Dividend Income - August 2015 Update

Hi Everyone,

It's that time again when we get to post about a favorite topic of ours, dividends! We hope this post inspires other families out there to start saving and investing as soon as they can. The power you feel knowing that you are richer than you were yesterday and you didn't have to work for it is a wonderful feeling. Watching the totals pile in from all the various bloggers out there in this community continues to be a driving force to get ourselves to save and invest more and more.

We realize that our situation is different than every other blogger out there but its not how much you make, its how much you save. We make a middle class income but we live well below our means and this gives us the benefit to invest the surplus month after month and subsequently drive our passive income to new heights!

We want to thank all of you readers out there who have stopped by and congratulated us thus far.  You are the reason these posts keep coming out and continue to get better and better!

So with that being said, lets get down to the numbers.

Recent Buy - Exxon Mobil (XOM)

Hi Everyone,

The buys keep piling up this month.  This is the last buy post I have right now so next post will be the dividend income for August post...  just a tad bit behind.  

Personally, these buy posts make me hungrier than ever to keep saving, keep making money and keep investing.  The income that we are starting to make every month is starting to put a significant dent into our expenses.  If you jump over to our Portfolio page, you can see that we almost have an entire month of expenses taken care of if we choose to quit our day jobs.  Eleven more months to go and we are home free!!  In a previous post, I asked you readers what company I should buy but, there were no comments and our money is just burning a hole in our pockets so no more waiting around.  

With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $40,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 has been accomplished! We are about three quarters of the way through the year and we still have the pedal to the metal.  We are trying aggressively to put another 6-10K to work this year.  We shall see how it goes!  So now for the numbers... 

Recent Buy - Apple (AAPL)

Hi Everyone,

The buys keep piling up this month.  For all you readers out there waiting for the dividend income post, I've got bad news...  you are going to have to wait a bit longer.  I have another buy post coming after this one before I get up the dividend income.  I'm trying the best I can to get caught up.  Life is getting in the way a little bit right now but no complaints here.  

Personally, these buy posts make me hungrier than ever to keep saving, keep making money and keep investing.  The income that we are starting to make every month is starting to put a significant dent into our expenses.  If you jump over to our Portfolio page, you can see that we almost have an entire month of expenses taken care of if we choose to quit our day jobs.  Eleven more months to go and we are home free!!

In this post, I asked you readers what company I should buy but, there were no comments and our money is just burning a hole in our pockets so no more waiting around.  

With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $38,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is coming ever so close! We are about three quarters of the way through the year and our total is 95% of the way to our goal.  So now for the numbers... 

Recent Buy - 3M Company (MMM)

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I continue to be blessed with the way this year has shaped up.  Personally, these buy posts make me hungrier than ever to keep saving, keep making money and keep investing.  The income that we are starting to make every month is starting to put a significant dent into our expenses.  If you jump over to our Portfolio page, you can see that we almost have an entire month of expenses taken care of if we choose to quit our day jobs.  Eleven more months to go and we are home free!!

The previous month was crazy busy but now that summer is coming to an end so are our social gatherings on every weekend.  As said in my last post, we have still been saving a good portion of our income which has afforded us to make another purchase into our growing portfolio

In my last post, I asked you readers what company I should buy but, there were no comments and I just could not wait any longer.  

With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $36,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is coming ever so close! We are about three quarters of the way through the year and our total is 90% of the way to our goal.  So now for the numbers... 

Phew I've been busy - Plus a Recent Buy - DOV

Hi Everyone,

Sorry y'all for being out of pocket so much the past month!  Our schedule has been jam packed with stuff to do every weekend and work has been really been draining me of energy recently.  Since my last post, my wife and I have had three weddings, one week long vacation and other minor social gatherings.  I might have mentioned this but my wife's friends all live primarily out of state so we are either flying or driving 4+ hours to every wedding.  This traveling really takes a toll on the energy levels since we get back on a Sunday afternoon, have to do the laundry, clean up the house and get ready for the next week of work.  It seems like I don't catch my breath till Wednesday or Thursday and we are right back at it either Friday or Saturday night traveling.

All this travel you would think takes a toll on the finances but we have done our best to share hotel rooms with other couples and eat at cheaper establishments which makes a big difference.  Over the past month and a half we have had some of our smallest expense totals to date since I have started tracking our combined expenses over 2 years ago!

To top off our travels, we drove down to the shore for a week with my wife's family which is always a great time.  This vacation really allowed myself the ability to take a step back, stop going through the motions of my daily life and really relax.  I made it a point to really take this week and rejuvenate.  I routinely woke up early - 615am - went surfing till 930am and came back to the house to nap until noon.  I was able to start and finish two books which I have NEVER done in my entire life while on vacation and I was able to really enjoy the time spent with my wife which we do not get to do much of during our daily lives.  This was one of the first vacations I have been on since my journey to retire early and I now want that type of life - wake up when I want, nap when I want, read what I want - for every day of my life.

Once again, our finances did not take much of a hit.  My wife did a fantastic job pre-cooking a lot of our meals for the week and we only went out to eat twice.  Quality time was spent with family instead of rushing to play mini-golf, or go-karts, etc so we did not spend much money frivolously which was nice.

With that being said, hopefully I'll be able to get back on the horse and pound out some new material and updates to all the usual reports/dividend posts that have need to be developed.

Recent Buy

On September 1st, we bought 33 shares of Dover Corp. (DOV) at $60.00 per share.  This purchase adds $55.44 of annual dividends to our account based on .42 quarterly payout.  The P/E at time of purchase was roughly 15, the yield is 2.8%, market cap of 9.35B and the stock has fallen roughly 40% from the peak of $96.00.  This was a chance to average down on Dover after this purchase at $74.00.  I will bring up just one main point from that post ----  Dover has been raising its dividend for 60 YEARS now.  I have confidence they will continue this trend into the future so why not average down on this company?  

The market has been all over the place the past month and I have seen other bloggers take full advantage of the pullback.  I will be doing research thoroughly to try and pick up some companies on the cheap.  My watch list in no particular order, looks like this:

ENERGY:   EMR, CVX, XOM, KMI

HIGH YIELD:  T, VZ, OHI, O, WPC

GROWTH:  MMM, UNP, AAPL, DIS

Please pick one stock from each category that you think I should purchase!

How has your last month been?  Look forward to talking to you!

ADD