Friday, December 31, 2021

2021 GOAL SUMMARY & 2022 GOALS

Another year over and it's time to look at the goas I set myself for 2021 and see if I achieved any of them.    I also will set out a plan for my 2021.    

Doing this on the internet forces me to achieve these goals in utter fear of making myself look like a fool for the eternity that is the internet.     So here goes!   

The results are in BOLD

2021

FINANCIAL GOALS

  1. Add $10,000 to my investment account.   This will be easy  - ADDED $16,880  THIS ONLY INCLUDES WHAT I CONTRIBUTED FROM MY PAYCHECKS 
  2. See my dividend income increase by 10% from 2020.  Now that we are through the main evil of COVID, I think this is doable - WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!   2021 DIVIDEND INCOME INCREASED BY 15.05%
  3. Save $8,000 for bills in 2021.  That's $21 per day. - DONE.  DOUBLED IT WITH $16,176.58  I AM NOT INCREASING THIS AMOUNT, BUT WILL PAY IT FORWARD.
  4. Fulfill my goal of buying the equivalent in shares of what I spent in 2020 at the following:

I did not fully succeed, but got close.  I actually sold quite a few shares of Starbucks to float the cost to  move my mom and did not fully reimburse it.  Same goes for Target (my favorite stock to buy, and Kroger (a store I would rather not go to (QFC), but is closest to my house.  Their quality of foods and upkeep of the store have tanked and the employees honestly do not give a crap whatsoever)

As with the overages, all of these balances roll over to 2021.  That means I have quite a bit to make up for with all three of these in 2022

PERSONAL GOALS

  1. Go to Hawaii for 10 or more days.  I need beach - 14 DAYS IN PARADISE WAS MUCH NEEDED
  2. Exercise more.   Walk 10,000 steps per day - GOT AWAY FROM ME... AVERAGED 7,000 STEPS A DAY.  THE PAST 2 MONTHS TANKED ME
  3. Drop about 30 lbs.  I am at 204 lb this morning of 1/1/21.  My doctor wants me to slim down.  My pants do too.  It's made my blood pressure creep up.  At 5'7", I need to be much lighter.  The walking will help.  So will goal # 4....  - I PREFER NOT TO SAY A THING, BUT I WAS DOWN TO 180 (24 DOWN) IN SUMMER, BUT ONCE SEPTEMBER AND THE HOLIDAYS HIT, IT ALL CAME BACK.  204 TODAY
  4. Eat very little sugar. - I LOVE SUGAR.  NEXT
  5. Sell off more of my record collection.   I am out of room.  - SOLD QUITE A FEW OF MY LARGER BOX SETS FOR A NICE PAYOUT, BUT I REORGANIZED AND "FOUND ROOM".  THE COLLECTION STILL GROWS.
  6. Make more music and release an album. - DID NOT RELEASE AN ALBUM, BUT CREATED OVER 20 SONGS.
  7. Work on front yard garden.  - THE GARDEN LOOKS AMAZING.  PLANTED SOME RASPBERRIES, BLUEBERRIES, AND LOVEAGE PLANTS IN THE SPACE.

2022

FINANCIAL GOALS

  1. Add $10,000 to my investment account.   This will be easy.  I plan on 12K. 
  2. See my dividend income increase by 20% from 2021.  Totally doable.
  3. Save $8,000 for bills in 2021.  Already done!  Paying it forward for 2023.
  4. Fulfill my goal of buying the equivalent in shares of what I spent in 2021 at the following companies. 

Done with Mcdonald's already, but have a big mountain to climb with Apple and Target.   This will be a challenge.

PERSONAL GOALS

  1. Vacation for 2 weeks away from home.  Yellowstone is a goal.
  2. Walk 10,000 steps.  I plan on walking for 30 minutes per day minimum after work and adding blocks by going faster.
  3. Drop at least 50 pounds. With my height, my "ideal" weight is 148.  That's  a challenge.  But I have a plan to make it there this year.
  4. 1 hour workouts 3 times a week
  5. Sell more records and replace them with ones I have always craved.
  6. Release an album of dark, industrial ambient, downtempo music.  It's a thing: "Illbient"
  7. Grow enough salad greens to eat salad for half the year.  

I will see how this is going next month!







Saturday, December 4, 2021

NOVEMBER 2021 DIVIDENDS

The year is almost over.  So fast.   It's only 3 weeks to Christmas.  

 I love this time of the year.  Full of turkey and fixins to the point of being sick of it.  Christmas lights and tree is up.  Weather is cooling off and being cozy d fun.

You know, I always "love this time of year"....   There is no time I hate.  So let me just move on...

I love life, so each month is great.  I love my family and home.  

To love the home even more, I decided to paint it room by room.   Here's my basement bath with a fresh coat of Sherwin-Williams' "Olympic White".   It seems light blue but is actually a light gray with some blue. And has "white" in the name for no good reason.   But is sure makes the room pop.   It's a lot closer to a Robin Egg than the picture. Very relaxing in the jetted tub to wind down at night.



What I really love is consistent dividend income.  Getting a few payments per week always results in weekly opportunities to reinvest the money into one of the companies I hold to speed up this income snowball.  

