There are no guarantees in life. This is especially true in the stock market. But things are finally clicking. If you want to grow your money, the best shot you have right now is to invest it in the S&P 500 for 30 years and pile in as much capital as you can. If you want a steady, passive income stream. The best way to do that is with dividend growth stocks.
A diverse set of dividend aristocrats or kings across sectors will get you there. I’m finally getting it. But it took trial and error as well as failure to understand it. Luckily, this strategy accounts for failure. Some aristocrats and kings will cut dividends. Capital will depreciate. But with diversification across sectors, it’s okay if a few fail. The rest will continue paying, eventually the prices will rebound if they ever go down, and the dividends they pay will increase – more than enough to make up for any losses. And you will have a steady, passive income stream.
Nothing else exists like this. Owning and renting real estate is a second job unless you invest in REITs. This is the best shot. I’m still piling money into the S&P 500, but there’s a lot to be said for the peace of mind that comes with a steady, passive income stream. Even if I won’t end up with as much in the long run. I’ll end up with some comfort. Some peace of mind. I don’t need to hyper-optimize every aspect of my investing strategy. There are many ways to get where I want to be.
There are no guarantees in life. But unless I experience a major emergency in which I need to drain my funds, this is as close to a guarantee as I can get. At least until I learn something new.