I am not the only dividend investor on the internet. It turns out there are plenty more. Through Twitter alone I have found many other bloggers who blog about dividend investing, which I think is great because it allows us all to learn from each other.
What I have noticed from reading the blogs of other dividend investors is that most of them seem to invest in individual stocks, and lots of them. They may hold shares in thousands of different companies.
Most of these bloggers give monthly updates where they break down how much they receive from each share. Most even go further and report on how much they spend. They divide their spending into categories such as groceries, mortgage payment, repairs on the house, gas bills, etc.
I thought for a second maybe I should do the same, but honestly I don’t really know how much I spend, and I don’t really know how I spend it.
I also personally don’t think it’s necessary to record everything you spend down to such a minute detail. It may be great to know that for one month you spent $500 on groceries but more important than knowing what you’re spending money on is knowing how much you’re spending overall.
I believe in keeping things simple, and for saving money I recommend the David Bach recommendation, which is “pay yourself first.”
In other words, talk to HR and have them send, say, 20% of your salary into your normal bank account and then set up another bank account where 80% of your salary goes. For the bank account that gets 80% of your salary, leave it alone. Let the cash accumulate. Meanwhile, try to simply live off the money in the bank account with 20% of your salary coming into it.
By doing this, you don’t need to worry about calculating whether you have spent $x on entertainment or $y on groceries. You just know that you’re spending 20% (or whatever percentage suits you). At the end of the day, it’s how much you spend that matters, not what you spend it on.
Every once in a while, access the money in the bank account where 80% of your salary is going and then use that money to buy ETFs.
Why ETFs? Why not research and buy stocks in companies that pay high dividends?
Personally, I believe it’s much easier to invest in ETFs. There are many ETFs in the market dedicated to paying high income. These are the ETFs I recommend for dividend investors. You could do your own work, but it’s much easier to let a fund manager do the work for you and let him or her take a small fee.
In Australia, there are actively managed ETFs that use options and futures to generate more income and to manage risk by lowering volatility.
Many people believe that low cost index funds are best, and I used to believe the same, but I have noticed over time that low cost passive index funds simply don’t produce much income.
It is certainly more risky to invest in an actively managed ETF because you are relying on the skills of the fund manager, but this problem is easily fixed by simply diversifying across different income-focused actively managed ETFs.
Most importantly, I believe in keeping things simple. We don’t need to make things complicated. Having your savings automated and then simply investing your savings in high-yield ETFs is a very simple plan that allow you to build passive income from dividends without much effort. All you need to do is stay employed and maintain your 80% savings rate.
This is exactly what I did. I aimed for an 80% savings rate. However, when I started working I invested in normal Vanguard low cost index funds but was disappointed in the sporadic and low income I got, so I slowly started to put money into funds that were more tailored for income investors.
Over time, I noticed that I had enough money coming in from my investments to cover my living costs, so I instructed HR to send 100% of my salary to the bank account earmarked for savings. All my investment income is send to my normal transaction account for spending. I am therefore literally living off dividends. Hence the name of this blog. All my salary is invested and all the income from investments is spent.
Why live like this? Simply, if you learn to live off dividends, you condition your mind to live a standard of living that can be maintained even of you lose your job. This means that regardless of whether you work or not, your standard of living is exactly the same. Your life is unaffected by work, which means you don’t need to worry too much about sucking up to the manager. This takes away a lot of stress.
Most people, if they start earning more, automatically start spending more. They’ll let the money get to their head, think they deserve to spend more because they earn more, and then they become addicted to the spending and must therefore keep working, even if their enthusiasm for the job wanes over time.
If you live off dividends, you have the freedom to quit or move jobs, or take time off work to pursue other opportunities, knowing that you are capable of simply living off your investments because that’s what you’ve even doing for many years.
I Live Off Dividends 