DRIP

Jeeperg84

I am a long term investor...unfortunately bought the top soo now it's just DRIP and covered call money at this point

Sign_Outside

DRIP is also another one to watch out for. Pure garbage, daily loser even when oil drops, same with KOLD. Stay away from these even in bear markets, their daily rebalancing will make sure you ALWAYS lose.

MomWhoNeedsALifeX2

JPM. I started with \~$2k worth in 2024 (at approx $37/share). Set to DRIP. And now, 21 years later, even though I've sold about $28k of my holdings over the past 5years, my holdings in that one stock are now valued at just shy of $70k

Margaritashoes

10k in SCHD? DCA and DRIP for the next 50 years or so.

TheNextPresidentUSA

Hey man, some advice here. I’m 25, almost 26. I too had a loss that was painful. Took 4 years to finally get over it. I had to admit I wasn’t smart and was an idiot who got lucky with a few options. You might be depressed for awhile, but think about it this way. You can only go up from here. Take that 1.7k you have. Pay off all your debts. Have a HYSA and put a percentage of your money there(the money you get from work). Grind yourself back up and STOP WITH THE OPTIONS TRADING. I’m gonna invest safely in VOO/qqq or some sht. None of that options shit unless I’m spending less than 10$-100$. 1% to play around with options. But better to just stop the options and start putting 100-1$k a month in safe passive income dividend stocks. Set up the DRIP and you’re good to go. Grind away from 10-20 years. By the time you mid 30’s you should have 100k. Maybe by mid 40’s you could have 1 million. Just depends who disciplined you are

Prosecco1234

Buy a solid blue chip dividend paying stock. Have it automatically reinvest the dividend (DRIP)

qaz135wsx

You may as well buy stablecoins if you are so sure of a huge downturn. Buy VOO with DRIP and get the dividends in my opinion.

West-Philosopher-680

Savings- 6 months emergency in HYSA, rest in money market, buy some TBILLS or CDs and create a ladder.(if you have state tax TBILLs can be a better optiony, as they are not subject to state taxes. You can also just use SGOV or VBIL ETF for TBILLS or buy CDs through your bank.) Retirement- max out ROTH IRA, contribute to 401k and HSA (you can invest excess $$$ HSA after you've hit your cap.) Visit r/bogleheads for tried and true ETF's Personal Brokerage- create a dividend portfolio. I use QQQI and SPYI ETFS currently. It pays for my monthly spending. I also have a little gold just to hedge and put spare change towards BTC. And if i get excited about a up and company company ill bet on that if I have extra cash to toss around. DRIP- Enable reinvestment for your Retirement and savings positions!!! Set it and forget it. Also use DRIP methodology until you get your dividend portfolio where you would like it to be. LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS and budget EVERYTHING (including tine) ! - No matter what stay humble and live far below your means. Don't pay above 25 percent of your income for rent, keep your grocery budget reasonable. Instead of eating out shitty every week go to one nice restaurant a month etc.. No one knows what tommorow holds. Dont piss away your hard work buy making your day to day bills eat up your whole paycheck. All it takes is a lost job and now you have lost everything.

AICHEngineer

The fairest comparison is always the CC etf with the underlying holdings, so for QYLD that would be QQQ Since QYLD inception with DRIP, QYLD +152% vs QQQ +704%. Absolutely abysmal dogcrap lmao. XYLD same story. XYLD +154% and SPY +438%

rackoblack

It varies every time, but lately it's been to book LTCG for expenses in FIRE. I try to choose holdings that are a hold rating, at best, rather than selling those at a buy. Over the 30y getting to here, about 1/3 of our nw ended up self-managed in from 10-25 stocks/ETFs at any given time, ended up about half of that is in rollover IRAs. I got in and out of BP, in after they blew up the gulf out with some profits. I got into GE from teh get go because who didn't want GE! Bought more at their low of $6 going into 2009, made plenty of dividends along the way but ultimately closed the position and moved on when it became clear they were not good at being a conglomerate or doing more than one thing at a time. Generally, if Morningstar rates something I own at a hold or better, I'll hold. I'll consider adding more at four or five stars. I always had DRIP turned on up until FIRE, now the taxable account divs we keep as cash for expenses while the IRAs. Some core holdings, I'd sell around the core - trim a bit at low 4+ stars, add some back at lower share rates, sometimes doing so with TLH in the taxable side if losses were there to be booked. TL;DR The answer is basically it varies, bordering on never.

theduderino38

Yeah man I’m still holding all my (shitbag) longs I started buying in 2018-2019 through 2021 peak- into major DCA during bear market 2022 - current and here for fun and weedstockholm syndrome with the boys. But I’m for real getting hooked on my divis stocks, DRIP program, snowball effect and have refocused on dividend growth. The drip program on monthly and quarterly payouts is the exact opposite of what I’ve experienced with heavy losses on cannabis shares. ( I NEED MONEY -lol ) Also glad I’ve hedged in chips, cloud, cyber, crip toe, SaaS- but should’ve timed things differently.

SeniorVibeAnalyst

Went out to a nice dinner with my coworkers tn on the company, ordered the halibut. Talked about stonks, had most at the table saying they just buy index funds, a couple degens trading options and crypto, and one guy who said he just buys stuff with high dividends like Coca Cola and Campbell’s and does DRIP lmao.

