GCR - so no capital growth with dividend paying stocks? - seriously, you been in the game long enough to know that. The idea (or at least my version), would be to live on a healthy stream of dividend that increase at above inflation BUT also for your capital to grow at above inflation.
hamster - like any good portfolio, diversification should be front of mind. But first decide on the initial dividend yield required - the lower it is, the more choice. At low amounts 3% - you could included some ETF's - but at higher 8% you going to have huge weightings of property.
Around 5% is probably a good percent to aim for - maybe 6%
Then you'll want a nice chunk of that in pounds/euro/dollars.
And of course - you want companies that have a history of growing dividends - or at least maintaining them during tough years. And if you need 5% - them aim for 6% to give yourself some padding.
But something like :: (what happens when you wake up at 04H00)
amount PPS Shares Expected D Yield Amount Exp
tex 500 602 83.06 103 17.11 85.55
RES 500 14000 3.57 623 4.45 22.25
AVI 500 10310 4.85 445 4.32 21.58
CML 500 6882 7.27 437 6.35 31.75
SSS 500 1243 40.23 95 7.64 38.21
VOD 500 14059 3.56 850 6.05 30.23
WHL 500 5780 8.65 313 5.42 27.08
BHP 250 24556 1.02 1500 6.11 15.27
Balwin 250 506 49.41 40 7.91 19.76
NWL 500 3900 12.82 300 7.69 38.46
BTI 500 90000 0.56 2900 3.22 16.11
5000 346.26
Total Yield 6.93
Quick and dirty but will should get you 6% yield - But will it's capital also grow at above inflation....