My 5 Top Dividend Plays

Not a lot of mention is made around here about the stock market. I often find that a little bit surprising since most of the people here are interested in bagging some wealth and the fact that better than 90% of all wealth creation comes from it.

You would think that would raise more than a few eyebrows.

But of course this site is more geared toward cryptocurrency and with that in mind perhaps that helps to make a little bit of sense. Despite the fact that very little wealth creation is a result of it.

This is not to say that this fact may one day change. In fact, Forbes recently published Forbe's Richest list of 20 top crypto guys.

That list, if you look a little bit closer, is still a bit deceiving. Because while crypto makes up a lot of their wealth, what offered them more of a foray into crypto was business and the stock market first.

In other words, it was the wealth they created before crypto to buy more crypto, and thus they were able to achieve considerable amounts of money from doing that. It can be argued that the stock market seeded the crypto wealth. Not the other way around.

This is not to say forget about crypto. What it is to say is don't forget about the stock market. If you really want to build wealth, investing in businesses that make and sell the things you ultimately want to buy with crypto just makes sense.

That "two cents worth" commentary aside, I wanted to share with you my top 5 dividend plays in the stock market. These are the ticker symbols in my portfolio where most of my income from dividends in the stock market comes from.

What I want to do in presenting these is to create an illustration of what these generate in terms of annual income—I think it serves to help to provide a better understanding that while none of these is a get rich quick thing, it also shows the outcome is not pocket change either.

None of this is a recommendation to buy any of the stocks, REIT's, or ETF's I mention here. It is only to give you an idea what dividend generating stocks can offer in your overall investment goals.

These are in no particular order by the way.

Owl Rock Capital Corporation (ORCC): Owl Rock is essentially a business to business lender targeting mainly middle market companies. A $10,000 investment in ORCC would give you 682 shares. With an 8.52% dividend of $1.24 per share, you would be paid $845.68.

Nuveen S&P 500 Buy-Write Income Fund (BXMX): While this is not an S&P 500 tracking fund, it is pretty darn close to one, and its price movements do mimic the S&P 500 in a favorable way. A $10,000 investment in BXMX would give you 658 shares. With a 5.66% dividend of $0.86 per share, you would be paid $565.88.

Prospect Capital Corporation (PSEC): This company operates similarly to Owl Rock in that it is primarily a lender for middle-market companies. A $10,000 investment in PSEC would give you 1,127 shares. With an 8.12% dividend of $0.72 per share, you would be paid $811.44.

Walmart Incorporated (WMT): Obviously this one most of you are probably quite familiar with. It's the largest retailer in the world, none other than Walmart Stores. While its dividend is significantly smaller than the others on my list, it is still a very solid company worth investing in. A $10,000 investment in WMT would give you 70 shares. With a 1.53% dividend of $2.20 per share, you would be paid $154.00.

Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF (QYLD): This one is the "fairy godmother" of sorts in that it not only offers a very high yield dividend, it is also relatively stable compared to others that offer high yields but also offer significantly higher risk. It essentially invests in companies included in the CBOE Nasdaq 100 BuyWrite Index. A $10,000 investment in QYLD would give you 450 shares. With an average yield of roughly 12.85% and the average dividend around $2.85 per share, you would be paid $1,140.

None of these are particularly life changing dollar amounts. But certainly there are other ways to make money in the stock market besides dividends alone. But again, this is simply to illustrate that there is money to be made in stocks, and that they should have a place in your overall income and investing strategies.

While earning $3,517 a year on a $50,000 investment might not seem like a lot, it is still not a bad takeaway. Consider that if you had $1 million invested, you'd be making $70,340 each and every year just for the privilege of owning these. Also consider that none of these figures represent compounding if you choose to reinvest those dividends.

Are there any dividend paying stocks in your portfolio?

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