🏂

In November, I earned $1,066.79 in dividend from 32 payments.  This only a 3.2% increase from the $1,035.51 I earned in 2020.  But that was the time I did some major shuffling of the portfolio. 

Beginning next month, and especially in January, these results will really jump as I have added a quarter million dollars in new investments. Really.. Soon, I will be at averaging $2,000 per month in dividend income.  This is when the compounding really starts to take off!


Once again, my big haul is from AT&T (T) and Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI).  Moving forward, I 'll be seeing more parity as I have invested in 86 companies in November.





Thursday, December 2, 2021

NOVEMBER 2021 BUYS BUYS BUYS BUYS...REPEAT

EPIC.

November 2021 will go down at the single most epic month of stock purchases in my life.  Hands down.  

91 purchases of 86 companies...   $277,613.39  invested.  Increasing my annual dividends by $9,742.77.      A 3.51% yield out of these purchases.

That's epic.    I put the hammer down!



How do I normally pick what to buy?  In a normal month, I screen for a few parameters to ensure I find the best value.  These are listed in importance to me.

  • A TRACK RECORD OF DIVIDEND INCREASES

This is the most important requirement to be a dividend growth investor.  

  • A LOW P/E RATIO
A look into the Price to Earnings ratio is a good way to see if the stock is under or overvalued.   It's the ratio of the share price to the companies' earnings per share.  It's the price of expecting a profit in the future.  Currently the S&P 500 is at about 28.  I look for 22 and lower.

  • A LOW DIVIDEND PAYOUT RATIO

Can a company sustain their dividend and have room to raise it?   A company that is paying out a large majority or all of their profits have a hard time keeping up their dividend.  I look for under 60%

  • AN EARNINGS PER SHARE GROWTH OF 5% OR MORE
I am hesitant of a company that is stagnant and has difficulties growing.    

  • A LONG TERM TRACK RECORD OF EPS GROWTH
If a company has a long track record of growth.  Of course, the pandemic messed this  all up.  So I have been looking for strong recovery.
  • A LOW PRICE TO EARNINGS GROWTH

  • A MARKET CAPITALIZATION OF $3 BILLION OR MORE

Normally, I follow these parameters.  This is not a normal month.  This is abnormal.....    

I decided to add to most of my positions. Not all, but most.  Since all of them had pretty much passed my screener, adding to them makes perfect sense.   I did not want to sit on the funds and take forever screening so many stocks.  I also did not want to sink most of it in one or two companies.  

I decided to increase my holding for most of my stock to about a $5,000 cost basis.  I used to stop at $4,000 for most of my holdings.  Adding a thousand to that max made perfect sense and I did not want to wait for all of them to be at the ideal price.   Time in the market is better than timing the market.

Of course I had a few that I went beyond the $5K limit.  These were mainly the ones I had sold earlier this year to cover my mom's care.  I got them back to what they were at before that went down.   

My biggest buys were:

  • 91 shares of Target (TGT) adding $327.60 to my annual dividends.
  • 51 shares of Williams-Sonoma (WSM), adding $144.84 to my dividends per year
  • 33 shares of Microsoft (MSFT), adding $81.84 to the dividends.
  • 2,550 shares of Whitehorse Finance (WHF), adding a bad-ass $3,621 per year in dividends.
That WHF purchase was because I did not want to add to positions of some of my holdings at this time.  It was the last $40,000 of the cash I had to spend on this fun adventure.

Here's  link to the buys.   Enjoy.

BUYS NOVEMBER 2021

Saturday, November 13, 2021

BIG FRIDAY OF BUYS

 After spending the past five months covering the costs of my mom's care, I finally got to reimburse and also invest more to cover her ongoing care.   

In the past, I decided to balance out my portfolio by limiting my ownership to about $4,000 for each holding.  Of course there were some exceptions, but my overall goal was to have some balance.  Once I hit that $4K, I would move on to others.   

I did this because when I first started this investing thing, I had all my eggs in one basket.  Then I had 2 baskets...  then I decided that was totally idiotic, and diversified the stock to about 30 companies.  Then 40.  Then 50.  Now I'm up to about 100 different holdings.

This provides a strong buffer in case some company goes tits up.  If one of my 100 companies falls into the abyss, I only lose more or less 1%.   It does also mean that I get to experience a few big stock pops every year.  It's all in moderation and relatively safe.

Usually when I get some cash from dividends, I will look for the best value at the time and invest in that company.  Now that I received a chunk of funds, it is time to go shopping.   

This time though, I decided to increase the $4K limit to $5K.   Instead of taking my time to research 100 companies, I decided to top many of them off at $5K.  I figured if I already liked it enough to hold about $4K, I can bump it up to $5K.  Spending an eternity looking for the best deal of the day would never end and would lose out on gains.  So I just went down the list alphabetically, took a quick glance, and usually bought some shares.  I did skip some where I just missed an ex-dividend date or was really overvalued.   Eventually they will look better.  

To sum it up:  I made 17 stock purchases totalling $80,188.50 that will add $1,544.51 to my annual dividends.   That's a huge day.  That adds $0.17 1/2 cents per hour of income, whether I am working, sleeping, or just living.   Just for being alive.  Every little bit counts.

