A retirement portfolio needs businesses that can keep rewarding shareholders long after the current market narrative fades. Dividends show how important those quieter sources of return can be: according to S&P Dow Jones Indices research cited in our coverage of Dividend Aristocrat stocks, dividends have accounted for roughly 31% of the S&P 500’s total return
A retirement portfolio needs businesses that can keep rewarding shareholders long after the current market narrative fades. Dividends show how important those quieter sources of return can be: according to S&P Dow Jones Indices research cited in our coverage of Dividend Aristocrat stocks, dividends have accounted for roughly 31% of the S&P 500’s total return since 1926, with capital appreciation accounting for the remaining 69%. In the 1940s and 1970s, dividend income accounted for more than half of total returns. The lesson is not that every retirement investment must pay dividends, but rather that long-term shareholder gains can come from sources other than rising share prices.
Warren Buffett offers a useful test for that level of dedication. He has advised investors to buy only what they would “perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.” Rather than relying on the potential to sell tomorrow, investors should consider how much the underlying business may make over a decade. That business-owner perspective is the common thread running through Insider Monkey’s discussion of Warren Buffett’s best long-term stocks to buy.
For retirement investors, the distinction between a high starting dividend and an increasing dividend is crucial. The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index requires components to have increased dividends for at least 25 years in a row. This is a record that spans numerous economic cycles, though it doesn’t guarantee future growth. Insider Monkey’s analysis of dividend growth stocks to buy and hold in 2026 looked at 68 such companies and evaluated their five-year average dividend growth rates.
Of course, financial strength is just as important as payout record. A dividend competes with debt repayments, capital spending, and other financial requirements. Liabilities are broader than debt, but the comparison shows the type of liquidity cushion worth considering alongside dividend yield.
So, what are the best small-cap value stocks to invest in now? We provided the expanded list of the 10 Stocks I am Retiring On. The top 5 stocks are provided below:
Our Methodology
For this article, we looked through financial websites such as The Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha, Yahoo Finance, and 24/7 Wall St. for journalists and experts that say a stock is the one they are retiring on, building their retirement portfolio around, or plan on holding for life. We included a stock only if at least two different sources supported it, and for each stock, we explain who made the assertion and what their thesis is. We then rated the 10 stocks that satisfied this criteria in ascending order of hedge fund ownership. We also list each stock’s short interest and number of hedge fund holders as of Q2 2026, allowing investors to see whether hedge funds agree with these retirement picks.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Insider Monkey’s quarterly newsletter strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 599.2% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 372 percentage points (see more details here).
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a rare mega-cap company valued at book value. The third-quarter results, released on November 7, came in soft. Operating earnings fell 5.8% to $12.7 billion, while net earnings fell 28% to $22.1 billion due to lower investment gains. A the same time, insurance underwriting earnings fell 43% to $1.35 billion as a result of Geico losses. Berkshire responded with a record buyback for 2026. It repurchased $9.6 billion in the quarter, more than doubling the second quarter’s $4.5 billion, bringing the total for the year to $14.4 billion.
Keith Speights placed Berkshire in his January 2026 “forever” portfolio of equities that he doesn’t plan to sell. His conviction is based on the diversification afforded by Berkshire’s operating subsidiaries and public-equity investments, as well as his belief that Greg Abel will continue Buffett’s business and investing philosophy.
The risk is in the earnings engine rather than the balance sheet. Berkshire’s trailing twelve-month operating earnings are down 3.2%, insurance investment income dropped 14% due to lower short-term rates, and the company was a net seller of stocks again. The cash only helps if Abel can find places to put it. Read about whether the capital allocation mechanism can continue to compound after Buffett here.
Apple Inc. is valued as a quality compounder, trading at 32.87x forward earnings. The company’s fiscal fourth-quarter revenue increased 12% to $114.5 billion, while iPhone revenue climbed 17% to $57.6 billion, and Services reached a new high of $31.6 billion, up 10%. Speights’ January 2026 “forever” portfolio featured Apple as its largest individual stock holding. He stated that he regretted selling shares in the past and didn’t plan to repeat the mistake. His theory focuses on Apple’s tightly integrated ecosystem of products and services, with future devices and technologies offering opportunities to further consumer interactions.
That said, valuation depends on margins holding. CEO John Ternus referred to memory pricing as “unprecedented,” and Apple guided gross margin to 45% to 46%, below the roughly 46.3% consensus. The rise in services was the slowest since 2022, and shares dropped by around 2% the day following earnings before rising again. Insider Monkey looked at Apple’s role in helping the mega-cap recovery. Read the analysis here.
3. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE:TSM)
Short Interest: 0.57%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 249
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited makes the advanced chips behind most of the AI buildout. Despite 2-nanometer dilution, which accounts for 8% of wafer revenue, the company’s operating margin for the third quarter stood at 58.7% while its gross margin came in at 66.4%. Management expects a 44% increase in revenue for 2026 with capital expenditures of $60 billion to $64 billion, while the fourth-quarter estimate calls for $52.3 billion to $54.3 billion. The stock is trading at about 16.4x forward earnings, a discount for geopolitical risk that appears modest in comparison to that growth.
Motley Fool writer Keithen Drury chose TSMC in January 2026 as the single stock he would buy and hold if forced to own only one. He contends that since TSMC produces advanced chips for competing clients and stands to gain as overall demand rises, investors don’t have to correctly predict which chip designer would take the lead in the AI race. He highlighted the company’s manufacturing scale and technological prowess while clearly noting reliance on continued AI spending and the possibility of dispute over Taiwan.
That risk is genuine, as Taiwan hosts the vast bulk of advanced-node capacity. Margins are also under pressure from the 2-nanometer ramp and overseas factories, while capital spending continues to climb. For a retirement investor, the question is whether TSMC’s manufacturing size and technological leadership are durable enough to outlast those fundamental risks over time. Bell Global Equities Fund believes they are, and Insider Monkey looked into why the fund continues to favor the stock.
Alphabet Inc. has become cheaper while its business accelerated. The company’s third-quarter revenue climbed by 25% to $127.6 billion, while Google Cloud revenue more than doubled to $30.7 billion with a 36.2% operating margin, and Cloud backlog reached $561 billion. Search grew 12%, with the fastest query growth in five years, and the Gemini app reached one billion users. Analyst targets for GOOGL sit around 41% over the stock’s current price.
Lyle Daly made the retirement connection directly in his May 2026 piece. He named Alphabet the top stock in his retirement portfolio, claiming that it provided the best long-term value in technology. His conviction stemmed from its portfolio of proven businesses, including Search and Google Cloud, rather than pure AI enthusiasm. At the time, he cited first-quarter Search growth of 19% and Cloud growth of 63% as proof that the operating businesses were doing well.
The market is punishing spending. Capex was $51.4 billion in the quarter, while free cash flow came in negative $9.1 billion. Capex for 2026 is expected to be between $195 billion and $205 billion, with an increase in 2027. The reported EPS of $2.12 missed the $3.01 consensus, while Other Bets, which includes Waymo, lost $2 billion. Long-term shareholders face the issue of distinguishing between investments that can boost future earnings and those that may take years to yield a satisfactory return. Waymo catches this trade-off: it offers another potential growth business, but it needs funding before its economics can be validated. Insider Monkey asked whether the valuation reflects Waymo’s potential. Read the analysis here.
Amazon.com, Inc.’s valuation is based on operating profit and AWS rather than earnings per share. The company’s third-quarter revenue rose 12% to $201.9 billion, while operating income surged 61% to a record $28.1 billion, representing a 13.9% margin. AWS revenue increased 39.3% to $46.0 billion, the fastest growth in nearly five years, with a 38.7% operating margin and a run rate of $184 billion. CEO Andy Jassy predicted AWS growth of more than 40% in both 2027 and 2028.
Speights selected Amazon as the first company for his “forever” portfolio in January 2026. He ascribed its long-term attraction to Jeff Bezos’ “Day 1” culture, which encourages the company to continue chasing new opportunities rather than defending an outdated business model. AWS was his prime example of that culture serving as a major profit engine, while satellite internet and consumer robotics indicated potential future opportunities. Separately, Leo Nelissen identified Amazon as one of three stocks around which he would create an entire portfolio, citing AWS demand and a projected path to $150 billion in annual free cash flow by 2030.
The sell-off was based on cash. Amazon expects $220 billion in capex in 2026 and “meaningfully more” in 2027, with trailing free cash flow turning negative and EPS of $1.89 missing forecasts. The fourth-quarter projection of $240 billion to $247 billion in sales and up to $33.5 billion in operating income fell short of the consensus midpoint. For long-term shareholders, the question is whether increasing operating profits will eventually convert into cash left over after investment. That conflict extends beyond AI infrastructure to projects like Zoox, which drove Insider Monkey’s analysis of whether Amazon’s cloud and retail cash engines can continue to fund its robotaxi ambitions.
While we acknowledge the risk and potential of AMZN as an investment, we believe certain AI infrastructure stocks offer far stronger long-term potential at a much more attractive entry point. If you are looking for an AI stock more promising than AMZN that operates as a critical AI tollbooth and stands as the most important company in the world, check out our report about this must-own AI stock.
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