Author Bio Dan Caplinger has been a contract writer for the Motley Fool since 2006. As the Fool's Director of Investment Planning, Dan oversees much of the personal-finance and investment-planning content published daily on Fool.com. With a background as an estate-planning attorney and independent financial consultant, Dan's articles are based on more than 20 years of experience from all angles of the financial world. Follow @DanCaplinger Stock investors make money in two ways. Ideally, the share price of the stocks they own goes up, giving them a profit when they sell. Some stocks also pay dividends to shareholders at regular intervals, giving them income that they can either reinvest in the stock or use for other purposes.