The UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio

A Model Portfolio for UK Dividend Investors

My goal is to help dividend investors reach their long-term financial goals by sharing with them a systematic approach to investing in UK dividend stocks.

That's why I wrote a book (The Defensive Value Investor), but books are static documents, whereas investing is a dynamic activity that takes place in an ever-changing world.

To really learn about investing, you need to see an investment strategy being applied in the real world in real time, and that's why I set up the UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio in 2011.

It's a virtual portfolio that holds the same stocks as my real-world portfolio, and the two are almost identical in every way other than size. The portfolio is also very realistic and takes account of broker fees, stamp duty and the cost of an annual subscription to the UK Dividend Stocks Newsletter.

A Systematic Dividend Investing Strategy

I manage the portfolio using an updated version of the investment strategy described in my book, The Defensive Value Investor. You can find out more about the strategy as it stands today by reading this blog post: My 5-step strategy for investing in dividend stocks.

For even more information about the strategy and the tools I use to apply it, see the Dividend Investing Resources page.

Performance

The UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio has two performance goals:

1. To have a higher dividend yield and ten-year total return than the FTSE All-Share
2. To have a ten-year total return that puts it in the top 33% of all UK equity income funds

July 31st 2023: Actual versus target performance

1. Relative to the FTSE All-Share, the portfolio has a dividend yield of 5.3% versus 3.7% and a ten-year total return of 76.8% versus 71.7%
2. The portfolio's 76.8% ten-year total return puts it in 10th place out of a total of 73 UK equity income funds (comfortably inside the top 33%)

The charts below show the portfolio's performance versus its FTSE All-Share Total Return benchmark. Each portfolio was launched in November 2011 with a virtual £50,000 and all dividends are reinvested.

Annual and Half-Year Reviews

I review the portfolio's performance along with any changes to the portfolio, my strategy or any other relevant factors, twice each year.

Here's a list of reviews on this website:

• UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio Review: Summer 2023
• UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio 2022 year-end review
• UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio 2022 half-year review
• UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio 2021 year-end review
• UK Dividend Stocks Portfolio 2021 Q3 review

You can find earlier reviews on my old website, UKValueInvestor.com:

• 2011 - 2021 portfolio reviews

Buy and Sell Reviews for Past Holdings

My investment strategy involves buying quality dividend stocks at value-for-money prices and holding them as long as both conditions remain true.

In a typical month, I might add one holding to the portfolio or remove one existing holding. In either case, I'll write up my reasoning in detail in the UK Dividend Stocks Newsletter. 

I think these purchase reviews and sale reviews contain useful lessons for serious investors, so I've included reviews for all of the portfolio's ex-holdings below.