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Simply Safe Dividends Featured in Wall Street Journal as Defensive Dividend Stocks Shine
The S&P 500 has lost over 8% since hitting a record on February 19 as investors fret about the economy losing steam. Dividend strategies have fared much better as defense is back in style for the first time in years.
Over the same period, our Top 20 portfolio and SCHD, Schwab's U.S. dividend ETF, were up around 1%, and our Conservative Retirees portfolio gained 3.8%.
I was honored when The Wall Street Journal reached out to us for our thoughts on this shift. Their article was featured on the front page on Monday. You can find the digital version here: Stock Investors Go on Defense With Dividends.
Over the same period, our Top 20 portfolio and SCHD, Schwab's U.S. dividend ETF, were up around 1%, and our Conservative Retirees portfolio gained 3.8%.
I was honored when The Wall Street Journal reached out to us for our thoughts on this shift. Their article was featured on the front page on Monday. You can find the digital version here: Stock Investors Go on Defense With Dividends.
With market uncertainty rising due to trade tensions and economic slowdown fears, The Wall Street Journal noted that investors are turning to dividend stocks for stability. While high-flying tech names like Nvidia and Broadcom have dropped, dividend payers like Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson (both are holdings in our portfolios) are posting solid gains.
Funds like SCHD, the S&P Dividend Aristocrats, and our model portfolios are outperforming as investors seek steady income and lower volatility. This shift contrasts with recent years, where rising interest rates and AI-driven growth stocks overshadowed stodgy dividend stocks. Now, with inflation concerns and economic uncertainty, more investors are prioritizing safety and reliable returns.
In our January newsletter, Fight This Feeling a Little More, I cautioned against blindly chasing market trends, as enthusiasm for AI, crypto, and business-friendly policies under President Trump fueled high valuations and arguably excessive risk-taking.
We aren't in the business of trying to time the market or predict sector shifts, but I felt that the script could flip quickly if anything happened to disrupt those narratives since many quality dividend stocks traded at historically cheap valuations relative to the tech-heavy market. That appears to be playing out.
We may be in the early innings of a shift to defense if the momentum trade continues to unwind and the economy moves toward a recession. Or this could be nothing more than a short-term head fake. Your guess is as good as mine.
As boring and conservative investors, we don't have plans to tinker with our portfolios in response to recent volatility. They are performing just how we hoped they would in this type of risk-off environment, and we remain focused on owning high-quality businesses that pay safe, rising dividends and seem likely to be larger a decade from now. Investing is a long game.
Cracks have yet to show up in the fundamentals of most companies, too. The market's drop reflects some heightened uncertainty about the future, but there hasn’t been a major warning sign that a downturn is imminent.
No matter what happens next, we’ll be here for our members with the research, insights, and tools you need to keep your dividend portfolio on track.
Funds like SCHD, the S&P Dividend Aristocrats, and our model portfolios are outperforming as investors seek steady income and lower volatility. This shift contrasts with recent years, where rising interest rates and AI-driven growth stocks overshadowed stodgy dividend stocks. Now, with inflation concerns and economic uncertainty, more investors are prioritizing safety and reliable returns.
In our January newsletter, Fight This Feeling a Little More, I cautioned against blindly chasing market trends, as enthusiasm for AI, crypto, and business-friendly policies under President Trump fueled high valuations and arguably excessive risk-taking.
We aren't in the business of trying to time the market or predict sector shifts, but I felt that the script could flip quickly if anything happened to disrupt those narratives since many quality dividend stocks traded at historically cheap valuations relative to the tech-heavy market. That appears to be playing out.
We may be in the early innings of a shift to defense if the momentum trade continues to unwind and the economy moves toward a recession. Or this could be nothing more than a short-term head fake. Your guess is as good as mine.
As boring and conservative investors, we don't have plans to tinker with our portfolios in response to recent volatility. They are performing just how we hoped they would in this type of risk-off environment, and we remain focused on owning high-quality businesses that pay safe, rising dividends and seem likely to be larger a decade from now. Investing is a long game.
Cracks have yet to show up in the fundamentals of most companies, too. The market's drop reflects some heightened uncertainty about the future, but there hasn’t been a major warning sign that a downturn is imminent.
No matter what happens next, we’ll be here for our members with the research, insights, and tools you need to keep your dividend portfolio on track.
Our analyst-issued Dividend Safety Scores assess dividend risk over a full economic cycle, baking in the assumption of a moderate recession at some point in the future. And our research team is always ready to dig in as conditions evolve – sometimes very quickly, as the pandemic demonstrated.
We’re also here to answer any questions. Feel free to reach out anytime with concerns, ideas, or suggestions on how we can keep improving the service.
Above all, I want to thank you for being part of this journey with us. Your trust and engagement mean everything, and we don’t take it for granted. Whether you’ve been with us for years or just joined recently, we’re grateful for the opportunity to help you navigate the markets with confidence and clarity.
It’s been an incredible privilege to work on Simply Safe Dividends for nearly a decade, and I’m truly honored that The Wall Street Journal reached out to us as a primary source for their story. The real credit goes to our loyal members – you’ve helped put us on the map!
Here’s to many more years of safe and growing dividends. Thank you for being part of the Simply Safe Dividends community!
Best regards,
Brian Bollinger
President, Simply Safe Dividends
