Apple pays for me to buy their products!

Every three months, I get a deposit into my bank account from Apple for several hundred dollars. In a year, this may add up to a few thousand dollars. I’m a big fan of Apple products and so I end up spending just as much on their products. So in a way, they pay for my purchases of their products!

Why does Apple deposit money in my account every three months you ask? Well, that’s easy, it’s dividends! I’m a shareholder and have been one for a while with a modest position in AAPL.

Since Apple is loaded with cash and making money hand over fist, they pay their shareholders a percentage of the profits they make each quarter. For me, it adds up to several hundred dollars. Enough for a new iPhone or iPad or even a new laptop every year.

I like their products. One, they work well and are very high quality, two, the echo system they’ve built across all of their products works seamlessly.

Buying newer versions of their hardware allows me to keep an eye on their quality and their functionality. It gives me first hand experience to determine if it's a company still investing in. If I start feeling like their products are inferior or losing their charm, I may decide that I want to sell my shares.

This probably won’t happen in one product cycle, but it may slowly decline. Even now there are bugs in their software and some of our laptops crash occasionally. Is this a trend that’s starting to form or a one off? If it’s a trend, sales will suffer and so will their stock price.

Apple isn’t the only company that pays dividends in my portfolio. There’s banks, energy, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods that all pay dividends. I typically reinvest all dividends, including Apple’s. Even though I buy their products, you can say the cost is offset by the dividends I receive. So it’s not exactly the same “dollars” that are coming in and going back.

What do you think? Would you or do you spend your dividend on the products you love?