The stocks and trusts with the longest unbroken dividend record

It would be very useful to see a list of say the top 50 consecutive dividend payers, listing the number of consecutive years of continuous payouts.

I an and have been a High Yield Investor for well over 15 years now, once I realised that over the previous 25 years flitting in and out of shares never really payed in the long run.

Shares like Tommy Clarke and ISG are and have been terrific payers over many years. And what about golden share BA Tobacco. Even when it was a multitude comglomerate back in the 90's it still was a cash cow.

The base price of my portfolio is yielding over 15%.

I wonder how many people have held Alliance Trust for many years because of the "dividend story" without being aware of its pretty dismal total return record

Jarvis Securities (JIM) is a minnow paying regular dividends.

I find articles like this hinder as much as they help my investment decisions. I used to hold Albany and I've held Caledonia for many years; of late, I've watched my gains drain slowly away. You'd think that people would want to own such consistent dividend payers, so I can't understand why they sit on such large discounts. My dilemma is whether to hold for the divi or sell, based on the continuing poor performance.

surely at these prices and % in dividends, the downside at the moment is not worth the risk. Can we find the company that is paying dividends and has some growth potential in stock price -I assume were all looking for that stock

I am totally astonished at this tunnel-vision on dividends. Let's get this straight - if you buy a share with a 5% dividend that has raised its dividend payout every year for the last 100 years, and the share loses 10% of its value over the year, you have LOST 5%.

If you had bought Caledonia or Albany three years ago, you would have a loss by now of about 20%. I would prefer to buy a share that rises in value by 30% in the year, and sell one of my shares that wasn't performing to give me my 5%.

I have PZ Cussons in my portfolio - but for its growth. I had no idea it had such a dividend record.

A capital gain is money too. You also have a £10,100 nil-rate band before you start paying CGT.

Someone please tell me where I'm going wrong.

You have to look very long term if you are a high yield investor. On most of my shares in my portfolio I have received my original investment back in net dividends over the past 10 years.

I have received 4 times my original stake in BA Tobacco and the capital has increased by 600 % since 1998. You have to have the guts to stick with it.

I see little point in investing in companies for their dividends if the dividend is so low- a misleading headline I think here. Dividends are always taxed at source at 10% . What matters to me is the total return ie share price gain/loss + dividend. Roger is spot on in highlighting the £10100 capital gains allowance so why not take some capital gains as your income and avoid the tax. Its not too difficult to beat the 2% dividend over the year with a capital gain. Many shares have this volatility over a few days since the credit crunch. Why not become a little more active in your share selection & trading. There is no guarantee that a share price will be above the purchase price when you come to sell even if you are a long term holder. Buy and hold is a risky investment approach in current circumstances anyway in my view.

Arnie -

I agree - the days of "buy-well-and-hold" are gone. I very much doubt whether John Gardiner will do as well over the next 10 years.

Unless you can find a way of predicting market sentiment, you have no choice now except being a momentum investor. Value investing is being too logical, and the market's logic certainly doesn't work like mine.

And momentum investing only works if you're prepared to monitor your investments constantly.

Seems to me you have to have an awful lot of shares before you can make a decent income just from dividends. It's just the same as pension schemes moving into gilts.

It all depends on whether the income is needed to live off or just "extra" money in the pot.If the former then to an extent the capital value is irrelevant .Obviously no one wants to "lose" value but pick quality shares and you have less chance of failure(oops BP!).Mix high growth zero yielding shares (commodities etc)with the likes of BAT, Tesco, Reckitt etc to get a good balance.Dividend growth is key-Reckitts being a brilliant example of low initial yield but great annual% increase.Trading is generally unproductive and if successful makes the CGT allowance miserly.What use is £10k+ if you are relying on trading to back up your income.Everything is about timing.Right share wrong time,wrong share ,right time.Most private investors try to make money out of small caps-they only have a 20% chance of getting it right.After all most small cap fund managers with huge research resources dont get it right so what chance has Jo(e) Bloggs!?

Alliance Trust is on a discount of 18% and yields 2.5% not as stated above.

It went through a bad patch in performance a few years ago but is improving with a change of c.e.o.

Why not publish a list of the best places to invest in for long term returns. I will be retiring in just under 18 months and would like a steady income to support my pension.

On the subject of dividends, the following appeared in the March 2010 edition of Money Observer - I thought readers might find it instructive.

