Good Evening Everyone,
This post is going to be quite extensive so if you do not want to take 10 min to read everything, scroll to the bottom and I'll give you the main points.
So where to begin? First, I would like to apologize to all the readers who have stopped by in the past few weeks and have had no new material to read. Life is always hectic in the summer time and although we have not had weddings every weekend, something has always seemed to take priority over the blog.
Since my last true post back on August 2nd my life has been quite the whirlwind with regards to everyday life, finances and fun.
My wife and I went on a week long vacation like we do every year in the middle of August. We had weekend trips to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. My wife started a new job, my work won a much needed contract, the stock market rallied, and dividend checks kept rolling in. I tried to slow life down a bit by relaxing on the weekends (to no avail), and the blog went silent. My grandpa past away so the family has been working on his house which took up more time and before you know it, 2 months have passed.
This year has moved faster than any other year previously in my life. To be sitting here and its already October seems crazy to me. It still feels like spring was just yesterday, the flowers were starting to grow, the grass needed cutting, and weekends at the pool just around the corner.
With that bit of information out of the way, lets move onto the main topics of the post:
Monday, October 3, 2016
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Dividend Income - September 2016 Update
Hi Everyone,
Once again another killer month for my wife and I! I might be jumping the gun on posting these results because it is only the first of the month. Usually I do not see payouts from the 401K funds until sometime after the 1st of the month even though Vanguard counts it towards the month prior. Check back again for updates!
Getting to the point, Septembers total came in at $548.75! which is an increase of just 4% compared to last years $527 and a 19% decrease compared to last quarters $674... Bummer.
In the future, you will see my payouts go down pretty drastically so don't get too excited about the larger payouts. Which is part of the reason I am not taking nearly enough time to write extended blogs for August and September.
Believe me, I am happier than ever with the decisions my wife and I have made regarding finances but dividend posts are not the place to discuss. A gigantic blog post is just around the corner that will lay out all of the changes.
Hope you all had a great September!
ADD
Once again another killer month for my wife and I! I might be jumping the gun on posting these results because it is only the first of the month. Usually I do not see payouts from the 401K funds until sometime after the 1st of the month even though Vanguard counts it towards the month prior. Check back again for updates!
Getting to the point, Septembers total came in at $548.75! which is an increase of just 4% compared to last years $527 and a 19% decrease compared to last quarters $674... Bummer.
In the future, you will see my payouts go down pretty drastically so don't get too excited about the larger payouts. Which is part of the reason I am not taking nearly enough time to write extended blogs for August and September.
Believe me, I am happier than ever with the decisions my wife and I have made regarding finances but dividend posts are not the place to discuss. A gigantic blog post is just around the corner that will lay out all of the changes.
Hope you all had a great September!
ADD
Dividend Income - August 2016 Update
Hi Everyone,
Way late on this post. Too busy living life recently.... Sorry!
However, those big investments continue to roll in the huge payouts! Augusts total came in at $529.65!! which is an increase of 60% compared to last years $331 and a 54% increase compared to last quarters $345!
No chart this month as big changes have been made to the portfolio and we will get into those in future posts.
Jump over to our dividend income page to see the increases month after month. There is also a nice chart on that page for all you visual learners out there. On that page, you can easily see dividend income investing at work which hopefully one day will be greater than our expenses and that's what we like to call The American Dividend Dream! Check out our complete portfolio here.
Way late on this post. Too busy living life recently.... Sorry!
However, those big investments continue to roll in the huge payouts! Augusts total came in at $529.65!! which is an increase of 60% compared to last years $331 and a 54% increase compared to last quarters $345!
No chart this month as big changes have been made to the portfolio and we will get into those in future posts.
Jump over to our dividend income page to see the increases month after month. There is also a nice chart on that page for all you visual learners out there. On that page, you can easily see dividend income investing at work which hopefully one day will be greater than our expenses and that's what we like to call The American Dividend Dream! Check out our complete portfolio here.
ADD
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Dividend Income - July 2016 Update
Hi Everyone,
As Ray Charles once sung, Let the good times roll!!
All those big investments from extra money "laying" around are really paying off! This months total came in at $425.20!! which is an increase of 68% compared to last years $252 and a 23% increase compared to last quarters $345!
July Dividend Income:
Big positives from last year include new positions in: STAG, RAI, BNS, CSCO, STJ, UVE, CAH & PEB. Holy cow, that's alot!!
Jump over to our dividend income page to see the increases month after month. There is also a nice chart on that page for all you visual learners out there. On that page, you can easily see dividend income investing at work which hopefully one day will be greater than our expenses and that's what we like to call The American Dividend Dream! Check out our complete portfolio here.
How was your July?