HeckleHelix

100 shares of $MCD, & the rest goes in $VOO set to DRIP.

secondbushome

I think you need to understand what bonds do. They pay out interest, they don’t ‘grow’ the way companies do. They can fluctuate in value but there isn’t any ’growth’. If you just want the share price to go up, BOXX is the closest thing that does that. Or just turn on DRIP on SGOV so your share count increases over time.

AICHEngineer

If you turn on DRIP, SGOV will be as stable and linear up and to the right as BOXX is. https://testfol.io/?s=hRZechuecLM

VicTheSage

Just turn on DRIP, DCA and heavily diversify. Sets of Boggle head style accounts or direct indexing will both work. A mix of both is probably a better strategy with ETFs for many foreign nations but direct indexing the US stocks. Europe is all hands on deck building up a more robust military industrial complex due to the shit show we're putting on over here in the US. They also have all sorts of EU regulations on cottage industries to protect them. Only sparking wine from Champagne can be called Champagne, only pork from Iberico fed a certain diet can be called Iberico Pork, etc. none of this is to say they won't be hurting but they'll weather the storm better than us because they're preparing for it while we're actively tearing things down. Multi-nationals producing staples are a good bet. Everything from toilet paper to food to building materials. If we crash as hard as the rest of the world is preparing for they already have production assets and foreign revenue streams. A lot of these "US" multinationals are also already headquartered overseas for tax advantage so even if it gets physically dangerous here they'll still be in business. Project 2025 is an accelerationist plot designed to collapse US institutions, they hope to remould them during the chaos but it's more likely they just ruin the country and we're headed for a USSR style slow collapse. I think we're past the point of investing to grow and now investing to hedge against a much deeper dip or even total collapse of the US dollar. In the past 2 years the market has seen roughly 20% growth but the dollar has fallen 10%. I'd expect the best case scenario is this trend continues and the market functions as a hedge against inflation but we avoid hyper-inflation. The AI bubble will pop eventually but I'm betting the loss of stock value will be outpaced by the loss of the dollar's value when the dust settles. If you can keep enough liquidity to continue Dollar Cost Averaging and maintaining heavy diversity through this mess you'll be in an excellent position in 10-15 years even if we're all trading in Euros or Pounds by then.

angelcoal

Was let go from my job the beginning of the year. Decided to focus on my hobby of options trading to make a living. Was fortunate enought to get a decent severance and already have a decent portfolio and 401ks. I sell daily credit spreads on SPX and NDX, sometimes turn them into iron condors during the course of the day. Also sell spreads, mainly call spreads, on stocks WSB gets hyped up about and that I think have run their course. Making more than my salary. I have my 401ks to fall back on if needed. Also have a number of dividend stocks in my portfolio that pull in about 100k per year---currently have them on DRIP, but if push comes to shove can turn off the DRIP and live off the dividends.

InfamousShow8540

I'm in an adjacent boat. Already retired and have $800k of $NVDA $ $175 of $AAPL. I can't convince my wife to offload some of. But we do have bigger chunks in both $UOPIX for appreciation but no income and $QQQI for 14% dividend income paid monthly that we DRIP w/some appreciation. $UOPIX in taxable acct and $QQQI in IRA. Be aware that stock sales can impact your SS tax rate and your Medicare premiums. It's a difficult 3-legged stool balancing act. Definitely talk to your CPA/CFA& Medicare agent.

DRR3

Setup some sort of DCA/401k reoccurring purchase of Global index funds like VT, setup any DRIP, and have a trusted friend or partner change your brokerage account password and password recovery email and promise to not give you access until ATHs following a crash or 10 years, whatever happens first.

pigglesthepup

If you have earned income, open a Roth IRA. Buy VT and set up the dividends to auto reinvest (DRIP). Only check it make a contribution and forgot about it the rest of the time. If you want to buy an individual stock, do it in a taxable account. If you own any kind of total market fund (or total world, like VT), that stock will be in there. And that's okay as long as you account for it and know your exposure. You could add a bond fund to go along with your VT if you want. It'll teach you to rebalance. But you should learn how bonds work first and what they're good for, else you could end up getting burned/disappointed.

Initial-Culture2445

I don't wanna hear none of that lip I'm gonna buy that deep down dirty dip While my dividends just go DRIP-DRIP-DRIP

crazybutthole

(turn on DRIP) dividend reinvestment plan it just uses all the dividends to buy more of whatever paid you a dividend. Set it and forget it. No need to check it every week

terraresident

First thing you do is address your anxiety. Take care of your mental health. Get out the pad of paper and play the worst case scenario game. Pretend you are getting the pink slip tomorrow. What is your exact situation and what are your next moves. What we fear most is the unknown. Know exactly what your position is. Now then. Scrounge up a few hundred bucks. Buy in on some high dividend yield stocks. Something like Pennymac Mortgage. Look up the ex div date. Wait til a week after, when the price has crashed. Buy in. Set a calendar alert for two days before the next div date. If the value is significantly above breakeven (stock + div), then sell out. If not, hold. Do not use DRIP. It will reinvest while the price is still high. Wait til the price drops down, when you receive the div money, to buy more. This is not going to make you rich. But you will always have the knowledge in your subconcious that money is coming to you. You will sleep better.

