If you regularly follow the news, you may, like me, feel that the world is slowly spinning out of control. In my world of investment research, these thoughts lead to the question: What investment products and strategies will protect my wealth, income, and lifestyle?

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My thoughts today were triggered by this Zerohedge headline (premium subscription required): “Goldman’s Head Of Research Crucifies The ‘AI Bubble’: Not One Transformative Application Has Been Found.”

The article discusses whether too much spending on AI results in too little benefit. To that end, the author lists previous “change the world” themes—3D TV, fake meat, virtual reality, and the metaverse—that did not live up to lofty expectations.

The stock market moved higher this year on the back of a handful of mega-cap tech stocks. I saw the other day that only 21% of the stocks in the S&P 500 have outperformed the index year-to-date.

Ten years ago, I launched a different investment strategy, which doesn’t require investing in those flashy mega-caps. It’s a strategy designed to perform consistently through the stock market’s ups and downs.

A looking for dividends strategy involves investing in high-yield securities. Earned dividend income is the primary tracking metric. If you reinvest all or a portion of the dividends you earn, your portfolio income will grow every quarter, no matter what the stock market does. In fact, when the market is down, portfolio income grows faster because you get to buy dividend-paying shares “on-sale” with higher current yields.

In looking for dividends my portfolio currently has 36 recommended investments. It is diversified across individual stocks, ETFs, preferred stocks, and bond funds. The average yield is 10%.

Let me close out with a personal real-world example. I have a solo 401(k) account that has grown from zero to about $400,000 since 2017. At the beginning of 2024, I started contributing to a different type of qualified retirement account, so my 401(k) no longer gets outside contributions. My retirement accounts have always been 100% invested in looking for equities that provide dividends.

For the second quarter of 2024, my account earned dividends equal to 2.44% of the starting value. Annualized, that’s very close to 10%. The account grew by 3.8%, so cash income accounted for two-thirds of the gains.

Of the utmost importance to me and in a "looking for dividends" strategy is the amount of account income, which grew by 8.9% compared to the first quarter income. That was much more income growth than expected, and I don’t expect that every quarter. I made several changes looking for dividend investments in my portfolio in the first half of the year to increase the average yield; they have obviously worked.

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