The Financial Times Guide to Investing for Income: Grow Your Income Through Smarter Investing

The Financial Times Guide to Investing for Income examines how investors can use savings, bonds, dividend-paying shares and more complex investment structures to build an income-producing portfolio. David Stevenson places income sustainability and capital preservation at the centre of the discussion, explaining why a higher headline yield requires closer scrutiny of the risks behind it.

The book progresses from risk, return, inflation and investment structure to savings accounts, annuities, government and corporate bonds, and dividend investing. It then explores equity income funds, property and infrastructure funds, hybrid securities and retail structured products. Throughout, the emphasis is on understanding how each investment generates income and what could interrupt payments or reduce capital.

Portfolio construction connects these instruments to practical investment decisions. Contributions from Christopher Taylor, James Norton and Jeremy Schwartz extend the discussion into structured-product assessment, personalised financial planning and dividend-weighted indices. Later chapters examine diversification, rebalancing, investment costs and illustrative income portfolios.

Written in a predominantly UK investment context, this 2011 book provides a structured foundation for evaluating income strategies. Its product examples, yields and tax discussions reflect the period of publication, while its analysis of portfolio trade-offs supports readers seeking a more disciplined approach to long-term income investing.

✅ What You’ll Learn

• Evaluate income yield alongside capital risk, inflation and total return.
• Compare savings accounts and annuities by their payment terms, access restrictions and underlying risks.
• Understand bond coupons, credit quality, maturity and sensitivity to interest-rate changes.
• Assess dividend-paying shares with attention to payout sustainability and sector concentration.
• Distinguish equity income funds, investment trusts, property funds and infrastructure investments.
• Identify the equity-like risks within preference shares, convertibles and other hybrid securities.
• Examine structured-product counterparties, protection barriers and maturity conditions.
• Apply diversification, cost control and rebalancing principles to an income portfolio.
• Understand how dividend-weighted indices differ from market-capitalisation-weighted benchmarks.

💡 Key Benefits

• Provides a common framework for comparing income investments across multiple asset classes.
• Connects individual product characteristics to broader portfolio objectives.
• Helps readers scrutinise headline yields and conditional capital protection.
• Uses portfolio illustrations to make allocation trade-offs easier to assess.
• Broadens income planning to include costs, capital withdrawals and the longevity of invested assets.

👤 Who This Book Is For

• Beginner investors seeking a structured introduction to income-producing investments.
• Intermediate investors comparing bonds, dividend shares, funds and hybrid securities.
• Retirement-focused investors studying the relationship between cash flow, capital preservation and investment costs.
• Long-term portfolio builders seeking to understand diversification and dividend-based index strategies.

📚 Table of Contents

• The basics – risk, yield and structure
• Savings accounts and annuities
• Bonds – government and corporate
• Investing in shares for a dividend
• Using funds and hybrids to build an income from equities
• Using retail structured products
• Putting it all together in portfolio terms
• Building some model income portfolios
• Investing in shares through a dividend index

The Financial Times Guide to Investing for Income: Grow Your Income Through Smarter Investing By David Stevenson