Thanks,
ADD
ADD
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Recent Buy - Cisco (CSCO)
Good Evening,
After my wife graciously allowed me to invest $16,000 into stocks back around May, we have been slowly building back up cash reserves and slowly buying stocks. After we updated our 401K investments to lower our taxable income, there has been less money around to invest into the taxable accounts. Over the past 2 months, we have only made two purchases:
After my wife graciously allowed me to invest $16,000 into stocks back around May, we have been slowly building back up cash reserves and slowly buying stocks. After we updated our 401K investments to lower our taxable income, there has been less money around to invest into the taxable accounts. Over the past 2 months, we have only made two purchases:
Monday, July 25, 2016
Waking Up Stress Free
Hi Everyone,
As I have eluded to in previous posts, work has been crazy busy recently.
I just finished helping my company put together a large proposal on work ranging in the $100+ million range. Unfortunately, this has caused me to work more hours than usual and spend less time doing things that I enjoy. The stress and long hours put a strain on my physical and mental state. I was tired all the time and the only thing I wanted to do was ESCAPE!
As I have eluded to in previous posts, work has been crazy busy recently.
I just finished helping my company put together a large proposal on work ranging in the $100+ million range. Unfortunately, this has caused me to work more hours than usual and spend less time doing things that I enjoy. The stress and long hours put a strain on my physical and mental state. I was tired all the time and the only thing I wanted to do was ESCAPE!
Monday, July 18, 2016
Saying Thank You to MMM
Where to begin?
If you read my May dividend income post, you noticed that I was quite busy over the past 2 months. Blogging will always come second to living life but during this sabbatical, I did some of the most eye opening early retirement reading of my entire life.
I read Mr. Money Mustache from the first post to the last in a span of 2 months!!
If you read my May dividend income post, you noticed that I was quite busy over the past 2 months. Blogging will always come second to living life but during this sabbatical, I did some of the most eye opening early retirement reading of my entire life.
I read Mr. Money Mustache from the first post to the last in a span of 2 months!!
Friday, July 15, 2016
Dividend Income - June 2016 Update
Hi Everyone,
Quick update since I just gave you all the run down in the post 5 minutes ago...
Absolutely killed it!!! This months total came in at $689.79!! which is an increase of 46% compared to last year and a 17% increase compared to last quarter!
June Dividend Income:
Big positives from last year include new positions in: BA, AMGN, PH, STAG, WBA, MMM, UNP. Holy cow, that's alot!!
I also invested more into: XOM, ADM, & DOV.
UA paid a special dividend to shareholders due to the C class shares and the 401K funds all increased their payouts from last year!
BOOM! Almost $700 in one month. Truly remarkable to see! To think that All of our guaranteed monthly expenses are paid for, minus the mortgage is incredible. No longer have to worry about Electric, Gas, Water, Phone, Internet, Car Insurance, and some of our food. Fantastic. Now, this is only 4 months out of the year right now but we are slowly creeping up there!
All told, there was an increase of $216.64 from last year, and $98.76 from last quarter! Gotta love the growth!
Jump over to our dividend income page to see the increases month after month. There is also a nice chart on that page for all you visual learners out there. On that page, you can easily see dividend income investing at work which hopefully one day will be greater than our expenses and that's what we like to call The American Dividend Dream! Check out our complete portfolio here.
How was your June?
Thanks,
ADD
ADD
Dividend Income - May 2016 Update
My apologies to everyone stopping by and expecting new material here at the site.
It has been a hectic two months. My mother in law was living with us for 1.5 months, work was nuts, my grandfather was having medical issues so he needed extra care for. His basement flooded and we opened up his pool/took care of lingering maintenance around his place. Continuing the excuses, we took a long weekend to the beach, we planted a vegetable garden and did spring cleaning on all the windows, doors, garage, basement, you name it. And finally, the best of all... we were just trying to live life. Bike rides/walks/spending time with friends who just had babies, you name it, we probably did it.
Unfortunately for the readers out there, the blog takes back seat to living.
After the "My wife is awesome post" below, I'd like her as well as you all out there know that those particular investments are up over $1,000 in less than two months! If we sold now, it would have taken 35 years to make that in interest from the bank. If that alone does not give you proof that you should invest, I don't know what will. Granted, the market could have collapsed over 2 months, but then again we would still have that $1,000 of dividends every year to make up for it. I'm still a believer of investing!
Any way, lets get down to the numbers....
May Dividend Income:
Big positives from last year, I invested heavily into OHI, a purchase of AAPL and HCP. Losses from GLP and KMI offset some of the gains or else we really would have had a blowout month.
All told, there was an increase of $87.11 from last year! Gotta love the growth!
Jump over to our dividend income page to see the increases month after month. There is also a nice chart on that page for all you visual learners out there. On that page, you can easily see dividend income investing at work which hopefully one day will be greater than our expenses and that's what we like to call The American Dividend Dream! Check out our complete portfolio here.
How was your May?
Thanks,
ADD
ADD
Saturday, May 21, 2016
A lot of Updates - Part 2 - Recent Buys!
Hello again,
A continuation from the last post results in great information for you guys about what has been going on around here. First of all, the...