'Dividends play a crucial role in making meaningful gains from shares. Barclays Global Investors' annual Equity Gilt Study of investment returns since 1899 proves that conculsively. If you had invested £100 in shares back then, it would have been worth £170, after allowing for inflation, by the end of 2009. Had you reinvested your dividends, it would be worth 130 times that amount, at £22,150. Of course, a century is far longer than any investor's time horizon, but dividends also pay over shorter periods. Ted Scott, director of UK strategy at F&C Management, calculates that dividends account for around 60% of investment returns. A yield of ...3.5% - roughly the current level for the UK market - locks in a reasonable return, even without price appreciation.'

Up until the crash I was a convinced 'buy & hold' investor, when I watch my portfolio start to slide I stuck until the fall reached 10% and then decided to grab a hold of things for myself - I turned that loss around in about six months with active investing and at times bordered on 'day trading'. I would love to return to 'buy & hold' but could not afford it! I can see little sense in some of the tiny dividends on offer in these choices - Year to date I am currently up just over 12% and only 13% of that is from dividends [and I have some heavy dividend hitters in there - Vodafone, Man Gp, National Grid] but 79% of my gain has come in the form of 'realised gains' i.e. actively taking profit and reinvesting it - afterall paper profits mean little in today's market - here today and gone tomorrow! Decent dividends are a valuable contribution but in todays markets you would be a mug to be a slave to them when there is so much 'value' out there

Up until the crash I was a convinced 'buy & hold' investor, when I watch my portfolio start to slide I stuck until the fall reached 10% and then decided to grab a hold of things for myself - I turned that loss around in about six months with active investing and at times bordered on 'day trading'. I would love to return to 'buy & hold' but could not afford it! I can see little sense in some of the tiny dividends on offer in these choices - Year to date I am currently up just over 12% and only 13% of that is from dividends [and I have some heavy dividend hitters in there - Vodafone, Man Gp, National Grid] but 79% of my gain has come in the form of 'realised gains' i.e. actively taking profit and reinvesting it - afterall paper profits mean little in today's market - here today and gone tomorrow! Decent dividends are a valuable contribution but in todays markets you would be a mug to be a slave to them when there is so much 'value' out there

Broomtree -

I agree entirely.

I have a personal theory that these reports saying that all rises in value come from dividends are assuming you are investing in the same old blue-chip companies (Vodafone, BP, Shell, BAT) which are at best mediocre performers. If your share only rises in value by 2% in a year, of course a dividend of 3.5% looks good.

Year to date I am up 22.9% of which 2.3% of the gain is dividends. I fully accept the time and effort it has taken to get there. But if I can gain half that percentage every year I won't want to buy an annuity for £100,000 giving me a 6% return.

Only 5% of my portfolio is in FTSE100 companies, most are in the FTSE350, a few on AIM, no ETFs (I don't trust them) and only one unit trust.

All are carefully chosen and researched. I've still had some disasters (Aero Inventory, Albidon Resources), and only just got out of Jarvis before it went into administration, but that's how the cookie crumbles.

I first started investing in January 2006. Only one share in my portfolio (Blackrock World Mining investment trust) remains from my original Jan 06 investment. You can get a steady income, Jack Dickson, but I'm afraid nowadays you have to work at it.

Well, I bought 3,000 pounds worth of Tesco ordinary shares back in 1980 and sold for 11,000 in 1988 so I was well pleased. However if I had just sat on them they would now be worth over 200,000 pounds and paying out more than my original stake in dividends.

That is an extreme case I know, however I never sell shares unless I am really absolutely fed up with them and the income is now paying off handsomely. Don't forget that it is only 10% tax and not the basic rate payable which is now ideal being a pensioner.

John Gardiner -

. . . . . . but your personal allowance each year is £10,100 for capital gains.

I don't think we can assume that buying £3,000-worth of Tesco shares now would produce the same result.

Someone let me know in 30 years' time??

I appreciate that Tesco is a bit of a rags to riches story, Roger May, but my point is that one can still buy and hold shares for keeps and if chosen correctly with a little bit of luck thrown in.

I have been an active investor in the stock market since 1967 when I made my first killing with Martins Bank being taken over by Barclays back in 1968.

However, planning towards my retirement I became a High Yield Investor back in the mid 90's where I completely changed my strategy and apart from doing a massive urgent switch from Banking shares to Insurances, Shipping and small ISG on the AIM, I have never looked back. If I so wish I could use my capital gains allowance each year, but the income yield I am receiving is too good to miss.

John, Roger, Arnie, Broomtree et al,

I would simply observe that all of the truly great investors - Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, Philip Fisher and Warren Buffett for example - have had this in common: they have tended to buy good, quality businesses, and hold on to them.

I wish you all many years of profitable investing.