What are your Investment Rules?

[SBQ]

Yes, but you said above, companies should not pay dividends until they are fully matured with no further room for expansion. My question is (as a beginner who is learning) do companies ever truly get to the point where no further expansion/growth is possible?

Yes as I mentioned before, if the investor seeks dividends, they choose portfolios the consist of such companies. The likes of utilities, electricity companies where there's a finite limited market share and the companies have been in existence for many decades. This is not the case in NZ where the emphasis is expectation of dividends regardless of the 'type' of business they choose to invest in.

If a company is paying a dividend then it must be making a profit. Not all profit is distributed thus leaving a varying % for further expansion.

I used the example of The Warehoues Group in the past replies. In their early years on the NZX, they too had a 'dividend policy' which was basically a rout to strum up investors. The policy of paying a set dividend rate carried on throughout all the years when they needed capital to expand. It was inevitable that red sheds would open up in every decent size town throughout NZ but during those decades, they funded that expansion through bank loaning it to issuing more shares. Yes some years where they had a loss they still paid the dividend (done by borrowing additional funds and floating more shares to pay the out goings to shareholders).

If the board of directors don't seem to have the same alignment view with their shareholders, then I must say they're not worthy of a company to invest in.