The Dividend Family Guy

I had read an article that stated it would roughly cost me 250 thousand dollars to raise a kids these days.  I found this chart on Wikipedia that gives a breakdown on costs by income bracket and expense type.  Very interesting stuff.  With that said I am pleased to announce my daughter was born a week early.  My wife and the baby are doing fine and we are all adjusting to lack of sleep (hopefully for the last time.) People are asked us if we were crazy to have another child.  At times I wondered that myself.  How could I afford to raise another child in consumerist America.  The key is to reuse as much as you can live like are parents were raised.  When I was a kid we never ate out.  My mom or dad cooked all of the meals.  We still eat out maybe once or twice a month so if things got tight that could easily be eliminated.  I am finding my cooking skills are better than all fast food places and even most chain restaurants....

Income & Expenses My paychecks from my new job have smoothed out and I now have a good understanding of what my monthly income from work will look like.   My healthcare costs roughly quadrupled with the move.   This was compensated by a higher salary but it still hurts to see how health costs vary from small companies (with less claims) to larger ones.   Dividends for July were a slight drop from last year but that did not affect my income in any major way (yet.).   I think when I am living off of them any dividend cuts or stock splits will have to be watched very closely to avoid income loss. As for expenses there were no surprises there.   We did a planned vacation that was covered by income for the month.   It was in state since my wife is in her third trimester and we needed to stay close to home.   Next year it will be back to the beach (thinking Maine this time).   One of the perks of my new company is I can book hotels t...

As I continue to save for expected healthcare costs not much has changed in the dividend area.   My goal was to save up $5500 dollars to cover my deductible.   I did this because I am still building my HSA (Health Savings Account) up since starting my new job in June.   At this time I am about $800 shy of this goal.   At the end of August I hope to have saved enough to get back in the investing game.  Stock Account Dividend Received Shares of Life Purchased Notes CRWS IRA 0.08  $7.94 0.1851 No change in dividend GPC IRA 0.615  $89.55 0.0775 No change in dividend UBSI IRA 0.32  $40.23 0.8255 No change in dividend RSO Taxable 0.16  $19.25 No change in dividend ...

May was a triple paycheck month so it will be hard to beat it's savings rate.  With my new salary June wasn't so bad even after paying a semi-annual car insurance bill. I am officially one month late on this since it is now August.  I have been busy getting things ready for the baby due this month.  This past week I took off of work to spend time with the kids while I am still getting sleep.  We had fun at the zoo, the county fair, hiking in the woods and exploring a cave.  My daughter and I even spent a couple of days working on a couple of projects out in the garage.  Some great memories were created and all on a budget.  We will explore if I stayed on track when I write July's.  For  now let's take a peek at quiet June. Income This was the first month at my new job.  My health insurance is weird as I pay the premium for the full month in the first paycheck.  This has made it hard to set up a nice reoccurring payche...