A $3,000 monthly passive income, or $36,000 a year, would be life-changing for most investors.
Certainly, I can think of numerous ways I could use that extra cash in retirement. Some of these would be useful, and others would be just a tad extravagant.
I'm sure you have your own ideas of what you might do with a spare $3,000 a month in passive income.
With that in mind, we'll look at three top S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) dividend shares you may want to consider buying today to secure that kind of payout.
Before we dive into those, though, please keep in mind that the yields you generally see quoted are trailing yields. Future yields may be higher or lower, depending on a range of company-specific and macroeconomic factors.
Also bear in mind that a well-diversified passive income portfolio should contain more than just three dividend stocks. Investing in a wider basket of companies that operate in different sectors and locations will help to lower the overall risk of your ASX dividend portfolio.
With that said…
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Three ASX 300 dividend shares for passive income
The first ASX 300 share I'd buy now to secure my $3,000 in monthly passive income is bank stock Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ).
ANZ paid a partly franked final dividend of 94 cents per share on 22 December. The big four bank will pay the interim dividend of 83 cents per share on 1 July. (ANZ traded ex-dividend on 13 May, so it's a bit too late to grab that one!)
All told, that equates to a full-year payout of $1.77 a share.
At yesterday's closing price of $28.43, ANZ shares trade on a partly franked trailing yield of 6.23%.
The second ASX 300 share I'd buy now for passive income is mining stock Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX: FMG).
The iron ore miner paid a fully franked final dividend of $1.00 a share on 28 September. The interim dividend of $1.08 a share was paid on 27 March.
That works out to a 12-month payout of $2.08 a share.
At yesterday's closing price of $26.51, that equates to a fully franked trailing yield of 7.85%.
Which brings us to the third share I'd buy now for my $3,000 monthly passive income stream, Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS).
Australia's biggest telco paid a fully franked final dividend of 8.5 cents a share on 30 August. Telstra delivered the interim dividend of 9 cents per share on 28 March. That brings the 12-month payout of 17.5 cents a share.
At yesterday's closing price of $3.53 a share, Telstra shares trade on a fully franked trailing yield of 4.96%.
To the maths!
Assuming I buy an equal number of shares in each ASX 300 dividend stock, I can expect to earn a yield of 6.3%, largely franked.
To earn my $3,000 monthly passive income, or $36,000 a year, I'd need to invest $568,421 today.
Now that's a sizeable amount to invest in one go.
But that's OK.
Investing is a long game.
I can also make regular smaller investments. And by tapping into the magic of compounding, I'll reach my passive income goal in good time.
