Albert Einstein is attributed as the author of the following quotes:
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.With a constant interest rate your earnings spiral up each and every year. Consider a $100 deposit earning 5%, compounded annually. In the first year you will earn $5, $5.25 in year 2, $5.51 in year 3, $5.79 in year 4, $6.08 in year 5, and so on.
Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.
Compound interest is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time.
So, back to the question. What's more powerful than compound interest, faster than an tax audit and able to leap a 1099 in a single bound? Compound Dividends!
Compound dividends are like compound interest on steroids. Let's revisit the above example and assume that instead of depositing money in an interest-bearing account, you instead purchase good dividend growth stock with a current yield of 5%. So, in the first year you will earn $5. Which is the same as the 5% interest-bearing account, but that is where the similarities end. Good dividend growth stocks increase their dividends each year. In this example, let's assume a 10% dividend growth rate. So you will earn $5.78 in year 2, $6.71 in year 3, $7.81 in year 4, $9.17 in year 5, and so on.
Comparing the above two scenarios over the 5-year period, you will earn $27.63 from the interest-bearing account as compared to $37.47 from the dividend stock. That is more than a 35% increase!
Can life get any better than this? Yes it can! Good dividend stocks' yield tends to stay within a given range, so if dividends are increasing each year, the only way to keep a consistent yield is for the price of the stock to go up. In order to have a 5% yield in our above example at the end of year 5, the stock would have to be worth $183.44 (9.17/183.44 = 5%).
We would all like to find a good dividend growth stock the yields 5% and grows 10% per year. Those are hard to come by these days. However, you might want to consider these dividend growth stocks with a dividend growth greater than 7%, a yield greater than 2.0% and has grown dividends for 25 or more consecutive years:
T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (TROW) operates one of the largest no-load mutual fund and life cycle fund complexes in the United States, with June 30 AUM of $776.6 billion.
Yield: 2.1%
Abbvie Inc. (ABBV) is a global research-based pharmaceuticals business that emerged as a separate entity following its spin-off from Abbott Laboratories at the start of 2013. AbbVie's key drug is Humira for rheumatoid arthritis.
Yield: 4.4%
Aflac Incorporated (AFL) provides supplemental health and life insurance in Japan and the U.S. Products are marketed at work sites and help fill gaps in primary coverage.
Yield: 2.5%
Erie Indemnity Co. (ERIE) is a management services company that provides sales, underwriting, and policy issuance services to the policyholders of Erie Insurance Exchange in the United States.
Yield: 2.5%
If Einstein thought compound interest was the most powerful force in the universe, he would be blown away with compound dividends, relatively speaking. Dividend compounding, it doesn't get much better than that!
Full Disclosure: Long AFL, TROW,
Yield: 2.1%
Abbvie Inc. (ABBV) is a global research-based pharmaceuticals business that emerged as a separate entity following its spin-off from Abbott Laboratories at the start of 2013. AbbVie's key drug is Humira for rheumatoid arthritis.
Yield: 4.4%
Aflac Incorporated (AFL) provides supplemental health and life insurance in Japan and the U.S. Products are marketed at work sites and help fill gaps in primary coverage.
Yield: 2.5%
Erie Indemnity Co. (ERIE) is a management services company that provides sales, underwriting, and policy issuance services to the policyholders of Erie Insurance Exchange in the United States.
Yield: 2.5%
If Einstein thought compound interest was the most powerful force in the universe, he would be blown away with compound dividends, relatively speaking. Dividend compounding, it doesn't get much better than that!
Full Disclosure: Long AFL, TROW,
