
In 2013 the market closed at 16,576.66 and by the end of the first half the market stood at 16,978.02 for a mediocre rise of just 401.36 points or 2.42%. During the second half the market advanced another 845.05 points or 5.09% to finish the year at 17,823.07.
In fact, last year I was lamenting that…
"The first half of the year is just about over already and it has been a mediocre year by just about any measurement, but dividend growth investors have been doing rather well. That's mainly because dividend growth investors accentuate the dividend rather than the capital gains. They know that over time they've accumulated stock in great companies that pay great growing dividends. They're not dependent on an increase in the price of a stock to pay their bills."
"As long as the company increases revenues, earnings and dividends, it really doesn't matter which way the traders temporarily push the markets. In the long run, revenues, earnings and dividends win every time."
You can read more from that article by clicking here or you can peruse the INDEX for the article titled "Half Time" dated 28 June 2014 and many more articles of interest.
This year the market has risen 123.61 points in the first six months, which is the result of the market moving sideways since around the first of March. Fortunately these lateral movements don't last forever and if they've persisted for awhile they tend to have an extended run coming out of them. Hopefully that will happen in the second half.
In the meantime it's nice to know that many Dividend Growth Investors did better than simple Growth Investors. Most dividend growth investors, and many income investors, did a lot better than the Growth Investors simply by doing nothing other than sitting back and quietly collecting their dividends. So if you're one of those investors that invests solely for capital gains, I truly do wish you the very best in the second half. You've put in a lot of effort during the first half for very little return so far this year.
You may want to rethink your current strategy and consider dividend growth investing.