That is 100% the wrong view. Investing for retirement is about robustness. You are taking a view that is deliberately non-robust (and is, therefore, exposed to

That is 100% the wrong view. Investing for retirement is about robustness. You are taking a view that is deliberately non-robust (and is, therefore, exposed to significant risk). Compounded returns don't matter. The stuff on dividends is just completely wrong too (for example: your yield doesn't go up, it stays the same if your payments stay the same because the price you paid doesn't change...that is basic). I will say though that when I said income, I wasn't talking about dividends. In most cases (i.e. with most tax systems), you are going to prefer taking income as capital gains. Even in a tax system that isn't tilted towards capital gains, I would prefer companies that can retain earnings and invest your capital at a high rate (I am in the UK, the companies that are returning capital at a high rate are fundamentally weak...maybe this doesn't generalise though).