NOVEMBER 2022 SUMMARY

 I will sound like a broken record as to why I have not blogged in a month again.    Another SUPER busy month just flew by...

Really.  Let me explain....  

Our home, a cute little 1918 craftsman bungalow, has been showing some signs of wear and tear over the past couple years.  The original Douglas Fir floors are really beat up, the main floor bathroom tub looks beaten.  The kitchen countertop plywood underlayment is rotting, so the sink will soon fall onto the floor, the fridge is dying, and the old fridge is only 30" wide, so replacing it has very limited options.    Look at this beat up floor and formica..

So for the past month, we've been in the middle of planning out a full remodel of the kitchen, moving the sink and stove so we have longer counter runs and much more cabinet space.  It requires plumbing and electrical moves.  That means we pull up the crappy warped oak floor and replace it with a new laminate floor.  Here are the renderings..

Lots more counter space!

The bathroom will get a new tub, toilet, flooring, and tile walls.  

After that, the main floor doug fir floors will be repaired and refinished.  Then new paint.  

It's not cheap and with the interest rate on a loan for these repairs being as it is, I will be cashing some of my lower yield shares to pay for it.  We are thinking it all is in the $80K range for the whole process.  And that is why I have not written anything. Excuses, excuses..

Also, I am introducing a new format for posting updates.  Instead of having separate posts for dividend income, new buys, and dividend increases, I will summarize it in one post.   So here goes!

DIVIDEND INCOME

November was another fantastic month.  I received 35 payments for $1,552.73.  That's an increase of $485.94 over the $1,066.79 in November of 2021.  A 45.5% increase year to year.  I'm liking seeing the combination of increased dividends, reinvesting every penny, and adding at least $1,000 per month to the fund.  The result is stunning growth.   Here are the details below.

Not too shabby.  Hopefully, the remodel will not sink it too much.

DIVIDEND INCREASES

Last month  I sat a total of $104.53 of increased annual dividends announced .  I may have missed one somewhere, but a nice total.  The average of the increases was 6.51%.  Snap-On (SNA) was the home run with a 14.1% hike.  Sweet!  Here's the nitty gritty.

 STOCK BUYS

Last month I bought $1,788.47 of good companies that pay shareholders an ever increasing dividend.  I ended the month with a stash of cash that I proceeded to buy more the first few days of December, but that is for next month's report.  This resulted in adding $51.82 of annual dividend income.

The big buy was starting a new position in Restaurant Brands International (QSR).  The company that owns Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeye's, and Firehouse Subs had been on my watch list for a while now and felt it was time to pull the trigger.  They have a nice track record of beating quarterly estimates, have a moderately low P/E ratio, a dividend payout ratio that's in the upper end of the swet zone at 70%, and a dividend growth rate of 21% over the past 5 years and should be due to increase it again, fingers crossed.  Glad I got them.  

The other purchases were additions to earlier holdings that I am inching towards my goal of a $5,000 cost basis per holding.   Here are the details.

Sticking with a plan to continually buy dividend growth stocks, reinvesting all dividend income, and having a large moat of holdings has resulted in inchin closer and closer to my goal of replacing my work income with passive income.  I went from almost no dividend income to over $2,250 per month average in 9 years.  In 10 years, I should be at my goal and will only want to work to save money on health insurance until social security kicks in.  

If a shopping addicted neandertal can do this, you can too!

See ya!

SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2022 DIVIDENDS

Howdy folks!  I'm Back.    It's been a while and I apologize for skipping the past 6 weeks.   

I have been quite busy with projects on my home, dealing with the new school year, caring for my mom who entered hospice, and simply ran out of time in life to even remotely blog.

Most of my time was spent releasing my music.  I put out a single and 3 albums. One album of electronic music, one album of downtempo music, and a Halloween compilation.   The comp had a song called "October" that had 63K plays.   That's a big leap over having less than 200 listens for  typical song.  

I also promised to try to create a new song, or at least a new fragment of one per day.  Very time consuming, but a great feeling and a ton of fun.   

My music can be found on Spotify at:   Chickenwizard's Music

My spawn did the amazing art.   Here's an album cover for The Moon.

We did have some fun, like go to the Seattle Kraken vs Buffalo Sabres game.  7th row seats.

Also went to the NY Giants visiting the Seattle Seahawks and got the best seats in the house.

