I am a firm believer in keeping things simple. However, you can simplify things to the point they no longer have value. In my opinion, a lot of the commonly used financial metrics can be very misleading unless you understand what is behind them. Let’s take a closer look at Dividend Payout.

I maintain an extensive database with a minimum of 10 years of information on each of the 110+ stocks that I track. This data is gathered from various sources deemed reliable.  Most data is generic and can be pulled from various sites. That is except some S&P risk and quality information (RQ).

In 1985 took my first job as a staff accountant with a $21,000 annual salary. Now I am over the same department that I was hired into and entry level staff accountants earn $56,500 per year. That equates to a 4.2% annual increase. Just as employees expect an annual raise, so do dividend investors.