The ravages of inflation mean that a million pounds is much less in real terms than it once was. Still, lots of people investing in the stock market like the idea that if they are successful, they could ultimately become millionaires.

It is possible. Indeed, some people have even built their Stocks and Shares ISA to a seven-figure value.

So, what would it take?

Three key variables

There is a trio of factors that determine the answer. How much is invested, at what annual rate of growth, and for how long?

Say someone invests £500k and achieves an 8% compound annual growth rate. It will take them nine years to reach a £1m valuation.

Changing one of the variables affects the others.

For example, if the investment is £100k, not £500k, the timeline rises from nine to 29 years.

Each investor is different

I see an 8% compound annual gain as challenging but achievable over the long run if an investor focuses on buying quality shares without overpaying for them.

Different people take different approaches when thinking of a timeframe for their investments. I think of the stock market from a long-term perspective.

So, imagine the timeframe is 25 years and we stick with the 8% compound annual growth rate.

Investing £1,100 per month (less than £255 per week) ought to be enough to hit the £1m target on that timeframe.

Steady investing with an eye on costs

Drip-feeding money in regularly can be a helpful financial discipline.

The shares bought will be critical to determining the return, but it can also be affected by fees and costs eating into it.

So it is sensible to take time to compare different options for share-dealing accounts and Stocks and Shares ISAs.

Some investors may decide to use a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). Thanks to tax relief, that could potentially let them pay £1,100 per month into the SIPP without even needing to come up with that much cash themselves.

Please note that tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future. The content in this article is provided for information purposes only. It is not intended to be, neither does it constitute, any form of tax advice. Readers are responsible for carrying out their own due diligence and for obtaining professional advice before making any investment decisions.

Looking for millionaire makers

I mentioned that choosing the right shares is important.

Last week I added to my existing holding in a company I feel looks deeply undervalued: US food maker Campbell’s (NASDAQ: CPB).

Although it has dropped the reference to soup in its corporate name, I see the soup business as having strong long-term potential thanks to the company’s brand and association with soup.

As the name suggests, the firm is also seeking to grow other businesses, such as cooking sauces and biscuits.

For now the results are mixed. Sales are falling and I see a risk that the company’s portfolio of processed foods could keep losing appeal as consumers become more health-conscious.

Still, I think the share price fall has been far overdone.

The longstanding company now sells for just 11 times earnings. It also has a fabulous yield of 7.5%.

Could that be cut? Yes – any dividend can.

But, promisingly, it is fully covered. Campbell’s is a highly cash generative business.

I see it as being in a rough patch, not structural decline. Twenty-five years from now, I expect the Campbell’s share price to be far above where it is today. Meanwhile, I am earning a 7.5% yield on my investment.

Lots of people dream of investing in the stock market – but not all of them ever actually start buying shares.

Different investors get different results. For some people who end up not investing, the opportunity cost of the missed chance is enormous.

Here are three skills I think it can be helpful for an investor to have before they make their first move in the stock market.

Setting goals and devising a strategy

How good are you at knowing what you are trying to achieve, implementing a plan to try to achieve it, and modifying what you do along the way based on what happens?

Investing can involve a steep learning curve and, over time, most investors evolve their style.

But I think it still helps, from the day one starts buying shares, to have some sort of plan about how to invest and what success looks like.

Spotting undervalued opportunities

Ultimately, investing tends to boil down to a number of key elements and an important one is being able to buy something for less than it turns out to be worth.

Ideally, that would be much less than it turns out to be worth.

Simple though that may sound, it can be devilishly difficult in practice. Knowing what a company’s real value is today can already be hard enough – but successful investing also requires someone to assess what it might be worth in future.

Learning how to identify great opportunities that have been undervalued by the market is a skill — and potentially a very lucrative one.

Assessing risks as they really are, not as we’d like them to be

One thing that unites many experienced investors and those that start buying shares for the first time is an inability to weigh risks properly.

When we buy shares, naturally that is because we think we see an opportunity. That can lead the mind to underplay some of the risks involved.

Truly great investors take risks seriously. They do not start buying shares in a company or industry without having weighed such risks thoroughly.

