Imagine you saw this job posting in your local classified ads:
Help wanted
Position: Owner.
Responsibilities: Cash checks made out to you, smack down arrogant CEOs, and get raises for doing nothing.
Benefits: You cannot be fired. You may be bought out at a hefty premium. Your income will be taxed at a lower rate than an ordinary salary.
Qualifications: Any brokerage account. No qualified candidate turned down.
Would you consider applying for that position? I would, if I thought it was legitimate. Fortunately, it is the real deal. To put it simply: You buy shares in great companies, and then they pay you in dividends.
And they don't just pay you, they pay you ever-increasing amounts of money based on the growth of your businesses. After all, as a shareholder, they are your companies. You don't get paid out of the kindness of some CEO's heart. In fact, that CEO works for you and his job is on the line if you don't get paid. It's her bonus that gets forfeited if you don't get your raise in a timely fashion. Take it from someone who has this job: It's a wonderful way to make money.
So many choices
Best of all, there are more than 1,000 public companies out there that raised their dividends within the past year. That's 1,000 businesses that have agreed to pay their owners more today than they did last year. And all those owners had to do to earn their ever-growing paycheck was make sure those companies were still worth owning. These weren't two-bit operations, either. Some of the world's most well-known firms are on the list:
|
Company |
Market Cap |
Recent |
Year-Over-Year |
|---|---|---|---|
|
BP |
$203.4 |
4.0% |
10.2% |
|
Citigroup |
$263.9 |
4.0% |
11.1% |
|
PepsiCo |
$104.9 |
1.9% |
14.9% |
|
Intel |
$120.3 |
2.2% |
21.5% |
|
Target |
$53.4 |
0.8% |
22.2% |
|
Freddie Mac |
$45.3 |
3.1% |
25.7% |
|
IBM |
$147.8 |
1.2% |
50.0% |
Every one of these companies is a multibillion-dollar business that generates tons of cash and pays its owners for their efforts. They all raised their dividends payments at least 10%, too, which is not a bad pay raise for doing not much of anything at all.
Apply today
You really can have a job that pays you well -- and pays you ever-increasing amounts of cash -- for very little work. If you'd like to get started and want a few Fool-recommended dividend stocks, join us at Motley Fool Income Investor today to get started down an exceptionally lucrative career path. Not sure it's really the type of job you want? No problem. Take 30 days to try us out, for free. Simply click here to get started.
At the time of publication, Fool contributor Chuck Saletta really did have the world's best job, because he owned shares of Intel. Intel is also a Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
