If one was to create a portfolio of high dividend paying stocks, how might one ideally stack the dividend payout dates?

For example, if Stock A gives dividends on Jan 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1, then you might want:

Stock B with dividends on Feb 1, May 1, August 1, and Nov 1 and
Stock C with dividends on March 1, June 1, Sep 1, and Dec 1

So that you are getting a monthly dividend.

Perhaps trying to get stocks that give a payout in the middle of the month and your Bond Mutual Funds give a monthly payout at the beginning of the month so you have a biweekly cash flow.

My model is not a DRIP in that any dividends are sitting in a MMF until I have enough to decide to buy another 100 shares of something else that yields a dividend.

You want to make sure youre diversified too and not all financial or healthcare stocks. It would also be very dumb to pick stocks based on their payout dates, but if you have a pool of 20 to 30 stocks you "like" for whatever reason, you can narrow down which to add to your portfolio partially based on payout date.

We cant discuss individual stocks here, which is fine, but does anyone employ any strategies like the one listed above?

I don't understand the benefit of stacking. The only case I've heard that gives any kind of benefit is timing two very similar stocks in a way that you always get qualified dividends (hold the stock for 60+ days before the dividend and pay reduced tax rate on them). There was an article in Smartmoney or Forbes about a mutual fund that does this. The example they used (hope I don't run askew of the specific securities rule) was Citi and JPM/Chase. You could roll the same money between the two, hitting the ex-dividend dates to get qualified dividends from both on all of the pay outs. The logic in choosing high quality/similar stocks in the same industries was that the stock prices will likely move in similar fashion, so the value of your capital is less likely to be effected by being in one or the other at any given time.

SimpleMoney said:If one was to create a portfolio of high dividend paying stocks, how might one ideally stack the dividend payout dates?

For example, if Stock A gives dividends on Jan 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1, then you might want:

Stock B with dividends on Feb 1, May 1, August 1, and Nov 1 and
Stock C with dividends on March 1, June 1, Sep 1, and Dec 1

So that you are getting a monthly dividend.

Perhaps trying to get stocks that give a payout in the middle of the month and your Bond Mutual Funds give a monthly payout at the beginning of the month so you have a biweekly cash flow.

My model is not a DRIP in that any dividends are sitting in a MMF until I have enough to decide to buy another 100 shares of something else that yields a dividend.

You want to make sure youre diversified too and not all financial or healthcare stocks. It would also be very dumb to pick stocks based on their payout dates, but if you have a pool of 20 to 30 stocks you "like" for whatever reason, you can narrow down which to add to your portfolio partially based on payout date.


We cant discuss individual stocks here, which is fine, but does anyone employ any strategies like the one listed above?

Where do you come up with this crap?

SimpleMoney said:We cant discuss individual stocks here, which is fine, but does anyone employ any strategies like the one listed above?

I the deity's name of your choice why? If you only get a dividend once every X months then just divide by X and you have your monthly income.

Uh, no stock pumping allowed in this forum

SimpleMoney said:you ... are better off reading a different thread than this one.
I think we can all agree with you on that!

I didnt know stocks paid monthly dividends other than bond ETFs and CANROYs, neither of which I am interested in.

How can I find a list of stocks that pay a monthly dividend?

SimpleMoney said:Unless you are retired or need to live off a cash flow stream and "Free" dividends are cheaper than commission-trades capital sales of shares. Even if you are only paying $10/trade, its cheaper if you need money to live off the dividends.

The dividend itself has nothing to do with the stocks long term appreciation value, except in that certain classes of investors, such as retired ones, prefer to invest in dividend stocks for the above reasons, thus increasing the demand and therefore the price of dividend paying stocks.

If you dont need the money, then you are better off with a stock that gives no dividends and are better off reading a different thread than this one.

If you do need your money to produce a constant stream of cash flow then use this thread to share tips.

A counter-point is that you may be able to yield a larger after tax amount if you chose to use a non-dividend paying stock/etf (or low payout) and decided to sell a small portion monthly.

If you are in a withdrawal phase of a portfolio, you could look for dividend paying holdings that will pay something to equal $X/month, lets say route A). You could also pick a holding(s) that hopefully will increase in value but not payout as dividends. Each month you pay $10 in commissions to sell enough shares to reach your $X goal.

If you chose route A) to use a dividend paying approach, you may have a tax liability on the entire dividend amount.

If you chose route B) to sell X shares per month to receive $3000, your tax liability could be lower, since there is a cost basis for the shares and it represents in some way a return of your principal. It would increase either the in pocket amount, or reduce the amount you need to sell to get Y amount after taxes. After a year it also will qualify for LT cap gains rates.

Course this approach has its pros and cons, but you can't say that trying to save $10 on a trade is always gonna be better than another approach that may lower the overall at the moment tax liability.