Putting the pieces together

Having zoomed in on those three areas, let me illustrate their importance with an investment made a decade ago by billionaire Warren Buffett: the shares he bought in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Buffett’s investing strategy is clear: he aims to buy into great companies at an attractive price.

That involves diversifying, as you can have too much of a good thing. When Apple stock soared after his purchase, ultimately he reduced the stake his company owned as it was starting to dominate the portfolio.

Apple was an undervalued opportunity a decade ago because many investors focussed on a lack of product innovation rather than the huge ongoing cash flow potential of a lean product range and large installed base of loyal users.

There were risks, of course. Lower cost competition was a threat a decade ago. Technological advances that have brought down prices mean that is an even bigger risk now.

But Buffett reckoned the Apple stock price back then gave him a big enough margin of safety. His firm’s profits of tens of billions of pounds on the Apple stake have proven him right.

Lloyds Banking Group‘s (LSE:LLOY) been a retail investor favourite for many years. Some buy the stock for capital growth, others for dividends, and more for a mix of the two. When focusing purely on the income side, what’s the magic number needed to bank an average of £500 each month from Lloyds’ shares?

Doing the maths

Let’s start with the numbers. The stock’s current dividend yield is 3.75%. So if someone wanted to make £6,000 from income over the course of the year, an investor would need to have £160k worth of Lloyds’ stock.

That’s assuming someone invested right now. Going forward, if the dividend per share increases, the amount made from holding the stock could also increase. For example, over the past year, the total dividend paid is 3.65p. This was a bump up from the 3.17p in the previous year, which was also higher than the 2.76p from the year prior.

There’s clearly a trend here. So over time, the person may be able to reduce the total amount of shares needed to be owned in order to generate an average of £500 a month.

The fundamental picture

Aside from the pure numbers, the other point that needs to be addressed is whether the outlook makes sense for the bank to do well. After all, if things go wrong for Lloyds, a dividend cut could prevent the investor from reaching their goal.

From my perspective, the outlook for sustainable dividends is positive. The bank’s benefiting from a higher-for-longer interest rate environment, aided by the likely increase in inflation this year. That might not be great news for borrowers, but it’s good for lenders like Lloyds. In fact, Q1 results from earlier this week showed a 9% jump in net income. This was driven by stronger lending income and an improving net interest margin.

The other reason why I like the bank is that it doesn’t rely on flashy investment banking revenues or risky international exposure. It’s a UK-focused, bread-and-butter lender. As long as the UK economy holds up reasonably well, the bank can continue to churn out solid earnings with strong cash flow. That ultimately translates to growing dividends.

Other alternatives

The bank does have risks, such as the ongoing saga with the car finance scandal. The reputational (and financial) damages still could increase, and so it needs to be monitored closely.

Yet even from the income angle, some might want to target divdiend shares with a higher yield. For example, 11 stocks in the FTSE 250 have yields above 9%.

To hopefully achieve a £500 monthly average payment, the total needed for a 9% yield would be £66.66k. This is much lower than the £150k for Lloyds, but it does have a potentially higher risk.

Yet it serves as a good point to show that even though I believe Lloyds is a good income share for investors to consider, there are plenty of other options out there that might be more suitable for people, depending on their risk tolerance.

Investing in penny shares is a high-risk/high-reward strategy. Dangers include low liquidity, which can lead to extreme share price volatility. Another is the fact many are smaller, younger companies that are more exposed to competitive threats and industry downturns.

Yet the long-term returns can also be considerably higher than when buying FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 shares. Take the following three penny stocks, for instance: Brave Bison (LSE:BBSN), Panthera Resources (LSE:PAT), and Kodal Minerals (LSE:KOD).

Over the past five years, they’ve delivered an average return of 111%. An investor who put £20,000 equally in these companies five years ago would have £42,260 sitting in their Stocks and Shares ISA.

Can these shares continue outperforming? I think so, as I’ll now explain.

Video star

Brave Bison produces online video content that it then distributes. Over the last five years, its shares have gained an impressive 135% in value.

Thanks to widescale restructuring, it’s turned from a loss-making company into one with strong earnings growth. In 2025, revenues leapt 57% and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) rose 44%, as its operations successfully straddle key growth areas of digital advertising and influencer marketing.

