Podcast: Should I care about dividends?

I like the concept of dividends: companies that do well share the love and the profit with their investors. Because my investment portfolio is small, however, the dividends I receive are often an inconvenience. While I’d never turn down free money, a R300 dividend payment isn’t exactly changing my life. That’s why I find the concept of income-generating assets confusing. If I had to rely on dividends in my portfolio, my retirement would consist entirely of cat food.

#podcast episode 40 is 40 minutes long. I try to figure out why I should be excited about #dividends, which until now have been nothing but a mild annoyance in my tiiiiiiny portfolio. #fatwallet #investing

A post shared by Kristia Van Heerden (@k_r_isis) on Mar 15, 2017 at 3:14am PDT

In this episode, I make it my business to learn what I can about dividends. Dividends might be cut and dry for ordinary share investors, but how do ETF issuers handle dividends? Shouldn’t companies be turning their profit into growth instead of paying it out to investors? How do I even know which companies are paying dividends and whether they’re good companies or not? Until my portfolio is larger and earning more dividends, what should I do with my tiny dividend payments? Right at the end I show off what I know about dividends and CFDs, only to be out-shone by Simon. I almost had it.

This is our 40th episode, by the way. As far as milestones go, it’s not a major one, but I want to acknowledge that I did something fun 40 times.

Kris