About Me

Hi Everyone,

This blog will be used to document my journey towards retirement.  I'm not sure how long it will take or when I will feel comfortable enough to retire, but hopefully through passive income from dividends, I will be able to quit the 8-5 daily grind quicker than most of my peers.

A few financial tidbits about me to show you where I stand:

I'm 27 years old and got married to my beautiful wife in August 2014.  My wife and I both have average blue collar salaries and enjoy traveling.  Currently I have not been to too many exotic locations but I am becoming quite passionate about exploring this beautiful world.  I have been to every state on the east coast except Vermont.  I've been to Arizona, the Bahamas, Hawaii and for our honeymoon we went to Aruba.  My wife and I have a house that I bought in February 2012.  The house has a 4.15% interest rate so I am primarily focused on investing rather than paying off the mortgage at the time being.  I started investing back in 2010 and despite a great time to start investing, I have not managed to get the exceptional returns that the DOW or S&P have given.  I blame it on reckless stock picking when I first started that really hurt.  I never lost any money, but whenever I managed to make some money, I always seemed to hold the stock for too long and it dropped hard, or I would sell and then buy another stock that dropped hard.

I really got into dividend investing back in January 2012.  My first pick was PM, followed by T, PEP and INTC.  Overall, those picks have done relatively well.  You can see the entire portfolio here.  I began investing into dividend stocks once I realized that my 401K was outpacing my stock picking.  I realized then that buy and hold was the way to go....  at least for retirement.  With that being said, I still have that "play around" account which I will post about here and there.  However, this blog is all about the dividends!

Thank you for stumbling onto my tiny corner of the internet!  Now that you are here, stay a while and follow my path to the American Dividend Dream!

I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully I will be able to inspire you to pursue freedom with me.

Thanks,
Scott

21 comments:

  1. Scott, great to have you in the blogging world as you share your journey with the rest of us. One of the best parts of blogging is the wonderful interaction with others sharing similar experiences along the way. I know I'm looking forward to following along as you build and grow your passive income.

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    1. Great to have you as a follower! The blogging world is particularly great because I have the ability to talk to people that have the same enthusiasm for investing as I do. I find myself holding back more and more when talking to family and friends about investing because they just don't get it. Also, I feel my wife and I are really starting to distance ourselves on the saving/investing front from them and this could create animosity. Thanks for commenting

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  2. Really like the blog so far, Scott. You're so ahead of the game, it's very inspiring. Keep up this pace and you'll reach FI in no time :)

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    1. FI is the goal! Although not sure how quickly that will happen. Just trying to do as much as I can now while my wife and I do not have any kids yet. Once that happens, the plan might get drawn out a bit but hopefully we'll have a nice base that will grow fast!

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  3. Just found your blog. Great job starting relatively early at 27 and having your wife on board as well should really juice up how quickly y'all can save and grow your dividend income. Best of luck exploring this beautiful world. There's so much to see and unfortunately never enough time to do it. Take advantage while you can.

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    1. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to stop by and post JC. I started reading your blog about 2 years ago or so, right after I started reading Dividend Mantras. Your income is incredibly high and sometimes I felt myself being jealous of that. I realize that we all have our own path and the goal is to become financially independent by doing everything we can, so now I'm just glad you are back posting again.

      Youre right its a big world out there, but hopefully I'll be able to get to see a lot of it. We just took a trip to Austin so there's one place off the bucket list.

      Hope all is well with your baby! Keep up the great work over there!

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  4. Welcome aboard this journey to get rid of the 9 to 5 hassle! I like your a portfolio. Lots of strong names. You are doing much better than me at the same age! Keep up the good work ADD!

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    1. I cannot wait for the day I get to call it quits from the 9 to 5. I'll certainly never stop working but the work will be much different once I'm free! You've got yourself a nice looking portfolio as well. Age is just a number, just happy that we are both on our way to freedom.

      Thanks for the stopping by!

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  5. Nice story. Very similar to mine. I also got hunted by buying (miraculously) stocks which always sold off as soon as I bought them. So the dividend growth investing was the only solution for my struggle. I also trade options and there I am still on an expensive hunt for a good working strategy. The one I was using so far seems not to be working for me. Well,good luck to your investing. Hope you get out of 9/5 squirrel spin soon.

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    1. I wish I would have started dividend investing sooner but I'm glad I finally figured it out. I still have another portfolio that I do not talk about on this blog that is for "swinging for the fences" type of investments but it does not have nearly the amount of capital as the dividend account.