AntoniaFauci

You don’t need to. People here have been fed the DRIP philosophy so much. The theory is in a perfectly efficient market you get a dime discount every time your stock pays a dime in dividends. This creates a sort of micro version of DCA theory that is forced. There’s also the fact that you don’t have to pay commissions on DRIP buys. That mattered a lot more when commissions were $50 or $100. There are/were some situations where drip also got bonus shares or discount. But you using your dividends to buy superior stocks isn’t bad at all.

BucksBrewPackInOrder

$VOO & $VXUS - invest it, set the dividends to DRIP and chill

anteatertrashbin

even with DRIP it would only yield about 5% yoy. it would compounding to roughly 100% gain in 15 years. meanwhile VOO would have compounded to about 500%. ouch….. homie would have had $100k, but now he’s looking at $16k….

urnutspal

HYSA for cash I truly put away as savings. Otherwise, Fidelity offers SPAXX, which is the money market where all my investable cash and non-DRIP'd dividend payouts are held. Looks like current annual rate is at 3.79%

StudentFar3340

Thanks for reminding me! I've got to make sure that DRIP stays on after I'm Gone

herefromyoutube

Damn they’ve been doing a stupid for 1810 years! Can’t go wrong with that. I also thought you’re gonna say that those dead people’s accounts have DRIP turned on and so it just keeps investing into the market thus propping it up.

Crumpet-Blue19

I have over 90 % in one of my accounts in TSMC. Granted, I DRIP and I bought 900 when it was $18 in 2012, and it hit $300 this week. I haven’t sold any. Obviously there have been some concerns with China invading Taiwan, but I sleep reasonably well, because we have other accounts.

slevenznero

Both of you should read about ETFs, basically the same but with slightly better results and less annual costs normally. You should also aim to diversify to reduce exposure risks. At 20 different securities, your risk becomes marginal if your portfolio is diversified enough by countries or continents, and by industries. I personally invest in ETFs in banking, tech, energy, utilities and REIT across 4 regions (my country, my continent, and 2 other continents), and I blend value investment (price is aimed to rise) with dividend growth with DRIP. My own personal investment strategy, a financial advisor would better help you with recommandation for India (a market that I know nothing about sorry).

Micronto65bymay

I heard she has them set to DRIP.

AmericanScream

Do NOT do crypto. You will lose your ass. It's a giant ponzi scheme. At any age, the best all around investment is putting money into a S&P 500 ETF with a DRIP and letting time work for you. If you have certain material needs, you could also go the real estate route where your investment is also something you use.

stickman07738

HON - been investing via it DRIP program since the late 1990's, by far my largest individual holding having have sold 100 shares once during Covid to re-model out kitchen.

WealthVenue

got it, more clear now. I was assuming that dividends were always distributed but apparently ETFs have the option to retain them and re-invest them in the same stock, like a DRIP. How do they extract those fees from the NAV or the underlying stocks? I would like to see that mechanics.

CoC_Axis_of_Evil

401k and DRIP. It is not infinite 

CoC_Axis_of_Evil

If 401k and DRIP money slows down for 5 seconds, the tires deflate. 

arlitsa

Why not DRIP the dividends

AICHEngineer

Use testfol.io. You can compare total return and just price return ex dividends by checking or unchecking the "total returns" box https://testfol.io/?s=dVHee0Y2zwP Here is a link to how TSYY w/ DRIP vs TSYY no drip compare. Also for reference is the underlying stock TSLA. (Spoiler: the underlying stock outperforms the covered call fund, not even including taxes on distros yet).

Nuclear_N

My mother bought a few Mcdonalds shares in the old DRIP fund system. Statement would show up and the dividend would add up to some fractional share. Eventually it grew to about 1300. This was back in 1978ish. I eventually sold them. I bought GE stock for my son in the 2008 crash. He put in his birthday money of about 300 bucks, and I matched it. It was at the bottom...I continued to purchase in the account, and it grew in the dividends and he went to college with 30k. I have funded my kids Roths as a wealth transfer. We put it in set and forget it funds. They have learned the value of time in the market and seen the growth. Beyond that they are not really interested in deep knowledge, but ADC investing.

beautiful-world777

No benefit from a dividend? At 5% with DRIP reinvestment you have a pretty attractive financial product.

mojavetheory

$DRIP

MarketCrunchAI

**TL;DR:** The headline is *technically* close to true if you bought near the 2000 dot-com peak and look at **price only**. But **total return** (dividends) is meaningfully higher than zero, still well **below inflation** and an **S&P 500 index** alternative. It’s a great case study in entry timing, diversification, and why price-only charts can mislead. What the chart misses * Dividends exist. Intel began paying a regular dividend in 2003 and (despite a cut in 2023) has paid for \~22 years. Price-only ignores those cash flows. [Nasdaq+1](https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/intc/dividend-history?utm_source=chatgpt.com) * Inflation matters. $10,000 in 2000 has the buying power of roughly $17k–$19k today, so even a small nominal gain is a big real loss. [In2013Dollars](https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2000?amount=10000&utm_source=chatgpt.com) * You probably picked the worst entry. “25 years ago” targets the 2000 dot-com bubble top—a known outlier. Anchoring on an ATH skews any single-stock backtest. * Splits don’t save you. Intel’s last split was in July 2000; the post-split price path is what hurt late-cycle buyers. [Intel](https://www.intc.com/stock-info/stock-splits?utm_source=chatgpt.com) If you include dividends (not DRIP): You’d have received many years of cash payouts that lift total return above $10k—but still typically below inflation and well below an S&P 500 total-return investment over the same period. (Index total returns from 2000–2025 are substantially positive.) [SlickCharts](https://www.slickcharts.com/sp500/returns?utm_source=chatgpt.com) Bottom line: * The meme highlights real opportunity cost vs. the S&P 500. * But saying Intel delivered *zero* over 25 years is misleading—dividends mattered, just not enough to beat inflation or a passive benchmark from that specific (unlucky) start date. Do your diligence (http://marketcrunch.ai/stocks/forecast-price-target/INTC)

