Читать книгу Get Rich with Dividends - Lichtenfeld Marc - Страница 7

Let me start by making a bold statement: The ideas in this book are one of the most important gifts you can give to yourself or your children. On the pages that follow is the recipe for generating 11 % yields and 12 % average annual returns for your portfolio – significantly more if the stock market or your particular stocks cooperate.

I'm not trying to brag. I wasn't the one who first came up with the idea of investing in dividend growth stocks. I just repackaged it in a compelling, easy-to-read book that you will cherish for a lifetime and want to buy more copies of for all your friends and family, or at least lend them yours.

Enough jokes (for now). What I did was create an easy-to-learn system for investing in dividend growth stocks. You'll not only understand why dividend growth investing is one of the most lucrative and uncomplicated ways to invest but also learn the simple steps of how to do it.

If you follow the ideas in this book and teach them to your children, it's very conceivable that many of your concerns about income in the future will be over. And perhaps just as important, if your children learn this strategy at a young age, they may never have financial difficulties. They will have the tools to set themselves up for income and wealth far before they are ready to retire.

Keep in mind that I cannot teach you or your kids how to save money. If you would rather buy a new car at the expense of putting money away, I can't and won't attempt to fix that. This book is for the people who already know how to save and are trying to make that money work as hard as they do.

As far as saving money is concerned, the only advice I'll offer can be found in one of my favorite finance books, The Richest Man in Babylon, by George S. Clason. In that book, first published in 1926, Clason writes: “For every ten coins thou placest in thy purse take out for use but nine. Thy purse will start to fatten at once and its increasing weight will feel good in thy hand and bring satisfaction to thy soul.”

Many personal finance gurus proclaim the same advice, but with a more modern bent to it, stating, “Pay yourself first.”

Even if you are not able to save 10 % of your current income, saving anything is crucial. As you will see, the money you save and invest using the ideas in this book will grow significantly over the years. So if you can save only 8 % or 5 % or even 2 %, start doing it now. And if you get a raise or an inheritance or win the football pool, do not spend a dime of it until you have put away 10 % of your total income.

Here's a scary statistic. According to a 2013 survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, 57 % of American workers had less than $25,000 saved for retirement, with half of those people reporting less than $1,000 saved (see Table 1.1).1

Table 1.1 Total Savings and Investments Reported by Workers in 2013 (not including value of primary residence or defined benefit plans)

Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, 2013 RCS Fact Sheet #3: Preparing for Retirement in America, 2013, accessed November 15, 2014, www.ebri.org/files/Final-FS.RCS-13.FS_3.Saving.FINAL.pdf

And in 2013, the average 65-year-old's 401(k) account had just $25,000 in it.2

If you are serious about improving your family's financial future – and I know you are because you're investing the time to read this book – start saving today, if you haven't already.

Imagine if you saved 10 % of your money and put it into the kinds of dividend stocks discussed in this book. Over time, your wealth should grow to the point that it will have generated significant amounts of income, perhaps even replacing the need to work.

This is the last point I will make about saving. You didn't spend your money on this book (or drive all the way to the library) just to have me beat you up about saving. Instead, I will assume you really are serious about securing your future and want to learn how to take those funds and add a few zeros to the end of the total number in your portfolio.

And if you're already retired and you need income right away, the strategies in this book can help you, too. You may not have the ability to compound your wealth, but you can invest in companies that will generate more and more income for you every year. Not only can you beat inflation, but you can also give yourself and even your loved ones an extra cushion.

There are lots of ways to invest your hard-earned money. But you'll soon see why investing in dividend stocks is a conservative way to generate significant amounts of wealth and income. This isn't theory. It's been proved over decades of market history.

Some people believe that real estate is the only way to riches. Others say the stock market is rigged so that the only people who make money are the professionals – therefore, you should be in the safety of bonds. Still others trust only precious metals. None of these beliefs is true at all.

Within the stock market, there are various strategies that are valid. Value investors insist you should buy stocks when they're cheap and sell when they're expensive. Growth investors believe you should own stocks whose earnings are growing at a rapid clip. Momentum investors suggest throwing valuation out the window and investing in stocks that are moving higher – and getting out when they stop climbing.

Still others trust only stock charts. They couldn't care less what a company's earnings, cash flow, or margins are. As long as it looks good on the chart, it's a buy.

Each of these methodologies works at some point. The effectiveness of value and growth strategies tend to alternate: One will be in favor while the other is out until they trade places. For one stretch of time, value stocks outperform. Then for another few years, growth will be stronger. Eventually, value will be back in fashion.

Whichever is in vogue at the moment, supporters of each will come up with all kinds of statistics that prove their method is the only way to go.

The same dynamic applies when it comes to fundamentals versus technicals. The technical analysts who read stock charts assert that everything you need to know about a company is reflected in its price and revealed in the charts. Fundamental analysts, who study the company's financial statements, maintain that technical analysis is akin to throwing chicken bones and reading tea leaves.

There are plenty of other methodologies as well. These include quantitative investing, cycle analysis, and growth at a reasonable price (GARP), to name just a few more.

Die-hard supporters of all these strategies claim that their way is the only way to make money in the markets. It's almost like a religion whose most fanatical followers act as if their beliefs are the only truth – period, no debate, end of story. They're right and you're wrong if you don't believe the same thing they do.

I'm no authority when it comes to theology. But when it comes to investing I know this: Dogma does not work.

You will not consistently make money investing only in value stocks. Again, sometimes they're out of favor. If you only read stock charts, sometimes you'll be wrong. Charts are not crystal balls. Quantitative investing tends to work until it doesn't. Just ask the investors in Long-Term Capital Management, which lost everything in 1998.

Long-Term Capital was a $4.7 billion hedge fund that utilized complex mathematical models to construct trades. It made a lot of money for investors for several years. It was supposed to be fail-safe. But like the Titanic, which was also supposed to be unsinkable, Long-Term Capital hit an iceberg in the form of the Russian financial crisis and nearly all was lost.