Philip Morris International Inc (PM) manufactures and sells cigarettes and other tobacco products in markets outside of the United States of America. The largest publicly traded manufacturer and marketer of tobacco products closed 2008 at $43.51/share and has paid $1.08 in dividends in 2009. At the current price of $43.62 the investment is up by 2.74%. This dividend growth stock currently spots an attractive 5.00% yield and recently announced its expectations to return some $9 billion in cash to its shareholders during 2009 in the form of dividends and share buybacks.Overall my picks gained 0.70% year to date. If you add in dividends, the total return was 4.10%. Check out the performance of the other bloggers year to date returns in the table below:

Rank

1 Four Pillars 48.83%

2 Intelligent Speculator 43.32%

3 The Wild Investor 41.45%

4 Where does all my money go 28.72%

5 The Financial Blogger 13.29%

6 Million Dollar Journey 4.76%

7 Dividend Growth Investor 0.70%

8 Zach Stocks -3.09%

9 My Traders Journal -11.36%

S & P 500 +3.16%

I would like to emphasize the fact that successful dividend investing is a long-term process. I strongly doubt that a time frame of less than 15 years is indicative of whether the performance of the stock picks above is sustainable or not. Having a diversified portfolio of at least 30 individual companies from several sectors, sizes and locations is essential in order to be diversified and avoid taking unnecessary risks. Check out the Best Dividend Stock for the Long Run list, which is a good addition to today's post.