If you want to buy CTY, looking at their history gives you some guidance, if e.g. you want to buy at 5% plus you may never have a position.
During the covid crash, you could have bought around £2.80 and the yield would have been 6.5%.
Now 1.5% – currently 2.5%, if you intend to buy and hold forever it makes a big difference to your SNOWBALL. Of course it’s always easier with hindsight but if you bought the yield, you would have a position, even though the price might have fallen further.
MRCH
LWDB
If you want to trade a higher yielder but want to add some safety to your snowball, you could pair trade with a lower yielder to achieve a blended yield of 7%.
You do not need to take big risks with your hard earned.
At the start of 2009 you decided to invest 5k in CTY because even back then they had a long history of increasing their dividends and to KISS, you decide to re-invest the dividends into the share, knowing that even if the price falls, you get more shares for your money and therefore a higher yield.
Your 5k would now have a value of £32,500.
The current yield is 4%, income of £1,300, a yield on seed capital of 26%
If you want to buy it may better to wait for the next market downturn and the yield will increase.
All trades for the SNOWBALL are posted here as soon as they are made.
All buys include a cost of £10 and sales a cost of £5, although you should be able to trader at a lower cost. Costs add up over the years but if sales are made at a profit, however small, it’s the markets money and not yours, as a profit is not a profit until the underlying share is sold.
The SNOWBALL’S first full year of earning dividends was 2023 and the current updated fcast for this calendar year is 12k.
If we look forward to the next 4 years the income stream will be around 16k, hopefully it will be ahead of the fcast.
That equates to a yield of 16% of seed capital, to make comparisons easier no new funds will be added to the SNOWBALL.
Once the SNOWBALL earns 15k of income every year, future dividends could be re-invested into safer but lower yielding shares, as the SNOWBALL prepares itself to drawdown the cash rather than re-invest it.
At present the SNOWBALL invests mainly in UK Investment Trusts as they have both higher yields and trade at bigger discounts to NAV.
IF this no longer applies the dividends will be re-invested into higher yielding ETF’S.
If you have more years of re-investing, you should build up an income stream and have a surplus to re-invest even though you are in drawdown.
Main Street Capital Corp (MAIN) has been one of the best-performing stocks in the business development (BDC) sector over the long term. Because of its success, MAIN trades at a steep premium to NAV and sports a lower yield than all of its BDC peers. So, I want to introduce you to a MAIN alternative with some great appreciation potential and yield.
Since its 2007 IPO, the MAIN share price has appreciated by 268%, and with dividends reinvested, it has provided a 1,630% total return. That total return works out to a 16.6% compound annual growth rate.
Looking at shorter-term past performance, its five-year total return was 91.8%, or 13.9% annual compounding. The returns from MAIN have far outrun the dividend yield, which is 5.7% based on the current regular monthly dividend rate.
The MAIN returns have been boosted by steady NAV appreciation and regular, significant supplemental dividend payments.
On January 30, 2025, Main Street Capital announced the public offering and NYSE listing of shares of MSC Income Fund (MSIF). MSIF is an externally managed BDC managed by Main Street’s registered investment advisor.
The MSIF IPO price was $15.53 per share. The BDC currently trades for $12.86. Since the IPO, MSIF has not been a great pick for investors.
However, what the investing public has failed to grasp is that the MSIF portfolio mirrors the investments held by Main Street Capital. For example, here is an excerpt from a recent Main Street press release (emphasis added):
Main Street Capital Corporation (NYSE: MAIN) (“Main Street” ) is pleased to announce that it recently completed a follow-on investment in its existing portfolio company, UBM ParentCo, LLC, doing business as United Business Mail (“UBM” or the “Company), a leading provider of “marketing mail” commingle services, specializing in optimizing postage, transportation and delivery performance for large-scale mailers. Main Street, along with its co-investor MSC Income Fund, Inc. (NYSE: MSIF) (“MSIF”), made the follow-on investment in UBM to support the Company’s strategic acquisition of a leading national provider of asset-light palletized mail consolidation, mail optimization services, freight brokerage, and warehousing and distribution for business to business, or B2B, and business to consumer, or B2C, customers. Main Street’s portion of the investment consisted of an additional $15.6 million first lien, senior secured term debt investment. Main Street and MSIF initially invested in UBM in December 2025.
MSIF trades at a deep discount to the MAIN valuation. MSIF trades at 83% of NAV, compared with MAIN’s premium valuation. MSIF has a current yield of 10.9%.
My thesis is that as MSIF develops a longer track record, and investors start to realize that its portfolio reflects the MAIN investments, the MSIF share price will climb to a premium to the current NAV of $15.55.
High Yield Digest is your weekly shortcut to income. Each issue highlights 10 of the highest-yielding stocks about to go ex-dividend in the coming week, complete with key dates and payout details.
The Dividend Manifesto Issued by the Dividend Society, 1932
Preamble The true investor seeks not the thrill of speculation but the quiet compounding of patience. He measures success not by ticker chatter but by the steady rhythm of income earned and reinvested.
Articles of Faith
Yield is character. A dividend paid is proof of discipline, prudence, and profit.
