Dividends are key to long-term stock returns

The aforementioned performance of Germany’s Dax index shows how crucial dividends are when it comes to investment returns – a point also emphasised in Barclays’ latest Equity Gilt Study.

It notes that a $100 investment in 1925 would have grown to $791,966 if you’d reinvested your dividends. If you didn’t, you ended up with $23,726. In inflation-adjusted terms, that’s the difference between $1,431 and $47,764.

UK equity data is similarly stark. Adjusted for inflation, £100 invested in 1945 would have grown to £5,636 if dividends were reinvested, compared to just £215 if income was not reinvested.

[ Saving for the long-term: Where are the best returns to be found? ]

Another historical lesson to be gleaned from the Barclays study is that time really is an investor’s best friend. Barclays notes that in the UK, stocks outperform cash in 70 per cent of all two-year periods. Over five years, the probability of outperformance rises to 76 per cent. The odds are better still if you wait 10 years – then, stocks beat cash 91 per cent of the time.