The Ultimate Dividend Playbook by Morningstar Inc and Josh Peters

Recently, I found myself entrenched in the book The Ultimate Dividend Playbook by Morningstar Inc and Josh Peters. I have read other investing books in the past but it is the first book that I have read that is specifically geared toward dividend investing.

At 368 pages it may seem like a daunting book. It took me a little bit to really get into the book because, naturally, it starts out with the basics of dividend investing. It didn’t take me too long to really get into some interesting stuff. It is worth noting that the book was first published early in 2008, so the authors couldn’t know that a crash was just right around the corner. It was interesting to read the perspective of the market from pre-2008.

The authors of the book have the same mindset as most investors in the dividend growth investing community. They teach how to look for good companies that you can hold for the long term to maximize your return on investment.

The first half of the book focuses on how to analyze a companies stock using several different methods. It covers things such as analyzing a companies balance sheet, projecting future returns and of course analyzing their dividend. When they talk about the dividend, they look at if the dividend is sustainable and has the ability to grow according to current payout ratios and earnings.

Even though I was able to learn a lot in the first half of the book, my favorite parts were the appendixes in the back which accounted for the most of the back half of the book.

In the appendixes they break down different unique sectors like: banking, retail, oil & gas, utilities, REITs and MLPs. They give a brief description about how to look at the companies stock. They specifically cover areas like the dividend growth and sustainability and they also cover the possible tax implications of owning these different kind of stocks.

For me, I own some REITs so I knew quite a bit about owning them but had no knowledge about owning master limited partnerships. While the yields can look very attractive, I am currently not prepared to analyze and invest in MLPs based on the knowledge that I learned in this book. I was not aware of how complicated these assets were but intend to educate myself on them more in the future.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who is starting out investing in dividend stocks or someone who has been investing for years. The book is packed with useful information as well as great past stock information which the authors use to help paint a visual of the concepts and ideas that they write about.

I am very excited to hear everyone’s thoughts on this book and I would also love to hear any recommendations that anyone else has.

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As always I hope that everyone is doing good out there and happy investing.