Brave Bison has successfully leveraged acquisitions to capture these opportunities. It works with major brands like Arsenal FC, Vodafone, and Google, and today has a larger and more diversified business model. This is especially important, as it helps the business to spread risk if cyclical sectors come under pressure and marketing budgets dip.

Feline good

During the past five years, Panthera Resources’ shares have risen a hefty 41%. This chiefly reflects gold’s multi-year price surge — the yellow metal was last at $4,700 an ounce, up from roughly $1,700 in May 2021.

Panthera doesn’t actually own any gold-producing assets. However, it owns a string of high-quality exploration projects in India and West Africa. This includes Kalaka in Mali, where the exploration target was recently hiked to 5m ounces from 3m previously.

What I would say is this early-stage miner is high risk. I expect gold prices to keep rising, but Panthera could still sink in value if it experiences operational setbacks. A $1.58bn damages claim against the Indian government for stopping work at its Bhukia mine could also go either way.

Another mining share to consider?

Over five years, Kodal Minerals’ share price has leapt 158%. The company’s evolved from an exploration play into a full-blown metals producer, reducing its risk profile — output has steadily ramped up since February 2025, and revenues have rolled in. The business operates the Bougouni lithium mine in Mali, which is expected to produce the white metal until 2038.

In my view, this makes Kodal one of the hottest penny shares in the mining sector. Lithium prices have been choppy in recent years, and volatility could return if the Iran war drags on. But the long-term lithium outlook is robust as electric vehicle (EV) sales lift off — analysts at Canaccord think the market could move into a prolonged deficit until 2035 as new demand outstrips supply growth.

If so, prices of the critical energy transition metal could explode, driving Kodal shares even higher.

A Stocks and Shares ISA can deliver tremendous results over the long term. With regular contributions and a robust investment strategy, it’s possible to build up a six- or seven-figure account over time.

There’s one key mistake that a lot of investors make with these accounts however. This mistake can set them back significantly, and prevent them from achieving their financial goals.

Portfolio management 101

It’s no secret that avoiding big losses is important when it comes to building up a large ISA portfolio. If a stock you own falls by 50% or more, it can really hurt your progress (you need to generate a 100% gain just to breakeven on a stock that falls 50%).

Now, most investors use diversification (spreading capital out over many different stocks) as a risk management strategy. And that’s smart. But there’s another portfolio management tool that can be even more effective. And that’s ‘right sizing’ positions. In my view, this is the secret to investing success. Ignoring it is a mistake.

How to size portfolio positons

When it comes to sizing portfolio positions correctly, there are no set rules. Generally speaking though, the idea is to balance risk and reward. Ideally, your largest holdings should be reliable blue-chip stocks that are unlikely to tank and result in permanent loss of capital (but still offer the potential for solid returns). More speculative stocks – where there’s risk of major losses – should be smaller holdings.

By constructing a portfolio this way, an investor can give themselves a much better chance of success. Done properly, there’s far less chance of ugly losses.

Even if a few more speculative holdings blow up, it won’t be the end of the world. Because the large blue-chip holdings should offer protection.

How this strategy has saved me

To illustrate how this works in reality, here’s a look at how it has helped me in recent years. I’ve had my fair share of portfolio losses – stocks I’ve owned that have tanked include JD Sports Fashion, Kainos, and Zscaler.

These were all small positions for me though. So losses were manageable.

Importantly, gains from my larger, blue-chip holdings have offset the losses. For example, my gains on Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock – my largest holding – have more than made up for the losses on those other names.

So allocating more capital to rock-solid companies has paid off. By right-sizing my positions, I’ve protected myself from losses.

A blue-chip stock to consider today?

Why is Amazon my largest holding? A few reasons. For a start, it’s a well-established company that operates in a number of industries including e-commerce, cloud computing, chips, streaming, and space. So it’s unlikely to see its revenues suddenly plummet.

Second, it’s strong financially. This is a company that generates a ton of cash flow and has a rock-solid balance sheet.

Third, it still has a lot of growth potential, despite the fact that it sports a market-cap of $2.8trn today. Looking ahead, chips and space could be huge growth drivers.

Of course, there are no guarantees that it will be a good investment for me from here. If we were to see a major global economic contraction, business performance could be compromised.

Taking a five-year view though, I see a lot of potential. In my view, this stock’s worth a closer look.

