If you own dividend-paying stocks or mutual funds, you generally have a choice: Should you take the dividends as cash or reinvest them?
Long-term investors can benefit from reinvested dividends, which, along with price appreciation, make up part of a stock’s total return.
Also, when you reinvest dividends, you are buying more shares of an investment - and share ownership is a key to building wealth.
Keep in mind that dividends can be increased, decreased, or eliminated without notice.
And reinvesting dividends won’t guarantee a profit or protect against loss.
If you need help meeting your expenses, you may want to take the dividends as cash.
And if you already own a substantial amount of a particular stock or mutual fund, you might want to cash out the dividends to buy shares in a new investment and broaden your portfolio.
When dividend-paying investments are held in a taxable account, you’ll pay taxes on the dividends regardless of whether you reinvest them or cash them out.
You can defer these taxes, or possibly avoid them if the dividend investments are held in a traditional or Roth IRA and 401(k).
Follow your dividend payments carefully - and make the most of them.
This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor John Dickerson and Hawes Dickerson. Members SIPC.
