[Boomer]

There is an easy way to get a start on educating yourself on dividend paying stocks by looking for easily accessed clues to stocks that might work for you.

Find the list of Dividend Aristocrats. That will show you how many years a company has annually increased its dividend. To make this list, it has to be 25 consecutive years. There is a lesser known list called Dividend Kings, that’s 50 years, in a row, of increases. (Miss a year — get kicked off the list and have to start over. That is why you sometimes will see a big range in increases from year to year. Depends on how the company is doing, of course. Could be a 1%, could be a 10%, but those companies do not like to have to break their stride by missing an annual increase.)

The Dogs of the Dow list can be worth a look once in a while. (I have not looked for that for a long time. I guess it is still around.)

Those lists are a manageable starting point because you will recognize a lot of the stocks and then you can narrow your focus to the ones that interest you most.

Understand that the yield is not everything. In fact, if it gets really high, it could be a warning. Look at the payout ratio.

Also beta could be important, depending on your risk tolerance.

Another point of beginning could be to go into a site like Fidelity, find their dividend funds, then look at the funds’ top ten holdings. See what the experts are doing.

Another thing you can find on those sites are their select funds — utilities funds, etc. See what holdings are in those. (I used to try to follow certain fund managers and once in a while, I would copy their homework.)

Also, if you are new at this, you will see terms you might not get. Investopedia will explain all those so you can get a working vocabulary on the subject.

(Yeah. I know. Bumpkin that I surely must be, my starting point is far too simplistic for the esoterically inclined among us. But, hey, it can work.)

Boomer