Half Time

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.

The DJIA ended last year (2013) at the 16,576.66 level. The highest the average has gotten so far this year is 16,978.02 and that was an intraday high six business days ago. That's an increase of just 401.36 points, or 2.42%, for the year so far. Not exactly something to write home about. And by this past Friday, 27 June, the average had pulled back about 125 points from that high. 

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Many dividend growth investors, and most income investors, did a lot better than that simply by doing nothing other than sitting back and quietly collecting their dividends. 

So if you're still one of those investors investing for capital gains, I truly do wish you the very best. You're putting in a tremendous amount of effort for so very little return this year.  

You may want to rethink your strategy and consider this idea of dividend growth investing.

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