Want $300 a Month in Dividends? Invest $52,000 in These 3 Stocks

You need money to make money with dividend stocks. And if you have about $52,000 that you can afford to invest in some quality long-term investments, you can also benefit from monthly dividend income. Healthpeak Properties (NYSE: PEAK), TC Energy (NYSE: TRP), and Western Union (NYSE: WU) all pay high dividend yields of more than 5%. And they all issue their payouts at different times of the year, so if you invest in all of them, you can collect recurring monthly income.

Here’s how much you would have to invest in each one of these stocks to earn $300 every month.

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1. Healthpeak Properties: $20,000

Healthpeak Properties is a healthcare-focused real estate investment trust (REIT) with an attractive yield of 6% today. It pays a dividend every February, May, August, and November. Investing $20,000 into the stock would provide the investor with $1,200 over the course of a full year, or $300 every time the REIT pays dividends.

The company’s dividend appears safe, with Healthpeak reporting funds from operations (FFO) of $0.42 per share in its most recent quarter (ended March 31). FFO is what REITs often use to evaluate their performance rather than net income, which includes noncash expenses. Its dividend was $0.30 per share, suggesting a very sustainable (for a REIT) 71% payout ratio.

Healthpeak’s portfolio centers around hospitals and retirement communities, which provide it with relatively steady financials, making it an ideal option for income investors to buy and hold.

2. TC Energy: $17,600

TC Energy is an energy infrastructure giant; its pipelines help transport oil and gas throughout North America. The company enjoys relatively stable financials, reporting operating income of no less than 5.7 billion Canadian dollars ($4.24 billion U.S.) in each of the past four years. TC Energy, yet another remarkably consistent business, pays an attractive dividend that yields 6.8%.

In this situation, investors would need $17,600 to collect $300 in dividends each time it makes its payouts — every January, April, July, and October. It has also been increasing its dividend for decades, averaging a compound annual rate of 7% since 2000.

For the first three months of 2023, TC Energy reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of CA$1.21, up from CA$1.12 in the prior-year period. That’s 30% higher than its quarterly dividend of CA$0.93, leaving plenty of room for the oil and gas company to continue making payments (and room to raise them as well). It anticipates that it will be able to continue raising its dividend at a rate between 3% and 5%.

TC Energy stock is trading near its 52-week low, and now could be a great time to load up on this relatively safe income investment.

3. Western Union: $14,700

The highest-yielding stock on this list is Western Union. Known for its ability to help people send money quickly across the globe, the fintech has struggled amid worsening economic conditions and concerns about a recession being inevitable.

Management expects a challenging year in 2023, projecting that sales could fall by as much as 9%. But the revenue decline is more like 4% when you adjust for the impact of foreign currency conversion, the planned sale of its business solutions segment, and sky-high inflation in Argentina (now at more than 100%).

Despite the downtrend in sales, Western Union’s dividend should be safe as the company is expecting EPS to be at least $1.53 this year. That would put its payout ratio at just 61%.

For long-term investors, this is a stock worth potentially hanging on to because eventually, economic conditions around the world will improve, and that could lead to a rally for this beaten-down stock. Shares of Western Union are trading down 33% over the past 12 months.

Western Union is a bit of a contrarian pick, but it can be worth investing in given the upside, especially since it also offers a high-yielding dividend that pays 8.2%. At that high payout, investors will only need to invest roughly $14,700 to collect $300 in dividends every March, June, September, and December.