7 Dividend Stocks for the Retirement You Deserve

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dividend stocks - 7 Dividend Stocks for the Retirement You Deserve

Dividend stocks are a great choice for achieving the retirement you deserve. Yet there is perhaps no concept in the cultural lexicon that has been more perverted in recent years than the concept “deserve.”

retirement

In America today, many people think they deserve a decent job, good health, safety and security … just by the accident of their existence. Children and young adults are taught they deserve a trophy for participating in sports, and that they deserve good grades in school just for showing up.

Call me old school, but I think the only thing one deserves in life is what one earns. That’s true of a job, healthcare, safety, recognition, grades or anything else that is a value one must act upon to gain and/or keep. It’s also true when it comes to your retirement.

You see, you don’t deserve well-funded golden years unless you take action to earn it.

Fortunately, acting now to ensure a deserving retirement isn’t really difficult to know how to do. It is, however, actually hard to do.

Let’s face it: Deferring the short-term gratification that comes from spending money on today’s needs, wants and luxury indulgences requires an uncomfortable exercise in self-restraint. Yet mustering the fortitude to think long-term is usually what’s required if you want that well-funded retirement you think you deserve.

While I can only help you with the self-restraint aspect of this task by identifying the reality of this requirement, I can help you much more by identifying some of the best dividend stocks to buy that will help provide you the financial fertilizer by which you can grow those deserving golden years.

Here are seven dividend stocks to buy for the retirement you deserve.

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: General Motors (GM)

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: General Motors (GM)

Source: Shutterstock

GM Dividend Yield: 4.3%

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), or “Government Motors,” has finally escaped the fiscal speed bump it hit during the Great Recession. Now the company is firing in all cylinders, selling vehicles to U.S. and international consumers at a record pace.

GM cleared the 10 million mark for vehicles sold for the first time ever in 2016. That’s thanks to successes in China, where the automaker sold an all-time best 3.87 million vehicles — a 7.1% improvement from the previous year.

Although the short- and intermediate-term fate of GM stock will rev and stall based on monthly sales figures and quarterly reports, there is no denying that this behemoth is here to stay for the long haul. As long as the world needs transportation via cars and light trucks, GM is likely to be there to sell them. We know this because despite the government bailout in December 2008, the company is back and better than ever before.

That’s the power of a stalwart brand — and one that U.S. government won’t let go down under any circumstances.

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

jnjmsn

JNJ Dividend Yield: 2.8%

When selecting dividend stocks for the retirement you deserve, concentrate on consumer non-discretionary companies making things we all can’t do without.

I suspect that healthcare products giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is in your medicine cabinet right now. The iconic and ultra-diversified consumer, pharmaceutical and medical device maker is famous for shampoo, skin lotion, baby oil, wound care and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines.

And that’s just the consumer segment.

The company’s medical devices are used in orthopedic surgical care, cardiovascular care, diagnostics and vision treatments. Yet it’s the success of its pharmaceutical division that vaults JNJ on to our list of dividend stocks. The company’s treatments for chronic and ever-growing afflictions such as rheumatoid arthritis, prostate cancer and diabetes give it the financial heft needed to be a long-term retirement hold.

And acquisitions like its $30 billion buyout of biopharma outfit Actelion will keep JNJ ahead of the game.

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: Apple (AAPL)

AAPL investigating American-made iPhone

Source: Carved.com

AAPL Dividend Yield: 1.7%

Personal technology giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a profit machine, and after years of building up billions in cash on its balance sheet, the Cupertino behemoth decided to give some of that cash back to shareholders.

While AAPL’s yield is on the lower end of this list of deserving dividend stocks to buy, that shouldn’t dissuade you from putting it on your list.

You see, part of a deserving retirement requires some of your stocks to also deliver outsize share price appreciation. In that department, AAPL tastes sweet. Over the past 10 years, the stock is up more than 1,000%. And while the odds of another 1,000% gain over the next 10 years are low, I suspect a decade from now, those who own AAPL today will be flashing triple-digit-percentage-gain smiles.

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: AT&T (T)

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: AT&T (T)

T Dividend Yield: 4.7%

Classic widow-and-orphan stock AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is just one of those telecom dividend stock giants perfectly tailored for delivering that deserved retirement. The company’s massive 100% fiber network delivers wireless and TV services across the country, and the revenues it generates from these services is reason alone to own the stock.

Yet the company also is very inventive (it holds more than 20,000 patents), and it has demonstrated business savvy in its merger deals with DirecTV, and soon (if the government doesn’t block it) with Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX). AT&T says it’s on pace to close the merger by year’s end.

Dividend-wise, T is in elite status, having raised its payout for the past 33 years while also offering one of the highest yields in the S&P 500.

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: Disney (DIS)

Walt Disney World

DIS Dividend Yield: 1.4%

If you’re reading this, I can make one obvious assumption about you, and that is you’re sentient in the year 2017. That’s enough information for me to know that you also know what Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is, and what it does.

The purveyors of iconic American characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Snow White know what the world wants to see, and has built a media and entertainment empire that now includes characters such as Captain America, BB-8 and Merida.

The company, founded on the genius of Walt Disney the man, was set up to be a dream factory capable of igniting children’s imaginations all over the world. It’s safe to say that it has done just that.

DIS the stock also has ignited investors’ portfolios. Over the past decade, shares are up nearly 220% while also paying a solid (though admittedly not spectacular) dividend yield of 1.4%. But like AAPL, Disney is one of those dividend stocks likely to keep delivering the sort of outsize total returns that can provide you the retirement you deserve.

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: Merck (MRK)

Merck MRK stock

MRK Dividend Yield: 2.9%

Drug giant Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is similar to JNJ in that it makes products that people can’t do without. Although in Merck’s case, many of its products literally keep people alive (e.g., its top-selling treatment, the diabetes pill Januvia).

The company’s diverse lineup of high-margin drugs will keep delivering strong revenue and strong profits for years to come. Moreover, its pipeline of new drugs also should keep its top and bottom lines healthy enough to deliver strong returns on invested capital over the long-term.

Although the company has faced robust competition from branded drugs going off-patent in recent years, industry analysts tell me the company has gotten past the worst of the off-patent losses. My research also indicates recent R&D is on the upswing, which means even more high-margin drugs in the years to come.

That means good fiscal therapy for that deserved retirement.

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: Goldman Sachs (GS)

Dividend Stocks to Buy for Retirement: Goldman Sachs (GS)

GS Dividend Yield: 2.6%

If you were asked to name the first Wall Street investment bank that comes to mind, I suspect that name would be Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS). The company has financed America’s growth since 1869, racking up a storied history of providing the capital, as well as the financial framework, that’s nurtured the rise of American capitalism.

By recruiting and hiring some of the smartest, most business-savvy people on earth to carry on the company’s stellar tradition, Goldman Sachs has managed to deliver big for investors even through the dark days of the Great Depression and the Great Recession. And while GS isn’t the biggest yielder among financial dividend stocks, its decent 2.6% yield has helped smooth out a few rough periods.

It’s no coincidence that many former Goldman Sachs employees rise to positions of power in government after stints at the premier investment house. The company and its personnel have earned their immense influence world … and that influence translates directly to deserving investor bottom lines.

As of this writing, Jim Woods was long AAPL and GS.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/02/7-dividend-stocks-retirement-you-deserve/.

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