Dividend Investor Earning $9,495 Per Month Regrets Not Focusing on Dividends Sooner, Shares His 10 Stock, ETF Picks

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Major technology stocks like Meta Platforms and Microsoft fell after their latest earnings as Wall Street was spooked by their mounting expenses and AI spending. With election-related uncertainties and the need for portfolio diversification, dividend stocks remain in focus. Data shows dividend growth stocks have outpaced inflation over the past 23 years. However, choosing the right dividend stocks and ETFs in today's market remains a key question for beginner investors.

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About a year ago, a dividend investor shared his detailed income report and story on r/Dividends – a discussion board for income investors with over 600,000 members. The investor said his investing account was started with $60,000, which he saved in his 403(b) retirement plan while working at his first job for eight years. He then rolled over this money into an IRA.

The investor said this $60,000 rose to $1.2 million in 27 years from 1996 "without putting any new money."

"During that time, I have experienced tremendous market ups/downs like the internet (tech) bubble/burst, housing bubble/burst, Great Recession and recent Covid-19 crash and recovery. During all these times, my focus was the growth of company stocks, mutual funds and ETFs. My core holdings were always SPY and QQQ about 50-70% and occasionally some speculative stocks about 20-30%," the investor said.

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He highlighted that he stayed invested in the market during all these ups and downs. The investor said he is now retired and switched his focus to dividend investing in 2022.

"My only regret is that I should have switched to dividend focus a little sooner when I had $1.5m, but I guess it's life. Its projected dividend yield is ~9%, but I will be content with ~8% dividend yield."

The investor clarified that most of his portfolio gains came from when he focused on growth.

"The only dividend I have received during my accumulation phase was from SPY & QQQ. I heavily focused on growth," he said.