Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano are all rallying at the start of 2023. But I’m looking at the stock market for passive income investments instead.
Cryptocurrency
Since cryptocurrencies don’t produce cash, the only way to make money from them is by selling them to someone else. This gives me two problems from a passive income perspective.
The first is that getting a return on my investment depends on the price going up. And this can be uncertain and difficult to predict.
The second problem is that making money by selling inevitably means I own less than I did when I started. As an investor, I want to build my assets, not sell them off.
With stocks, neither of these problems is an issue. And there are two stocks in particular that I’m planning on buying for my portfolio this month.
Bank of America
Top of my list of passive income stocks to buy at the moment is Bank of America (NYSE:BAC). Warren Buffett loves the stock and I don’t think it’s hard to see why.
At today’s prices, the stock has a dividend yield of just over 2.5%. So a £1,000 investment today would yield around £23 per year in dividend income after taxes.
But there’s more to Bank of America as a passive income stock than the dividend. The company has also been buying back shares at an average rate of 2.8% per year for the last decade.
This means that I could have sold part of an investment in Bank of America each year without reducing my stake in the overall business. Doing so would have generated extra income.
InterContinental Hotels Group
I also have my eye on InterContinental Hotels Group (LSE:IHG). This is a business that pretty much deals in passive income.
IHG operates on a franchise model. That means its hotels are run by individual entrepreneurs, while the business takes a cut of the revenues in exchange for using its branding.
As a result, the company has extremely low costs. Around 80% of the company’s operating income becomes free cash that can be distributed to shareholders.
The dividend yield is currently around 2.2%. A £1,000 investment today would therefore generate around £22 in passive income per year.
The company has been growing its dividend over time, though. Despite a pause during the pandemic, the dividend paid to IHG shareholders has grown by an average of 6% per year.
Dividend stocks
I’m not saying it’s impossible to make money by buying cryptocurrency. It absolutely is, if the price goes up.
It’s also possible to make money like this via stocks, though. And I don’t see any reason to think that the price of BItcoin is more likely to go up than the price of equities.
Unlike cryptocurrency, stocks like the two I’ve identified can produce cash whatever happens to stock prices. That’s why I prefer them as an investor looking for passive income.
A recession is a significant risk for both companies. An economic slowdown could challenge profits at both Bank of America and InterContinental Hotels.
But both businesses have been through recessions before and each has the balance sheet to cope with another one. I therefore see an economic slowdown as a temporary headwind for stocks that can provide lifelong passive income.
The post Forget Bitcoin! I’d buy these dividend stocks for lifelong passive income appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.
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Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Stephen Wright has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended InterContinental Hotels Group Plc. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.
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