About

Dear Fellow Investor,

Welcome to the UK Dividend Stocks website.

I'd rather not talk about myself, but I'm sure some readers will want to know a little bit more about the people and motives behind this website, so here's a summary that will hopefully satisfy your curiosity.

My name is John Kingham and I'm the founder and editor of The UK Dividend Stocks Newsletter and author of The Defensive Value Investor.

I wouldn't classify myself as a "professional investor" (I have never worked at a big investment firm), but I have been investing since the mid-1990s and writing about investing since the mid-2000s.

I started out as a passive index-tracking investor, but I lost my nerve in the early-2000s dot-com bust and sold everything, locking in a 50% loss. I then started reading everything I could about how to invest, as I clearly had no idea what I was doing.

After reading a lot of books, I decided that value investing was the best fit with my goals, interests and temperament, and in 2007 I started publishing my research on UKValueInvestor.com.

Initially, this was just a side-project while I worked as an insurance software analyst, but in 2011 I decided that investing and writing was what I wanted to do full-time. So, I left the insurance software industry behind and launched a paid monthly newsletter called UK Value Investor (which eventually turned into The UK Dividend Stocks Newsletter, reflecting my growing interest in dividends).

In 2012, I thought I should have at least one professional qualification, so I studied for and passed the Investment Management Certificate.

In 2014 and 2015 I wrote my first book, The Defensive Value Investor, and it was very kindly published by Harriman House.

Alongside the monthly newsletter, I wrote the regular Dividend Hunter column for Master Investor Magazine from 2016 to 2020. I've also written quite a few articles for The Property Chronicle and you can read all of my magazine articles below.

Whether I'm writing a blog post, a magazine article or the newsletter, my goal is always the same:

To engage, educate and empower sensible investors so they can build income and wealth by investing in quality dividend shares.

If you'd like to get in touch, please do so via the Contact Page.

Good luck with your investment journey,

John Kingham