Stock Purchases and Sells
Goals
...pages have been updated. Perhaps you noticed the stock purchases and sells page already in the last few days and in that case, you'll see that a lot of purchases were made!!
I alluded to the fact that my wife is awesome in the previous post and now I'll tell you why. Many years ago, she was given a small inheritance when an aunt passed away. This inheritance paid off her small student loans, a new car (Nissan Versa), a trip to Ireland and finally it has increased our pursuit of early retirement!
We have had roughly $16,000 sitting in a separate bank account for the past 2+ years. Over the course of these 2 years, a lot of uses for this money has been talked about but nothing has ever been done.
First, we wanted to update our master bath. We wanted to knock out a wall, put in a shower (so we have two) but the contractors we had come in to give us an estimate wanted $5,000 or more. That number scares us both because personally I think I can do all that work for much cheaper.
Then, we wanted to completely redo our kitchen. It is closed off, old cabinets, no pantry, fridge is in a weird location, etc. No contractors for this to tell you quotes, but just new cabinets alone were running $5,000. Our kitchen is perfectly fine the way it is. It does everything we need it to do and in the 4 years we have owned the house, it has never let us down. So why change it?
Finally, the big one... Completely finish our unfinished basement. I have started this undertaking already. The studs are up, all duct work is framed out, and some additional pieces (doors and such) have been purchased. Thing is, we never go down there currently and there is no reason to. Our living room already has everything we need. It is just my wife and I in a 3 bedroom 1.5 bathroom house. The only thing a finished basement adds is more costs to furnish it, more time to keep it clean, and more space that we currently don't use, etc.
So that brings us to two weeks ago. I received our QUARTERLY statement from the bank account and what I saw was shocking... We made, wait for it... SEVEN DOLLARS! in 3 months! Roughly $2.33 a month in income. Absolutely PATHETIC! Reading early retirement blogs have changed my life and this bank statement was just the kick in the ass I needed to try to persuade my wife into using this money to make more money.
Before I go on, can we all admit that the interest the banks pay out... SUCKS!
A continuation from the last post results in great information for you guys about what has been going on around here. First of all, the...
Stock Purchases and Sells
Goals
...pages have been updated. Perhaps you noticed the stock purchases and sells page already in the last few days and in that case, you'll see that a lot of purchases were made!!
I alluded to the fact that my wife is awesome in the previous post and now I'll tell you why. Many years ago, she was given a small inheritance when an aunt passed away. This inheritance paid off her small student loans, a new car (Nissan Versa), a trip to Ireland and finally it has increased our pursuit of early retirement!
We have had roughly $16,000 sitting in a separate bank account for the past 2+ years. Over the course of these 2 years, a lot of uses for this money has been talked about but nothing has ever been done.
First, we wanted to update our master bath. We wanted to knock out a wall, put in a shower (so we have two) but the contractors we had come in to give us an estimate wanted $5,000 or more. That number scares us both because personally I think I can do all that work for much cheaper.
Then, we wanted to completely redo our kitchen. It is closed off, old cabinets, no pantry, fridge is in a weird location, etc. No contractors for this to tell you quotes, but just new cabinets alone were running $5,000. Our kitchen is perfectly fine the way it is. It does everything we need it to do and in the 4 years we have owned the house, it has never let us down. So why change it?
Finally, the big one... Completely finish our unfinished basement. I have started this undertaking already. The studs are up, all duct work is framed out, and some additional pieces (doors and such) have been purchased. Thing is, we never go down there currently and there is no reason to. Our living room already has everything we need. It is just my wife and I in a 3 bedroom 1.5 bathroom house. The only thing a finished basement adds is more costs to furnish it, more time to keep it clean, and more space that we currently don't use, etc.
So that brings us to two weeks ago. I received our QUARTERLY statement from the bank account and what I saw was shocking... We made, wait for it... SEVEN DOLLARS! in 3 months! Roughly $2.33 a month in income. Absolutely PATHETIC! Reading early retirement blogs have changed my life and this bank statement was just the kick in the ass I needed to try to persuade my wife into using this money to make more money.
Before I go on, can we all admit that the interest the banks pay out... SUCKS!
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
A lot of Updates!!
To all the readers out there:
Sorry I have been such a lame ass with updating the blog recently!!
I was looking at the pages on this blog and noticed that I had not updated some of them since November 2015... WEAK.
So, for all my readers out there, I apologize and now the...
401K Portfolio
Portfolio
Dividend Income
... pages have all been updated. I am working feverishly to catch up with the stock purchases and sells and the goals pages. I will get a new post out on those two soon!
Sorry,
ADD
Sorry I have been such a lame ass with updating the blog recently!!
I was looking at the pages on this blog and noticed that I had not updated some of them since November 2015... WEAK.
So, for all my readers out there, I apologize and now the...
401K Portfolio
Portfolio
Dividend Income
... pages have all been updated. I am working feverishly to catch up with the stock purchases and sells and the goals pages. I will get a new post out on those two soon!
