The stock market is currently offering opportunities to buy shares in FTSE 100, and beyond, companies paying a great dividend yield. Whilst you should always seek expert independent financial advice, now may be a great time to consider buying shares.

1.     Sale Now On

Many shares currently look cheap. Opportunities like this tend to happen when confidence in economic recovery is low, along with any appetite for risk. It’s a buying opportunity for investors.

The following examples are used for illustrative purposes only, and are not recommendations or advice. Before investing in shares or any other investment you should seek expert independent financial advice.

2.     High Yield Companies

Any business paying a dividend yield in excess of 5% and which is relatively sustainable could broadly be considered to be a high yield share.

Companies like Vodafone Group, Man Group, Aviva, GlaxoSmithKline and outside of the UK Eli Lilly And Company have a history of paying very good dividends, but remember that a history of paying good dividends does not mean that the company will continue to do so in future.

Companies like Coca Cola have paid dividends without interruption since the 1920s, but there are not many companies like Coca Cola and the investor should remember that.

3.     Investigate For Yourself

There are many indicators suggesting that this is a potentially good time to get into buying stocks and shares. Looking at measures such as the PE ratio, dividend yield and share price within a historic context might indicate that the stock is worthy of consideration.

 ‘Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.’

Warren Buffet.

Remember that you will need to look at far more than the dividend yield and the PE ratio. Also remember that the dividend yield can and will change over time. Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.

Get some expert independent financial advice on how to start selecting shares that might pay you a good income, and learn some of the basics on how to get started yourself. Most banks provide an online share dealing service and it is really easy to get started.

Set up a fantasy portfolio and pretend that you had invested lots of money in a selection of shares, monitor it over time and see how you do. You will learn a lot from the experience before moving on to try it for real.

Jamie E Smith is the author of Making Money From Stocks And Shares

This content was provided by one of our users, Jamie