 So here is my list of purchases:  

The big purchases of Target (TGT), Bank of America (BAC), Discover (DFS), and Williams-Sonoma (WSM) were the replacement of the holdings I sold back in July.  I promised myself to make them whole once again.

I will be doing this again during this next week with the rest of my holdings.  Then the compounding will really kick in.

I will be updating the month end buys in early December and should be quite the post.


Thursday, November 4, 2021

OCTOBER 2021 DIVIDEND INCOME

I freaking LOVE  October.  I LOVE Halloween.   I love the leaves turning red and yellow.  I love the chance of dressing to warm up.  I love knowing the holidays are nearly here.  I love my kid gets to trick or treat a couple more times before she outgrows it.


I also freaking LOVE earning dividend income.  Getting paid 4 times a year by companies you own a tiny portion of is a wonderful sense of security.  Doing it 100 times over, and those teeny portions really can add up.  Especially when they keep increasing the dividend paid out.

This month was the perfect example of patience, and dedication to increasing the return.   In October, I received 30 payments for a total of $1,201.85    

That's a 74.18% increase over 2020 ($689.99).   Mind blown.  Well, not really.  I saw this coming.  And moving forward, the year to year increase will be more moderate, but steady.  

This thing really is a snowball rolling downhill.     Here's the details:


My biggest haus was yet another "special" dividend from ORI of $322.50.  These special dividends are common enough that "special" is not the proper term for it.   All I know is that it makes me feel very special.

More so than the big special chunks, I really like getting a steady flow of income to reinvest.  

I took nearly all of this $1201.85 and purchased more shares of holdings I own.    In a month or so, I will be doing a large post of my purchase activity.   Keep tuned for that.

Until then, stay safe and do what I do - take your spare cash every day and buy a share or two instead of spending it on stuff like a bag of chips...  

Monday, October 4, 2021

SEPTEMBER 2021 DIVIDEND INCOME

 I keep saying this, but this month just flew by.  I think 2021 is on hyper speed to our perceptions since 2020 was the longest, most drug out, most fucked up year of our lives.   At least we are 9 months past last year and moving forward.  Q4 here we come.

The house I grew up in went up for sale this month and sold in a week.  I've got mixed emotions on this, but had to get done for the care of my mother.    And the freshly exposed floors kind of made me wish i had done this years ago.


Quite the change.

Another month flying by means another month of passive income as the reward for investing in dividend growth stock.    The income is the whole goal of my investing strategy.  Gather enough dividend growing stock to eventually replace my income with dividends.  I'm chugging towards my goal.

In summary, I had 50 payments in September for a total of $1639.13.   That's a 13.37% increase from 2020.   Not the biggest leap, but as you may have heard in earlier posts, I had to stop adding to the fund and even sell some for my mom's transition.


The big haul of the month was (BBL) and their semi-annual payment. Would almost with they would dole it out quarterly, but I'll take the huge dividend rate.

October is lining up to be a monster year to year growth month, and wil really get cooking in November and December. 

Remember, if I can do this, anyone can.  You got to start somewhere.

cheers!





Saturday, September 4, 2021

AUGUST 2021 DIVIDEND INCOME

August is the month for our family to slow down and take in the summer.  We usually take some sort of vacation before the school year.  This year was no different and we really needed a break after getting my mom moved.    

So we took a few days off in O'Ahu. It's my home away from home.  I needed the recharge.  

Enjoyed the beach:



Took in a couple great breakfasts.   There's nothing like a great benedict.  



Yes, breakfast with a salad and fried rice.  It's a thing.




And my favorite udon and tempura.  Total comfort food.




The time flew by, but it was well worth it.  

Meanwhile the stock market just keeps going up and up.  Somehow.  Even with supply chain problems, a resurgence of the dreaded virus, and businesses not able to find enough workers, the stock market just keeps chugging away.  

I focus on replacing my work income with dividend income.   Find great companies to invest in that pay a decent dividend and have a solid track record of raising that dividend, hopefully at a bigger rate than inflation.  It's taken a few years and a lot of diligence, but I now casee some of the fruits of this effort.  I now get about 30 payments a month.

The result of  has been averaging over $1,000 per month in dividend income.  And my long term goal is to quadruple that in the next few years.  Will take some real dedication and allowing it to compound.

The past few months have put a halt as I care for my mom, but the ball will get rolling again soon.

So let's cut to the chase:  the August 2021 dividend income.   30  companies paid me a total of $1,350.96.

This is a 32.95% increase over 2020.  Fantabulous.  That increase is the result from dedicated investing and dividend increases from these companies.   

My big payout this month was a special dividend from Onemain Holdings (OMF) of a GIANT $3.50 special payment on top of the regular $0.70 dividend.  This is the 5th "special" dividend they have paid since August 2019.    What a find!

Also got a big one from AT&T (T) once again, and wonder what is to come in the next few months as they have split up the company.  This will surely be the end of the huge payouts, but will see what happens with the new shares I get in the break off.

Here's the breakdown:





REMEMBER, if I can build this over a period of 6 years,  ANYONE can.  And I mean ANYONE..  It only take commitment.

