There are certainly many ways to categorize the different styles of investing in dividend stocks, including yield, risk, growth, etc. Over the years, I have found that most dividend investing styles fall into one of the three major categories listed below:

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.

There has been some controversy over harvesting forests of hardwoods and reseeding them with pines. Valuable hardwood require decades to reach financial maturity. The southern pine reaches financial maturity in a fraction of the time. Growing hardwoods is very similar to investing in dividend stocks.

Lowe's Companies, Inc. and its subsidiaries operate as a home improvement retailer in the United States and Canada. The company offers a range of products and services for home decoration, maintenance, repair, remodeling, and property maintenance. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

A question I often get is, “What do you think of the market? Where’s it headed?” Normally, I politely respond as expected, but occasionally I will startle the person with a reply like, “I don’t know. For me it really doesn’t matter much.” My investing goals are not defined by movements in the market.

In sports after a player or team scores there is a celebration. Sometimes the celebration is extreme and designed to focus attention on the individual. As a kid our coaches would say, “Act like you been there before.” The Dividend Aristocrats have been there before and they have the track record.

The main focus of dividend investing is finding and buying dividend stocks that will will likely continue to raise their dividends in the future. In making this determination there are many factors to consider.  One of the more important metrics to consider is the Dividend Payout Ratio.

Some of my fellow dividend investors have accused Warren Buffett of being a closet dividend investor. I won’t quite go that far, but there is significant common ground between dividend and value investors. With that said, let’s take a close look at Mr. Buffett’s most recent 13-F filing with the SEC.

It is well-documented that a significant portion of the historical equity returns are a result of reinvested dividends. Performance in any given year was driven by capital appreciation, but long-term returns were largely the result of reinvested dividends.

Looking back to the beginning of the current recession, there were two things that initially put the brakes on the economy: 1.) the sub-prime melt-down and 2.) virtual halt of residential construction. Has housing finally hit bottom?