There are lots of different reasons investors may decide to use a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) as a platform for buying and owning shares.

Some might be less to do with the SIPP than alternatives. Perhaps the investor has already used all of their ISA limit for the current tax year, for example. 

But some reasons people use a SIPP are specific to it. Let’s explore some more…

Tying your money up – good or bad?

I’ll explain below what I see as the main advantage of a SIPP.

But it’s worth mentioning that the platform has other notable features too.

For example, unlike an ISA or share-dealing account, once you put money into a SIPP you can’t take it out again for any reason until you hit a certain age (currently 55).

Please note that tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future. The content in this article is provided for information purposes only. It is not intended to be, neither does it constitute, any form of tax advice. Readers are responsible for carrying out their own due diligence and for obtaining professional advice before making any investment decisions.

Is that bad or good? That depends on your perspective, I’d say.

It could be really annoying if you wanted to tap into that money before 55, for any reason. But it could be good precisely because it effectively strips investors of that temptation.

This is the SIPP’s big attraction for me

There are other pros and cons compared to alternative investment platforms, such as the tax treatment of capital gains and dividends. Those are tax-free in an ISA, for example, in a SIPP at least some of them could potentially be taxable.

So, why bother even considering a SIPP?

In short: free money.

Free money, you say? Surely too good to be true?

Well, the money may not exactly be free – it’s money we’ve all already paid to HMRC.

The SIPP offers tax relief meaning that, for example, if a standard rate income taxpayer puts in £800, it’ll be topped up by £200, meaning they’ll have £1,000 in their SIPP.

For higher and additional rate taxpayers, the benefit can be even greater due to higher levels of tax relief. Even for a basic rate taxpayer, though, I reckon this is a very attractive feature of the SIPP structure.

Investing for the long term

The SIPP’s period of locking in the money marries neatly with my long-term approach to investing.

One share I own that I plan to hold in my SIPP for the foreseeable future is Greggs (LSE: GRG).

The baker’s had a lousy run on the stock market of late. It’s already down 9% so far this year, meaning that the Greggs share price is now 36% lower than five years ago.

Still, that has pushed the dividend yield up to an attractive 4.5%.

Greggs does face some real challenges. Its large network means some shoppers have grown fatigued of the ubiquitous brand.

Staffing so many branches – with more in the works – means its profits are vulnerable to increases in costs like wages and National Insurance contributions.

But the business is profitable and continues to grow.

Its strong brand and keen price positioning make it a firm favourite with legions of hungry customers. To me, the share looks undervalued and I plan to keep hold of it.

Got a decent lump sum of cash sitting idle in your savings account? You could aim to turn that into immediate passive income by investing in reliable UK dividend stocks. And by making the right choices, that income flow could steadily grow much bigger down the line.

Suppose you’ve got £15,000 just itching to be put to good use. What dividend income could it deliver for you this year? And what might that grow to become in decades from now?

Crunching the numbers

To calculate potential returns from dividend shares, we need to make some assumptions regarding yield. Fortunately, we can achieve relatively accurate estimates by using typical market averages.

For example, a portfolio of dependable, high-yielding dividend shares could return between 6% and 8% a year. That means an investment of £15,000 could return £900-£1,200. That’s not a bad start. By reinvesting those dividends, the pot would compound steadily, while also benefiting from any increase in payouts.

After 10 years, it could have reached over £39,000 (accounting for average market growth). At that point, it would payout between £2,340 and £3,120 a year.

But is that a realistic goal? With the right stocks, yes it is.

Why careful stock-picking makes a difference

When starting out, investors should consider reliable, well-established dividend-payers such as Imperial Brands, British Land and Admiral Group (LSE: ADM).

The key factors to consider include:

• Earnings coverage.
• Cash flow.
• Debt manageability.
• Payment track record.

In Admiral’s case, dividend payments take up 81.8% of earnings (the full dividend is 2.05p, while earnings per share is 2.5p). That’s a lot of earnings being spent on shareholders. Fortunately, cash flow helps, covering dividends 1.4 times.

Still, that’s only barely sufficient — if profits dipped, it might have to cut or suspend dividend payments. Ideally, it would be better to look for companies with stronger coverage.