Until next month, cheers!








Friday, August 6, 2021

JULY 2021 DIVIDEND INCOME

This July has been a monumental month when it comes to myself and my families' life.  It truly will never be forgotten. 

Four weeks ago, I had to place my mom into a memory care facility. She was no longer safe to be at home without 24/7 attention and I was not able to keep up with her needs or feed her properly.
She's now settled into an apartment furnished with stuff from her home. It's a brand new facility, it's really great, and she is the first resident. Soon she will have more residents to converse with.

Here's a glance of my kid showing off her excellent bed making skills!



Currently, she's still confused as to why she is there and thinks she will be fine at home. Quite upset at me "pushing her out" and keeps asking to go home. She's still seeing me and grabbing her purse and coat to leave. So I am keeping my distance.

Once she's more used to her surroundings, I'll be able to visit more.

At least I am relieved that she's safe and being fed well. The past 3 years have been a struggle and the past 6 months took all my energy and prevented me from having any down time. So I am more relieved than I thought.

That being said, since the start of May, I have not paid any attention to my stock activity other than a glance here and there. I did have to cash some shares out to float her first few months of expenses.

Memory care is not cheap. Don't go without a plan like my mom did. It's so much, I would still have to cover a couple thousand per month after renting out her home. And that would be after some necessary repairs that would cost a solid $50K. That would also put my portfolio and kid's college fund at serious risk. I can't do that to my family and will keep the funds separated. So it will be sold to cover her costs

Now I have to spend some time clearing out the home I grew up in and preparing it for a new life.   

I will miss seeing my childhood bedroom.  It still has sheets I slept in during high school.  Whoa.


And I will miss the view of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.  


This process has taken all of my time and energy for the past 3 months.  

At least I know my dividend income is on autopilot while all of this is going on.   

Overall, I received 30 payments for a grand total of $1,045.86.     My big payout was Whitehorse Finance (WHF) and the $154.43 they pay me and a nice chunk from TROW.   

The details are in the chart below.


I will be in a holding pattern for the most part until the sale is completed, her care is fully funded and I have been reimbursed for the costs I have incurred for this.   

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

JUNE 2021 DIVIDEND INCOME

 2021 is the year of recovery.  Most of the nation is opening up.  People are out again and spending money that like it's Christmas all year.  

One of the side effects of this is a giant boom in the stock market.  Dividend increases.  All time highs.  And looks like it will grow even more once the transportation logistics work itself out.  In short, it's a good time to be a dividend growth stock investor.    So how did I do?

Not too shabby at all.  Now one of life's ironies is that right when it is time to snatch u as many shares as possible, I am in an extended holding pattern for free cash flow due to a family caretaking situation.  It will clear up and I will be able to make up for time lost.  But in the meantime, I will take my dividends and have a nice big pile to spend at a later date.

June brought me 48 dividend payments for a grand total of $1275.00.   Pretty steady flow of income.  More than 1.5 per day makes for an exciting month!   

It is a gain of 10.56% over 2020's $1,153.18.   That's the pace I want to see.

My big gain was from the amazing Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund  (VYM).  whenever I cannot choose what to get, I pick up some VYM.  It's basically a mirror of much of my own portfolio.  

Also loving my payout form T. Rowe Price. (TROW).  It paid it's usual quarterly dividend, but at the time of writing, I just received a special dividend of about triple this amount!

Here's the breakdown:


I will have about one or two more months of figuring out my personal situation, but after that clears up, I will be on a huge roll.   See 'ya soon!


Monday, May 31, 2021

MAY 2021 DIVIDEND INCOME

 We are 41% through the year (5/12).  And it feels like I just wrote this.   Thats mainly due to an incredibly busy month of May.  Big personal stuff going on that I will go into more detail on a later post when things all shake out.  But it makes time fly by so fast I did not even do my regular 3-4 posts a month.

May was a good month when it comes to passive income.  And by passive income, I mean collecting dividends from companies that I invest in that reward their shareholders by sharing the profits.  These companies tend to have a long track record of increasing these payments year over year.  This will result in some amazing compounding that will rapidly increase this income over the period of a few years.  

All it takes is 2 things: reinvesting dividends earned and patience.

The result of this patience is earning $1,047.99 from 30 companies.  This is an increase of 31.2% over 2020 and the $798.80 I earned last May.   The result of dividend increases, reinvesting the dividends and adding to the pot with any spare change when I can.   Hopefully, this pace will keep up. 



My big payday was at the start of the month with AT&T paying $192.40 and on 5/17 and the $100.50 payout from OHI.  

I do believe this is the end of seeing such payments from AT&T.   But it was a good run and it sure will be an adventure when shareholders get the shares of the new company..

Until next month - CHEERS!

Saturday, May 29, 2021

APRIL AND MAY BUYS AND SELLS - TEMPORARY SHAKEUP

Hello folks.  Took most of a month off from blogging to deal with some major league stuff.  

April began as a normal month, with my regular purchases using my easily earned dividend income.  Then things changed.  

