Dividend Increase is Like Getting a Pay Raise

As we describe in our book "Retired at 48 - One Couple's Journey to a Pensionless Retirement", our main strategy for generating post-retirement income is to try to live off the dividends from our stock holdings.  One of our blue chip dividend stocks has just raised its dividend payout value by 15%.  We bought this stock specifically because of its long history of raising its dividend.  Receiving a dividend increase is like getting a salary increase during the working years.

We hold many different dividend-paying stocks and limit the total value that we hold in any one stock, in order to diversify and minimize risk.  Therefore the impact of this raise is diluted, but still every extra dollar is appreciated.  By the same token, our exposure will be equally limited if any of our stocks decide to lower their dividends.  Thus far, we have not experienced any significant lowering of dividends from any of our stocks.