Dividends can make a real difference, and not just in times such as now, when stock markets are struggling to make headway. Over the very long term, two-thirds of the return on shares in major stock markets comes from dividend income rather than capital growth.

Dividend Reinvestment Plans (Drips) are a convenient way of using a company’s dividends to buy more shares in the same firm, so generating more dividends down the line. More than half of FTSE-100 companies offer these plans, as do a range of investment trusts, often as part of their regular savings schemes. Similar facilities are also common with unit trusts.