I am in the position to have to take care of my mother and place memory care.  She had always refused to even consider any form of long term care insurance, or even any planning for any care.  She was sure she would just live out her life with no medical issues at all and  just peacefully disappear one day.  

Of course that does not happen to most people.  Time has come when she can no longer live at home on her own.  Sad, but I knew this day was coming for a few years now.  And sad for her, but with zero short term memory, she will only be upset for a short while after we move her. I would have been able to plan better, but she even refused to let me be power of attorney until she hurt her ankle 2 years ago.  

So it's up to me to pay for the first few months of care.   I had to do the inevitable:  sell a bunch of shares to cover the costs until we sell her home and recover the costs.  

In order to minimize the impact of these sales, I mainly chose the investments that pay the lowest dividend rate.

So first I will show the chart and then break it down.


So I now have $88,000 in cash.  This will allow me to pay for a few months of her care and prepare her house for sale.  The home repairs will take some serious cash, but will be worth it for sale price.

I decided to pick the holdings that had divided rates at 2% or lower.  A couple were a bit higher, like Target (TGT), but they had gained over 100% in equity and so I did not have to sell other holdings to get this much cash.

Once the home is sold, I will pay back this into my account and will start these over.  I kept at least one share in all of the holdings I closed out in order for me to remember the ones I will buy again.

In summary, I lost $1.346.70 in annual dividend income.  Not too bad considering the amount I took out.

I will update this as time goes on.

Take care of yourselves!


Monday, May 3, 2021

APRIL 2021 DIVIDEND INCOME

 A third of the way through.  Amazing.  2020 took nearly 100 years to end, and now you blink and it's 1/3 through the next year.  

April is one of my favorite months.  Spring weather returns, flowers come out, 


and I can spend much more time outside.  Like building a raised bed to have a permanent green onion supply.

.

April also means another month of dividend income.  These dividends are the result of being patient, vigilant, and dedicated to creating a source of passive income that will carry me through my retirement and hopefully will be passed on to future generations.

This month I received 28 payments adding up to $940.61.   This is down 18.71% from 2020, but after the "COVID Shuffle" I did with cut dividends, I am up about 8% over 2020 and will most likely increase to over 10% overall.  The selling and buying in 2020 resulted in losing income in January, April, July, and October.  but the other months are up tons!

And of course, I am taking these funds and buying more shares to increase this payment.  

The big dividend of the month  was Whitehorse Financial (WHF)  They are back after a few months off protecting my investment.  I just love the 10% yield.

Here's the breakdown:


May will be a monster month for me, but things will be getting funky in June for a few months, as I have to focus on some family issues.   I'll be updating y'all about this soon enough.

Please post comments if you see anything or have any questions.

Cheers!

Saturday, April 24, 2021

MARCH 2021 GOAL UPDATE

We are already 1/4 done with 2021.  It could not have gone faster.  In January, I posed some goals for the year.  Take a look:  2021 Goals.  

 Let's see how my goals are coming along:



FINANCIAL GOALS

  1. Add $10,000 to my investment account.   DONE!  Added $12,500 to my account!
  2. See my dividend income increase by 10% from 2020.  So far up 8.1% from this time last year
  3. Save $8,000 for bills in 2021.  Stuff happens.  Have $100 saved so far... 
  4. Fulfill my goal of buying the equivalent in shares of what I spent in 2020 at the following: Met my goals for Costco, Home Depot, Mcdonalds, Starbucks, Kroger, and  AT&T.  (the leftovers will go towards 2022)  I just need to focus on Target (TGT)


PERSONAL GOALS
  1. Go to Hawaii for 10 or more days.  I need beach.  Going for 11 days in August.  Phew.  My homa away from home.  Can't wait
  2. Exercise more.   Walk 10,000 steps per day.  I am now up to over 8,000 steps per day on average and going up!
  3. Drop about 30 lbs.  I am at 204 lb this morning of 1/1/21.  My doctor wants me to slim down.  My pants do too.  It's made my blood pressure creep up.  At 5'7", I need to be much lighter.  The walking will help.  So will goal # 4....  Down about 10.  On pace to lose 30 by my August vacation.  Beach body baby...
  4. Eat very little sugar.  I am eating much more healthy recently.  
  5. Sell off more of my record collection.   I am out of room.   Still getting more.  But did sell a few box sets.
  6. Make more music and release an album..   Still working on it.  Titled my latest song "Skid Mark Karen"...
  7. Work on front yard garden.  BAM!   Dug it up and weeded.  Layed down bark mulch.  Planted 4 blueberries, 2 raspberries, 4 lavenders, and placed a galvanized raised bed to have a permanent green onion supply.   Looking good!  Remember, this was a JUNGLE.


Posting this is keeping it real for me.

Sunday, April 11, 2021

MARCH 2021 BUYS

After some very active purchasing activity in January and February, this March was much more mellow.  

I only took the dividends I earned to purchase more shares.  No taking of profits and buying more from them.   I plan on letting what I have ride for a good while longer before snagging some equity profits and increasing dividends.

Even with the limited activity, I did make some moves I feel are solid.   

