If you are investing online and have a taxable brokerage account, you need to understand dividends.

High Dividend Stocks: Top 30 High Yield Stocks for Income

Dividends are paid based on how many shares you own. To help compare the sizes of dividends, investors generally talk about the dividend yield. But you can also get it from almost every financial Web site. Reuters, for example, has an extensive database of dividend information.

Select the Financials radio button to the right of the red search button, and then click the red search button. In the new page that appears, scroll down to the dividends section.

Dividend Growth Stocks

You can also see what kind of dividend yields other companies in the industry pay. The following table shows what kinds of dividends are typical in various industries.

Some online brokers and companies that sell their shares to investors directly allow you to use dividends paid by a stock to buy more shares of the stock. These programs are called dividend reinvestment plans DRIPs.

Dividend Mantra - Helping you be a wise investor, smart spender, and frugal saver.

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Investing Online For Dummies Cheat Sheet. Ten Ways to Protect Your Investments and Identity Online.

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