Sounds good, so is it worth considering?

On the plus side, Admiral’s been paying dividends consistently for 22 years without a pause. That shows just how dedicated the company is to keep shareholders happy.

This is further supported by the company’s exceptionally high return on equity (ROE), at 53%. However, the balance sheet looks a little stretched, with current assets lagging liabilities by a long margin. This may be due to accounting discrepancies when it comes to insurance but still, it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Long story short? Admiral looks like a highly profitable company that’s happy to return much of those profits to shareholders. However, by doing so, it may be stretching its finances a bit, which is risky.

The bottom line

A solid portfolio of highly-established dividend-payers can deliver far better returns than a standard savings account. But it’s important to weigh up the risks versus the rewards. Some of the best dividend payers push a fine line between maintaining operations and keeping shareholders happy.

A solid track record combined with strong earnings and manageable debt is the ideal combo to look for. In Admiral’s case, I think it’s worth considering because it has a proven history of balancing debt obligations with dividend payouts.

It’s been a volatile few weeks for UK stocks, but so far the FTSE 100 has held up pretty well. Is that about to change?

With the world facing the biggest energy shock in history, I’d have expected global share prices to have crashed by now. They haven’t. But April was patchy. The FTSE 100 ended the month roughly where it began. Investors still prefer to believe the conflict will be solved somehow, and the Strait of Hormuz reopened. I’m not convinced.

Oil markets can’t make up their minds. On Thursday (30 April) a barrel of Brent crude hit $124, having more than doubled since the Iran conflict began. It’s since slumped to $108. That offers some relief. But it’s still very high. I have a bigger concern. So far, we haven’t suffered meaningful shortages in the West, but they’ve arrived in Asia, and we’re working our stockpiles down at record speed. If shortages become a reality, the shock could land.

Are we looking at a stock market crash?

HFI Research just warned of “panic buying” and hoarding as the world draws down crude supplies. It says that shortages could soon push the price past $150 a barrel. Obviously, we don’t know if that will happen, but I do think the risks are beginning to build. Next week could be very bumpy, as could the rest of May. If UK shares do crash, I have my strategy ready. I’ll go shopping for cut-price companies whose long-term prospects remain intact. I think we could be looking at a big opportunity for investors willing to hold their stock purchases for at least five to 10 years. Many already look tempting.

To my astonishment, FTSE 100 weapons maker Babcock International Group (LSE: BAB) is now one of them. I’ve watched its shares rocket for years, and thought I’d missed my opportunity, as the shares became expensive. But in April, defence stocks took a beating across the board. UK giant BAE Systems, which I hold, plunged 11.35%. Babcock slumped 13.25%.

There are plenty more opportunities like this one

Isn’t there a war on? There is, and sadly it’s showing no sign of ending. Here’s what I think happened. Babcock has flown just a little too high. Despite April’s dip, the stock is still up 270% over five years. As a result, it was expensive, with the price-to-earnings ratio nudging 30. Investors have decided to liberate some profits, and deploy them elsewhere, presumably in better value opportunities.

The slip certainly wasn’t down to anything Babcock did. There was little company-specific news last month, aside from another lucrative UK government contract win. It’s order backlog is now a healthy £10bn, giving investors real earnings visibility.

One downside is that the shares still aren’t cheap. The P/E is still 26.9, well above its 10-year average of 14.5. And if the Iran conflict is somehow solved, its shares could retreat further — but while potentially bad for Babcock, it would be good for the world on both a humanitarian and economic level, so I won’t complain. I think Babcock looks tempting today. I’m now watching it shares like a hawk, and will take advantage of any further weakness. I expect to see many more opportunities like this in the uncertain weeks ahead. I’m in a buying mood.

When it comes to retiring, Warren Buffett might seem like an odd source of inspiration. After all, the billionaire investor is still working in his nineties.

However, for many people, retiring in general and especially retiring early involves making smart decisions about building enough wealth to be able to do so.

On that topic, Buffett can certainly provide lots of wisdom.

Risks are risks at any stage

A lot of people think that, closer to retirement, investment portfolios ought to become less risky. The corollary of that way of thinking suggests that, when people are further from retirement and so have longer investing timeframes, they can afford to take more risks.