One was my return to Apple (AAPL).   I had taken hose profits a few months ago and reinvested the funds.  It was time to get back into them.

the other purchases I feel good about is more Whitehouse Finance (WHF) and it's mear 9% dividend yield.  They were a major player before the pandemic for me.  I ducked out to prevent a potential major loss, and now am diving back in.  

In summary, I invested $1,638.15 and increased my annual dividend income by $57.14.   That's a 3.49% return.  

Here's the low down.




Tuesday, April 6, 2021

MARCH 2021 DIVIDENDS - COMPOUNDING THE SNOWBALL

 WHAT?  We are 1/4 through 2021?   How can that be.   It honestly feels like February still.  Time is just flying.

Nope.  It's April.  Spring is in the air.  Spring is back in my step.  The trees are poppin out it's blossoms.



And I got a nice haul of dividends to talk about in March.  Let me recap what I am doing and why.

I'm funding my retirement by investing in shares of dividend growth stock.  

If I can focus my retirement funds in companies that will beat the inflation rate and increase their dividends more than the inflation rate on an annual basis, my investment will snowball to the point of replacing my work income while not having to sell any shares to survive on in retirement.  I'd be able to replace my income with the dividends I earn.

It all boils down to compounding.

So far I have gone from making $0 in 2013 to averaging $1200 per month in 7 years.  And that's with being stupid and cashing some shares out to pay for stuff.  

I now know that cashing out shares to pay any debt is foolish if my interest rate is lower than my gains in the market.  I have a debt that charges 9% annually and a car payment that is at 3%.   

Meanwhile, I earned 20% last year in the market in equity gain.  On top of tht, I average 3.17% in dividend return.  I now realize I'd rather have the debt and see my portfolio grow and snowball.

The challenge I have is funding it fast enough to retire as soon as I want to.

So March.  It came.  It zoomed by.  And I was lucky enough to earn $1640.04 from 49 payments.  And yes, this is a 10.63% increase over 2020.  BAM!

This is the biggest month of my journey and is quite the thrill.   And what did I do with it?  Yep, I reinvested every penny into more shares.  

Compounding the snowball.....

Here's the breakdown:


The big haul was BHP Group (BBL), but do keep in mind it is a semi-annual dividend, so it's pays huge, but only twice a year.   I actually prefer quarterly payments IMO.   nother one I am digging is getting over $64 from Target, one of my holy grail companies that I will try to always keep adding to.

April will be much smaller, but that's just due to the timing of the payments.     

I want to increase this by the time June comes and the same companies pay their next div.

Remember, if I can do this ANYONE CAN DO THIS.  

I am not a financial wizard.  I just study the numbers and use a stock screener and a large amount of dedication to my goal.  

U KAN DO IT.

Check ya later.







Sunday, March 21, 2021

FEBRUARY 2021 DIVIDEND INCREASES

 Yeah, I'm running late getting this out.   Been a busy month, so I am not sorry... Easter is on its way.



  So let's cut to the chase.   

I gots me some dividend increases in February!   Quite a nice month seeing $109.79 being added to my annual dividend income.  

The whole point of this investment strategy is to see the companies I own in my portfolio increase their payout to their shareholders at a pace that beats inflation.  

currently the US inflation rate for 2021 is at around 2.24%.   Last month, that rate of increase from the companies that announced a div hike averaged 5.52%.   Doubling the inflation rate.  

If I can hold this pattern throughout my whole portfolio, my income will snowball into something real substantial.

Here's the breakdown:


The hike with the biggest impact was T. Rowe Price (TROW) with their 20% increase.  Wow.  Robert Half International (RHI) and Home Depot (HD) were also very welcome.  

March has not been at quite the blazing pace as January or February, but Oracle (ORCL) announced a 33% increase.  So I am really eager to see the final results.

Until then...




Tuesday, March 9, 2021

FEBRUARY 2021 BUYS

Before I get into my February stock purchase post, I want to celebrate my mom getting her first COVID Vaccine shot today!  Took a lot of searching and some help from a vaccine angel!   Yay!  Here's the post-shot 15 minute wait area.

It was a very active month in February for shopping for some solid companies that will pay me dividends.  

I was eager to gain more of a return and decided to harvest some profits from Williams-Sonoma (WSM), which was over a 120% gain, take the funds and invest in companies that had a larger yield than the one I just sold.  

This allowed me to take the $2,356.63 and take the $38.16 annual dividend hit and turn it into a $142.65 annual dividend.  BAM!

One of my additions this month was a beginning entry in Snap-On  (SNA), one that has been sitting on my watch list for most of the past 2 years.  They were still passing my stock screener:  

  • Low P/E ratio.  A sign that the company is at a good valuation at the moment.  SNA is at 19.08.  I don't want to overpay for my shares.
  • Good dividend payout ratio.  SNA come in at a 43% ratio, which is wonderful.  When a company is around 50% dividend payout, it means they want to not only share their profits with their stock holders, but also have room to grow the company, grow the dividend, or cover the dividend when falling on hard times.    SNA fits the bill
  • A track record of increasing the dividend.  Over the past 5 years, they have increased the dividend by 15%.  That's inflation beating
  • Lage company.  Not a major factor, but I want a market capitalization of over $3 billion.  Larger companies that have good fundamentals seem to not fail very often...  SNA is a 11.8 billion dollar company.
So I purchased 7 shares at $182 each, costing me $1275.  This will earn a $34.44 annual dividend.  