And 2 months went by collecting dividends.   Passive income, currently being reinvested is the key to becoming financially independent.   

Let me cut to the chase:  

SEPTEMBER:    

September was record setting.   59 dividend payments that added up to $3,087.46.   That's a 87.6% increase over September 2021's $1,645.13.    I honestly surprised me.   That total was padded by the special dividend I got from OHI.   The details are below

OCTOBER:   

Kept the ball rolling in October by making a 112.61% increase over October 2021.   

38 payments for a total of $2.555.27  This is the month I get the giant Whitehorse Finance dividend of $1,065 that I hold to invest on other holdings in my portfolio.   Going from $1,201.85 in 2021 to more than doubling it is also mind blowing.   I want to keep doubling my returns.  I will reach my goal of surpassing my work paycheck sooner than later.   Whoot!

Here's October:

The compounding is making more of an impact as it grows over the years.  It took forever to make it to a $1,000 a month dividend income month.  Three short years later, I am breaking $3K.   

I sound like a broken record, but If an idiot like myself can do this, then you can too.  

AUGUST 2022 STOCK BUYS

 I'm overdue updating everyone with the stock purchases I've been making.  So this will be a multi month posting.

My goal is to purchase shares in companies that pay a dividend to create passive income.  Not only pay dividends, but companies that regularly increase these dividends.  And not just pay dividends and increase them regularly, but also have room to increase that dividend on a regular basis.    

If a company is around 60% or under in paying out dividends from their total income, then they have room to grow.   Once the payout ratio gets too high, they are paying all of their income to dividends and not able to grow their company,  Eventually it results in a cut of that dividend.  That's a no go for me.

The result is a steady stream of passive income.  Income just for being alive! 

When I make stock buys I think of it as purchasing income.

Here's what I have done since March of this year...

I did make a few sells.  In September I jettisoned both KD and WBD.   Both were spin offs and neither paid a dividend.   I also lowered my holdings in Williams Sonoma (WSM) and wanted to earn a higher dividend in another company.  I decided to buy lots of Walgreens (WBA) stock.

The result is investing $18,845.80  and increasing my annual dividend income by $604.97.  Six thousand of that 18K was income I added to my portfolio.  I have a goal of adding $1K per month for this.  The rest were earned dividends and the stock sale income.

The purchases resulted in  a 3.21% return yield.   I think that's a wise way to store my income.

Thanks for reading!

AUGUST 2022 DIVIDENDS

Hello everybody.  First of all, I'd like to apologize for not posting for the previous month.  The rest of life took all the time I had to make any posts.  Half the month was spent in Hawaii, and the time around that was spent doing all the work releasing three albums and one single.  

This is hard not to stare at.

Hawaii is our family go to for fun in the sun.  After being there many times, I now know exactly what I want to do and maximize my time there.   It really comes down to which beach I body surf at and what places I eat at.   On the beach side of things, it's in Kailua on Oahu.

For the food side of things, I focus on poke, sushi, and noodles.   Like this!

The rest of the month was taken up by releasing 2 new albums, a Halloween compilation and a new single.  Remixing and mastering the music takes up most of my free hours.  But I am happy with the result.  It's gone from a fun hobby to a side hustle also.  

Here's a link to a pre-release before worldwide release of 9/19   Chickenwizard on Bandcamp

But you are here for the dividend report.  So here goes.....  Killed it.

In August, I received 36 payments for a grand total of $1,609.37.    That's a 19.13% increase over 2021's $1,350.96.    And it's the slow month of the quarter, so I'm happy.   Passive income coming in only to be reinvested in more shares creates gains like this.  It really is an ever growing snowball.

Next month is going to be off the hook, so be ready for that report.  MEanwhile, I promise to do more dividend and vinyl record updates.

Until then,  toodle-do!

JULY 2022 DIVIDENDS

It's been a crazy busy month and so this blog was neglected.  My apologies.  I've been occupied with after work gardening, making music, long walks, and watching baseball.  Fun stuff.  And gaining some listeners on Spotify.  

Yipes - 666 listeners.  Better watch my back!

Meanwhile, I get paid passive income through dividends on companies I own a tiny fraction of.  As I earn these dividends, I reinvest to increase the next payout.  And on and on and on.

I also add at least $1,000 month in cash to these dividends to build my positions.

