A. One in particular, written by David Van Knapp, is well worth the read.

Back to foreign taxes. I have a regular trading account that holds all of my foreign investments. Last year I was able to apply all of the foreign taxes withheld as a credit to my 1040. I only had two two countries involved in this: Canada and Australia. This year I've expanded to include: Brazil, France, Hungary, and India. From what research I have done, all of these countries have an agreement with the United States to allow an investor to claim that countries taxes withheld as a credit. (Please, someone, correct
me if I am in error on this.)

Bottom line is I would not hold any foreign stocks in an IRA that paid dividends and had a withholding taxes applied to them.

On Aug 27 06:53 PM Stan Sutfin wrote:

> Canadian banks sound like a good alternative. I believe they would
> deduct canadian tax from dividend payment and then you would get
> credit for that foreign tax paid in filing your 1040. If that is
> the case, it is important to not hold these shares in an IRA. Does
> this sound right?

Dividend Stocks for the Long Run

Awesome list! Thank you for taking the time and effort to post this.

The Ups and Downs of Drips

Mr. Stoyanov, I have appreciated reading your articles since I have been coming to this website. Thank you for taking the time and effort to contribute.

When I read this particular article I wanted to comment on my experience with dividend reinvestment.

I have a Roth IRA through Wells Fargo Bank. WFC has a program that if an individual has $25,000 or more in their total accounts they offer the first 100 trades for free per year. This resets every year for another 100 free trades as long as one has the minimum amount in their accounts.

Now, I have my Roth IRA setup that all dividends are automatically reinvested. This does not cost me anything, nor do these count towards the 100 free trades a year.

Further, I have a regular account for trades with WFC as well. Again, it has its own 100 free trades that are separate from the Roth IRA. Like the Roth IRA, this number also resets to 100 once a year as long as all my accounts have over $25,000 total.

So, technically I have 200 free trades a year. That comes out to a savings of roughly $1500 a year (assuming if I did 200 trades). For most investors out there, this may not be helpful, but to the small investors that may only make a few purchases a year, this knowledge may provide another option to helping reach their goal of retirement.