Other larger purchases were Smuckers (SJM),  Lockheed-Martin (LMT), Steel Dynamics (STLD) and Netapp (NTAP).  All of these pass my screener, so I went shopping!

My BIG purchase was 45 shares of Onemain Holdings (OMF).   I was triggered by their second large special dividend in 6 months.  They had announced a ginormous $3.50 special dividend to go on top of their normal $.45 regular div payout.  I could not resist.  This is the 4th special dividend since late 2019.  
They love paying their share holders!  

My other large purchase was my formerly favorite holding, Whitehorse Finance (WHF) and their nearly 10% dividend.  They have not risen the dividend, but their payouts allow me to purchase other companies that do. 

In summary, I bought $8,881.21 of shares overall in February.   

This increases my annual dividend payouts by $548.29.  That's a 6.17% return.   Not too shabby.  One of my best months of investment ever.

Here's the breakdown....  


Until next month, stay safe!


Friday, March 5, 2021

FEBRUARY 2021 DIVIDENDS

Welcome to March.  2021 is going by at light speed.  2020 seemed to take forever.  

In the February blur of a month, we got to enjoy a weekend with a foot of snow.   


...which melted after 2 days.  

Also had a great butternut squash with mushroom and sage lasagne.   



And then there were dividends.  Getting paid for surviving another month.   The key to a future retirement!   

This month I received 29 dividends totalling $1,397.03    That was a 59.7% increase over 2019's $874.83.
My patience is beginning to pay off after all of the past efforts of dropping high yield REITs that slowly cut dividends and were losing value.

Here's the breakdown:


 My BIG haul was a special dividend of $395 from OMF.  Amazingly, this was their 2nd special dividend of the year and was quite the doozy.  Normally they pay a $0.45 dividend per share.   This was a $3.95 per share payout.   BAM

I also got my quarterly payment from AT&T and their 7% dividend.  One of the cornerstones of my portfolio that I plan on holding on to forever.  

This month's payment is the result of patient investment of dividend growth stocks.  Investing in solid companies that have a track record of beating inflation AND increasing the dividend more than the inflation rate also.   A win win. 

And it's motivation to work on getting another 59% increase.  It's March and I want to keep the ball rolling.  I can't wait to see the results!

Until then.....check ya later......

Friday, February 12, 2021

JANUARY 2021 DIVIDEND INCREASES

 Oh boy!  It's a new year and with that comes the annual horde of Dividend increases.

I love baby Yoda btw....


These increases are exactly why I invest in...drumroll....dividend growth stocks.  The magic of compounding begins and my return on my investment will grow year after year.  Here's an example:

If you had bought one share of Coca-Cola (KO) in 1919 for the $40 opening price, because of splits over the years, you would now have 9,216 shares.  With each share paying $1.64 cents in dividends per year, You would receive $15,114.24 annually (or a cool $3,778.56 every three months).   That's a 37,785% annual dividend payout yield. Wow.  I just like 5%

So increases are the center of the dividend investor universe.  And traditionally, December through February is the center of the  dividend hike season.

This January was no exemption.   I received 8 increases adding $38.59 in my annual dividends. Might not sound like much, but it really snowballs.

The big winner was Air Products and Chemicals (APD) and their 11.9% increase and wintrust Financial (WTFC) with a 10.7% hike.   

On a NSFW sidenote, I started looking at WTFC because the ticker symbol kind of sounded like "what the fuck"  👀....  And so I bought them.  

Overall, I had a 5.2% hike in dividends from these companies.  That's good stuff.  

Here's the breakdown!


And February will come the motherlode!   See ya then!


Thursday, February 11, 2021

JAN 2021 BUYS

 Jan 2021 will go down as one to remember when it comes to purchasing bits and pieces of companies.

My real cute dog is distracting me..



Anyhoo, to make a long story short, I invested $6,206.22 of saved up funds and got in on the ground floor of a few companies.  Also made a huge splash in a former holding that had a long record of being very stable and a huge dividend before COVID.  WHF.  My former largest holding.

Whitehorse Finance (WHF) righted the ship over this year and convinced me that I wanted a part of it again and their 10% dividend.  They do not increase the div, but also never cut it.   They rode out some major rough waters the made the dividend unsustainable.  They are back to having a decent payout ratio and making money.

 Another major purchase was getting a chunk of Comcast (CMCSA), and NetApp (NTAP).  

My new positions are not large, usually only one or two shares, but will make me want to increase as I see a small holding in comparison  to the rest of the companies.  That's what I did with Fifth Third Bank (FITB),  Snap On (SNA), and Steel Dynamics (STLD).  All have passed my stock screener of showing dividend increases, a low P/E, and a low dividend payout, giving room for this company to grow.  Here's my post about screening for stocks with a good value  Stock Screener

The result of my frenzied purchasing was investing $6,206.22 and increasing my annual dividend total by $359.85.   That resulted in a 5.8% yield on my purchases for the month.  Sweetness.  Someday I may actually enjoy the monies..