Perfect-Tennis3270

and pretty sure tomorrow is a green day because of DRIP

AlGAdams

Nah it'll rebound on their dividend payout date from DRIP

Fritzkreig

I bought about 17 years ago, and with DRIP that invest annualized 6% per year........not great, not terrible, pathetic though.

LiberalAspergers

I was trading then, and we used to buy directly from company's DRIP programs to avoid paying 20 dollar a trade fees. 7 dollar trades was HUGE when that came out.

CarlosTheSpicey

I am about to retire and I continue to DRIP into income producing securities yielding ~8%+

Vegetable-Light6038

I live in Orange County as well and first bought PLTR at 6. Cheap with a vision so I couldn't pass it up. Still have it and on DRIP. I'm hoping to be included in the Anduril IPO but, if not, will still back up the truck. Drones, robotics, quantum computing, nukes and EVTOL air taxis - those should be on every investor's mind these days. Token investments with patience will ultimately be huge.

Nuclear_N

Could it be that the fees for entry? loaded funds make money for the house... I would consolidate down to like 3 funds as long as it wouldn't cause a tax event. When my mother passed away...actually before, we were going thru the financials and she had about 18 accounts in 5 brokerage houses. I had to excel spreadsheet just the accounts. She had Joint Roths, individual Roth, IRAs, brokerage, trust brokerages, and then the DRIP accounts of old, she had about 10 of those. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and had 6 months to live, so we were able unwind a lot of it. A lot of it was just historical stuff she never touched...a stock club from the 70s. We ended up with about 1.6M....she was amazed that she had so much. As the mail came in, another statement...."oh yeah I forgot about this one"

SlapThatAce

Best advice is Dump all your cash into a growth ETF, setup DRIP, and then forget your password.

goodpointbadpoint

lets say - Investor A buys such an ETF. 1 share at $100. Doesn't DRIP. Gets 100% dividend (of share price) every year. Lets say Price at which user buys goes down by 20-30% average including any up moves (as seems case with some of these funds). And return of capital is 100%. Year 1 start price = $100 per share End of 1 year - Share price = $70 Div received = $100 ROC (100%) = $100 Taxable dividend = 0 (because all is your own money) \------------------ End of year 2 - Share price = $50 (down by 30% from year 1) Div received (100%) = $50 ROC = > 0 because A received all of their fund back in year 1, even if declared roc for year 2 is 100%, for A, it is 0. Taxable div = $50 \---------------------- End of year 3 - Share price = $35 (down by another 30% from year 2) Div received (100%) = $35 ROC = 0 (same reason as above) \--------------- A sells his 1 share. Capital gain = Sell Price - Cost basis (which is reduced to 0 because of ROC) = 35 - 0 = $35 (yes, its gain! not loss, even when A bought at $100 and sold at $35, the cost basis was reduced to 0 because of first year dividend) Div Earned = $100 + $50 +$35 = $185 ( different years will be taxed differently - year 1 = 0 tax on div, year 2 & year 3 = 15% only, because holding for more than 1 year) So total in hand (before taxes) after selling the share = $185 (3 years div) + $35 (after selling 1 share) = $220 \----------------------- Assuming 20% average tax (long term capital gain and regular income (w2?) - A paid 220 \* 20% = $44 taxes = $ 176 in hand after taxes on initial investment of $100. **So, $76 gain in 3 years on $100, which is around $25 per year, so 25% per year gain (vs 100% as seen in distribution).** **is 25% per year bad ??** **what am i missing or done wrong with my numbers ? please help to point out!** \----------------------------- Assumptions - in above case it assumes no covid type crash. ROC % is held constant across years (which is most likely the case),

International_Day686

You sir, are highly regarded, and the reason I’m gonna stick to my boring ETFs, DRIP, and holding long on financially sound companies. Btw, once that 700 runs out. I’m hiring for a dishwasher 🤣

PFCCThrowayay

Hey I'm all for stick it in VT or other big etf's as I don't have "magic knowledge". The nasdaq is an extreme index tho? That's cute. Being early is being wrong when you sit out on gains (plus DRIP growth) waiting for a 50% crash... None of those things you mentioned though indicate a coming crash to me. Unemployment increasing (meh it happens), inflation (so? companies raise prices and their bottom line goes up). weak dollar (makes US stock market cheaper internationally which will buoy it) PE ration bloated (according to what? history is irrelevant, we've never been in 2025 before), top names 50% (not great but it is what it is because everyone around the world uses apple google and meta). I would like to hear your counter arguments for those specific points though.

teamhog

Perhaps. It depends on where you’re at in life as well as your financial plan. If you can DRIP them it could be a good plan.

