WMT Purchase

While I'm not a fan of Walmart personally, I like deals.  So I bought

12 shares @$60.73 in my taxable account  (10/14/15) and  8.4746 shares @$59.00 in my Loyal 3 account (10/16/15).

This adds $40.13 to my yearly forward dividend income.

July EOM Wrapup

Survived another month!

July was especially fun with the unexpected KRFT payment. I was going to be on the bubble to reach my $1500 yearly goal but now I'll far exceed it.

Charts

Purchases

Loyal3
-Normal buys
BUD
DIS
KO
UL
INTC

-Took a speculative position in FTR. I mostly took the position due to dividend yield and that i can buy it commission free and DRIP via Loyal3. Its also nearing all time lows. I don't insist on waiting for a bottom but this one was near lows so figured I'd take the purchase.

FTR

Taxable

Canadian Banks are/were on sale due to a rate cut announced in  July. So i purchased:
BNS
RY
BMO

Ford  (F) was cheap, so I added some additional shares

I also averaged down on :
IPPLF
EBGUF

Lastly,  a speculative position on CSD http://guggenheiminvestments.com/products/etf/csd  CSD is a spin off ETF and allows me some exposure to companies i wouldn't want to buy individually or too difficult (for me) to track.

Of course all the above (with the exception of F) is in the red with how the market is :-/ I'll keep looking for opportunities when sectors are on sale.

I've updated the portfolio spreadsheet Google doc.

June EOM Wrapup

yeah i'm behind...bunch of kids...summer break...

I received $143.22 in Dividend payments

Charts:

Loyal 3 purchases:

I buy what's in the red each month to average down.

HSY
KO

Taxable:

BBL is mining exposure (UK), TEF and TU are foreign telcos, XOM, IPLF, EBGUF are US and Canadian Energy.

BBL      Yield: 6.37%
TEF       Yield: 5.91%
TU         Yield: 3.89%
XOM     Yield: 3.52%
IPPLF    Yield: 4.93%
EBGUF  Yield 4.33%

I've updated the shared portfolio spreadsheet to reflect the additions.

May EOM Wrap Up

May EOM Wrap Up

May was my biggest dividend payout to date at: $161.60 :-)

Charts:

Dividends by Month

2015 Dividend Goal Progress

Purchases:

I had a side hustle pay out some money plus an equity grant so I made some purchases in taxable accounts

This month I bought:

F @$15.53  for a starter position.  Weekly chart is looking pretty weak so I'd be willing to add more in the 14.00-14.50 area. 

Some reasons for the purchase: 

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12993172/4/8-recession-proof-stocks-to-prepare-your-portfolio-for-the-next-cycle.html?startIndex=0 and 3.92% dividend yield.

WBK @$25.64 for some foreign (AUS) financial exposure. Weekly chart is looking weak (you'll detect a trend here) Looking to buy more below $25.00. Did miss the ex-dividend date though :-(

Reasons:
One of the four big banks in Australia, but the only one on NYSE and 5.72% dividend yield. I want to continue to get more foreign exposure although I will probably primarily do this via PID or IDV


HSY @$93.37 in my Loyal3 account  I would love for it to get back down to $90/91 area and i'll buy more.

Reasons: 

chocolate!

NVDA @$20.54 

Reasons:
I'm bullish on NVDA for long term with their attempt to become the NFLX of gaming.  Its also a tech company that at least pays a little (1.53%) to own it.


PG @$80.28

Reasons:  it was $8 dollars cheaper than i bought it for my IRA back in Dec/Jan.  Its on sale at the moment.  Weekly chart is looking weak though. I plan to add more between $75-$78. 3.34% dividend yield.

JNJ @$100.91  

Reasons: I own it, like it, its 6 dollars cheaper than I own it in my IRA.  Looks like it found its bottom around 98 for the time being. 2.97% dividend yield.

Normal Loyal 3 purchases for May:
K, KO, DPS  

Reasons: I buy whatever is red on my tracking chart for that month to average down.

Things I wish I knew in my 20's

Continuing on from my first post on things I wish I knew when I started working are things I wish I knew in my 20's.

At this point I was getting a steady paycheck and was in the military. Some topics I really had no clue about include:

1. The key to saving is living on less than you make.

To anyone that practices any sort of frugality you know this one already but I think it is lost on the majority of people in their 20's.  Now to be fair I had several bosses that told me to live on my previous salary and save the difference. I mostly heeded this advice but banked the cash only to piss it away on other things later.  Plus I was mostly brought up to equate stuff with caring/love. So buy all the things!

To be fair its suuuuuuuper difficult at that time in your life not to blow all your money on stuff.  Going out with friends, traveling, eating out, you can finally afford a nice-ish car, etc.  Happy to hear advice on how you bypass this stage to pass on to the little ones.

Either way, its true, the key to saving is living on less than you make.

http://www.successwithmoney.com/live-on-less-than-you-make/
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/rule-1-spend-less-than-you-earn/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/01/raising-a-family-on-under-2000-per-year/

The part that's missing in that advice is to properly do something with that extra money. I touched on this in the previous post about wishing I knew something...anything...about retirement accounts but understanding the power of compounding is also key.  After a brief stint with FirstCommand where I was sold high load funds and life insurance I didn't need I eventually did end up with a Roth IRA in an S&P fund.  Unfortunately I put the financial education journey on pause there and really didn't pick it back up for 10+ years.

2. Avoid credit card debt at all costs.

This should be obvious but sometimes it is not.  In college everyone is throwing credit cards at you. You need to strike a serious balance between building credit and buying crap you don't need or have money for on credit.  It took me many many YEARS to finally get out of credit card debt.