Sorry,
ADD
Dividend Income - April 2016 Update
Sorry this is so late ya'll... but man, I think it was worth the wait!!
We have not been able to put away as much income this year due to increasing the 401K contributions but I've got a surprise in an upcoming post -- Hint: My wife is awesome!
With that being said, our prior investments and additional compounding growth have allowed us to set new records for the month of April.
This months total came in at $345.53!! which is an increase of 25.88% compared to last year and a 5.80% increase compared to last quarter.
April Dividend Income:
As you can see, there were quite a few new investments along with some one time payouts, along with some respectable compound growth. I sold O (perhaps a bad call since I have not been able to buy it back cheaper yet) and OHI & TROW were one time payouts last year. Those were all the big negatives.
Big positives from last year, I invested heavily into WPC, a purchase of RAI earlier this year, along with new purchases of BNS, CSCO and STJ.
All told, there was an increase of $71.04 from last year, and $18.94 from last quarter! Gotta love the growth!
Jump over to our dividend income page to see the increases month after month. There is also a nice chart on that page for all you visual learners out there. On that page, you can easily see dividend income investing at work which hopefully one day will be greater than our expenses and that's what we like to call The American Dividend Dream! Check out our complete portfolio here.
How was your April?
Thanks,
ADD
ADD
Saturday, April 9, 2016
Dividend Income - March 2016 Update
What a great month of March we just had and we are loving the income! This was our third highest income total ever behind the last two December's and a whopping 42% higher than last March.
Keeping this post quick because the Masters is on so lets just get right down to the numbers...
This months total came in at $591.03!! which like I said was an increase of 42% compared to last year but a 65% decrease compared to last quarter. December is the high payout month due to mutual funds from the 401K.
March Dividend Income:
Total: $591.03
As you can see, there were quite a few new investments along with respectable compound growth. LO was the reason for the -$22.02 but that has been replaced with RAI which pays out in a different month.
Jump over to our dividend income page to see the increases month after month. There is also a nice chart on that page for all you visual learners out there. On that page, you can easily see dividend income investing at work which hopefully one day will be greater than our expenses and that's what we like to call The American Dividend Dream! Check out our complete portfolio here.
How was your March?
Thanks,
ADD
ADD
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Financial changes to help with taxes
Good Afternoon Everyone!
In the past, my wife and I have done quite well with regards to our taxes at the end of the year. I do not think either of us have ever had to pay taxes at the end of the year. Well, this year is no different. We will be getting a refund. However, you can hardly call the refund something to write home about. The reasoning for this is because we now make too much money... definitely not a bad thing! We have hit the next tax bracket, do not have any other deductions to take however, we are not maximizing our potential tax savings like we should be.
So this year, it finally hit me! We need to start maximizing our tax-free accounts as much as possible to reduce our tax burden.
In the past, my wife and I have done quite well with regards to our taxes at the end of the year. I do not think either of us have ever had to pay taxes at the end of the year. Well, this year is no different. We will be getting a refund. However, you can hardly call the refund something to write home about. The reasoning for this is because we now make too much money... definitely not a bad thing! We have hit the next tax bracket, do not have any other deductions to take however, we are not maximizing our potential tax savings like we should be.
So this year, it finally hit me! We need to start maximizing our tax-free accounts as much as possible to reduce our tax burden.
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Recent Buys - Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Amgen (AMGN), St Jude (STJ)
Well, after our sell of Realty Income (O) we have put an additional $3K to work or a total of about $6K. First we went and bought RAI and now we have purchased BNS, AMGN and STJ! Reasoning behind all the purchases:
Bank of Nova Scotia: Well, I didn't want to directly invest in the Oil and Gas sector as I am quite overweight in that area already. From what I have read, most Canadian banks have fallen quite a bit due to their relationship with oil. The yield of BNS was quite enticing and after quite a significant drop I thought it was a prudent time to make our first investment with the country up north. BNS is also quite diversified throughout many other countries in the world so I thought their big pullback was unwarranted. Finally, I bought right after there last earnings statement and I liked what I saw. In total:
I purchased 33 shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) at $43.62. This purchase adds $71.28 of annual dividends to our account at the current .54 quarterly dividend.
This is my first purchase of a company outside of the US so it will be interesting to see the taxes/exchange rate but we shall see. If you readers out there have a better understanding, please comment below!
Amgen (AMGN) & St Jude (STJ): I felt our portfolio needed some more healthcare related stocks and AMGN and STJ fit that bill for us right now. I'd really like to get some medical device stocks such at Stryker or Becton Dickinson but they have rallied hard since the market drop of a couple months ago. Either way, I think there might be some other good healthcare stocks available so please, comment below!
We purchased 10 shares of AMGN at $146.65 and 18 shares of STJ at $55.44. These purchases add $40.00 and $22.32 for a total of $62.32 to our annual dividends.