MattieShoes

Chasing dividends is pointless and has been for a long time now. Back when you had to trade in lots of 100 shares and trade fees were high, it made a ton of sense so you could get money out of your investment. But nowadays, you can sell one share, or 4 shares, or whatever you want. You can make your own synthetic dividends simply by selling shares on whatever schedule you want, in whatever amounts you want. And if you don't want dividends, DRIP is widely supported where the money just gets reinvested, and you may end up with fractional shares, all good. The only real difference is there's some tax implications of dividends in a taxable account. All else being equal, you'd prefer NOT to have dividends so that the only taxable events are ones you create. All else isn't equal though -- dividend stocks tend to be heavily in the value side of the market. If you want to invest in value stocks and eschew growth stocks, a dividend fund will probably do so.

comeBeAStar

Yea reading up on it, E*Trade doesn’t do DRIP on all, only select

comeBeAStar

That’s what I was thinking, that the 15% down isn’t part of entire picture. But I’m looking further, and some other funds I have across brokerage and Roth are giving me DRIP option through E*Trade, but are ones that pay dividends. Not sure what’s up

comeBeAStar

Looking at my E*trade profile for opting into DRIP, they’re not listed as options. So apparently not.

StedeBonnet1

That is not true. I have had a self directed IRA for at least 25 years buying fractional shares with no commissions. Even before that I had a DRIP account which allowed me to buy fractional shares with no commission therough dividend reinvestiment. The market has not changed much. There have always been retail investors. I don't think there are enough to move the market.

pineapplekiwipen

Follow these simple steps to be a billionaire: 1. Start with as little as $10k 2. Build up your account with SPY while saving as much as you can and using DRIP 3. Once your account is $100k you can search for high volume stocks with historically low IV and make direction neutral vega plays like straddles and calendar spreads to build your account further while still keeping a core SPY position 4. Once your account hits $1M you can liquidate your entire portfolio to yolo on a 0dte SPX 5. Lose it all and post a loss porn on wsb 6. Win a $4B+ powerball 7. Now you're a billionaire

SatansPowerBottom69

Good parent. I had a friend like you years ago, he was very financially literate and worked his way from nothing into financial freedom/very early retirement. He loved sharing the power of slow, steady investing wirh anyone who was willing to learn. He did the same for his young boys, maybe 5/7 years old when he started teaching them similar lessons. Sure, they were regurgitating some fancy terms they didn't undsrstand but he taught them about dividends and gave them the same options; invest or take the money now. When they had made, say, $40 of dividends, he would give them the option to use that "free" money to buy a new video game or reinvest (DRIP). If they chose to reinvest, he'd still buy them the game as a reward, win/win. Even if they got used to playing dad this way, their investment continued to grow and it just reinforced the power of compound interest. They could also cash out anytime they wanted but if you turn it in to a rewarding game, they would always choose the quest for the highest score. I wish my parents or public education had taught me more about the power of investing. Having to learn it the hard way in my 20s is sad, I was very lucky to have someone share so much knowledge with me out of the kindness of his heart. It's his lessons that have given me more freedom than he'll ever realize. I'm not rich, I'm still a very blue-collar wage slave but I was able to buy a house and live a very humble life, but I would be much worse off if I'd not had the financial lessons of my friend.

BuggyDeniroDaBully

Depending on how old OP is $500k in the right low risk, boring dividend stocks with DRIP to compound would have very well been retirement money…

AwesomeDialTo11

Looking at the stock market every day is like comparing day-to-day weather. There is a lot of volatility. It might be sunny one day, then a thunderstorm, then cloudy, then sunny again, then windy, then overcast. The better way to look at the stock market is like looking at the climate. The climate is just a long-term average of what the day to day weather is. When you average out the sunny days with the cloudy days with the rainy days with the cold days with the hot days, over years and years, you get long-term trends. Such as on average, the climate for a given location might stay between 7F in the winter and 98F in the summer, and it averages 42.3 inches of rain and 27 inches of snow, and on average over the course of a year there are 2637 hours of sunshine. This doesn't guarantee that every year will get that. One year could be a drought, the next year could be extra rainy. But over the long-term, the if you keep averaging out the weather, it should closely match the climate. The same thing happens for stocks. Every day there is minor news or updates in the world. The stock price mostly just reflects what people currently think what a company is worth, and it fluctuates on news. New tariffs might be bad. Tariffs are blocked by a judge are good. New law goes into effect that makes XYZ illegal, might be mixed. Massive new deposit of lithium ore discovered, stock prices react. Every bit of news has a tiny effect on stock prices. And the ETF's like VOO, VTI etc are just weighted averages of all of the companies. This day to day movement in stock prices is like the weather. Sunny, then rainy, then overcast, then sunny again. The only way you can look at stocks is over the long term, by using a climate-like view. And historically, the "climate" of stocks is that the S&P 500 has averaged a return of over 10% per year since 1957. On average, there were more sunny days than stormy days. There were sunnier years, and there were stormier years, but on average, the historical climate of the stock market has been about +10% a year. So on average, you'll double your money about every decade with DRIP (dividends reinvested). Now past results are no indication of future results. Especially if there is a US President that is quite bent on radically changing the dynamics of the post WW2 world, and basically rewriting all of the rules around a new centrally planned economy. Those new rules might be way worse than before. There might be other black swan events. There is no way to predict the future. So past results do not predict the future. So do not invest money that you need to keep food on your table today. But otherwise, invest what you feel comfortable with on a regular cadence. You are in ETF's already, so those are already less risky than individual stocks for individual companies. If you don't need that money today or tomorrow, do not look at the portfolio. We are in a stormier and more volatile period of history right now, so daily results will be volatile. Just keep investing what you feel comfortable with when you can (ideally on a regular cadence), and carry on with your life. Future you in 10, 20, 30+ years will thank present you.

