god, I love it when you put words in my mouth, kelbon. Literally, no less. You're planting apples and selling oranges.

You: As a real world example, imagine you bought Wal-Mart for its dividend yield at $45 a share and over a couple of years it rose to $73 a share, which it has. If you sell your Wal-Mart shares you can take your profits and now buy shares in a company whose dividend is yielding considerably more than Wal-Mart's is at the current stock price. [emphasis mine]

Me: What the yield is on WMT today makes no difference for your original investment, period. If you wanted an 8% return, then you shouldn't have bought Wally.

You: ~"Earn more because you have cap gains to invest." [paraphrased]

Me: Agreed, but that isn't what you were talking about in your post that I responded to, is it.

We can disagree every day, it's fine by me, that's how we learn. But let me make my own arguments if you please. :)

Dan