I absolutely love receiving dividend payouts from my holdings. Many investment gurus would advise investors my age to hold primarily growth stocks since I have a long time to retirement, but I don’t buy it: I crave some guaranteed results. Growth positions are a vitally important part of my portfolio, but I haven’t neglected stable income sources either. However, finding quality investments with strong dividends is not an easy task.

If you want to take the ultra-safe route, there’s nothing wrong with building your portfolio around long-term steady-eddys such as General Electric (GE) and 3M (MMM) whose quarterly payouts are basically set in stone. With payouts in the 3% range though, their dividends are still fairly meager, although respectable for steady growth stocks. A portion of my portfolio is built around companies such as these who can be counted upon for long term capital and dividend growth. However, there are some more attractive dividend plays out there.

I’m going to admit right now that I don’t have the time or know-how at this point to research and keep up on all of my investments. For this reason, I use a investing newsletter by the name of Personal Finance (www.pfnewsletter.com) to help fill out my portfolio. My stepdad introduced me to these guys a couple of years ago, and although I’m typically extremely weary and skeptical about these types of things, I’ve come to respect PF greatly (I had a good feeling anyway, since my stepdad is the same way, and he was already happy with it). Anyways, the PF guys do an incredible job of identifying investments that pay off stable, growing yields. Utilizing common stocks, bond funds, and even vehicles such as Publicly Traded Partnerships (PTPs), their portfolio is full of ultra-stable holdings that more than hold their own while paying out anywhere from 5-15%, which is especially attractive in market conditions such as these. I’m not the type to blindly follow someone else’s lead, but I couldn’t be happier with what I’ve gotten out of PF. Of course, this isn’t actual investment advice; I just wanted to share my experience!

In my next post, I’ll delve into what I actually do with my dividend income. Until then, I’d love to hear some of your thoughts!