ScottyJay10-

Get out of options now! You won ! Put that 50k to work buying 5 different and diversified ETF’s at 10k a pop. Leave DRIP on and don’t look back!

norcalnatv

You got it. Buy funds like SCHD, VOO, IWM, VUG, VTI, SCHY in your retirement accounts. Go look at morningstar to compare them. Reinvest the dividends through a DRIP. Don't go crazy picking individual stocks, 4-5% max exposure, and don't play options. Diversification is important, invest new capital regularly into what you've got (dollar cost averaging). Then leave it alone, literally for decades. What you're getting by hiring is someone to do that for you. They'll spread your capital out into a bunch of different ETFs (20-30) that are each slightly different, some international and bond funds and pay them 1% for the privilege. They will take things to the next level with tax loss harvesting and rebalancing. It's all automated with them, it's not like you're going to get a lot of hand holding. But you can do it yourself. You're getting it. It's not hard. (I have a high 7 figure retirement account that's all self directed that just took patience, a little bit of trial and error and the occasional course correction. There was a bit of luck in there too.) You're young enough to make some mistakes and it's not going to kill your account. Courage!

Toad990

Take profit... Buy commons with your profits.... Turn on DRIP. IN 20+ years you'll be a very happy man with this decision.

Mental-Freedom3929

Invest in tax-sheltered accounts on a no trading fee platform in widely diversified index funds/ETFs that mimicks the S&P 500, dividend paying set to DRIP. Contribute if possible at least 20% of your net income monthly to buy more. Think long time frame!

InterestingAmount113

When do you decide to sell inconsequential stock holdings?  I have about $2,000 in stock for a Canadian Telecom company (Telus, $T.TO) that I accumulated through their discounted stock buying program. It’s about 1% of my portfolio but I have DRIP set up so I get 2 shares a quarter. I don’t need the money, but I also wouldn’t invest in the company likely ever. Is it worth it to just let it sit and accumulate shares or should I sell it and put it towards something else?

TheSavageDonut

#1 -- establish a rainy day fund if you don't have it already #2 -- open a ROTH IRA if you don't have one already and contribute the max amount right now ($7000 for persons under 50). #3 Talk to a CPA about setting up a college fund for your daughter (assuming you want college in her future?) -- putting $30k in that might set her up nicely for college in 20 years #4 - open a brokerage account ideally with the same firm that you open your ROTH IRA with In terms of investments -- your ROTH IRA can basically do anything, and it will be tax-free. Your brokerage account should have tax-friendly investments in it like SCHD. Even doing all of this should still give you a nice chunk of change to start your investment journey -- you have 20-25 solid years to grow your investments. I like a 3-ETF approach of SCHD / SCHG (growth) / JEPQ (income) -- as this is a nice set of 3 investments that can be grown over time. Turn DRIP on in the ROTH IRA and Brokerage acccount. With the Trump administration being friendly to Crypto -- might be worth checking out a bitcoin ETF like BTCI.

Due-Sea4841

I would add Altria (MO) with 6.5% yields. They just up'ed their dividend to $1.06 per quarter, plus the stock is up 25% YTD. Add in TRIN for 12.5% and GOF for 14.5%. When you DRIP GOF you may get a 5% discount. Good luck.

yellowLantern

Honestly, why not have a mix of both? I have both SPY and QQQ based etfs as well as a sizable SPYI, QQQI, IAUI, BTCI, and IDVO dividend portfolio. The main draw for me on dividends is that my career path is fairly unstable and I can just turn off DRIP on my dividend stocks to help support income in the case of job loss instead of selling shares at a possible loss.

Mental-Freedom3929

Invest in tax-sheltered accounts on a no trading fee platform in widely diversified index funds/ETFs that mimicks the S&P 500, dividend paying set to DRIP. Contribute if possible at least 20% of your net income monthly to buy more. Think long time frame! I doubt that your stock investment beats the suggested ETF in the long run.

Soft_Grab5927

Positions held in a norm taxable brokerage account is simple. Positions Held less than a year is likely to get taxed as ordinary income(wage). Positions held over a year (gains) are taxed at a lower tax rate. Your dividends you get from s&p 500 will be taxed but just turn on DRIP which will reinvest your dividend in the s&p500, it will still compound even tho you take a small tax hit. Your position will not be taxed unless you sell. Or if you have a 401k/ira then it’s diff

angelcoal

Really wasn't giving advice, just answering the original thread question. Total capital is about $2 million. About half is in dividend paying stocks/ETFs that I have on DRIP. I use about 1/4 for my 0DTE plays on SPX/NDX and (most of) the rest is in weekly/monthly option selling plays.

Wyldefire6

Yeah of course if the dividends pay out more than 2-3% of the principal annualized, that’s fine too, as long as it’s setup to DRIP.

