Getting Started Dividend Investing – Best Books & More

DividendMantra.com is focused at helping you ace dividend investing so that you are able to buy stocks and invest your money in companies from which you are likely to get the best possible returns on your investment.

By definition, Dividend stands for the distribution of a company’s profits to a class of shareholders which is determined by the company’s board of directors. One of the most important requirements to be eligible for getting dividend is that you should own the stock before the ex-dividend date. It is also important to note that a company may pay dividend either in the form of cash or additional stock to its shareholders.

Moving on to Dividend investing, there are a couple of books that can help guide you so that you put in your hard-earned money into stocks that are likely to go up in the coming years so that you tend to gain more in the form of dividend.

There are many resources out there for any interested parties,  we’ve compiled here what we feel are the best resources available for someone just starting out on the journey to financial independence via living below your means and dividend growth investing.

dividend investing

Brokerages

We recommend Scottrade, which is now Ameritrade, as one of my brokerages. I do so because their transaction fees are fair, and they have a ton of local offices throughout the US. It’s reassuring to know that if I have a problem, I can visit a local office and talk to a human being. And if it’s after hours, I can call and actually get in touch with someone. I also enjoy their research tools, like access to S&P Capital IQ. They also have a revolutionary service called FRIP, which Jason has spoken highly of in the past.

Tools

We recommend Personal Capital as a portfolio management tool. Its service is completely free unless you decide to sign up for their financial advisor services. But if you’re a DIY investor like myself, you won’t find a need for that, and Personal Capital will be free. It offers a plethora of portfolio management tools and budget software. And its asset allocation visualizations are beautiful. It’s a great service, especially considering it costs $0 to use. You can read my review on this company if you’re interested. Although I strongly recommend Personal Capital for portfolio management, I find Mint better for budgeting. Mint, like Personal Capital, is free. I personally use both services and find them complementary.

List of Some Great Books for Dividend Investing in 2022

Here are some of such books that you must try to read and follow the guidelines mentioned therein in order to get the best return on your investment:

No.BookPrice
1.The Dividend Mantra Way

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2.The Ultimate Dividend Playbook

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3.The Single Best Investment

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4.The Dividend Toolkit

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5.The Intelligent Investor

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6.Step By Step Dividend Investing

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7.Your Money or Your Life

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8.The Millionaire Next Door

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9.The Snowball

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Let’s delve a bit deeper into what each of these books are about:

1. The Dividend Mantra Way

Achieving Financial Independence By Living Below Your Means And Investing In Dividend Growth Stocks

By Jason Fieber

This book by Jason Fieber comprehensively covers what your dividend growth strategy should be. Jason tends to cover various money-making matters and he covers all of these topics in quite detail in this book. He also covers detailed analysis on how to choose the best stocks for yourself.

He also forays into his background and his journey to financial independence in this book. At $4.99, its a great read for anyone trying to get into dividend investing.

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2. The Ultimate Dividend Playbook: Insight and Independence for Today’s Investor

By Josh Peters

This book by Josh Peters is another great resource for learning more about dividend and its income aspect. He focuses on Gordon Growth Model as far as expected returns are concerned and also delves into how dividend is a safer option as compared to earnings and cash flow. More importantly, it mentions how to grow your dividend income over time by providing an insight into how to know whether a company will increase its earnings or not.

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3. The Single Best Investment: Creating Wealth with Dividend Growth

By Lowell Miller

This book by Lowell Miller gives a deep insight into why the growth of dividends is important and why most investors choose to ignore market fluctuations. It is a good place to start if you want to know how to grow dividend income in the next few years.

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4. The Dividend Toolkit

By Matt Alden

In this book, Matt Alden bares all when it comes to the factors that you need to watch out for when investing in companies with the aim of growing your dividend income. He writes about how and why stocks in different sectors such as consumer goods or FMCG sectors, MLPs, REITs, industries are valued differently. This book is a good read on dividend growth investing.


5. The Intelligent Investor 

By Benjamin Graham

This bestseller by Benjamin Graham is a lot more than a dividend investment book. It gives a deep insight into how you as an intelligent investor can capitalize on various emotions that hit the stock market on a time to time basis. It also touches on various aspects such as why and when to invest, how to achieve a margin of safety along with various valuation methods and techniques.

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6. Step by Step Dividend Investing

By Joseph Houge

This book by Joseph Houge is an important read on the subject since it details the basics behind dividends, investing and also tries to differentiate between qualified and non-qualified dividends. Furthermore, it outlines how to build up your portfolio as well as how to manage it to ensure the best possible returns.

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7. Personal Finance/Financial Independence Books

Your Money Or Your Life

By Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez

If you could only read one book on personal finance, this would be our recommendation. It sets all the wheels in motion. If you ever wondered why you’re not happy running non-stop on your little rat wheel, this book explains why deftly. It puts into words what many of us are thinking while also listing nine steps to put core ideas to action.

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8. The Millionaire Next Door: Surprising Secrets Of America’s Wealthy

By Thomas J. Stanley

This book is definitely an entertaining read. While not really revolutionary, it does provide excellent evidence of how wealthy people got to where they are and how they tend to stick to their perch. The next time someone makes fun of you for driving a 10-year-old car even though you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank, point them to this book.

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9. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

By Alice Schroeder

Last but certainly not least, we have Warren Buffett’s biography. Buffett worked closely with the author, Alice Schroeder, to recount his life in his own words. We recommend this book to anyone interested in becoming financially independent because the principles that Buffett has lived by are a superb example of how to build real, sustainable wealth.

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Other Important Resources

Apart from the other books, there are a couple of important resources that can help you build up your portfolio so that you can maximize your dividend returns. Here are some important resources to check out:

Dividend Champion/Contender/Challenger List

This is an important compilation of all the US-listed stocks that have raises their respective dividends for at least five consecutive years. Furthermore, it classifies stocks into 3 main categories that include:

  • Challengers (5-9 years of dividend growth)
  • Contenders (10-24 years of dividend growth), and
  • Champions (25+ years of dividend growth)

Morningstar

This is a free service that you need in order to get a stock quote, look up five years of financial data including cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements, and compare historical valuations.

Daily Trade Alert

DTA is a collection of recommendations and articles on high-quality stocks, mostly dividend stocks. Here you’ll find a number of relevant and interesting buy and/or sell recommendations based on current information and analysis.

Google Finance

You can also use Google Finance to pull up financial data with regards to various stocks including their price, valuation, yield, EPS, etc.

Investopedia

If you need to brush up on basic terminology, Investopedia is a great place to do so.

Dividend Stocks Rock

This is a great resource combining various tools and support to manage your portfolio. Even though it comes with a monthly fee, it comes a fraction of the cost you would pay to have a professional create and manage your portfolio.

Dividend Screener

This is a stock screener that can help you find the best possible stocks to invest in. It includes various screening options such as P/E, yield, years of dividend growth, market cap, etc.

Dividend Growth Forum

As the name suggests, it is a forum and a quite active one wherein you can strike up a useful conversation with other like-minded dividend investors. It’s a place from where you can pick a lot of important cues and tips.

Conclusion

Dividend investing is a great investment opportunity and I have tried to list some of the best resources so that you can maximize your returns over time. I would highly recommend that you start with The Dividend Mantra to get a perfect grip on the subject.

In addition to all of the previous recommendations, we also recommend reading the wonderful blogs I have listed on our blogroll. While books and forums are wonderful, you’ll see personal growth and investing decisions rationalized in real-time here and elsewhere.