What Are Dividends?
When a corporation or LLC earns a profit, it has three options for use of the money. It can reinvest that money in the company, pay down debt, or it can give some of that money away to its stockholders in the form of dividends.
When you receive a dividend payment, you are paid a portion of the profits of the company that you own shares in. The amount you receive will vary, depending on how much other people own of that company. Generally, there is a financial institution or brokerage company between you and the company that you are invested in, so you may not see a check, but you will see an entry in your account once a month showing you how much the company is paying out to its shareholders.
Dividends Are Taxed
The dividend payments you receive are considered income and are taxed at the appropriate level and will be reported on the Income Tax Form 1099 that you will receive at the end of the year.
Which Companies Pay Dividends?
There are thousands of publicly traded companies around the world and among these companies are some that pay dividends in which investors share a portion of profits in the company. These companies are referred to as dividend paying companies. Some large blue chips that pay dividends are Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola and Pepsi.
Why Are Dividends Great?
If you haven’t yet taken the plunge into the wonderful world of dividend paying stocks, it’s time that you did.
Generally, dividends are the income paid out by a corporation to the shareholder. This is a way for the company to financially reward the shareholder for holding the stock.
This is done out of the company’s profits, after it has paid all the necessary expenses and covered it’s cost of goods. Although they’re referred to as—payout—dividends, you don’t actually see the money as income from the company. Instead, it is sent to the shareholder as more stock.
As a shareholder, you will automatically receive your portion of the reward. The hard part is tracking down a dividend paying stock in the first place.
But these stocks do exist, and they can be very rewarding. In fact, dividends are a big reason why people love investing in stocks.
There are two ways that corporations can use dividends to reward shareholders: regular dividends and special dividends. A regular dividend is just a generally scheduled payout of earnings. This can be either a cash or stock dividend.
The first is when a company pays out cash to each shareholder, based on the number of shares held.
How to Turn $180 Into $7 Million With Dividends
Many people like the idea of making money in a slow and steady fashion, but many also worry about investing in stocks for this reason. While investing in the stock market is a good way to make money in the long term, it’s not a sure thing. The stock market can rise and fall at any time. It’s risky business, and many people are afraid to embark on an investment journey because of it.
This is precisely why income investing is so valuable. When you’re investing into income-producing assets, you’re working toward a different goal entirely. Rather than trying to beat the market, you’re trying to beat inflation. The trick is to build up a steady stream of passive income that allows you to maintain your purchasing power without having to rely on single, large windfalls from investments.
If you’re interested in learning more about income investing, I highly recommend checking out the book Stocks for Income.
Summary
In the stock market, dividends are portions of a company’s profits paid to shareholders. These profits have been accounted for by an established team who work to report the financial forecast of the company. The dividends can either be given as cash totalling to the percentage of the profit, or in the form of stocks. The main motivations behind paying a dividend is to give a steady income to the stockholders and to avoid them dumping all of their stocks onto the market.
Dividends are a direct relation towards the companies short-term and long-term forecast. In the long term, a dividend can show potential for the company to do well in the future, while short term dividends indicate a change in the company’s growth patterns. This can be attributed to a sudden change in the stock market and a business restructuring which has taken place.
Dividends are also a good way of generating income for the individual investor. This is because of the steady income that it generates, which is also known as passive income. This means that dividends are a good way of making if you are looking to generate regular income within your investment portfolio. One should also look out for companies that have excellent growth prospects, dividend yielding stocks and reinvestable products.