Mental-Freedom3929

Please do not look at stocks, day trading and all that jazz. Invest in tax-sheltered accounts on a no trading fee platform in widely diversified index funds/ETFs that mimicks the S&P 500, dividend paying set to DRIP. Contribute if possible at least 20% of your net income monthly to buy more. Think long time frame!

Vinyl-addict

My main thinking behind the bonds is just so I have a long term emergency fund that hedges against inflation and the dollar losing its value, and builds on itself with DRIP and small monthly contributions. In practice my port is really only like 5% long term bonds because they are just a better alternative to having cash sitting open in my brokerage. The rest of the 10-15% that’s sitting in bonds might just get liquidated for stock in a few months.

ezworldwide

Buy it often. DRIP. Hold it. Don’t sell it. I have been buying $140.00 a week, every week, for the past 5 years. It’s been kind to me.

actuallyrealperson

So if this account was opened December 2019 ("just before Covid"), then here's how your performance matches up: You: 13.22% S&P 500: 115.66% (with DRIP) Nvidia: 3270.25% (DRIPped) Damn.

DennyDalton

A wash sale is triggered by the acquisition of substantially identical replacement shares (stock or option) within 30 days BEFORE or AFTER realizing a loss. If you carry a wash sale violation into the next tax year, you lose the deduction for the current tax year (DEFERRED) - you can claim it later when you close the position. You can incur as many wash sale violations as you like during the calendar year without consequence as long as you close the position by the last trading day of the year and then wait 30 days before taking a substantially identical position. Note that losses realized in December can become wash sale violations with acquisition of replacement shares in January (direct purchase or DRIP). The only time that a wash sale is truly DISALLOWED is if the loss is in a taxable account and the replacement shares are in a sheltered account (IRA, etc.).

SuitableSprinkles

I’m not understanding what you mean by “we have roughly 24k earned from this investment”. Does this mean the market value of the investment or the dividends paid from this investment. I am also not understanding what you are trying to achieve - continue to grow the investment via DRIP or use the money for a larger down payment.

DennyDalton

You can incur as many wash sale violations as you like during the calendar year without consequence as long as you close the positions by the last trading day of the year and wait 30 days before taking a substantially identical position. Note that losses realized in December can become wash sale violations with acquisition of replacement shares in January (direct purchase or DRIP). The only time that a wash sale is truly DISALLOWED is if the loss is in a taxable account and the replacement shares are in a sheltered account (IRA, etc.).

rackoblack

I'll try one last example to get the point across. It's important you understand this concept, because his returns may well be 20% or more better than index. One of my oldest holdings is VYM, I've had it since 2016. The gain the broker is showing me on the position is 62%. BUT - The ***only*** whole number shares I have (the ones *I bought myself* and not the dividend reinvestments) add up to 121 shares. My current holding is 203 shares, so 82 of my shares were dividends being reinvested and so are part of my total return. Share count alone, I am up 68%, then on top of that all shares I own (including DRIP shares) are up 62%. Another way to calculate the total return is my original cost basis, which was $9,700 (cost basis of my purchased shares, omitting all DRIP shares). The value of the whole position today is $27,500 for a total return of 285% which works out to an 11% annualized return for those 9 years.

Mental-Freedom3929

The profits are dividends and I set mine to DRIP on a partial share purchase platform.

Far-Enthusiasm-5995

Compounding doesn’t require you to sell and rebuy. When you hold a stock or an ETF, the company reinvests its profits and the share price reflects that. Any dividends can be set to automatically reinvest into more shares through your brokerage. So the simplest way to harness compounding is to buy a diversified ETF, turn on dividend reinvestment (DRIP), and keep adding new contributions over time. Selling just to reinvest would create taxes and fees — letting your investment ride is what allows the returns on your returns to snowball.

kiwimancy

>According to available data, VTI has delivered a total return CAGR of approximately 10% over the past 30 years, with a 10-year CAGR of around 13.03% (with DRIP) Stopped reading at this hallucination.

Substantial_Meat_222

hope u bought the DRIP

Orleofly

It’s really easy. You are making it hard. Put 90% in a high dividend non DRIP account. Mess around with 10% trying to learn trading. If you lose that use dividends and savings to try again. This is the most dumb ass you should indulge in. If you want peak smart do a mix of VOO/VYMI and flip burgers while banging Waffle House waitresses until you get one chubbied. Quit job apprentice plumbing buy VOO and then retire at 40 with 8 kids and hopefully first wife hot due to Pilates’s. If not second wife hot younger and loving towards kids. Ex wife best friend and good co parent. From MCD to Eurodouche.