Credit Cards are a tool that can be used to build credit and earn reward but they must be used appropriately and not as a way to buy things you don't have money for.


3. Establishing a budget

What the heck is a budget?! The key to #1 and avoiding #2 is the budget. AKA why I can't have any fun :-)

To be serious though, I never could understand why I made OK money in my 20's (and now good money) but never had any. It wasn't until I started tracking where it all went that I had my answers.  The One-Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards is an ok place to start. Its very simple, lay it out there and track the money just to see where it goes. Then go looking for things to cut out.  When I decided to try to meet with financial planners many of them asked if  I had a budget and the better ones would only see me after I had it to bring in with me :-)

 If you want some more ammo Dave Ramsey's books are ok as well.  Plus there are tons and tons of resources on this now on the interwebs.

I do this religiously now with YNAB. The manual part is what works for me but its ok to try a few tools to see what sticks and fills the need.


4. Understand Roth vs Traditional IRAs.

TLDR;
**Do the Roth until you make too much**

Reference: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/03/012203.asp

Where to put the money?

• No idea:  Target Date Funds via low fee mutal funds or ETFs
• Some idea: Proper mix of domestic, foreign stocks and bonds via low fee ETFs
• Lots of ideas: ETFs and dividend growth stocks (see below)

Also understand lower the management fees the better:

Reference: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/why-fees-matter/

5. If employers do any sort of matching, make sure you contribute enough to get that match no matter what.

You want that free money to accumulate as much as you can for as long as you can.

Relevant blog posts:
http://blog.mint.com/saving/goodbye-college-hello-future-why-retirement-savings-matters-in-your-20s-051215
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/5-retirement-savings-ideas-for-young-people-1.aspx
http://www.kiplinger.com/article/saving/T063-C006-S001-10-financial-commandments-for-your-20s.html
https://www.millersmoney.com/money-weekly/free-money-for-your-401k

6. Understand dividend growth investing or at least the buy and hold mentality.

-Learn basic stock analysis

-Learn what a trend is and wether a stock is in an uptrend and downtrend
-Learn about timeframes and how we care about Daily..really more  Weekly/ Monthly charts when it comes to investing.
-Learn about the Dividend Aristocrats and its ok to devote a portion of saving/investing to these Dividend Growth stocks
-Read A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing by Burton G. Malkiel
-Read The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. by Benjamin Graham

April EOM Update

Total dividend income for April was: $109.68.

It is pretty fun to watch these grow since Jan's income was 35.79 (mostly because i had missed the ex-dividend date on most of the purchases when i rolled over the old 401k).

Excel skillz chart:

This month I took refund money and added money to my two Motif's see:
http://hackyourfinances.blogspot.com/2015/04/march-update-2.html

The majority of the cash went to the one that is performing well vs my "bets" one but I'll continue to add to that one until it reaches my max position/bet size. I'm still bullish on 3D printing long term.  I may also rebalance to add in some solar stocks, still thinking about it.

I also made contributions in my Loyal3 portfolio to:

DIS
UL
KO

For the most part Loyal3 doesn't dividend reinvest, but did for KRFT. I just take any dividends and add it to the next purchase i make.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

March Update #2

Total dividend income for march was: $131.06 :-)

I mentioned in the previous post I started a few Motif's. The first was a Dividend Motif based on services people use and Asset Management companies I think will do OK in the future.

 

The second was a bet on the future, mostly with 3d Stocks and NVDA. NVDA because they are working to become the NFLX for gaming and a few of the various 3D printing stocks because i think the service will become more important/profitable in the future as the technology progresses.

I'm prepared to lose all the cash I put into the bet on the future Motif.

 

I also continue to buy stocks with Loyal3.  This month I added to positions in:

Intel
Target
Unilever
Disney
Mattel
Kellogs
Kraft
Coca Cola
Dr. Pepper/Snapple

This is more than usual as I ended up with some additional capital to use.

Kraft I'm sure was a happy surprise for anyone that owned it with the Heinz/Kraft merger.  Not sure if I'll continue to add to the Mattel position.  High yield but the company isn't doing to great right now and frankly I'm unsure of its future prospects. If anyone has an opinion I'd be happy to read it.

End of February Update

Update for Feb:

Opened a Loyal 3 account and established 9 positions. There is some overlap with the IRA. The portfolio page was updated to reflect the new positions. I plan to add to these positions every month.

1 purchase of STWD (REIT)  10 shares @24.50

More background here: http://divgro.blogspot.com/2015/02/recent-buy-starwood-property-trust-inc.html   The 10 shares should generate $19.20 of annual dividend income.


Dividend income for the month was: $140.28  Everything in the IRA is DRIP so it was all reinvested back into the stock that generated it.  I'll add that it is pretty exciting to get paid to just hold onto stocks.

Purchased a logo on Fiverr for 5 bucks. Its OK and better than I would have come up with, so it stays for now.

Thanks for reading

[Shared] Dividend Growth Investing 101

worth a read if new to the concept of dividend growth investing.

http://www.thediv-net.com/2015/01/dividend-growth-investing-101.html

[Shared] Want To Rebalance A Portfolio? Use Cash, Cash, Cash

Interesting perspective on rebalancing and the idea to rebalance with new infusions of cash and not by selling winners just because you are overweight or not balanced.  I like it

http://theconservativeincomeinvestor.com/2014/12/29/want-to-rebalance-a-portfolio-use-cash-cash-cash/