Can you live off dividend payments?
The Bottom Line
The short answer is yes – it's entirely possible to live off dividends in retirement. In fact, more and more people are doing it every day. The key is to start early, invest wisely, and reinvest your dividends so your portfolio can continue to grow.
How Much Money You Need to Retire on Dividends. As a rough rule of thumb, you can multiply the annual dividend income you wish to generate by 22 and by 28 to establish a reasonable range for how much you need to invest to live off dividends.
Avoiding all income taxes on dividends is more complicated, though. Options include owning dividend-paying stocks in a tax-advantaged retirement account or 529 plan. You can also avoid paying capital gains tax altogether on certain dividend-paying stocks if your income is low enough.
If, for example, your portfolio gets to a value of $1.5 million, you could invest in a fund or multiple investments that yield an average of 3.3%. At that rate, you could generate $50,000 in annual dividends. With a lower portfolio balance of $1 million, you would need to target an average yield of 5%.
Historically, the stock market has an average annual rate of return between 10–12%. So if your $1 million is invested in good growth stock mutual funds, that means you could potentially live off of $100,000 to $120,000 each year without ever touching your one-million-dollar goose.
On average, dividend-paying stocks have delivered a 9.2% annual total return over the last 50 years, according to Hartford Funds and Ned Davis Research. Investing as little as $20 per month into dividend stocks could grow into $1 million in about 65 years.
To have a perfect portfolio to generate $1000/month in dividends, one should have at least 30 stocks in at least 10 different sectors. No stock should not be more than 3.33% of your portfolio. If each stock generates around $400 in dividend income per year, 30 of each will generate $12,000 a year or $1000/month.
Once you have $1 million in assets, you can look seriously at living entirely off the returns of a portfolio. After all, the S&P 500 alone averages 10% returns per year. Setting aside taxes and down-year investment portfolio management, a $1 million index fund could provide $100,000 annually.
For example, if the average yield is 3%, that's what we'll use for our calculations. Keep in mind, yields vary based on the investment. Calculate the Investment Needed: To earn $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year, at a 3% yield, you'd need to invest a total of about $400,000.
Can I live off dividends before retirement?
Depending on how much money you have in those stocks or funds, their growth over time, and how much you reinvest your dividends, you could be generating enough money to live off of each year, without having any other retirement plan.
| Portfolio Dividend Yield | Dividend Payments With $100K |
|---|---|
| 1% | $1,000 |
| 2% | $2,000 |
| 3% | $3,000 |
| 4% | $4,000 |
If you want to generate income that's truly passive, consider dividend investing. While relying on cash payouts from a stock portfolio is a common strategy for those nearing and in retirement, anyone can build an equity income portfolio, says Brian Bollinger, president of Simply Safe Dividends.
But the truth is you can get a 9.5% yield today--and even more. But even at 9.5%, we're talking about a middle-class income of $4,000 per month on an investment of just a touch over $500K. Below, I'll reveal how to start building a portfolio that could get you an even bigger income stream than this today.
Dividend-paying Stocks
Shares of public companies that split profits with shareholders by paying cash dividends yield between 2% and 6% a year. With that in mind, putting $250,000 into low-yielding dividend stocks or $83,333 into high-yielding shares will get your $500 a month.
If you were to invest in a company offering a 4% annual dividend yield, you would need to invest about $900,000 to generate a monthly income of $3000. While this might seem like a hefty sum, remember that this investment isn't just generating income—it's also likely to appreciate over time.
In fact, statistically, around 10% of retirees have $1 million or more in savings. The majority of retirees, however, have far less saved.
According to EBRI estimates based on the latest Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, 3.2% of retirees have over $1 million in their retirement accounts, while just 0.1% have $5 million or more. However, there's a surprising amount of information to unpack.
If you have multiple income streams, a detailed spending plan and keep extra expenses to a minimum, you can retire at 55 on $2 million. However, because each retiree's circ*mstances are unique, it's essential to define your income and expenses, then run the numbers to ensure retiring at 55 is realistic.
- Main Street Capital (MAIN).
- Prospect Capital (PSEC).
- Paramount Resources (POU.TO).
- Gladstone Investments (GAIN).
- LTC Properties (LTC).
Are dividends really income?
Dividend-paying stocks and bonds provide investors with income, but they have different risk and return profiles. Bonds are generally considered safer investments, offering fixed interest payments and returning the principal amount at maturity. However, they typically offer lower returns than stocks.
To generate $5,000 per month in dividends, you would need a portfolio value of approximately $1 million invested in stocks with an average dividend yield of 5%.
Berkshire currently owns 400 million shares of Coca-Cola. This means that on an annualized basis, Warren Buffett's company generates $736 million in dividend income from the beverage giant. That is a huge passive income stream that likely explains why Buffett isn't exiting the position.
| Stock | Market Capitalization | 12-month Trailing Dividend Yield |
|---|---|---|
| Ellington Financial Inc. (EFC) | $905 million | 16.5% |
| Gladstone Investment Corp. (GAIN) | $500 million | 6.9% |
| Modiv Industrial Inc. (MDV) | $112 million | 7.7% |
| LTC Properties Inc. (LTC) | $1.3 billion | 7.2% |
- JP Morgan Private Bank. “J.P. Morgan Private Bank is known for its investment services, which makes them a great option for those with millionaire status,” Kullberg said. ...
- Bank of America Private Bank. ...
- Citi Private Bank. ...
- Chase Private Client.
