There are a select group of ASX dividend shares that may be able to give investors steady payments during retirement.
During 2020, there were plenty of businesses that cut their dividend payouts to shareholders. However, there were others that did increase dividends to shareholders and have an intention to grow the dividend where possible. These two could be ones that can be reliable:
Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES)
Wesfarmers is one of the oldest businesses on the ASX. It now resembles a quality retail business. The company has a number of businesses including Bunnings, Officeworks, Kmart and Catch.
During 2020 and the first half of 2021, the business experienced strong demand for DIY home project supplies, home office supplies and home entertainment products.
Wesfarmers' total FY21 dividend increased by 17.1% to $1.78. The company is committed to providing investors with attractive returns.
The ASX dividend share is working on growing its earnings through diversification and acquisitions. Bunnings recently bought Beaumont Tiles. Wesfarmers is working on the lithium Mt Holland project, which could benefit from the rapid rise of the lithium price. It's seemingly on track to win the battle to buy the Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ASX: API) business which will be the start of a health division.
Bunnings continues to perform, though Kmart and Target sales are expected to be down around 10.3% in the half-year to 31 December 2021.
It's currently rated as a buy by Morgans, with a price target of $60.80. For HY22, Wesfarmers is expecting to generate net profit after tax (NPAT) of $1.18 billion to $1.24 billion.
Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW)
This is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns a diversified portfolio across a number of different property sectors. Some of those include: long WALE retail and hospitality, industrial and logistics, office, social infrastructure and agri-logistics,
The portfolio is now worth a total of $7 billion across 549 properties, with around 80% of that total on the eastern seaboard. This ASX dividend share has a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of 12.2 years, providing long-term income security. The REIT says that this provides insulation from market shocks.
The ASX dividend share says that 99% of its tenants are either an Australian government entity, ASX-listed, multinational or national tenants. It calls these 'blue chip' tenants.
In the recent FY22 half-year result, the distribution was increased by 5.1% to 15.24 cents per unit, whilst the net tangible assets (NTA) per unit grew 12.8% from June 2021 to $5.22.
Before this week, the broker Macquarie rated it as a buy. It was expecting the FY22 distribution to translate into a yield of 6.1% at the current Charter Hall Long WALE REIT share price.