All in all, that $4,000 of investments added $133.60. Which gives us a 3.35% dividend yield. I am hopeful that these purchases will give us a tad bit more dividend growth than buying a REIT stock. It is looking more and more like in 10 years time we will be close to retirement at our current pace. I have been playing around with dividend calculators a lot recently and the 10 year mark seems like a good crossover point where lower yielding stocks with higher dividend growth rates take over the stocks that have a higher initial yield but lower growth rates. For example, a stock with 3.5% dividend yield with average 8% increases over 10 years will roughly be the same as a stock yielding 5% now with a 3% growth rate. However, after the 10 year mark the lower initial yield stock really starts taking off. Just another one of the reasons I've been wanting to add some medical device companies to our portfolio. Their business model is great because they build consumable items so once they are used, they are gone. Their dividend growth has been amazing as well over the years which makes them really interesting to me.
So there you have it, the next building block on the path to the American Dividend Dream! What do you think, good purchase, bad purchase? What are you looking to buy next?
Bank of Nova Scotia: Well, I didn't want to directly invest in the Oil and Gas sector as I am quite overweight in that area already. From what I have read, most Canadian banks have fallen quite a bit due to their relationship with oil. The yield of BNS was quite enticing and after quite a significant drop I thought it was a prudent time to make our first investment with the country up north. BNS is also quite diversified throughout many other countries in the world so I thought their big pullback was unwarranted. Finally, I bought right after there last earnings statement and I liked what I saw. In total:
I purchased 33 shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) at $43.62. This purchase adds $71.28 of annual dividends to our account at the current .54 quarterly dividend.
This is my first purchase of a company outside of the US so it will be interesting to see the taxes/exchange rate but we shall see. If you readers out there have a better understanding, please comment below!
Amgen (AMGN) & St Jude (STJ): I felt our portfolio needed some more healthcare related stocks and AMGN and STJ fit that bill for us right now. I'd really like to get some medical device stocks such at Stryker or Becton Dickinson but they have rallied hard since the market drop of a couple months ago. Either way, I think there might be some other good healthcare stocks available so please, comment below!
We purchased 10 shares of AMGN at $146.65 and 18 shares of STJ at $55.44. These purchases add $40.00 and $22.32 for a total of $62.32 to our annual dividends.
All in all, that $4,000 of investments added $133.60. Which gives us a 3.35% dividend yield. I am hopeful that these purchases will give us a tad bit more dividend growth than buying a REIT stock. It is looking more and more like in 10 years time we will be close to retirement at our current pace. I have been playing around with dividend calculators a lot recently and the 10 year mark seems like a good crossover point where lower yielding stocks with higher dividend growth rates take over the stocks that have a higher initial yield but lower growth rates. For example, a stock with 3.5% dividend yield with average 8% increases over 10 years will roughly be the same as a stock yielding 5% now with a 3% growth rate. However, after the 10 year mark the lower initial yield stock really starts taking off. Just another one of the reasons I've been wanting to add some medical device companies to our portfolio. Their business model is great because they build consumable items so once they are used, they are gone. Their dividend growth has been amazing as well over the years which makes them really interesting to me.
So there you have it, the next building block on the path to the American Dividend Dream! What do you think, good purchase, bad purchase? What are you looking to buy next?
ADD
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Dividend Income - February 2016 Update
The 2nd month of 2016 is behind us, warmer weather and hopefully the promise of greater dividends is in the future! It was a very quiet month in terms of purchases.
We ended up making just one purchase in February: RAI. This purchase was just $2,000 but March is shaping up pretty nicely so far. Total for the first two months of the year is about $6,000 invested. I'm a little upset we missed out on OHI at $28. I sold O to buy it and then it just took off too quick. I missed it at $29 by just a few cents. Instead, I've put capital to work in three other companies. We will get to those in the future.
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.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Recent Buy - Reynolds American Inc. (RAI)
Another purchase is in the books. After my sell of O, I had a decent amount of funds. RAI has pulled back just a tad off its 52 week high and the quarter looked really good. Not to mention is that they just raised the dividend 17%!!! That's what I'm talking about!
Ever since the merger with LO I have been looking to buy this stock. Turns out a 22 forward PE is above average, but the synergies they should see from LO, the growth in brands, especially Newport and consistent business model is a reason for investment.
This stock rarely pulls back and I was tired of watching it go up without me being in it. I seemed to have traded one overvalued stock for another, but the growth in RAI I think will be much better than O at the current prices. We shall see how things work out. I lost just .5% in dividends as RAI is 3.5% yield and O was 4% when I sold it. Currently I have a buy order in for OHI but the stock has taken off a bit the last couple of days. If that purchase goes through, the combined dividends will be higher than what I was making for just O alone, and I cover 8 out of 12 months in the year. There is just 4 others that I would not receive a dividend like I did with O.
I'm looking for O to pull back to $55.00 before repurchasing. I will be saving cash over the next month to make sure I have some capital ready for that purchase. I love O, just not the price!
With that being said:
I purchased 42 shares of Reynolds (RAI) at $48.04. This purchase adds $70.56 of annual dividends to our account at the now current .42 quarterly dividend.
