The Dividend Family Guy

December seems to go by the fastest of all months for me.   There is so much to do preparing for the holidays and then traveling and spending time with families.   My wife and I always debate if we are doing too much with decorations around the house.   Putting it all up (which the kids enjoy) takes a few weekends.   Taking it down also takes up a few weekends in January (mostly me putting it all away).   The debate is always is it all worth it or would our time be better spent doing other activities.   My wife always has a good point that it is spending time with the kids.   They enjoy it and will hopefully have fond memories of the holidays.   My only point is that it gets a wee bit stressful for us parents trying to get it done and take care of several young children. There are always several things you can do to make the holidays less stressful.   This year I had a fixed budget and did 100% of my shopping online.   No hunting the aisles for gifts or dealing with traffic.  

December went out with a bang being my best month of the year.   Focusing on family and time spent with them and friends is all I want for Christmas.   No gifts this year except for all of these great companies rewarding me with growing dividends and a $363.16 deposit into my brokerage accounts.   December is also a great month because many companies also reward their owners with dividend increases.   For me it was a total of 7 dividend increases ranging from .48% (MCY) up to VFC at 11.9%.   VFC continues to be on my watchlist and I look forward to purchase more of them in the future. Company Symbol Held In   Dividend Amount Received December Notes   ARCHER DANIELS MIDLD ADM IRA 0.3 $30.00   ARCHER DANIELS MIDLD ADM Taxable 0.3 $3.90   CHEVRON CORP CVX Taxable 1.08 $2.16 .93% Dividend Increase (kept streak going)   COCA COLA KO

Company Name Symbol Industry No. Years Dividend Yield Sector EPS% Payout Span-America Medical Systems SPAN Medical Equipment 18 3.51 Health Care 41.56 Williams-Sonoma Inc. WSM Retail-Home Products 11 3.06 Consumer Discretionary 44.18 Old Republic International ORI Insurance 35 3.95 Financials 51.37 Donegal Group Inc. A DGICA Insurance 14 3.15 Financials 53.92 Qualcomm Inc. QCOM Telecomm Equipment 14 3.25 Information Tech 55.64 VF Corp. VFC Apparel 44 3.15 Consumer Discretionary 58.33 Target Corp. TGT Retail-Discount 49 3.32 Consumer Discretionary 44.04 Reynolds American Inc. RAI Tobacco 12 3.28 Consumer Staples 47.79 Gap Inc.