Free and easy money = $1 dividend/share Date Div* 12/21/16 0.596 06/22/16 1.175 12/21/15 0.508 12/21/15 0.508 06/25/15 1.111 12/17/14 0.585 06/25/14 1.676 12/18/13 0.552 06/27/13 1.152 12/18/12 0.610 06/21/12 1.149 12/20/11 0.569 06/22/11 1.141 12/21/10 0.538 06/23/10 0.954 12/22/09 0.496 06/23/09 0.945 12/23/08 0.541 12/24/07 2.000 12/21/06 1.533 12/23/05 1.110 12/23/04 0.803 12/22/03 0.523 12/16/03 0.157 12/23/02 0.627 12/24/01 0.027 10/02/01 0.055 EFA — Stock Holdings Page 1 of 49 Stock Weight Amount Nestle SA 1.7794% $1,238,543,081 Roche Holding Par AG 1.3647% $949,891,385 Novartis AG 1.2757% $887,948,038 Hsbc Holdings Plc 1.2085% $841,159,031 Toyota Motor 1.0445% $727,024,625 British American Tobacco Plc 0.9324% $648,988,679 Total SA 0.8683% $604,403,766 Commonwealth Bank OF Australia 0.8438% $587,311,913 Royal Dutch Shell Plc Class A 0.8380% $583,268,518 Siemens N AG 0.8145% $566,929,162 Sanofi SA 0.8127% $565,666,101 BP Plc 0.8035% $559,265,675 Bayer AG 0.7602% $529,155,306 Royal Dutch Shell Plc Class B 0.7375% $513,324,671 Sap 0.7331% $510,314,088 Glaxosmithkline Plc 0.7262% $505,473,340 Banco Santander SA 0.7079% $492,772,955 Basf N 0.6657% $463,390,594 Westpac Banking Corporation 0.6614% $460,408,066 Allianz 0.6475% $450,722,479
Maybe I'm missing something, but stocks generally drop by the amount of the dividend the day they go ex. So this whole "free, easy money" thing is really just converting your equity into cash, the companies still have to perform or else you net out to the same as if you had no dividend. Not sure why I'd want to invest my cash into something that will just convert some of it back to cash with no net gain and a tax event to boot?
Same feeling here, except if one need the dividends for their living expenses, in which case receiving dividends might be better than selling a portion of the portfolio, dividends are largely a hassle.