Tobacco has now become a pillar of my portfolio. With roughly $10,500 invested between PM and RAI, I think I am done with tobacco for a while unless they pull back. The REIT space in general still interests me. If I can't get OHI, then perhaps something else... What do you guys suggest???
Ever since the merger with LO I have been looking to buy this stock. Turns out a 22 forward PE is above average, but the synergies they should see from LO, the growth in brands, especially Newport and consistent business model is a reason for investment.
This stock rarely pulls back and I was tired of watching it go up without me being in it. I seemed to have traded one overvalued stock for another, but the growth in RAI I think will be much better than O at the current prices. We shall see how things work out. I lost just .5% in dividends as RAI is 3.5% yield and O was 4% when I sold it. Currently I have a buy order in for OHI but the stock has taken off a bit the last couple of days. If that purchase goes through, the combined dividends will be higher than what I was making for just O alone, and I cover 8 out of 12 months in the year. There is just 4 others that I would not receive a dividend like I did with O.
I'm looking for O to pull back to $55.00 before repurchasing. I will be saving cash over the next month to make sure I have some capital ready for that purchase. I love O, just not the price!
With that being said:
I purchased 42 shares of Reynolds (RAI) at $48.04. This purchase adds $70.56 of annual dividends to our account at the now current .42 quarterly dividend.
Tobacco has now become a pillar of my portfolio. With roughly $10,500 invested between PM and RAI, I think I am done with tobacco for a while unless they pull back. The REIT space in general still interests me. If I can't get OHI, then perhaps something else... What do you guys suggest???
So there you have it, the next building block on the path to the American Dividend Dream! What do you think, good purchase, bad purchase? What are you looking to buy next?
ADD
Monday, February 15, 2016
Selling one of the best companies of all time...
Hi Everyone,
The time has come to sell off my stake in Realty Income Corp (O). This is the first sell in my portfolio and of all the investments I have, I never would have guessed this would have been my first sell. A staple of consistency and tremendous capital appreciation, Realty has all its mojo working. However, that mojo has made the stock pop 17% to start off the year.
They reported good growth numbers as of their last quarterly earnings statement but with a 21 P/FFO ratio currently, I think its a good time to let this go.
Other REIT stocks, namely healthcare REIT's are down significantly this year (see OHI, HCP). I firmly believe that O has gotten a bit ahead of itself here and there are other opportunities that could use some more capital.
I sold 48.3150 shares at $60.65 totaling $2,923.24. I will lose $9.59 per month in dividends or $115 per year.
With this sell, I now have some decent ammunition in my "BB gun" and will be looking to make a purchase soon. Realty had a dividend yield of just 4% meanwhile a REIT like OHI has a yield of 8%. I could look to using half the sell to purchase OHI and the other half to get a faster dividend grower like MMM or AAPL and will come out ahead.
This by no means I will not be an owner of Realty in the future, but I plan to be one at a cheaper price!!
We shall see what happens, but what do you think? Good sell? What are you buying next?
ADD
The time has come to sell off my stake in Realty Income Corp (O). This is the first sell in my portfolio and of all the investments I have, I never would have guessed this would have been my first sell. A staple of consistency and tremendous capital appreciation, Realty has all its mojo working. However, that mojo has made the stock pop 17% to start off the year.
They reported good growth numbers as of their last quarterly earnings statement but with a 21 P/FFO ratio currently, I think its a good time to let this go.
Other REIT stocks, namely healthcare REIT's are down significantly this year (see OHI, HCP). I firmly believe that O has gotten a bit ahead of itself here and there are other opportunities that could use some more capital.
I sold 48.3150 shares at $60.65 totaling $2,923.24. I will lose $9.59 per month in dividends or $115 per year.
With this sell, I now have some decent ammunition in my "BB gun" and will be looking to make a purchase soon. Realty had a dividend yield of just 4% meanwhile a REIT like OHI has a yield of 8%. I could look to using half the sell to purchase OHI and the other half to get a faster dividend grower like MMM or AAPL and will come out ahead.
This by no means I will not be an owner of Realty in the future, but I plan to be one at a cheaper price!!
We shall see what happens, but what do you think? Good sell? What are you buying next?
ADD
Saturday, February 6, 2016
How did we measure up? 2015 Goals Review
Another year is in the books! Growing up, I constantly heard the phrase "enjoy life, it goes way too quick" but being young and naive, I just wrote it off and said "yea right"... Boy could I have not been more wrong.
Sure, when your 5 or 6 a year seems like an eternity, however, in high school things (at least for me) started to change. In those 4 short years, I vividly remember thinking to myself wow, that year went faster than the last. Throughout college, it seemed life slowed a bit, but ever since joining the work force, it has picked back up in a big way! Now at age 28, going on 7 years in the workforce, a routine has developed and the days just seem to slip by. I blink and all of a sudden a month is gone. I take a nap and the season has changed. A full nights sleep and here I am writing a blog post reflecting on the past year...
