I would love to have a stock portfolio like the late Ronald Read, Grace Groner, or Anne Scheiber. Wouldn’t you?

If you haven’t heard of these names, they are clear examples of dividend success stories of everyday people. Their portfolios grew to $8 million, $7 million, and $22 million, respectively. I sure wouldn’t say no to that kind of retirement nest egg.

Neither Read, Groner, nor Scheiber owned their own business or were particularly business-savvy.

After serving in the military, Read worked as a gas station attendant and mechanic for 25 years in Brattleboro, Vermont. Once he retired, he took a part-time job as a janitor at JCPenney. Groner was a secretary at Abbott Labs in Lake Forest, Illinois, and Scheiber was an IRS auditor.

Their investments included AT&T (T), Bank of America (BAC), CVS Health (CVS), Deere & Company (DE), General Motors (GM), and Abbott Laboratories (ABT).

These were normal people with normal salaries who followed two rules:

1. They invested in companies that they understood.

2. They reinvested their dividends.

If those concepts sound familiar, they should. Both are foundational ideas here at Dividend Digest and in my premium newsletter, Yield Shark.

If you want to build wealth with dividends, the key is to start now with the resources you already have.

A Real-Life Example

Today, I want to give you an example using a stock that I have recommended time and time again over the past decade: Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD).

EPD has not seen a wild price increase. I feel that many dividend success stories are slightly misleading. Sure, they show the power of compounding, but underneath is a stock that has seen five-fold gains. That is not the case with EPD. It’s just as affordable to buy a share today as it was 10 years ago.

Since 2012, shares have traded between $13 and $42. Paying $13 is more appealing than $42, of course, but neither is as cost prohibitive as, say, a share of Apple (AAPL) might feel.

One Share a Week Is All It Takes

It doesn’t take $100,000 to start growing your money. Today, I looked at how your money would grow if you added just one share of EPD to your portfolio every week and reinvested the dividends when paid out. Remember, that’s only asking you to part with $13–$42 a week.

Had you started in January 2012, you’d now own 935.4 shares of EPD for an investment value of $24,798.

Here might be the best part…

After accumulating those shares for an affordable price every week, you could decide to stop reinvesting and take your dividends as additional income. That would come out to $467 extra each quarter. That breaks down to $39 per week. You’re now making more money every week than you originally put in.

Or you could continue to reinvest for another five to 10 years, allowing your money to grow exponentially.

Again, it doesn’t take a lot of money to start. You don’t have to pick the next “winning” stock, just one that will consistently pay an increasing dividend year after year. Then all you need is the discipline to keep adding week after week.

For more income, now and in the future,

Kelly Green

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