Dividend questions

[guileapp]

Hello,

I am in my mid 20s and am pretty new to investing. My goal is to have many dividend stocks and reinvest dividends. I am thinking of having just a few and holding long term, but how many is enough? I currently hold disney and apple about 50/50 allocation. Does anyone recommend any other dividend stocks? I am thinking of holding just holding 3 long term, is that a bad idea? I have about 2k invested in apple and disney and bought dis mid $80s and apple mid $90s. Thank you for the replies, like I said I am new and maybe I am not doing things correctly. I know disney isnt a quarterly dividend but I like them for the long term as a buy and hold regardless.

[Joey Batz]

Holding that few is a very bad idea. What if something happens to either of those companies (especially Apple, a tech company that makes consumer electronics)?

You want to have at least 20 companies, with many people (myself included) advocating more. I'm looking to get roughly 50 in mine.

[kayboy]

(11-07-2014, 06:03 PM)guileapp Wrote: Hello,

I am in my mid 20s and am pretty new to investing. My goal is to have many dividend stocks and reinvest dividends. I am thinking of having just a few and holding long term, but how many is enough? I currently hold disney and apple about 50/50 allocation. Does anyone recommend any other dividend stocks? I am thinking of holding just holding 3 long term, is that a bad idea? I have about 2k invested in apple and disney and bought dis mid $80s and apple mid $90s. Thank you for the replies, like I said I am new and maybe I am not doing things correctly. I know disney isnt a quarterly dividend but I like them for the long term as a buy and hold regardless.

[earthtodan]

With the amount you have invested, I think your starting point is fine. It would be a bad idea to sell part of them and pick up smaller positions in other stocks, because the trade fees would certainly cost you several percent of your current portfolio value.

Common advice for beginning investors is to put $1k at a time into individual positions until you have satisfactory diversification - which may mean 15 or 20 positions - as long as each transaction doesn't cost more than 1% of the purchase amount. Naturally it will take time to diversify, but that's just part of building a portfolio from the ground up.

[Jimbo]

(11-07-2014, 06:03 PM)guileapp Wrote: Hello,

I am in my mid 20s and am pretty new to investing. My goal is to have many dividend stocks and reinvest dividends. I am thinking of having just a few and holding long term, but how many is enough? I currently hold disney and apple about 50/50 allocation. Does anyone recommend any other dividend stocks? I am thinking of holding just holding 3 long term, is that a bad idea? I have about 2k invested in apple and disney and bought dis mid $80s and apple mid $90s. Thank you for the replies, like I said I am new and maybe I am not doing things correctly. I know disney isnt a quarterly dividend but I like them for the long term as a buy and hold regardless.

A portfolio of 10-30 is good. Diversification is important.
Work at it at your pace and as I have learned, PATIENCE, buy good quality companies, don't get spooked and sell at the first bad sign of times.

You are young and have lots of time.

Don't try to spend all your time analyzing your portfolio, SWAN (sleep well at night) is important.

One of the best things you have/will do is start young, drip and let run for many years.

You wi find lots of great advice and people here who will help.

PATIENCE.

JIM

[Main Street Stock Investor]

Good move to start investing early. There is a lot of good advice on this forum. Some advice from an old guy. Write your goals down, develop a strategy and associated investment plan. This would include how much you will invest each year, what you are going to invest in (a list of at least 20 stocks that you would like to own in the near future), how you will diversify by sector, etc. Measure your performance against your goal at the end of each year, and revise goals and strategy as needed. One of my favorite quotes (but don't know who coined it), A plan that is not written is a dream.

Good Luck with your investing.

M$$I

[Be Here Now]

(11-08-2014, 08:39 AM)Main Street Stock Investor Wrote: Good move to start investing early. There is a lot of good advice on this forum. Some advice from an old guy. Write your goals down, develop a strategy and associated investment plan. This would include how much you will invest each year, what you are going to invest in (a list of at least 20 stocks that you would like to own in the near future), how you will diversify by sector, etc. Measure your performance against your goal at the end of each year, and revise goals and strategy as needed. One of my favorite quotes (but don't know who coined it), A plan that is not written is a dream.

Good Luck with your investing.

M$$I

I will add my 2 cents to this excellent advice. As Winston Churchill said, "He who fails to plan is planning to fail".

[Robandcindy2]

I'll echo many of the thoughts here.

You need diversification...think not all your eggs in the same basket.

You have a luxury many of the regulars here do not-TIME. So with that in focus don't come at this with a "gotta have 20 stocks now" frame of mind.

I think you have made two excellent choices so far. You have a Tech and a Consumer Cyclical. Trust your 20's instinct and start contemplating an Industrial, a Consumer Staple and an Energy stock(especially since they are so cheap now). Don't focus on what a "near retiree" would want, rather let your 20-something intuition guide you to what YOU think will grow nicely over the next 20-30 years.

Be patient. Not knowing your saving rate or available funds, set a goal. Let's say you have $1,000 in DIS and $1,000 in AAPL. When you have another $1,000 grab your next stock. And so on...

Tim McAlleenan, Jr. is an author I think you will be able to relate to. I love his insights and style. I believe he is still in Grad School too. Here is a link to his latest:

http://theconservativeincomeinvestor.com...ind-again/

Go back through his articles. There are lots of ideas and "historical perspectives". You are on the right track. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Cheers,

Rob

Ps....reinvest those dividends