The Dividend Family Guy

Over the holidays not much has been going on (especially since I didn't save much.)  I did have enough cash though to initiate to positions in decent companies.  The first is Chevron Corp. ( CVX ).  I wrote about them and a few oil companies  in one of my previous posts, Battlefield Oil .  The other is Crown Crafts Inc. ( CRWS ).  I had read an article about them and then did some research.  It was a small purchase for a small company. Chevron was a no brainer.  Being the fifth largest integrated energy company in the world and a dividend champion gave me enough confidence that the dividend is secure and will continue to grow.  Their free cash flow is not so well but overall the last quarter's cash flow statement was in decent shape.  They will survive this bump.  I was able to pick up 9 shares at $109.04 and then watched it drop further.  Sometimes you just have to smile when that happens to you and keep your chin up....

A slight bit of increase (a whopping $6.78) from last quarter (August) in the taxable account.  In the IRA about the same with an increase of $10.88.  The largest payer in my taxable account was El Paso Pipeline Partners LP.  That was my final dividend from them.  December will show the transition to KMI plus some cash.  I look forward to owning KMI and the rising dividend they will provided me in the future.  Below is a look at  dividends  for this year.  Whatever I end up with as a total for the year will be leaps and bounds compared to last year.  Next year I may actually set a goal to keep the increase growing. Full Disclosure: Long on EPB now KMI.

November was a normal month with prepping for winter in the beginning and then enjoying Thanksgiving towards the end.  I have much to be thankful for.  For one I have not gone in debt any further this year.  That I am proud of considering I took a 10% pay cut in February from a career change.  Another thing to be thankful for is my family's good health this year.  No broken bones, surgeries, etc.  Even with my insurance if something were to happen health wise I would have gone into more debt.  The reason being is I used my company funded HAS to get Lasik done on my eyes (another thing to be thankful for) and help pay for my son's braces.  Lastly I am thankful I had some money to invest this year by investing in dividend paying companies who raise dividends over the years.  Expense Breakdown In short I had a net loss of $425 dollars this month.  We will see in my expenses that car maintenance and fuel jumped again to 12%.  My...

The Christmas season is upon us and for the past week I have been sick.  I am behind on allot of things but not so much with the shopping.  My kids are done and I have just a few more presents to buy for the gift exchange with my side of the family.  Here are some of the better deals I picked up. Old Navy - Who doesn't like $12 sweaters.  Stocked up for the family and spent $100.  With that I got $40 in Old Navy cash and another $20 Visa gift card for signing up for Visa Checkout.   Shipping was free. Famous Footwear - Shoes were worn and giving me back problems.  Upon many recommendations I bought 2 pairs of Rockport's.  The sale was buy one get one half off plus another 15% plus $10 coupon I had.  So normally the shoes together would have been $280 and I got them for  $167 or $84 bucks a pair.  I have never spent this much money on shoes but my back has been killing me and ...

I grew up in a family were both parents smoked.  My grandparents smoked and so did my aunts and uncles.  I remember at holiday gatherings the smoke being so thick you could not see from one end of the living room to the other.  Slight exaggeration but it was pretty foggy.  I did not enjoy any part of it and have never tried a cigarette in my life.  It is very addictive though so I don't see tobacco products going away any time soon.  It is a personal preference and I am fine with that so long as it doesn't affect my family.  There is money in tobacco though so I thought I would take a look in my rankings to see if any stood out.  There is only one that made the top 100, Universal Corp.  The others all have high yields but looking at their other numbers who knows if they can pay that yield long term.   Of the six we are looking at today only UVV and MO are dividend champions.  That is a good indicator that dividend ...

Gas was $2.80 for me this weekend.  That was with my gas card's 3 cents/gallon discount.  Going through my ranking system for the month 3 big oil companies were in the top 100 list.  High yields?  Good value?  Let's take a look at how the 3 end up in a battle against each other using the DFG ranking system .  I do need to work some more on that page once I have some more time. The companies I will be looking at are all well-known companies.  ConocoPhillips (COP) , Chevron Corp. (CVX) and of course ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM).  All of them are energy companies that have businesses that deal with exploration of oils and gasses, production, refinement, etc. though out the world.  XOM and CVX are both dividend champions (25+ straight years of higher dividends) while COP is an up and coming contender (10-24 straight years of higher dividends.)   Value ExxonMobil has the best value when I put the ranking together.  The price to...