      I am going to look into doing options but I just haven't had the time to research yet. I just know that if I sell a put at the price I'd be willing to pay for a stock that I could make extra income if the stock never hits that level. That makes me very interested since I do limit orders already.

      Thanks for the well wishes.

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  6. Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself, Scott. Always good to have a bit of a story and some background info to know what kind of a situation each blogger is. Im glad to have found your blog....and its absolutely fantastic that you have started DGI in your 20s...your future self will thank you for all those dividends and passive income rolling in.

    I will be sure to follow along your journey and add you to my reading list.

    cheers
    R2R

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  7. It was a long journey to reach the DGI lifestyle but I'm glad I found it as well. As all investors say, I wish I would have started sooner. So many wasted years trying to swing for the fences, I should have just been going with steady eddie. My wife and I are certainly blessed to have this type of portfolio at such a young age. Can't wait to kick my feet up and start collecting on those dividends one day.

    Thanks for adding me! I'll be sure to do the same. I read your SA articles all the time. It's nice to have another follower.

    Have a nice day!

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  8. Welcome Scott. It's great to see another young investor....especially one that likes to travel. Sorry I had to say that, my wife and I are travel freaks. We're fresh from a 10 week roadtrip to see friends and family. Anyway, I'll add you to our blogroll and would appreciate if you would do the same.

    I hope your week is starting off well
    -Bryan

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    1. 10 weeks! That's awesome! I am quite jealous because my wife and I are a looonnnggg way away from being able to take a trip for that long. I have stumbled upon your site a few times over the years. I think it is fantastic you left your job at 34 and I am hoping to accomplish the same!

      Perhaps we will cross paths on the road one day

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  9. Hi American Dividend Dream Team,

    My name is Anuj Agarwal. I'm Founder of Feedspot.

    I would like to personally congratulate you as your blog American Dividend Dream has been selected by our panelist as one of the Top 100 Dividend Blogs on the web.

    https://blog.feedspot.com/dividend_blogs/

    I personally give you a high-five and want to thank you for your contribution to this world. This is the most comprehensive list of Top 100 Dividend Blogs on the internet and I’m honored to have you as part of this!

    Also, you have the honor of displaying the badge on your blog.

    Best,
    Anuj

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  10. Hi American Dividend Dream Team,
    i like your blog and I've added your site to my blogroll on: long-term-investments. It's an inspiring site and my readers should get access to your investing articles. They should also be a nice source for my dividend income interested readers.

    However, it would be nice if you add my blog on your blogroll or when you could give me a place on your site.

    Thank you!

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  11. Hi and Thanks for writting a little about yourself i have a blog but still didnt have time to writte something about me. Its still fresh, but i will. You have a nice blogg very inspirational. Iam from Sweden and iam happy i found your blog. Iam a dividend investor just like you :)
    When i make my blogroll i sure will put you up :)

    Greetings from Sweden :)

    Ps if you have time please check out my Swedish Dividend site and check my Us stock i choose living in Sweden

    https://swedendivin.se/

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  12. Nice It’s nice to hear from you – your waffle story is great
    My blogspot site link
    https://jobapp15.blogspot.com/
    Nice It’s nice to hear from you – your waffle story is great
    My blogspot site link
    https://jobapp15.blogspot.com/

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  13. Looks like a good start to 2019 to me. You managed a gain from last Jan. and with all you fresh buys you'll see a nice boost next quarter. I'm still considering MO for a Feb. buy. Sometimes stocks just seem way undervalued to ignore.

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  14. Hi Scott,
    I'm a big fan of your articles, really like your style and though process.
    I’ve created a site with 13 years of fundamental data for U.S. stocks including forecasts, if you have time to check it out it’s called Stockrow. I'd really love to hear your feedback. Thanks!

    Best,
    Matus

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  15. Hi Scott,

    Henry from Finimize here - we are interested in partnering with you. My colleague Nik recommended your blog earlier today, and after having a closer look I believe your work very much aligns with what we do.

    Finimize specialises in bitesize financial education for young professionals with savings (helping them to get invested). We have more than 400k global users with a strong interest in finance, economics, and investing.

    I believe your readers would benefit highly from our daily markets newsletter (2 major financial stories of the day, 3min read, no jargon) and vice versa. In this context I'd be keen to explore affiliate opportunities - we pay $1 for a sign-up to our free newsletter or we could introduce American Dividend Dream to our audience.

    Let me know if you are interested - happy to jump on a quick call / discuss via email.

    Best wishes,
    Henry

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