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 cou...

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...

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 we...

Dividends grow like leaves on a tree. Why Change The last and only Dividend Family Guy stock screen was posted when I had started writing this blog.  A lot of it still holds true but like everything else it should be reviewed (annually for me) and adjusted.  Always learning and growing is a good way to become financially independent.  I have learned quite a bit in a year and some of that will be applied to version 2 of my stock screen. First Change My struggle continues on whether or not to include all companies listed in Dave Fish's U.S Dividend Champion's spreadsheet  ( All CCC worksheet).  Most of the companies with the most potential for growth tend to be Challengers (5-9 years of dividend growth).  These are also the most likely to cut dividends as it has not baked into the culture long enough.  I am not saying this doesn't happen to the kings (Diebold for example) but it is much rarer. Building a solid core first, then once it ...

The goals for this year are simple and focused.  I hope by doing this I will achieve them.  Unfortunately I do not think I will be able to bump up my investment rate.  However my plan for the year will set me up for the future by freeing up income.  Additional planning will also ensure that income stays free for investing.  Some surprises are good but financial ones that reduce your free cash flow are not.  Here they are in no particular order as they are all important to me. 5% weight loss by end of the year I want to live.  Plain and simple.  I want to see my kids graduate from college, get married and have kids.  I want to live to retirement so I can enjoy the fruits of my labor (dividends).  Less fat means better sleep for me and less risk of cancer .  Having kids means my sleep is disrupted by them.  It is not so bad now that the youngest is 3.  However I still wake up ...

The year 2014 ended several weeks again and I finally have time to sit down and total up my numbers.  I am happy to announce that I did not incur any new debt for the year!  In fact my income was a whopping $700 more than my expenses.  I feel pretty good about that considering my career change that set me back 10% of my income .  I hope to see my savings & investing grow more this year with my car paid off.  However life tends to always change on you so who knows what 2015 holds for me. Initially I had written about my budget and what my targets were.  When I started tracking I realized I was nowhere close to hitting those targets and when through several adjustments in how I track.  The budget goals were simply not realistic since they were not based on the past.  This year's budget should be better and more predictable.  Having information will allow me to set achievable finance goals. Category Initial Targe...

Sunny day at work. It has been a good day so far.  Donated blood, the sun is shining and summing up my dividends for 2014.  It was a big jump from last year (mainly because I actual bought something).  Now that I got the ball rolling it will be tougher to top a   814% year of year growth for all accounts.  This was largely in part to my IRA which I can't touch until much later in life.  If I just do the YOYG for my taxable account I get a more realistic growth of 224%.   I was never enjoyed math even though I had to go up to Calculus III in college.  So I appreciate the gift of the internet which let me know how to calculate growth .  I haven't set a goal yet but as long as I contribute at least the same amount as last year I will be very happy. My largest payers this year were Windstream in my taxable account and SeaDrill in my IRA.  Well that will be changing this year since SDRL eliminated the dividend . ...