* Dividend Investing With ETFs

This article appeared in the Carnival of Personal Finance #130.


Dividend investing is not necessarily limited to individual stocks. I have found that exchange traded funds (ETFs) offer a viable option when looking for income producing investments. As noted in my The Process... article, 16.5% of my after-tax portfolio is allocated to dividend/income ETFs. The goal of this portion of my investments is to provide growing dividend income with lower risk than owning individual stocks.

I am currently invested in the following ETFs:

1. SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY) - The Fund seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before expenses, the price and yield of the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index. The Fund uses a passive management strategy designed to track the price and yield performance of the Dividend Index.
2. Vanguard Financials ETF (VFH) - Vanguard® Financials ETF seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of financial stocks.
3. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) - Vanguard® Dividend Appreciation ETF seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of common stocks of companies that have a record of increasing dividends over time.
4. Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ) - Vanguard® REIT ETF seeks to provide a high level of income and moderate long-term capital appreciation by tracking the performance of a benchmark index that measures the performance of publicly traded equity REITs.
5. Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM) - Vanguard® High Dividend Yield ETF seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of common stocks of companies that are characterized by high dividend yields.

Each of these ETFs are relatively new and therefore do not have a long history to evaluate their dividend track record. Based on the limited data available, these ETFs have the potential to perform to the level I look for when purchasing a dividend stock.

Why would I choose an ETF instead of a mutual fund? ETFs are easily bought and sold through a broker. ETFs held long-term are tax-efficient because of the way they are created and redeemed. A custodial bank holds a basket of stocks in the ETF's account for a fund manager to monitor. Shares are sold representing ownership in the basket of stocks. Generally, there isn't much activity in these accounts that would generate taxable capital gains, which are normally distributed. This allows an investor to defer capital gains to when the ETF is sold.

Do you utilize ETFs in your investing strategy?


Related Articles:

• Dividend ETF Holdings
• Rev-up Your Portfolio With Asset Allocation
• Investing In What's Important
• Reaching Your 10-Year Investing Goal
• My Dirty Little Secret

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