Well,  back to my dog now!



Saturday, February 6, 2021

JANUARY 2021 DIVIDENDS

Just for being alive, I earned income from 25 companies! 

 Another way to put it:  These 25 companies are working for me and pay me because I am an owner.  

Sweet.

The grand total for January was $982.96.  That's an average of $39.32 per company.  Not bad.

The big payout this month was a special dividend from Old Republic International (ORI).   I love those special dividends.  Hopefully they will pay a special dividend sooner than the two years it took since the last one.

I also began seeing a dividend from some of my newer holdings, like Comcast (CMCSA), and Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ).  I'm motivated to make those payouts larger than $10 each.  

Here's the breakdown.   



OH, and I saw Bernie Sanders in Leavenworth, WA.  See him?


 


 

Monday, February 1, 2021

2021 GOAL UPDATE - JAN 2021

 Well well well.  That month flew by.  And was a good month.  The fog and gloom that was 2020 is drifting further away with each day.  

Our dog sums it up best.  Just kick back and take it all in!.   Like my kid is doing in my Neon Zen Office.


January also means I have new goals for the year.   Last month I posted about it here:  2021 Goals.  

I made some amazing progress especially financially.   Here goes.

FINANCIAL GOALS

  1. Add $10,000 to my investment account.   Half way there in one month!  $5,000 down, $5K to go.
  2. See my dividend income increase by 10% from 2020.  Now that we are through the main evil of COVID, I think this is doable.  In 2020, my div income was $13,620.30.   I need to need to see it go up $1,362.03 this year.   After one month, I am up $186.99.   I need to average $113 er month, so I am ahead of the game.
  3. Save $8,000 for bills in 2021.  25% of the way there in one month. 
  4. Fulfill my goal of buying the equivalent in shares of what I spent in 2020 at the following: Knocked it out of the park!  Met my goals for Costco, Home Depot, Mcdonalds, Starbucks, Kroger, and  AT&T.  (the leftovers will go towards 2022)  I just need to focus on Target (TGT)




PERSONAL GOALS
  1. Go to Hawaii for 10 or more days.  I need beach.  I guarantee I will book this as soon as we are vaccinated.
  2. Exercise more.   Walk 10,000 steps per day.  So far, I am averaging 6,000 steps per day. 
  3. Drop about 30 lbs.  I am at 204 lb this morning of 1/1/21.  My doctor wants me to slim down.  My pants do too.  It's made my blood pressure creep up.  At 5'7", I need to be much lighter.  The walking will help.  So will goal # 4....  I am at 199 today.  Down 5 lbs in one month.  Good start.

  4. Eat very little sugar.  I cut out all snacks and high carb foods.  Have not eaten more than 30g of carbs per day.  
  5. Sell off more of my record collection.   I am out of room.   Still getting more.  Can't help it.  but I do have some to sell.
  6. Make more music and release an album..   made a cool song last week - inspired by industrial music of the 90's, I came up with this: (and the amazing title) Gordon Ramsay Goes To Jury Duty  
  7. Work on front yard garden.  A very rainy month, so I let it go.  But I did order a bunch of perennial herbs to surround the blueberries I am putting there.

Good month and will pat myself on the back.  But I will not start sucking my own dick just because I had a good 1/12th of a year.   This is a marathon.  



Sunday, January 10, 2021

UPDATED WATCH LIST AND PORTFOLIO

 It's been a while since I've posted an active watch list and current portfolio  So I just updated what I am looking at towards purchasing and what I would like to increase a stash of!

It a comes down to a decent dividend, a record of growing that dividend, a decent payout ratio so there's room to grow and not be forced to cut the dividend, a good P/E ratio to avoid buying an overpriced company, and a record of growth overall as a company (EPS).

Recently the EPS has been looking wonky, so I choose to ignore what 2020 looks like in comparison to 2019.

To see my portfolio, please go here:  PORTFOLIO


Here's the link to the page I keep this at.  WATCH LIST.

Here's the watch list:


Any questions or comments?  Please comment below!

Sunday, January 3, 2021

DECEMBER 2020 DIVIDENDS

 Welcome to 2021.  Super stoked we are no longer in 2020 and my football team is in the playoffs!  

And my kid like to startle the bejeezus out of me with stuff like this:


Best of all, December was a fun month for earning some passive income.  My March/June/September/December dividend months are always busy.   I see 44 companies pay out on these months.

I earned a total of $1542.22 in those 44 payments.

Here's the summary:


My big haul was a special dividend from Costco (COST) of $10 per share.  They tend to do this every other year or so and really makes up for the lower yield. Someday their dividend increases will be truly fat.  At least I hope.

The other winer for me was the Vanguard exchange traded fund VYM.   Gotten into it starting late this summer, and is a great go-to when I'm indecisive about buying shares.  This fund is chock full of dividend Aristocrats and contains more than half of my holdings.  It's like the greatest his of my portfolio!   I try to buy at least 4 every month.   Here's a great piece about why VYM is so awesome Why I’m Investing $500 Weekly with Vanguard ETFs.     

Now it's January and looking at another month with a special dividend that will blow the doors off from ORI.

Thoughts?  Please comment below