How much do you have to invest to get $500 in dividends each and every month?
It all depends on your portfolio’s dividend yield. With a 10% yield and monthly payout schedule, you can get to $500 a month with only $60,000 invested. That is, $6,000 per year paid on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, most stocks don’t have yields anywhere near 10%. Many do have high enough yields to get you to $500 a month with diligent savings, but don’t pay monthly. In this article, I will explore two methods for getting to $500 per month in dividend income: the slow way and the fast way.
The safe but slow way
The safest way to get to $500 per month in dividend income is to simply invest in dividend-paying index funds. Such funds are among the least risky equity investments you can buy, as they are very diversified and have low fees. The flip side is that their yields are typically quite low, so you need to save lots of money in order to make $500 per month off them.
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Consider the IShares S&P/TSX Composite Index Fund (TSX:XIC), for example. It’s a broad market index fund based on the TSX Composite Index – the index of Canadian stocks trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It has 240 stocks, which provides plenty of diversification and low risk. Also, it has only a 0.06% MER, which means that if you invest in the fund, you won’t lose too much to management fees. It is, on the whole, a compelling package. The downside is that XIC only has a 3% dividend yield, so you need to invest a whole $200,000 before you can get to $6,000 a year in dividend income.
The risky but fast way
As we’ve seen, it takes a decent-sized chunk of change to get to $500 per month in passive income with index funds. That’s just the price you’ll have to pay if you want to achieve substantial dividend income safely.
If you’re willing to assume a little more risk, you could consider high yield stocks like First National Financial (TSX:FN). First National Financial is a non-bank lender whose shares yield 6.5%. With a 6.5% yield, you only need to invest about $92,500 in order to get to $500 per month in dividend income. Best of all, FN is a monthly pay dividend stock, meaning you do in fact get that $500 each and every month. With the previous example, the XIC ETF, I said you could get a sum each year that averages out to $500 per month. Here, I’m talking about an actual $500 monthly cashflow.
How safe is First National Financial’s dividend? Going by the payout ratio, it appears pretty safe. The company pays out just 58% of its earnings as dividends, which is acceptable. Also, the company is performing well this year. In its most recent quarter, it delivered:
$142 billion in mortgages under administration, up 10%.
$563 million in revenue, up 43%.
$83.6 million in net income, up 108%.
All in all, it was a very strong showing. First National appears to be doing well enough to justify its 6.5% dividend yield.
Before you consider First National Financial Corporation, you'll want to hear this.
Our market-beating analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy in November 2023... and First National Financial Corporation wasn't on the list.
The online investing service they've run for nearly a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada, is beating the TSX by 24 percentage points. And right now, they think there are 5 stocks that are better buys.
Fool contributor Andrew Button has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
That usually comes in quarterly, semi-annual or annual payments. 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.
With a 10% yield and monthly payout schedule, you can get to $500 a month with only $60,000 invested. That is, $6,000 per year paid on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, most stocks don't have yields anywhere near 10%. Many do have high enough yields to get you to $500 a month with diligent savings, but don't pay monthly.
To make $1,000 per month in dividends, it's better to think in annual terms. Companies list their average yield on an annual basis, not based on monthly averages. So you can make much more sense of how much you might earn if you build your numbers around annual goals as well.
Investing a lump sum in stocks that pay high dividends can generate $500+ passive income per month. Do thorough research before investing. Reinvest dividends to compound earnings.
Buying an ETF like the Vanguard 500 Fund and committing to investing in it every month is one of the easiest ways to build wealth that you'll find. While you won't become a millionaire overnight, you almost certainly will with enough time.
Image source: Getty Images. About $11,900 spread evenly among these stocks is enough to secure $1,000 in annual dividend income. Moreover, there's a good chance they will be able to raise their dividend payments, and your income stream, for many years to come.
That's right; you save over $30,000 if you want to create $400 per month in passive income. Furthermore, this could be cash set aside in your TFSA, meaning it would be all tax free, with plenty left over for other investments.
A well-constructed dividend portfolio could potentially yield anywhere from 2% to 8% per year. This means that to earn $3,000 monthly from dividend stocks, the required initial investment could range from $450,000 to $1.8 million, depending on the yield.
Stocks in the S&P 500 index currently yield about 1.5% on aggregate. That means, if you have $1 million invested in a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund that tracks the index, you could expect annual dividend income of about $15,000.
A stock portfolio focused on dividends can generate $1,000 per month or more in perpetual passive income, Mircea Iosif wrote on Medium. “For example, at a 4% dividend yield, you would need a portfolio worth $300,000.
Historically, a diversified stock portfolio has earned an average of 10%. But even if you only got 7%, by investing $400 a month for 40 years, you'd have over $1 million to spend in retirement. A good rule of thumb is to invest a minimum of 10% to 15% of your gross income for retirement.
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.
A well-constructed dividend portfolio could potentially yield anywhere from 2% to 8% per year. This means that to earn $3,000 monthly from dividend stocks, the required initial investment could range from $450,000 to $1.8 million, depending on the yield.
This broader mix of stocks offers higher payouts and greater diversification than what you'll get with the Invesco QQQ Trust. And if you've got a large portfolio totaling more than $1.1 million, your dividend income could come in around $50,000 per year.
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.
Introduction: My name is Frankie Dare, I am a funny, beautiful, proud, fair, pleasant, cheerful, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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