The result of this after eight years of doing this is a substantial source of income.  A few more years of this, and I can replace my work income with this and say "sayonara" to having a job.   Whee!

The past month of dividend payouts were another knockout for me.  38 companies paid out a total of $2,509.99.   In comparison of 2021's $1,046.46 I gained a whopping 139.86%

After doing this for a long period of time, the gain is really snowballing.  

Here are the details...

Whitehorse Finance (WHF) is the big winner once again.  I hold a lot of shares of them just so I can take the dividend and purchase other companies' shares to diversify.

I sound like a broken record, but if I can do this, so can all the ther idiots out there!  It only takes commitment.

CURRENT VINYL PLAYLIST 7/12/2022 - 80'S COMPILATION ALBUMS PART 2

 Current Vinyl Playlist VOL 8

This is installment #8 of my new regular entry on my neglected blog...

Compilations - the precursor to the mixtape.

Time to show off some more  I have recently ran across.  

Currently, my vinyl collecting addiction is focusing on these awesome gems.  You get a bit of everything - a mix of artists and interesting art / concept.  And many were a limited release of current hits, so it's a little flat time capsule.

Here goes

1) Some Bizzare - 1981

I just had to start off with what can be argued as one of the most influential albums of the early 80's.   Some Bizzare gave the world an introduction to future stars Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, Blancmange, and The The.  This is a must have for fans of the New Romantic movement and am confident this is the most groundbreaking compilation I have.  It was just sitting in a store for my taking a few weeks ago.  I had been on the look for this since the late 80's

Here's DM doing "Photgraphic"

2) Sharp (16 Sharp New Rock Acts) - 1979

A fine example of the punk/post punk/new wave scene in the late 70's.  This has been on my heavy rotation in my office lately.  Fun stuff showcasing Undertones, Elvis Costello, The Cars, Ramones, and Television.  

Here's the Undertones doing "Jimmy Jimmy".

Now for more strange Ronco comps....

3) Overload - 1982

Some strange attempt at making a gothy/new wave/Ziggy Stardust Frankenstein using headphones.   

Here's Fun Boy Three doing "The Telephone Always Rings" from this.

4) Raiders of the Pop Charts Part 2 - 1982

What in the actual hell.  Another can't avoid the cover purchase.  

Not bad of a mix.  Poppy new wave

Here's Toto Coelo...  I remember this on the new wave station when I was 13.

5) Chart Encounters of the Hit Kind part 1 - 1983

Another one I could not pass up.  The mix is very pop wave of the time.  

This is I-Level.  I was today years old when I first saw this video.  

6) Chart Trek 2: To Boldly Pick the stars of '84  - 1984

This one is an ok listen.  I really dig Fad Gadget's stuff and "Love Is A Stranger" is a classic.

But I HAVE to post this video or I would feel I have failed everyone...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you....Roland Rat Superstar.

Thanks for letting me entertain you!

See ya soon

JUNE 2022 DIVIDENDS

The stock market just sank and sank and sank all throughout the month of June.   My portfolio dropped 7.39%, and now 9.85% since Jan 1st. 

So what!  My kid's fastpitch softball team won their league this year.  Go Comets!

Am so happy for her.

And even though the prices are sinking for my stocks,  the dividends remain unchanged.   I see them as on sale, as a lower price increases the dividend yield percentage.  So I am not freaking out.

If a stock is $2 a share and earns a 10 cent dividend, I have a 5% yield.  If it drops to $1 a share, my 10 cent dividend is now a 10% yield.    So I like buying shares when the market tanks.  Everything is on sale.

In fact, quite a bit of them handed out giant dividend increases over the past month, like Lowe's 31% increase.  

In June, I hit another home run for dividend income.  I received 59 dividends totalling $2,661.14.  In June of 2021, I received $1,275.   That's a 108.72% increase from last year.  Wow.  

It's a combination of ever increasing dividends, reinvesting my earnings, and adding some of my paycheck in chunks when I can. Sometimes I can't, but I try.  Once you have a chunk of different holdings, it really compounds.

Here are the details.

 

The surprise is LYB and the gigantic special dividend they handed out.  

The companies I own little tiny bits of are for the most part on real solid footing.  Road bumps happen.  We see major corrections every few years.   Yes, we may be heading into a recession.  We'll see how bad it is.  It does not mean we should freak out and leave.  That only locks in losses.  Insead, get a share or two more at a huge discount.