The previous paragraph illustrates the importance of the journey that my wife and I are on right now. It is the daily routines and monotony of our lives that make things go by so fast. Trying to retire early will not only let us live the way we want, but will also alleviate us from going through the motions and allow us to never have a routine again.
In order for us to achieve the life we want, we must set consistent, SMART, goals. Without goals, we could sway off the path and hurt our ability to reach freedom from the 9 - 5 job. I believe goals need to be challenging, yet achievable. If you continually set goals that are too extreme, you will continually disappoint yourself which could hinder your ability to keep going. With that being said, lets look at how our goals for 2015 turned out:
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Recent Buys - UA, UNP & AAPL
The month of January got away from me a little bit so this post is well overdue. I did not expect to invest nearly this much money the past month but my wife and I did well on expenses in December and used significant credit card points to keep the expenses down in January! Come to think of it, I don't even think I told my wife what I bought! Surprise babe... we spent $4,000 last month :)
So I'll keep this quick:
On 1/4/2016: We bought 12 shares of UNP at $79.00 per share - $950 total
On 1/4/2016: We bought 13 shares of UA at $79.25 per share - $1,037 total
On 1/21/2016: We bought 15 shares of UA at $68.65 per share - $1,036 total
On 2/1/2016: We bought 10 shares of AAPL at $96.00 per share - $970 total
Total new dividends from these purchases stands at just $47.20 per year. Definitely does not have the wow factor like buying REIT's or Telecom's but I'm hopeful that UA (down significantly from the all time high) will become the next NKE, UNP has been beaten down hard and the same can be said for AAPL.
With a substantial time frame to let compounding and growth continue, I believe above average dividend increases from UNP and AAPL plus a potential dividend initiation in UA will propel our dividends greatly in the future.
As more capital becomes available, UNP and AAPL are on the list to average down on if they continue to stay depressed.
So there you have it, the next couple building blocks on the path to the American Dividend Dream! What do you think, good purchases, bad purchases? What are you looking to buy next?
So I'll keep this quick:
On 1/4/2016: We bought 12 shares of UNP at $79.00 per share - $950 total
On 1/4/2016: We bought 13 shares of UA at $79.25 per share - $1,037 total
On 1/21/2016: We bought 15 shares of UA at $68.65 per share - $1,036 total
On 2/1/2016: We bought 10 shares of AAPL at $96.00 per share - $970 total
Total new dividends from these purchases stands at just $47.20 per year. Definitely does not have the wow factor like buying REIT's or Telecom's but I'm hopeful that UA (down significantly from the all time high) will become the next NKE, UNP has been beaten down hard and the same can be said for AAPL.
With a substantial time frame to let compounding and growth continue, I believe above average dividend increases from UNP and AAPL plus a potential dividend initiation in UA will propel our dividends greatly in the future.
As more capital becomes available, UNP and AAPL are on the list to average down on if they continue to stay depressed.
So there you have it, the next couple building blocks on the path to the American Dividend Dream! What do you think, good purchases, bad purchases? What are you looking to buy next?
ADD
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Dividend Income - January 2016 Update
The first month is in the books and boy was it quite the rough month! Stock market took a pretty good tumble and the east coast was hit by one of the biggest blizzards/snow storms in the history of records. It was a pretty calm month for us all together. Only a couple purchases (that I did not post about) and our expenses were quite low. We were able to book another vacation... Charleston, SC... that was completely paid for through the use of credit card points!!
In the past week, I made the mistake of finally visiting Spoonman's journal! If you have an hour or two to kill, it is a fantastic read. I started from page one and went all the way through the end in the course of a day. I call it a mistake because at the end of reading it, I told my wife I want to sell everything, invest in dividend stocks, move in with my parents for a year to save money, and at the end of it all... retire!!! It could probably be doable but we would still have to find some work where ever we moved to but man is it fun to dream!
We ended up making four purchases in January! UNP, UA, UA again, & AAPL. These all add up to roughly $4,000 of investments to start off the year! I wish I had more capital to invest during the selloff, but the truck purchase last year hurt us in that regard. We are still trying to build back up our savings a bit.
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.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
401K Update - January 2016
Hi Everyone,
So a follow up post to the Dividend Income - the 401K Portfolio update. I said that I would post about the 401K when big changes were made or about twice a year in July and January. Usually in June and December, some of my funds pay some dividends and after 6 months of new capital, there are a decent amount of shares added. My company's 401K policy is that employees receive 3% company match throughout the year and then a bonus of 2% at the end of the year. The 2% doesn't hit until around the March timeframe so I'll probably have an update then. My portfolio now looks like this:
At the present time, I view my 401K Portfolio as an added bonus to my path to financial independence but I might be rethinking my ways...
I said these exact words in my past post about the 401K -- "The overall goal of my investing journey is to retire at an age much younger than most which is why I am mostly invested in a taxable account. I need to be able to retrieve those funds and more importantly, the dividends that are generated to support our family when the time comes."
