The Impact Of Dividend Increases Through December Of 2018

When talking about dividend increases, this is us talking about dividend investing at its finest! Given another quarter-end had recently passed, I wanted to reflect on what occurred over the last full year. I do not mean just any old reflection, but I am going to be specifically talking about dividend increases and their impact on my portfolio this year. Tax reform has been rewarding, as companies have been sending portions of the cost savings to their shareholders.
Why Dividend Increases Matter Why does this matter? Why would dividend increases matter to my investment journey? The next section will describe the importance of dividend increases. In short, the reason is the increase in cost of goods (food, energy, shelter, etc.) over a span of time. This is what you hear when "inflation" is discussed.
Why dividends increasing in the future matters from companies that we own? When the price of goods is increasing, don't you want your income to continue to grow in order to offset or "trump" the inflation? Now, as the community knows, uninterrupted dividend increases are a quality we look for prior to investing in a company. We don't solely invest for current income, but we are investing for a larger, future income too! For example, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) increased its dividend 7.15% back in April. The 7.15% dividend increase outpaces the rate of inflation, which has been stated at 2.3% over the last year. Does this start to make sense now?... Read more