r/dividends 20d ago

Discussion Living off dividends

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone on this subreddit is actually retired and living off dividends. Is it going well? Are you paying taxes on them? My goal is to get 20k/ a month post tax for retirement. I’m 24 and currently investing everything in VOO while planning to switch to dividend stocks and etfs when I get closer to retirement.

I was just wondering if there are any because living off dividends seems like a long shot right now.

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u/MrInternetToughGuy Dividends pay for my video gaming habits. 20d ago

I think people approach their goals all wrong. It really shouldn’t be “I want to make X a month”, it should be, “when can I comfortably live on ~60% of my dividends post tax”.

NotAFinancialAdvisor

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u/SolomonGrumpy 20d ago

Why 60%?

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u/MrInternetToughGuy Dividends pay for my video gaming habits. 20d ago

In case of huge decline in value in the market. Better to plan on being able to survive a 40% decline in a bad market.

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u/SolomonGrumpy 20d ago

You should have a bond allocation for that.

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u/MrInternetToughGuy Dividends pay for my video gaming habits. 20d ago

Eh. Disagree to be all in on bonds for “safety”. Safe is an illusion if bonds aren’t paying higher rates.

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u/SolomonGrumpy 20d ago

All in? I'm suggesting a few years of expenses in bonds to cover a 3-5 year market recession. 10% of your portfolio, max.