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21 January 2025
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The Big Four banks have had an extraordinary run and it’s left income investors with a conundrum: to stick with them even though they now offer relatively low dividend yields and limited growth prospects or to look elsewhere.
The structure of many dividend ETFs leads to lacklustre or non-existent dividend growth. Balancing high yields with long-term dividend growth is essential for effective income investing.
What are the best stocks to own that can pay regular dividends and beat indices on a total return basis in the long-term? Here is our list of 11 ASX-listed companies that could help investors achieve these goals.
Is it worth venturing beyond cash and term deposits for steady income? This looks at the pros and cons of assets - including stocks, bonds, and hybrids - in providing yield and how they stack up against cash.
ASX reporting season focuses on how earnings compare to forecasts, yet there's little mention of how dividends perform versus expectations. A new scorecard aims to rectify this to help income-focused portfolios.
Dividend paying stocks play an important role in income portfolios. But they can also run the risk of being too narrowly focused, which can limit both income potential and upside participation when equity markets rise.
A recent Treasury Department statement on tax spending includes franking credits, which may be coincidence or something more ominous. Here's why the Labor Government shouldn't target franked credits to raise revenue.
Capital growth may disappoint over the next decade, making dividends critical to investor returns. The best stocks will be those that pay consistent, high dividends and are inexpensive.
How do investors build resilience into equity portfolios when faced with inflation? Dividend-income could play a more important role but at extremes of inflation, global equities have tended to struggle.
A diversified share portfolio should deliver 6% with franking, versus 1% on a term deposit. Should an investor accept the risk of shares during a recession and pandemic when interest rates are so low?
Dividend streams tend to be stable and determined by fundamental factors. Unlike capital valuations, which are affected by estimates of prospective returns which are, in turn, strongly affected by market sentiment.
High yielding stocks are often seen as the silver bullet for retirement plans. But in many circumstances the focus on income overlooks the need to consider return and risk in any investment decision.
Last year, I wrote an article suggesting returns from ASX stocks would trample those from housing over the next decade. One year later, this is an update on how that forecast is going and what's changed since.
The housing market was subdued in 2024, and pessimism abounds as we start the new year. 2025 is likely to be a tale of two halves, with interest rate cuts fuelling a resurgence in buyer demand in the second half of the year.
The renowned investor has penned his first investor letter for 2025 and it’s a ripper. He runs through what bubbles are, which ones he’s experienced, and whether today’s markets qualify as the third major bubble of this century.
This examines the performance of key asset classes and sub-sectors in 2024 and over longer timeframes, and the lessons that can be drawn for constructing an investment portfolio for the next decade.
Key lessons include expensive stocks can always get more expensive, Bitcoin is our tulip mania, follow the smart money, the young are coming with pitchforks on housing, and the importance of staying invested.
Check out the most-read Firstlinks articles from 2024. From '16 ASX stocks to buy and hold forever', to 'The best strategy to build income for life', and 'Where baby boomer wealth will end up', there's something for all.