I just got my tax statement from Ameritrade yesterday (Form 1042-S), which reminded me of how much money I had earned from dividends and other income in 2006.
I was quite surprised by the total, and how much tax I had to pay. Anyway here are the figures. It’s not bad considering that my total portfolio didn’t much exceed $11,520 on January 1st, 2006. That’s a return of about 7.9%, not including increase in the value of the stocks, AND only about 75% was invested in stocks bearing a dividend. I just worked it out about 10% gross return on dividend stocks! Not too shabby.
| Source | Amount |
| interest | $0.98 |
| dividends | $769.86 |
| royalties | $4.61 |
| royalties | $61.01 |
| capital gains | $76.62 |
| Total | $913.08 |
Naturally, my interest in dividends has been piqued much after reading this statement and 10 good reasons to buy stocks with dividends.
Disclaimer: I do own dividend stocks, and have done well myself. You may not do as well as this. Do your own due diligence before you buy ANY investment or financial product.