Check Out These 'Delicious Dividends'

There’s rarely any guarantees when it comes to investing. Even the best stocks trade up and down on a weekly or monthly basis. However, there is one thing that investors in high-quality companies can generally count on no matter what’s going on in the economy: dividends.

Once some of the most successful companies in the world reach a certain size, they can no longer compete with the growth rates of smaller companies. Since they can’t reward their shareholders with double-digit annual growth indefinitely, many of these companies instead choose to reward shareholders by returning a percentage of their annual cash profits directly to shareholders’ accounts in the form of cash dividends.

How To Earn Your Own Dividends

Top companies typically pay out dividends each quarter, regardless of how good or bad their quarter was. As profits grow over time, many of these companies consistently increase their dividend payments as well.

If you’re looking for a way to invest in some of the best dividend-paying companies in the world, Stash’s “Delicious Dividends” ETF, more commonly known as the Schwab Strategic Trust SCHD, might be worth a look.

The ETF is nicknamed “Delicious Dividends” because it includes shares of around 100 of the best dividend-paying companies with long-term track records of financial stability and consistently generous dividends.

Which Companies Are Included?

Most of the companies included in “Delicious Dividends” are household names to millions of Americans because we buy their products and services every day. Top holdings include Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, which pays one of the highest dividend yields in the entire Dow Jones Industrial Index at 4.4 percent.

Other top holdings in the fund include recognizable companies like Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM and Proctor & Gamble Co PG.

Returns

How good of an investment is “Delicious Dividends”? The fund’s performance speaks for itself. In the past five years, it has generated a 54.7 percent return, according to Morningstar.

In addition, the fund’s expense ratio, the amount of money spent on fees and administrative costs, is only 0.07 percent.

Takeaway

The “Delicious Dividends” fund is only one of the “I like” investments on Stash that allows investors to avoid hundreds of dollars in trading fees and invest in a wide range of stocks they like all at once by buying a single ETF.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned. There is no guarantee that companies will pay a dividend. Dividends are subject to Board voting.