Dividends are all the rage right now as investors look for more stable strategies that pay regular returns. These small payments are fantastic for stable portfolios that are diverse and include a healthy mix of growth and storage stocks. Focusing on high dividend yields alone won’t be a guaranteed recipe for success and you should consider adjusting the course.
You may have seen the term “dividend” thrown around when looking at stocks to invest your hard-earned cash into. But what exactly is a dividend? Without going into too much detail, it’s a payment (in the form of cash or shares) from some of the earnings to shareholders, as declared by the board of directors.
There are a few tools out there that allow you to manage and track your investment portfolio as well as earned dividends. My dividend tracker spreadsheet is but one example, using Google Sheets. But not everyone wants a spreadsheet to keep tabs on their investments, which is where a service like Digrin comes into play. I’m going to compare my tracker to Digrin.
Cryptocurrencies may be a joke to you, but there’s no escaping the fact millions of people are actively trading digital currencies and even governments are starting to take note. If you’re accumulating some Bitcoin or are using digital currencies to store some wealth, I’ve added the ability to track cryptocurrencies in the Dividend Tracker.
When receiving a dividend, it’s considered a form of income. Even though you may have already paid some form of tax on the money you invest in a company, you will still have to pay tax when earning dividends. If you hold shares outside of a stocks and shares ISA, you will need to pay tax and this guide will run you through everything for the UK.
I’ve done the unthinkable. I’m now launching a new template to go alongside the existing Canadian, EU, UK, and U.S. templates for my dividend tracker. If you live in Poland and want my spreadsheet converting everything to the Polish złoty, you’re in luck.
I don’t enjoy using the same old “invest only what you can afford to lose” since that brands investing with the same brush as gambling. To me, investing in the stock market is not gambling, not unless you attempt to do active trading to make a buck in quick turnarounds. Still, you should only invest what you can afford to lock away in a vault.
Penny stocks are considered by many investors to be the bargain basement of the stock market. These are the stocks that are ideally suited to those with not so much spare cash who simply wish to have a piece of the action. Sometimes they can be brilliant investments, but other times it’s a massive gamble.
Converting currency is difficult, but this task is made more difficult with my dividend portfolio tracker spreadsheet, which appeared to be converting currencies twice. This didn’t have an impact on the main market tabs, only the main summary view for the charts.
Growth and dividend stocks make up most of my portfolio, as is the case with many dividend-focused investors. Using my free dividend tracker, it’s easy to get your portfolio into good shape to weather financial storms and build your asset wealth with reliable passive income. But what about cryptocurrency? This phenomenon is still going strong to this day, which is why I set aside 2% for digital currency.