However, Blogger Retire29 has a great post about how to legally transfer your employers 401K to an IRA and then be able to retrieve those funds in 5 years to invest as you please. So I am leaning towards maxing out our 401K's. To be able to save money on taxes is a great thing!
I would love to max out our taxable account until we reach $11,000 in dividends per year, but that might take a little too long. I am now thinking of doing something like this: Continue to max out our taxable portfolio until the dividends reach $7,500 (hopefully end of this year). That would allow for one IRA to be completely funded at $5,500 and another one to be funded at $2,000 a year. We would come up with the other $3,500 per year to max out that IRA until dividends from taxable take over completely. Simultaneously I will begin to max out my 401K. I have already started the process of maxing out tax advantaged accounts with the HSA that is now completely funded.
My wife and I invested $47,000 last year in our taxable account alone. This does not include dividends because they are all on DRIP right now. Total, we put to work about $52,000 in our taxable account. Starting next year, $18,000 into 401K, $11,000 into IRA's and $3,500 into HSA leaves us with still $20,000 to invest into our taxable account (unless we have a baby and my wife quits her job!). Am I missing anything? Other than my wife's 401K?
Anyways, the whole reason I want to keep investing in our taxable account is that I would love for it to produce over $10,000 in dividends which is also enough money to lump sum pay off our mortgage and have a little bit left over if I was to lose my job. Those two totals go roughly hand in hand with a 4% yield. I like the security to be able to get to our money quickly.
So what do you all think about that plan? Good, bad? What are you doing?
Combining both my 401K and our taxable account, we hold roughly $160,000 in investments!
Thanks,
ADD
So a follow up post to the Dividend Income - the 401K Portfolio update. I said that I would post about the 401K when big changes were made or about twice a year in July and January. Usually in June and December, some of my funds pay some dividends and after 6 months of new capital, there are a decent amount of shares added. My company's 401K policy is that employees receive 3% company match throughout the year and then a bonus of 2% at the end of the year. The 2% doesn't hit until around the March timeframe so I'll probably have an update then. My portfolio now looks like this:
As of 1/5/2016:
I said these exact words in my past post about the 401K -- "The overall goal of my investing journey is to retire at an age much younger than most which is why I am mostly invested in a taxable account. I need to be able to retrieve those funds and more importantly, the dividends that are generated to support our family when the time comes."
However, Blogger Retire29 has a great post about how to legally transfer your employers 401K to an IRA and then be able to retrieve those funds in 5 years to invest as you please. So I am leaning towards maxing out our 401K's. To be able to save money on taxes is a great thing!
I would love to max out our taxable account until we reach $11,000 in dividends per year, but that might take a little too long. I am now thinking of doing something like this: Continue to max out our taxable portfolio until the dividends reach $7,500 (hopefully end of this year). That would allow for one IRA to be completely funded at $5,500 and another one to be funded at $2,000 a year. We would come up with the other $3,500 per year to max out that IRA until dividends from taxable take over completely. Simultaneously I will begin to max out my 401K. I have already started the process of maxing out tax advantaged accounts with the HSA that is now completely funded.
My wife and I invested $47,000 last year in our taxable account alone. This does not include dividends because they are all on DRIP right now. Total, we put to work about $52,000 in our taxable account. Starting next year, $18,000 into 401K, $11,000 into IRA's and $3,500 into HSA leaves us with still $20,000 to invest into our taxable account (unless we have a baby and my wife quits her job!). Am I missing anything? Other than my wife's 401K?
Anyways, the whole reason I want to keep investing in our taxable account is that I would love for it to produce over $10,000 in dividends which is also enough money to lump sum pay off our mortgage and have a little bit left over if I was to lose my job. Those two totals go roughly hand in hand with a 4% yield. I like the security to be able to get to our money quickly.
So what do you all think about that plan? Good, bad? What are you doing?
Combining both my 401K and our taxable account, we hold roughly $160,000 in investments!
Thanks,
ADD
Dividend Income - December 2015 Update
Well there is its... 2015 is gone and 2016 is here. The year went by incredibly fast, that's for sure. But, I know for a fact that I had a ball this year! My wife and I didn’t hit nearly all of our financial goals like we would have liked, but looking back… Who Cares! We went to 7 weddings, 6 of which out of state. Hotel rooms, catching up with old friends, multiple vacations (Austin TX, Fenwick Island DE, New Orleans LA, Pensacola FL, Gulf Shores AL, Pittsburg PA, Connecticut) and time well spent with family. We work our ass off and play hard, that’s all you can hope for. I'll have a post out shortly about the goals passed or not passed throughout 2015 in a little bit. Even though I know there might be some failures it is important to remember to try and save the most you can. Because, not having to work for money is the best way to make money! So hopefully 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.
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 ended up just making one small purchase in December, KMI of 28 shares at $17.80, for roughly $500 total. I did not even bother to right about it, but that purchase means we invested $47,000 this past year! Pretty remarkable.
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.
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