[Boomer]

Actually, the best way to invest for dividends is to carefully choose and buy dividend stocks 30 years ago and reinvest the dividends until retirement and then collect the dividends for income when you retire. AND, if you don’t like the current yield on a favorite old stock, just think about what the yield actually is now on your cost basis, all those years ago.

Know Yourself and Buy What You Know. That’s all dividend investing is — basically.

If you invest because you are looking for a rocket ride, dividend investing is too stodgy for you.

It is interesting to look up those lists of Dividend Aristocrats and Dividend Kings with their uninterrupted annual dividend increases over the past 25 or 50 years. You will see companies there that you might know something about.

Also, it can be fun to look at the top holdings in dividend mutual funds and ETFs.

You can make your own mutual fund if you think that could be fun to do.

I must say that I agree with mananoutown about the height of the market now, but that is not a bad thing as long as investors understand it —and when it dips — and it will dip — that is when to buy with some of the sideline money that old investors have been keeping in money markets because they always have sideline cash or because they have been happily harvesting gains in 2024 — or should be. Or gifting. Or just keep it in a money market, for now, to bubble around probably at least above 4% for a while. That is liquid money.

Old investors know darned good and well that some of this high market they like to bitch about is due to stock buybacks from corporate tax breaks, much of which went into the pockets of CEOs and yes, stockholders. Seems like those breaks should have come with some strings. Oh well, stockholders are happy but what about employees and capital investing in the companies. The percentages of the tax breaks used for stock buybacks is cringeworthy.

Wise old investors are projecting income tax implications and pushing IRMAA as they are taking profits where it makes sense. That does not mean there will be a crash. It just means they have been in the market for decades and know when to take gains.

I think the economy is trying to return to normalcy if given a chance. It will take time. The country needs breathing room right now, a chance to calm the hell down.

Boomer, a Pragmatic Capitalist Woman