January is halfway over already. Have you kept your New Year’s Resolutions or are they long forgotten by now?
Most people include a financial resolution in their New Year’s proclamations, whether it is to pay off debt, invest more, or spend less.
If investing more was one of the things you wanted to focus on this year, don’t let time slip by to make it happen! Each year, each investment made, makes a difference in what your financial life will be years in the future.
Time is so important and it is the one thing we can’t get back in life. Use your time wisely today and invest so that the time you have later in life can be easier and more fun.
Staying motivated to invest throughout the years is tough, especially towards the beginning of your investing journey when the snowball is just getting rolling. Sometimes it is helpful to visualize what your investments are doing for you.
Just like people who make weight loss resolutions put a number on their fridge with their ideal weight, or people who are paying down debt put a reminder of their balance or how much they have paid off as motivation, we should do the same as investors.
As dividend growth investors, we should not be focused on the principal balance, but instead should be focused on the income amount we want to generate in the future. With this in mind, here are some motivational numbers that you can put on your fridge, on your phone homescreen or your bathroom mirror to keep yourself motivated.
For every $100 lump sum you can save and invest, you can potentially receive the following amount of income:
$100 single investment
8% Dividend Growth
8% Capital Appreciation
3.5% Yield
Annual Income per $100 invested after:
10 years – $9.32
15 years – $16.07
20 years – $27.69
25 years – $47.72
30 years – $82.23
5% Yield
Annual Income per $100 invested after:
10 years – $15.02
15 years – $27.67
20 years – $50.99
25 years – $93.94
30 years – $173.08
If you know your timeline of when you want to be able to use your dividend income, this can be very motivating. For example, if I invest $100 I know I can expect to get $27.69 each year in dividend income at year 20 at 3.5% yield. Multiply that out by how much you can invest and picture what that income can do for you!
Hope this provides some motivation to keep the dividend stockpile growing!