Hi Mike,
I want to make clear it’s not that dividends aren’t important, they are.
But the only thing that really matters is “total return” (dividends + stock price increase). So yes it’s a good idea to reinvest your dividends.
However, I’ve yet to see any confining evidence that focusing solely on dividend paying stocks is a rational decision.
The point is, we should be indifferent if our investment returns are primarily driven by dividends or stock price increase.