Save more, invest more and profit down the road. A Williams (NYSE: WMB) riff on that old-fashioned formula proved pretty popular with investors this week, bumping the stock to an eight-month high after the gas pipelines giant announced a 69% cut to its dividend.

Starting next month, the quarterly payout will drop from 64 to 20 cents per share, for a 3.2% yield at the recent price of $25 a  share. Williams will redirect the resulting the $1.3 billion in annual savings into purchases of the units of its affiliated Williams Partners (NYSE: WPZ) MLP, in lieu of distributions due it as the general partner with a 60% economic stake in WPZ.

It will, of course, continue to collect lucrative incentive distribution rights from WPZ. The additional units issued under the new Distribution Reinvestment Program (DRIP) will, in fact, increase the flow of incentives to the parent company.

The DRIP is expected to continue through the end of 2017, and WPZ’s public unitholders will be eligible to participate alongside the sponsor, receiving modestly discounted equity instead of cash. WPZ’s quarterly payout will be held steady through the end of next year at the prior 85 cents per unit, for a current annualized yield of 9.5%.

WPZ will use its own considerable cash savings over the next 18 months to help finance a heavy construction slate backed by strong demand for cheap natural gas in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast, right along the backbone of the Williams pipeline system.

By the time this DRIP will have run its course the general partner’s share of its affiliate’s cash flows should be higher than ever, making growth an expensive proposition once again. But by then WMB could very well revive its abortive plan to buy out WPZ, boosting the corporate tax shield while reducing total payouts.

The fact that the diverted dividends will finance lucrative and secure projects backed by utilities as well as other gas consumers should help investors look past the diminished yield.

It also didn’t hurt that the latest quarterly results highlighted the resilience of the franchise, with adjusted EBITDA up 10% year-to-date over the first half of 2015 and WPZ’s distribution coverage improving to 1.02x in the second from 0.97x a year earlier. Williams covered 90% of its last dividend, which it had roughly doubled over the last three years.

In the wake of the announcement Moody’s and Fitch affirmed WPZ’s crucial investment-grade credit rating, though Moody’s did drop Williams’ own riskier rating one notch lower.

The changes did win an upgrade for WMB to Outperform at Raymond James as well as an endorsement from the activist managers recently departed from the Williams board. The managers said they have no plans to sell their undervalued shares but urged the company to revamp its recently thinned board of directors by adding top executives from other companies.

That’s a good idea, just like management’s newfound thrift. WMB remains a Hold in the Aggressive Portfolio.