Earlier this year, I declared that I was finished with automatic dividend reinvestments, but I am here to admit, for me, that was a mistake. My very logical thought process was that if I wouldn’t deploy new capital into stocks that do not pass my screen for undervalued dividend investments why let paid dividends buy “overvalued” shares regardless of how small the amount. When making the decision in March I stated the one very foreseeable risk would be,
to remember that the reinvestment of dividends is not part of my monthly contributions to the account. If I am putting away $500 a month into the account every month I have to make sure that the dividends are on top of those purchases. I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to just add whatever I received in the month before into the next purchase.
In the 5 months or so since writing that post, I did not consciously take into account my received dividends – Not Even the First Month After Writing the Post! Well, since knowing thyself is the first step in personal finance I have turned on all dividend reinvestments. My guess is that 45 year old Evan (as opposed to 33 year old Evan) will be pumped I made this decision.
Hi Evan – I came across your blog earlier this year and have been enjoying it ever since !
This year I set up a separate account for dividend investing and also turned on the automatic dividend reinvestments – I am the same age as you and think it will be a great choice for the future.
Sincerely,
Joe
Joe,
Good Luck! What system are you going to use to find your purchases?
As you say, knowing yourself is the important thing.
Personally, I try to find the balancing point between optimizing for return and optimizing for the value of my time. So in your case, I’d have kept reinvesting the dividends simply to avoid the overhead of having to consciously choose to reinvest. I’d rather buy a stock I love that might be slightly overvalued than have the money sit in my account until I have time to reinvest.
Considering how little free time I have now that the family is growing only makes the choice that much easier in my case.