The Dividend Family Guy

Needs work but only $45k Back in September it was made known to our office that the mother company would be shutting us down.  No good reason was given other than they did not wish to renew the lease on our building??  That made no sense and no one questioned it at the time.  I have been through this before but had never seen the ax fall on my head in my 19 year career.  So in 2018 on April Fool's Day I will become job-less. Following the stages of grief I was at first shocked, then angry, then freaked out and am now at a place of calm acceptance.  I haven't really bothered to look for another job yet as I wanted to enjoy my holidays stress free. Stress free because they are giving me a very small severance but more importantly because I have savings and the ability to vastly reduce my expenses.  I have already halved my internet/TV, cell phone and car insurance bills.  In a tighter squeeze all unnecessary spending would be cut....

Cake I made for my son's 8th Birthday! The holidays are upon us and I remembered this morning that I never posted my previous months dividends.  I was busy switching over to a new spreadsheet to track them.  It gives up to date statistics and I can now see my yield on cost.  I will share my new sheet and my financial statement sheet in another article. October is a slow month for my portfolio.  There were $36.60 in dividends earned by my little workers.  That represents a 235% increase in dividends compared to the same month last year.  The majority of that was from additional purchases of dividend growth stocks made throughout the year.  However I also collected repeat dividends from great companies like KO who increase brought me an additional $.54 just by hanging onto the stocks. Stocks that paid me dividends: MO, AFSI, CNQ, KO, GE*, and WSR November was solid with $329.14 in collected dividends.  This represents a 48% YOY in...

I write this after being up since 3 AM with 3 sick kids.  Sorry for the bad grammar.  I was watching a movie the other night while wrapping presents for the kids and it dawned on me that the movie is what I want to do for the rest of my life.  The premise of the movie was something like a well-to-do family with a single income loses that income.  The spoiled kids loose everything and the family looses the house.  The father had been kind to a stranger and the stranger crosses paths with them while they are homeless.  He takes them into his house, he dies, and leaves his estate to them.  Through the process of being homeless and working for this guy they learn that things are not important in life.  Being kind is more important and the family heals and becomes super awesome.  The estate is basically a Christmas tree farm.  The guy was rich (but frugal) and gave the trees away for free to anyone who stopped by (and he also took trees ...

  October was another merry Halloween.  I started using a new spreadsheet to track things more like a business.  It is like a balance sheet with income/expenses and assets and liabilities.  The big thing is it is a total picture.  Before I was only tracking after-tax items.  With this spreadsheet everything is tracked.  The 2 most important cells on the sheet are the monthly cash flow and the net-worth.  These two indicators tell me whether I am saving every month and how things are tracking overall (am I getting closer to FIRE.)  The good news is I am tracking the right way.  The bad news is I have had negative cash flow for the past 4 months.  This is contrary to my savings rate which was 26% for October.  All of that is in my 401k contributions. Upon doing this I have discovered I am still spending more than my after tax income.  What a lie I have been telling myself.  I have accepted my financial mi...

Company Name Symbol Industry No. Years Dividend Yield Sector EPS% Payout +/-% vs. Graham Lazard Limited LAZ Financial Services 10 3.33 Financials 45.81 67.0 Williams-Sonoma Inc. WSM Retail-Home Products 12 3.05 Consumer Discretionary 44.19 54.8 Altria Group Inc. MO Tobacco 48 3.89 Consumer Staples 33.00 100.6 Cracker Barrel Old Country CBRL Restaurants 15 3.07 Consumer Discretionary 57.90 139.8 Brinker International EAT Restaurants 13 4.14 Consumer Discretionary 54.87 n/a Archer Daniels Midland ADM Agriculture 42 3.21 Consumer Staples 60.09 3.2 Cardinal Health Inc. CAH Drugs 21 3.12 Health Care 53.92 46.5 Old Republic ...