See you next month.

CURRENT VINYL PLAYLIST 6/23/22 - 2 NEW RELEASES AND AN AMAZING SOUNDTRACK

 Current Vinyl Playlist VOL 7

This is installment # 7 of my new regular entry on this mess of a blog.

I'm catching up.  Jumping to the latest finds

1) Hollie Cook - Happy Hour

The 4th release from the ultra smooth and sweet voiced Hollie Cook and her self titled "Tropical pop".  Just got this in the mail, and is not even out digitally until tomorrow at the time of writing.

It's kind of like the "lover's rock" type of reggae made famous back in the mid 1970's.  Every track is a cocktail on a tropical beach in paradise.

And the cover art is in the style of her first three LPs.  

Great pressing.  A surprisingly loud and deep bass but crisp high ends.   And you can't beat the limited edition orchid & tangerine vinyl with great labels.

Here is the clip for one of the new tracks.

2) The Clash & Ranking Roger - "Rock The Casbah" b/w "Red Angel Dragnet"

The single to promote the most recent remastered reissue of "Combat Rock" features Ranking Roger of English Beat (and soon to be in General Public).  

His toasting style completely changes both songs.  Loved Rock the Casbah sine I was 13 years old, but RR really gives it a new life.    The B-side, "Red angel Dragnet" allows Ranking Roger to really turn this into a dub classic.   

It's available on The Clash's UK website.

While Rock the Casbah is kind of a remix with a replaced lead vocal, Red Angel Dragnet is more of a dub version of dub song.   It's perfect.  I just wanted it to keep going.

3) Manfred Hubler & Siegfried Schwab - Vampiros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party

Acid jazz pop from 1969.   This is a 2005 reissue of an ultra scarce soundtrack for "Vampiros Lesbos", a late 60's sex-horror take on Bram Stoker's Dracula.  That sums up the music....

Here's a track of this music....

I'll be back with more in a week or two!

MAY 2022 DIVIDEND INCREASES

 As the current inflation nightmare is the biggest factor in our current economy, dividend growth investors get somewhat of a break by owning stock in companies that continually raise their dividend payout to match growth/current price.    

For the month of May, I had six increases announced that resulted in an increase of 6.13% for the six companies involved.   Not quite beating inflation, but gets close.  

Much thanks to Lowe's (LOW) that announced a 31.3% increase.

Overall, my annual income increased by $72.40.   It look like a tiny meaningless drop, but over the course of a year, I have over 120 companies that will be raising their dividend,   IT adds up.  And, of course, it all gets put back into the market where it compounds.   

Here's are the details.

CURRENT VINYL PLAYLIST 6/10/22 - GETTING JAZZY

 Current Vinyl Playlist VOL 6

This is the sixth installment on my new regular entry on this mess of a blog.

I'm still working hard on catching up...

Pulled out some jazz records and wanted to showcase a few of them.  

From upper left:

   

1) John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

IMO, this is where you start if you do not know jazz.  This is the best example of modal jazz and one of the most important and highly regarded jazz recordings ever.  

All recorded in one session in December 9th, 1964.   

Here's "Part II - Resolution"

2) Earl "Father" Hines - Blue Note #5 12" 78

Recorded and released in 1939, this is a fine example of early Blue Note recordings before WW2.  Here's side B - "Reminiscing At Blue Note".  My records sounds MUCH cleaner than this video.

3) Duke Ellington - Ellington Uptown

Found this gem in a thrift store in Coos Bay, OR.  Great stuff at the end of big band era.  The creation of the Long Playing record gave Duke Ellington a palette to compose wonderful extended pieces like The Harlem Suite without the constraint of the short length of a 78rpm side - about 5 minutes max.   

4) Dirty Art Club - Gardens

Not jazz, but has the same kind of mentality.  Psych-Hop that expresses a bunch of cool moods in one record.  

Here's a YouTube of the whole thing.

5) Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba

The titles speaks for itself.  This kicked off America's Bossa Nova craze in the early 1960's.  Here's Desafinado.

6) Hugh Masekela - Masekela

This was recorded in late 1968 by the great South African jazz trumpeter.  One of my personal favorite albums.

"Gold" was released as a single, did not feature his trumpet, but you can really feel the African vibe to his music.

I have MANY more to review.   

See you next time!