"A couple receives around 1.2 million won monthly from the National Pension, but the appropriate living expense for retirement is about 3.2 million won. To cover this 2 million won gap through bank deposits, a principal of 900 million won would be required; however, investing in dividend growth stocks with a dividend yield of 5–6% makes a principal of 500 million won sufficient."
"Hallasan Bulgum" (Hyun Young-jun), author of 'The Immutable Law of Dividend Growth Stock Investments' and an economic influencer who achieved 100 million won in annual dividends through investments primarily in domestic stocks, delivered a lecture titled 'Designing Retirement Through Dividend Growth Stock Investments' at Money Today's '2026 The Lifestyle X Single FIRE Money Show' held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 4th. He introduced an investment strategy of reinvesting dividends from individual stocks to grow assets and selling when a sharp rise in stock prices causes the dividend yield to drop, thereby securing capital gains.
"Hyun Young-jun emphasized that considering inflation, dividend stocks become even more attractive than bank deposits. According to Statistics Korea, the average annual inflation rate over the past five years has been around 3%. If this trend continues for 20 years, the living expenses needed beyond the National Pension will increase from 2 million won to 3.5 million won."
"He stated, 'Bank deposits do not increase with inflation, but stock dividends can.' He added, 'This is because not only do corporate product prices and asset prices rise in line with inflation, but increases in product sales volume and expansion of business areas are also possible.'"
"He explained the method of increasing assets through dividend growth stocks using his own portfolio as an example. Since March last year, he invested 100 million won in Hyundai Motor's preferred shares. At that time, the dividend yield of Hyundai Motor's preferred shares was approximately 8%, with an expected annual dividend of 8 million won and a stock price of 150,000 won. Although expected earnings and dividends did not change significantly afterward, growing expectations were reflected, and by the 44th week, the stock price rose to 270,000 won, resulting in an unrealized gain of 97 million won. During this period, cumulative dividends totaled 5.15 million won."
"However, while expected dividends remained unchanged, the expected dividend yield dropped to around 4%. Judging that the investment attractiveness had declined, he sold his Hyundai Motor preferred shares and switched to other stocks with a dividend yield of over 6% and growth potential."
"Hyun Young-jun said, 'When stock prices surge sharply, selling them captures market gains. Rebalancing these proceeds into stocks with higher dividend yields produces an even greater effect on total dividends.' Regarding the timing for selling and rebalancing, he explained, 'The benchmark is when the expected dividend yield of held stocks becomes relatively low compared to other companies, or when stocks offering higher dividend yields become available.' He added that he typically performs rebalancing about once every two years."
"As the first step to identifying good dividend growth stocks, he introduced methods such as utilizing the dividend menu in Naver's securities service or inputting desired conditions into generative AI (artificial intelligence) to filter candidate stocks. The first indicators to check are earnings yield and dividend yield. In the case of Samsung Electronics, last year's earnings yield was 2.52%, and the dividend yield was 0.64%."
"He further noted that one must examine whether past performance and dividend trends have remained stable within a certain range without significant fluctuations, and whether the company is financially stable. Financial stability can be gauged through the debt ratio and current ratio. A lower debt ratio is preferable, while a higher current ratio is advantageous. Next, he explained how to verify whether dividends increase in proportion to earnings growth. This involves checking the payout ratio—i.e., the proportion of net income returned as dividends—in business reports and comparing it with other dividend growth stocks."
"Finally, he recommended using securities firm reports to gauge a company's future earnings and growth rate. This is because even companies like Samsung Electronics, which had low past yields, can be identified as having improving future profitability. Hyun Young-jun stated, 'If we base our judgment solely on Samsung Electronics' performance last year, one might question why invest here; however, looking at performance from this year through 2028 reveals no lack of attractiveness.' In fact, as of the end of last month, Samsung Electronics' expected earnings yield for this year stands at 18.51%, with a dividend yield of 2.97%; by 2028, these figures are projected to reach 25.84% and 6.70%, respectively."
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