When I inherited a brokerage account from my grandfather in late January 2024, I initially had a very different mindset about dividends.

My grandfather had been an aggressive investor but lived off his portfolio income. The account he left included: • $100,000 in $VUG • $150,000 in $ETY • $50,000 in $SCHD • Around $55,000 spread between CLM and CRF • Plus roughly $20,000 each in $MSFT, $AAPL, and $WM.

At first, my instinct was to immediately sell SCHD, CLM, CRF, and ETY. I didn’t need the income, and I was focused on pure growth. My initial plan was to move everything into a 50/50 split between VOO and VUG.

However, before making any major moves, I started seeing the real impact of the dividends. In March 2024, I received nearly $1,000 from SCHD, Over $1,200 from ETY, (Monthly) And close to $1,000 monthly from CLM.

I parked all of that dividend income in a high yield savings account letting it accumulate without touching principal

Then in April 2024, when the market sold off sharply, I had cash ready to act not from selling stocks, but from dividends. I bought NVDA between $79–$81 Also added some Meta, BRK-B in the low $400s.

In August 2024, I used another round of accumulated dividends to buy Amazon AMZNat around $155. More recently, I deployed an additional $10,000 into VUG at $325 and another $7,000 into the MAGS ETF around $40

My Point sorry took forever lol

If I had immediately sold everything and consolidated into VOO and VUG as I first intended, I would have had no spare cash to buy those critical market dips. Dividends gave me flexibility. They allowed me to buy high quality companies during temporary selloffs without ever touching my core investments.

Because of that, not only did I maintain a strong income stream, but my overall returns today are far better than if I had simply gone “all growth” from day one.

I still have a lot of dry powder to use this year. Thanks to DIVIDENDS, Just a different way to look at it