Critical-Scheme-8838

People will DRIP their dividends so it becomes a snowball effect. Then there is the appreciation of the stock over time.

rackoblack

1. Low cost vs. mutual funds? AAAAAAARRRRGHK! you lose. Thanks for playing. Mutual funds can be bought in $1 increments. 2. DCA? Same, you lose. Works with indexoing. 3. Sell only losing shares - Same, you lose! Indexes end up doing that with the combination of holdings that stay in the index plus weighting. 4. Huh? 5. How do you find these? 6. ETFs and mutual funds also have no brokerage fees (at all but the oldest school houses). 7. Duh - everyone's doing it these days! 8. Sure, if somehow you were sompleace paying mgt. fees and transaction fees, then you're DOING IT WRONG!!! (sadly, several of my siblings are likely in this boat...... \*\*\*\*\*sigh) 9. DRIP is everywhere, doofus 10. oh come on 11. ok, i'll give you this one. Same with ETFs and mutual fnds tho 12. yes 13. For sure! I'll also throw in for free that the HYSA freakin sucks return wise compared to the markets!!!! 14. ok, I think you should look up "Tax Loss Harvesting" and learn waht it means. It's neither of the two you mentioned. 15. It is. As is a lot of tools trying to shill their shit for their own benefit, what you need to do is learn to distinguish between the two. 16. Buy what you know and understand. You've got a good one here! (hundreds of years old, but good on ya!) 17. Forget? Are all good companies going to stay that way? Can you say "General Electric"? Can you say "Tesla"? Can you say "Kodak"? I KNEW you could! 18. Don't research what you buy is your advice? What kind of crappy af Ai is this stupid post? 19. oh my -- this sounds like OP learned an expensive lesson with with futures and generally being ignorant of how markets work. Anyone know what an "S&P500 mini" is, please let me know. 20. I agree! very fun. If you're doing strictly individual picking, YOU COULD FAIL TO MATCH THE MARKET. MAYBE EVEN DOWN TO ZERO!!! Why take that risk? Why not do both? Mostly index, buy some stocks cause they're fun! (But seriously, not everyone thinks that's fun - it's a lot of work and stress, and really just the index funds eliminate all that and you'll be golden!)

pintord

Both DRIP and BITI to the moon!!!

Timstertimster

don't overthink it. tons of solid research proves without question that "active investing" is total BS and really only helps brokers who nice trading fees. or fund management fees. if i had a time machine and wasn't able to say "dude buy BTC in 2009" or "dude buy AMZN", i would simply say: "dude, stop thinking you can eke out an extra percent of gains by doing research and obsessing over stats. put your extra cash in a garden variety index fund and when you have 25x your expenses in capital accrued, you won the game". since i would not listen to myself saying this because it's really fucking boring to follow, i would have added: "dude, let's make a bet. put $1,000 like i said and put the rest like you want. let's meet in 25 years and tally up whose total return is better. if yours is better, you get my money, if mine is better, i get yours." and because i would have taken that bet, i would now have lost all of my investment because i would be on a 500% total gain with DRIP, while future me would be sitting in an 800% gain - losing the bet.

callmeehtimmy

DRIP dividend stocks/ETF. do not sell stocks/ETF. DO NOT touch your emergency fund. DCA as usual.

Decent-Inevitable-50

A mix. I do some call options including some puts, individual stocks, preferreds, baby bonds, CEFs and ETFs. I DRIP only a few. Portfolio is about 60ish equities. Most I've owned 10+ years.

guanzo91

Once you max out your tax advantaged accounts for the year, you can start contributing to a taxable account. Keep buying FXAIX in the taxable and ignore the day to day price swings. Also make sure to turn DRIP (reinvest dividends automatically) on if it's not already.

SnS2500

Your share value will go down by $.63/share at the same time. It appears you don't understand how these dividends work. Basically after you get that dividend, if you DRIP it back in, you will own 100 shares at $98. If there was no dividend you would own 98 shares at $100. That dividend is your own money. It's not like bank interest where someone else gives you money. Stock dividends are just you taking money from your left pocket and putting it in your right pocket. Ignore stock dividends. Just look at the total return. A DRIPed stock dividend is basically the same as a stock that has no dividend.

Similar_Weather4519

Everyone should note BITO has had a very stable price over the last few years and continues to yield about 50% even though the dividend is down since 2024! As long as BITO can continue trading Bitcoin, I beleive the BITO dividends will continue. I have a very detailed BITO yield projection spreadsheet I would be happy to share with your email. My strategy uses the DRIP program so even wtih lower dividends, the strategy still performs becasue you buy new shares at a lower price but yield still stays high. The risk is BITO can no longer trade Bitcoin! Minimal risk!! Bob D

RadiantRecord1413

Late to the party - but I'm traveling. FIRST - OP should ask their employer if they can just pump that money into their 401k automatically so they never have to touch anything. BONUS points if the 401k has an employer match. Now back to VOO vs VYM - You are welcome to trade however you wish, but I'm surprised that my initial reply got as many downvotes as it did. VYM is a Vanguard fund that focuses on a roughly 4.5% dividend yield. VOO and VYM are two different market strategies by Vanguard. No one knows which one will do better in 25+ years. We're all guessing. For what it's worth, I have both in my portfolio. I aim for dividend reinvestment because it's how you grow very long-term. For a trader who isn't as experienced, blue chips and other ETFs are comfortable, and DRIP-ing the dividends puts it on autopilot so you don't have to look at it often. That's what I'm saying. It sounds like OP specifically benefits from DRIP, but not everyone does. I DRIP my MSFT shares because I'm bullish in the long-term, but I would NEVER use DRIP on my SOXL shares because it's a 3x leveraged ETF. I don't think OP has any interest in SOXL though, so not to worry!

OddPrOXY99

Too late spy going tits up and I’m straddling those milkers like my life depends on it. Probably buying EPD shares with it tbh and watching my hairline slowly recede as my DRIP gets my dick slightly damp.