Reinvestment is renewal. Each pound returned to the ledger is a seed for future harvests.
Volatility is vanity. The market’s noise fades; the dividend endures.
Patience is profit. Time is the ally of the income‑minded.
Integrity of capital. Guard the principal; let the income speak for itself.
Closing Declaration Let this manifesto stand as a creed for those who build wealth not in haste but in habit — the investors who understand that true prosperity is paid in instalments, not in applause.
What can we learn from Warren Buffett about investing for retirement?
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett clearly isn’t one for retiring early. But his stock market insights could help others to do just that.
Posted by
Christopher Ruane
Published 2 May
You’re reading a free article with opinions that may differ from The Motley Fool’s Premium Investing Services.
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Image source: The Motley Fool
When it comes to retiring, Warren Buffett might seem like an odd source of inspiration. After all, the billionaire investor is still working in his nineties.
However, for many people, retiring in general and especially retiring early involves making smart decisions about building enough wealth to be able to do so.
On that topic, Buffett can certainly provide lots of wisdom.
Risks are risks at any stage
A lot of people think that, closer to retirement, investment portfolios ought to become less risky. The corollary of that way of thinking suggests that, when people are further from retirement and so have longer investing timeframes, they can afford to take more risks.
There’s a logic to that, in my view. But contrast it to Buffett’s approach. The sorts of companies he has been investing in in his later decades are similar to the ones he was buying at a much younger age.
Sure, there are exceptions: Apple was more tech-facing than most of Buffett’s historical large investments. But in general, Buffett’s been buying the same sorts of firms for many years, since he was a young man.
They tend to be long-established, large, have a competitive advantage and a proven business model. He has also stuck to a limited number of business sectors for most of his investments. One lesson I draw from that is risk tolerance. If an investment is too risky, arguably that is not because the investor is at a certain age, it is because it is too risky.
When an investor figures out their personal risk tolerance and sticks to it, they are less likely to lose money by making investments they know do not really suit them, on the pretext that time is on their side.
ABC: always be compounding!
Time can be on their side though. In investment terms, time can be a mixed bag. Depending on what you do, it may either work for you or against you.
Buffett is a big believer in compounding, which is basically reinvesting dividends (or capital gains) to buy more shares. Combined with a long-term approach to investing, that has allowed him to reap serious financial rewards from some of his investments over the course of decades.
The Midas touch in action
An example is his investment in Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO). Buffett started buying shares in the company for his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway in the 1980s. Indeed, it is over 30 years since he bought the last one.
He has not bought for decades – but he did not sell either. Instead, he just let the dividends roll in year after year.
And roll in they have. Coca-Cola has grown its dividend per share annually since before Buffett owned it. Last year alone, Berkshire’s original $1.3bn investment in Coca-Cola generated well over $700m of dividends.
That was not always guaranteed to happen (nor is it now, at Coca-Cola or any company). Changing diet habits remain a risk to Coca-Cola’s sales.
But it also has the hallmarks of a classic Buffett pick. Its famous brand, global bottling networks and unique recipe are all strong competitive advantages. They give it pricing power, allowing it to make the profits that fund those dividends.
The UK market is closed on Monday but the SNOWBALL will still earn £100 over the 3 day period.
The State Pension currently pays just over £12,547 a year. This is well short of the £38,584 average UK salary based on the latest ONS data.
That gap is exactly why I’ve been thinking about whether an ISA could realistically bridge the difference and turn a basic retirement income into something far more comfortable.
But what would it actually take to bridge that gap in practice?
Asking the right question
Most investors aiming to replace a full salary would likely focus on bridging the £26,037 annual gap in retirement income.
But the challenge isn’t just reaching a target number — it’s understanding both sides of the equation: accumulation and drawdown.
Retirement isn’t just about preserving a pot untouched. It’s about drawing an income that keeps pace with rising costs, without running the portfolio down too quickly. That’s why portfolio construction matters across an investor’s lifetime.
Crunching the numbers
Based on a conservative 4% annual return in retirement and 3% inflation, the model suggests the need for a portfolio of around £578,388 at age 65.
This would be sufficient to sustain withdrawals of £26,037 a year through to age 90.
That’s what the chart below is showing.
The blue line shows the portfolio value over time as withdrawals reduce the balance. In reality, outcomes would be more volatile than this smooth path suggests, as returns and inflation rarely move in straight lines.
What stands out is that even as withdrawals reduce the portfolio, it continues to generate returns throughout retirement. This is reflected in the gold line on the chart, which shows how ongoing compounding keeps the curve from flattening too quickly. It’s a reminder that maintaining a healthy portfolio in retirement matters just as much as during accumulation.
Chart generated by author
A huge gamble and bad news if you live beyond 90 years.
Income for the current calendar year £4,553.00, dividends start to flow into the SNOWBALL next week. The current fcast is to earn around 1k of dividends for re-investment every month.
If Mr. Market or Red Ed Miliband gives the SNOWBALL the chance to lock in a gilt yield of around 6% on a ten year gilt, it would become a core holding for the SNOWBALL. If not the SNOWBALL may buy CMPI if/when the Renewables sector consolidates.
