Take a Look at Dividend Yields

The recent savage interest rate cuts have made me have a good look at some of the dividends available.

After all, following the cuts it's going to be hard to get much interest in savings accounts.

Having some decent companies tucked away with good yields over the next couple of years may... well. pay dividends!

So I've been looking around at shares with decent dividends - after all anything over 5% is starting to look pretty good for income as long as it's a relatively defensive share.

There are quite a few shares around with yields of more than 5%. Of course one has to be careful and consider whether these dividends are too good to be true and could be cut in the future.

But here are a few interesting ones I've found paying a decent income. All these pay over 5%:

Ennstone, Smiths News (over 7%), Charteris, Interior Services, Ashmore, Yule Catto, Delta, Fenner, Morgan Sindall, Kier, Laird, Davis Service and Temple Bar.

I've noticed quite a few with 10% plus payouts. However as usual I would warn; if it looks too good to be true it probably is!

Anything at over 10% could be a bit suspect so check carefully that company's shares have not tumbled badly and they will simply cut the dividend...

If you need to know the payout on a share you own you can press "financials" using ADVFN and the yield is worked out for you.

Other good places to go to look at yields are ADVFN "toplists" - "Dividend income candidates".

Also if you want to see the upcoming ex-dividend dates and payout dates, click "dividend summary" under premium toplists if you have bronze or higher...

Well, the market continues to be very volatile. I've been doing some "bottom fishing" and made some decent gains over the last week or so in bombed out stocks like Charter, Hunting, Redhall, MS International, Weir and Wood.

However I still have a lot of cash - it's unlikely we are out of the woods yet.