There’s a logic to that, in my view. But contrast it to Buffett’s approach. The sorts of companies he has been investing in in his later decades are similar to the ones he was buying at a much younger age.

Sure, there are exceptions: Apple was more tech-facing than most of Buffett’s historical large investments. But in general, Buffett’s been buying the same sorts of firms for many years, since he was a young man.

They tend to be long-established, large, have a competitive advantage and a proven business model. He has also stuck to a limited number of business sectors for most of his investments. One lesson I draw from that is risk tolerance. If an investment is too risky, arguably that is not because the investor is at a certain age, it is because it is too risky.

When an investor figures out their personal risk tolerance and sticks to it, they are less likely to lose money by making investments they know do not really suit them, on the pretext that time is on their side.

ABC: always be compounding!

Time can be on their side though. In investment terms, time can be a mixed bag. Depending on what you do, it may either work for you or against you.

Buffett is a big believer in compounding, which is basically reinvesting dividends (or capital gains) to buy more shares. Combined with a long-term approach to investing, that has allowed him to reap serious financial rewards from some of his investments over the course of decades.

The Midas touch in action

An example is his investment in Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO). Buffett started buying shares in the company for his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway in the 1980s. Indeed, it is over 30 years since he bought the last one.

He has not bought for decades – but he did not sell either. Instead, he just let the dividends roll in year after year.

And roll in they have. Coca-Cola has grown its dividend per share annually since before Buffett owned it. Last year alone, Berkshire’s original $1.3bn investment in Coca-Cola generated well over $700m of dividends.

That was not always guaranteed to happen (nor is it now, at Coca-Cola or any company). Changing diet habits remain a risk to Coca-Cola’s sales.

But it also has the hallmarks of a classic Buffett pick. Its famous brand, global bottling networks and unique recipe are all strong competitive advantages. They give it pricing power, allowing it to make the profits that fund those dividends.

Passive income ideas come in many shapes and sizes.

Some are new, but one that is old – very old – is buying shares in businesses in the hope of earning dividends.

That can be a way of turning even just a fiver a day into a monthly passive income in the hundreds of pounds.

Here’s how.

Start putting aside money regularly

The same approach could work with more, or even less money. The income earned would be correspondingly different.

But a key element, whatever the amount, is consistency.

Forming a habit of making regular contributions can help set the stage for growing passive income streams.

Choose a suitable investing platform

In the very beginning, that £5 a day could simply be put in a jam jar on the windowsill.

The cash cannot sit there forever, though, if it is supposed to generate dividends. That will take dividend shares – and a way to buy them.

So an early step in this passive income process would be to choose a share-dealing account, Stocks and Shares iSA, or trading app.

Learn what you need to know

Dividends are never guaranteed, even if a company has paid them in the past. Not only that, but buying dividend shares that then fall in value could lead to a capital loss.

So, it is helpful to get to grips with important concepts like the relationship between free cash flow and dividends and share valuation before starting to build a portfolio of dividend shares.

Compound now for future income

It can feel good when the dividends start coming in. But rather than spend them, a smart move initially can actually be to reinvest them.

Doing that allows the portfolio to grow in size faster than it could do with just the £5 a day ongoing contribution.

Compounding that £5 a day at 6% annually for 25 years, the portfolio should be worth over £100k.

At that size, a 6% dividend yield would mean £500 of passive income per month.

Building the portfolio

A key step is choosing the shares to buy.

6% is around double the current FTSE 100 yield. I see it as achievable, but it is important not to chase yield while ignoring risks. A high yield can be a sign that the City sees potential for a dividend cut.

One share I think investors should consider already yields close to 6%, at 5.7%. It also has an enviable track record of annual dividend increases stretching back decades.

That share is FTSE 100 cigarette manufacturer British American Tobacco (LSE: BATS).

Past performance is not necessarily a guide to what to expect, even though the firm aims to keep growing its dividend annually. Falling cigarette sales volumes already mean the company’s revenues are in decline – and that could get worse.

Others may not want to invest in tobacco companies on ethical grounds.

Still, there are a lot of strengths to the company too. It has strong brands, an efficient manufacturing operation, excellent distribution in much of the world, and a proven business model.

It remains a cash flow machine, helping fund billions of pounds of passive income each year, in the form of dividends.