The London Stock Exchange is home to hundreds of dividend shares, many of which could lay the foundations of a reliable income portfolio. It’s no secret that investors need money to make money. But sparing as little as £150 each month is potentially all it takes to provide a five-figure passive income for retirement. Here’s how.
Building an income portfolio
Today, dividend-paying companies within the FTSE 100 offer an average yield of around 4%. But there are plenty of businesses supplying a higher yield. In fact, there are currently 35 stocks in the UK’s flagship index offering more than the average.
As such, achieving an overall portfolio yield of 6% without taking on excessive risk shouldn’t be too challenging. And by focusing on businesses that are still expanding their empires, generating another 4% from capital gains could push total returns to a solid 10%.
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Investing £150 a month at this rate of return for the next three decades would deliver a portfolio worth £339,073, starting from scratch. At this point, an investor can now start putting the dividend in their pocket instead of reinvesting it. And at a 6% yield, that translates into an annual passive income of £20,344.
Finding reliability
As exciting as the prospect of making 20 grand a year without having to lift a finger, there are some important caveats to consider. First and foremost, dividend shares aren’t always reliable.
Dividend payouts are a method for companies to return excess earnings to the owners (shareholders). But that can only happen if operations are generating excess profits to begin with. And as recent years have reminded everyone, disruption, both internal and external, can throw a spanner in the works.
This is why looking at the payout ratio can be a smart move when investigating a potential income investment. This metric compares the dividends paid to the earnings generated by a business. And, generally speaking, the higher the value, the lower the reliability.
Suppose a company saw a 20% drop in net income due to a temporary delay in production. If that firm has a high payout ratio, shareholder payments are probably going to get slashed. Whereas if the payout ratio was low, the buffer to absorb the negative impact is larger. And therefore, management is more likely capable of maintaining payouts since the disruption is only short term.
Unfortunately, high yields and low payout ratios are quite hard to come by. So it’s a delicate dance between risk and reward that investors need to judge carefully. In my experience, the sweet spot is when less than 40% of earnings is returned to shareholders.
Nevertheless, diversification is paramount. Any business, regardless of its size, can be disrupted. And during retirement, where dividends are a primary source of income, even short-term suspensions of payments can be catastrophic.
By owning a wide range of top-notch companies across multiple industries, investors can drastically increase the odds of maintaining an income stream even during periods of economic instability.
