Article on yahoo not-so-kind to dividend investing

[ken-do-nim]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ask-advis...32909.html

The middle section caught my eye:

Since we haven’t met, I’m not sure how much you’ve scrutinized the idea of dividend investing for retirement income. You may have researched it thoroughly and are perfectly comfortable with this strategy. If you haven’t, it’s important to point out some of the common misunderstandings of dividend investing. To be clear, I do not encourage retirees to rely on dividends due to several shortcomings:

• Dividends aren’t anything extra. They are an integral part of a stock’s total return. Spending dividends means reducing forward growth.
  
  
• They are inefficient both in terms of taxation and cash flow. When your portfolio is centered on dividends you hinder your ability to plan your tax liabilities and cash flows.
  
  
• Companies that pay large dividends are often very similar. These companies share very similar characteristics with one another. When your portfolio is loaded up with dividend stocks you are likely to be far less diversified than you should be.
  
  
• Dividends aren’t guaranteed. Companies must have earnings to pay dividends, which they can stop.
  

Dividends aren’t bad and I’m not suggesting that you should avoid dividend stocks entirely. I just think there’s less to the strategy than what the common story often suggests. (And if you need help finding financial advice, this tool can help match you with potential advisors.)