Here's my actual question: Let's say I invest in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, and now I want to introduce dividend of somekind to my portfolio... How important is it that I buy something with different companies than iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, in order to build diversity, broad geographical exposure, etc? What % of portfolio should be used for dividend? How long should one wait before withdrawing dividend profit? Thanks guys!
Not that important in my opinion. The ETF is well diversified and buying a company included in it is just a way to have more exposure to that particular company. So if you are liking a company then by all means invest directly into it as it's % of your portfolio will be really small if owned only through that ETF. completely up to you and your risk profile. When building a long term investment portfolio the idea is generally to reinvest the dividends until the portfolio value reaches your goal. Look up compound interest.
I agree that ideally you'd want to just keep reinvesting the dividends, at least until you get to a point where you're more or less retiring and choosing to live off of your investments. IF you're invested in the S&P 500 index and want to hedge that by putting a few bucks in something else, you might consider a little commodities exposure via ETFs in things like gold or silver, a few bucks in higher yielding corporate / emerging markets debt (reinvest the interest payments), a few bucks in a fund specializing in high-dividend stocks, etc.
