Dividend raises are awesome. Who doesn’t like getting paid more money?

And who doesn’t like getting paid more money for doing absolutely nothing at all? I started investing in high-quality dividend growth stocks in 2010.

And I now live off of dividends after retiring from my automotive career in my early 30s. Every time a dividend raise comes in, that means I have even more passive income to cover my bills. Being a shareholder is the easiest “job” I’ve ever had.

Better yet, I now get more and bigger pay raises than I ever got back when I still had a a job. While you’re still building out your portfolio, dividend raises allow you more capital to plow back into your investments. Reinvesting growing dividends and buying more growing dividends. That’s a compounding snowball that eventually turns into an avalanche of wealth and passive income.

Here are three recent dividend raises that you need to know about.

The first dividend raise I want to tell you about is from Cisco Systems (CSCO)

Cisco just announced a 2.8% dividend increase.

Honestly, it’s a slightly disappointing increase from the network equipment and software giant.

But let’s keep perspective. Would you be unhappy if your boss at work handed you a 2.8% pay raise?

Probably not. In fact, I can almost guarantee not. More money is nothing to be unhappy about. Except, in this case, shareholders did nothing to receive the pay raise.

Our analysis video on Cisco from July included a dividend discount model analysis with a long-term dividend growth rate of 7%.

The business will have to hand out larger dividend increases in the future in order to rationalize a long-term investment.

And I’m confident Cisco will deliver. They have the fundamentals to do so. Meanwhile, the stock looks attractively valued here.

The second dividend raise came from PepsiCo (PEP).

PepsiCo just handed out a pay raise to shareholders, via their 5.1% dividend increase.

We haven’t covered this stock in a video analysis yet. I just haven’t found the valuation compelling enough over the last few months, when compared to competing ideas.

But this Dividend Aristocrat is a high-quality dividend growth stock.

They’ve increased their dividend for 49 consecutive years.

The snacks and beverages giant is truly is a buy-and-forget type of investment, where you reinvest those growing dividends and watch the money pile up.

It’s a golden goose that continues to lay ever-more golden eggs. And the stock should be considered as a potential buy on any type of pullback. Even at the $133/share level, it doesn’t look outrageously expensive to me.

The third dividend raise I want to bring to your attention came from T. Rowe Price Group (TROW).

T. Rowe Price just gave shareholders a massive 20% dividend increase.

When’s the last time your boss told you that your pay suddenly went up by 20%? Probably never. And when did this happen after getting consistent pay raises every year, for decades on end? Again, probably never. Oh, and how about getting this huge pay raise for doing nothing? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

This is the 35th consecutive year in which T. Rowe Price has increased its dividend.

This company is truly high quality across the board. And while I simply haven’t yet had the chance to cover it here on the channel, that doesn’t mean it’s at all unworthy.

Even after this 20% increase, the dividend remains well-covered by earnings and free cash flow.

While the stock looks a bit pricey after a near-20% run over the last six months, this is a fantastic dividend growth stock that should at least be on your radar.

— Jason Fieber

P.S. If you’d like access to my entire six-figure dividend growth stock portfolio, as well as stock trades I make with my own money, I’ve made all of that available exclusively through Patreon.