![]() ![]() Rockefeller, by means of his "gift for making money," must have sensed this dividend bonanza long before academic research proved it. According to Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel, 97% of the total after-inflation return of stocks between 18 came from reinvesting dividends. The super-rich have always known that dividend-paying stocks consistently outperform nondividend-paying stocks over the long term. Unlike earnings or corporate cash flow, which can be faked or frittered away by management, dividend cash is yours to keep. Real products - like oil - generate real cash from current-day customers, and companies can distribute that cash as dividends to shareholders. If not for that court ruling, Standard Oil would be worth more than $1 trillion today. Among the "baby Standards" that still exist are ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron. Supreme Court ruled in 1911 that antitrust law required Standard Oil to be broken up into smaller, independent companies. Year in and year out, he collected Standard Oil dividend checks and enjoyed steady capital appreciation from the stock, up until the day he died. Rockefeller gave up control of the day-to-day operations of Standard Oil in 1896, but he made one decision upon his departure that assured he would spend the remaining 41 years of his life an extremely wealthy man: He held on to his Standard Oil shares and the dividends they provided. Having been endowed with the gift I possess, I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money." By age 41, Rockefeller realized that he knew how to make tons of money: "I believe the power to make money is a gift from God - just as are the instincts for art, music, literature, the doctor's talent, yours to be developed and used to the best of our ability for the good of mankind. ![]() His company, Standard Oil, was a model of cost efficiency and vertical integration that controlled every stage of oil production, refining, and distribution. family light up its house he jumped into the oil business in 1863.īy 1880, he was in control of 95% of U.S. When he discovered that crude oil could be refined into kerosene, a high-quality illuminating oil for lamps (automobiles and their need for gasoline would come later), Rockefeller saw the opportunity to help every U.S. Rockefeller quickly learned that the fastest and easiest way to make money was to sell "real" products that every household needed. ![]()
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