The Dividend Family Guy

Without any money to invest from January all I could do is screen and learn about some new stocks that came up this month.  It is my hope still to save enough where I can actually invest on a regular basis again.  Part of me wants to start using loyal3 or computershare.com .  Buy for free and sell for free on Loyal3 or for a fee on Computershare.  That way I can continue to invest in some of the strong dividend payers these companies allow you to buy.  The other part wants simplicity and is willing to pay the fee to keep all my money in one place with one tax document.   The third part just reminded me my goal is to first rebuild an emergency fund.  That part is such a downer and is no fun.  The fourth part is my wife who wants me to put any free money into home improvements.  I avoid that conversation at all costs.   The house will hold up and last longer than me.  My time is what I want not a nicer house. I could go on all day about that stuff but you are probably more inte

Month Overview Not a bad start but could have been better as we went over budget this month by about $60 bucks.  For this year's budget I dropped the 'Needs' budget buy about $300 dollars.  January is my last car payment so for the rest of the year there will be no more car payments.  This was a big victory as I took out a 3 year loan with high car payments.  That part of the budget dropped but I upped the budget for things like auto repairs and utilities.  Is the budget reduction enough to achieve my savings goal for the year ?  The budget adjustment gets me 6% lower but my goal is 10% less on 'Needs'.  I guess I need to find something else to cut out. Needs Category Comments More, Less or Same as last year same month Mortgage Steady consumer of my life Same Home Insurance Almost like life insurance Same Utilities $240 under budget (no water bill this month $120 more than las

I haven't had any extra cash to invest since October of last year but that doesn't stop the dividend machine.  It is a small amount now and as long as dividends aren't cut and continue to grow it will be a sizeable chunk in like a hundred years.  By then I may be long gone but my kids and maybe their kids will reap the rewards.  Sometimes I wonder if dividend growth investing is the right model at my age with limited savings to invest.  This year will be another minimal investing year as I rebuild my emergency fund and set aside more money in the budget for expenses such as healthcare costs and home repairs.  This money should be kept separate from the emergency fund as it can be planned for from previous year averages. January dividends totaled $149.68 .  This was a year-over-year increase of 88%.  This was mainly attributed to the purchase of 3 companies.  I have yet to look over dividend increases to see what amount of new dividends were from reinvesting vs. buy