Dear DTA,
Thank you for the wonderful information and for assisting me in this process. My main focus is to learn about the stock market and how to invest. Of course, my biggest goal is to retire early. Please know that I’m new to this. Let me know how can I start.
-Kirk J.
Hi, Kirk.
Great to hear from you. Appreciate you taking the time to reach out to us.
It’s our goal to provide quality content that’s densely packed with helpful and inspirational information.
In following through on that, I’m directly responding back to your message with what I believe is fantastic material to help you with your own goals.
First, I’ll introduce myself.
I’m a regular contributor here.
I regularly write about achieving financial independence and retiring early (FIRE) via living below your means and investing your savings into high-quality dividend growth stocks.
Why?
Well, it just plain works.
By doing so, I was able to go from below broke at 27 to financially free at 33 years old.
And I shared that entire journey via my Early Retirement Blueprint, which is very much worth reading through.
It might sound too simple to be true, but simple is often best: it’s the overcomplicated ideas that often cause people to fail.
Dividend growth investing is a straightforward long-term investment strategy that involves buying shares in wonderful businesses that are rewarding their shareholders (the owners) with their fair share of growing profit, via rising dividends.
High-quality dividend growth stocks can serve as excellent long-term investments.
That’s because you’re basically limiting your universe of available stocks to only those that have the wherewithal to make good on a longstanding track record of paying their shareholders rising dividends.
After all, it’s nigh impossible to run a terrible business while simultaneously writing out ever-larger checks to your shareholders.
Doesn’t work like that.
You can find more than 800 US-listed dividend growth stocks by perusing the late, great David Fish’s Dividend Champions, Contenders, and Challengers list.
That list contains numerous wonderful businesses.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) is on that list. McDonald’s Corporation (MCD) can also be found there. As can Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).
These companies have become massively profitable by selling the products and services that people all over the world demand.
And since shareholders are the collective owners of any publicly traded company, a good chunk of the respective profit gets paid back to the respective shareholders.
That occurs via cash dividends.
And as profit grows, so should (and does) the dividend payments.
Many of the best companies in the world (including some I just listed) have been growing their dividends for decades.
A stream of growing dividend income (from a diversified portfolio of high-quality dividend growth stocks) can build the foundation for a successful early retirement, because that passive investment income can totally replace the paycheck from your day job.
I’ll show you how that looks for me personally.
My real-life and real-money dividend growth stock portfolio is on display for the world.
I refer to my portfolio as the FIRE Fund.
You’ll see that I own shares in more than 100 of the world’s best businesses.
These businesses as a group are paying me the five-figure and growing passive dividend income that I need in order to pay my bills.
My lifestyle is completely covered by passive dividend income, freeing me up to pursue my passions in life.
Plus, since I’m only 36 years old, that portfolio value and the income it generates for me will only exponentially grow through the power of compounding.
That’s because all of these dividends are organically growing via the dividend increases these companies hand out year in and year out.
I don’t even have to lift a finger, yet I’ll see my dividend income routinely rise well over the rate of US inflation.
That increases purchasing power, or what you can actually go out and buy with your passive income.
When income is growing much faster than expenses, you create a situation where your wealth and passive income eventually becomes much greater than you could ever need.
So it goes beyond early retirement; it goes into lifestyle customization and legacy creation.
What a fantastic situation to be in!
This might seem to be a lot to take in right away, but we’ve got you covered.
Fellow contributor Dave Van Knapp has clearly laid out the entirety of this investment strategy through a collection of easy-to-read articles on dividend growth investing, covering the A-Z of DGI.
He calls these articles his Dividend Growth Investing Lessons.
It might take you a little time to be comfortable with actually putting capital to work and investing toward your early retirement.
But when you’re finally ready to invest, I provide the investment community with quality ideas every single Sunday.
I helm the Undervalued Dividend Growth Stock of the Week series.
This series takes time every week to highlight a compelling dividend growth stock, based on fundamentals, competitive advantages, risks, and, of course, valuation.
We want our readers to be empowered, knowledgeable, and wealthier.
These resources can accomplish all of that, putting you squarely on that path toward that early retirement you dream of.
But it’s ultimately up to you, Kirk, to follow through.
There’s no time like today to start that process.
I wish you luck and success.
Jason Fieber
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Disclaimer: Jason Fieber is not a licensed financial advisor, tax professional, or stock broker. Please consult with a licensed investment professional before investing any of your money. If your money is not FDIC insured, it may decline in value. To protect the privacy of our readers, any names published in this article are under aliases. In addition, text may be edited, omitted or paraphrased for grammar or length.