5 Awesome Things About Living Car-Free

After selling my car last summer and living without a car for an extended period of time for the first time since I was 16 years old, I was surprised, frustrated, excited and scared at various times throughout the process. Initially, the process was a bit difficult as I learned to make my way through a city that is very unfriendly to anyone living without a car. However, as always, I learned to adapt after a little while and I began to appreciate the opportunity to save a ton of money (my car was costing me $500/mo at that time) and at the same time live a slower paced life. I was spending significantly less and getting much more. After a brief relapse earlier this year, I'm now car-free once again and appreciating all the different aspects and nuances of this lifestyle. I just wanted to share a few different awesome things about living car-free.

What Are You Buying?

It's been a little while since I asked you readers "what are you buying?". I figured it would be a good time to find out what everyone is looking at. With the market blistering higher since the beginning of the year it's become increasingly difficult for us value/dividend growth investors to find suitable equities at attractive long-term prices with a margin of safety to protect oneself in a market decline. I've been purchasing attractive dividend growth stocks every single month since I started my journey in early 2010. Major market slides and large upticks have both occurred in the last two years and I continue to purchase during both, relying less on my ability to time the market and more on the ability of time to compound my investments. I believe time is a much stronger force than my intuition, and an ally you surely would want on your side. Cash is king, except when inflation is eating away at it..which is pretty much all the time.

Although the market is showing no signs of a correction that many individual investors and talking heads have been looking for, I still continue to challenge myself to find quality businesses trading for fair or attractive long-term prices. As such, I'm considering the following three equities for purchase next month:

Guest Post: Confessions Of A Dividend Junkie

*This is the first ever guest post at Dividend Mantra. A frequent supporter of the site, Pey Shadzi, has written a great article about being a dividend junkie and the benefits of such.

You can follow Pey at his blog or at Seeking Alpha where he is a frequent contributing author.*

Hey, nice to meet you. My name is Pey. I'm a dividend junkie.

I wasn't always this way, you know. Just over three years ago -- right around the time of my 26th birthday -- I sat down at my kitchen table to ponder my financial future. In my opinion, my situation actually wasn't looking too bad. I had done many things right including paying off my college loans while still in school, working three jobs for pocket cash, building up a sizable cash position to fund graduate school and dutifully paying off my car. I was pretty much flying high and after throwing my hat in the air to celebrate at graduation, I literally had to pat myself on the back for doing everything right.

But then it hit me: My net worth was still technically $0.00, was it not? That's a bad thing, right? I guess I wasn't really too sure. Realistically I was only 26 years old. Maybe I was doing well, maybe I wasn't.

Were You Worth More As A Baby?

I started my journey to early retirement and financial independence in early 2010 just as I was turning 28 years old. I felt that my 20's had largely been a financial waste, as I spent money just as fast (or faster) than I earned it and largely felt okay about it. I never really looked at financial statements because I knew I wouldn't like what I was going to see. I racked up credit card debt, student loan debt and spent cash like it was going out of style. I don't know why, but something just "clicked" one day in my head as I realized that I was on a path that was unsustainable. I hunkered down and decided to break out all my finances and see where I stood. After all, you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you're at.

Recent Buy

The markets have been absolutely screaming lately. For the first time in history, this past week the DJIA closed above 13,000 points, the S&P 500 closed above 1,400 points and the Nasdaq Composite closed above 3,000 points all on the same day. That tells me that the markets could be getting a bit overheated, due for a pullback after the extended rally that has been going strong since the end of 2011. This could be a great time for an individual investor to build a sizable cash position, awaiting a pullback before deploying some "dry powder". I had seriously considered doing that myself before I made my last purchase, adding to my MCD position. I decided, however, to continue along the path I set forth for myself when I first started this journey. I decided to continue to purchase what I believe are quality dividend growth stocks at attractive long-term prices, regardless of what the overall stock market is doing. And, so I purchased yet again.

As part of my Recent Buy series, I try to let my readers know of any equities I purchase soon after the transaction is completed. This is just one way I try to document my progress toward early retirement and financial independence.

Weekend Reading - March 17, 2012

My first full week of riding my new-to-me 49cc scooter is behind me, and I must say it's really exciting riding it to and from work. Getting 100 mpg isn't bad, either! So far, I've filled it up once (requires 1 gallon of fuel) and it should last me for at least another week. I'm loving it. All the talk of high gas prices on the television go in one ear and out the other now.

In other news, the market has continued its epic run. This past week, the DJIA closed above 13,000, the S&P 500 closed above 1,400 and the Nasdaq Composite closed above 3,000 points all on the same day for the first time in history. That's a great headline, and it's nice to see the economy doing better but this kind of activity makes value investors like myself cringe a bit. It's tough to find good entry points on quality equities in this market, but that just presents a challenge that needs to be overcome. Either you choose to build cash and wait for a major dip or you dig deep and scan for value in the field. I decided to scan for European equities that have not had the major run that U.S. equities have of late and I made a purchase this past Friday. I'll post about that very soon.

Here are some excellent articles from fellow dividend growth investors, frugalists and personal finance bloggers from the past week.

The Poor Rich Need Dividends?

This article originally appeared on The Div-Net on March 1, 2012.

I was recently reading an article on Yahoo! about bankers and other professionals working in the finance industry becoming frustrated by the lack of blockbuster bonuses being given out by major banks like Goldman Sachs (GS). You can read it below:

My New Ride - Part III

Not mine, but it looks exactly the same

I promise I'm not changing my transportation options just to write articles! I have been completely and totally as honest and forthcoming as possible since starting Dividend Mantra, as I want this to be a completely transparent view of one man's march toward financial freedom. As such, this blog will chronicle both my victories and failures. I have decided to change my transportation once again as I constantly keep an eye on frugality while trying to maintain a balance of reliability and quality of life. While I like being frugal and living as cheaply as possible, I also need a reliable way to work as being late is something that is not tolerated well by my current employer. I had thought that purchasing a cheap vehicle, as I chronicled back in January, was the best way to balance reliability and frugality but I have now realized that I was wrong.

Recent Buy

Buy on the dips, right? That's what they always say, yet it's emotionally and philosophically difficult to do. When a stock is falling in price the natural reaction is to ask oneself "what's wrong here?". That's understandable. What I try to do is instead of asking myself that question, I ask myself "what is everyone else getting wrong here?". Instead of picking a stock apart and finding all the right reasons for the price falling, I look for all the right reasons to purchase the stock and take advantage of other people's fear. Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy. The great Warren Buffett is wise, indeed. Well, today one of my holdings dipped and I purchased.

As part of my Recent Buy series, I try to let my readers know of any equities I purchase soon after the transaction is completed. This is just one way I try to document my progress toward early retirement and financial independence.

Income/Expenses For February 2012

Each month I will post my income/expenses for the previous month. I track every dollar in and out, so what you see is exactly what I earned and spent (rounded to the nearest dollar).

Dividend Increase - Harris Corporation (HRS)

I just wanted to write a quick article today to let readers know that Harris Corporation (HRS) announced a 17.9% increase in its dividend, raising it from $0.28 per share quarterly to $0.33 quarterly per share.

Dividend Income Update - February 2012

Another month has passed by, and it's time for me to post an article on my favorite subject: dividend income. The reason why I love to post articles on dividend income is because it's pure numbers. It's hard to argue the success of long-term dividend growth investing when you can slowly and surely see dividend income rise over time and get closer to covering one's expenses.

I'm including my dividend income from the month of February. The dividends received during February were slightly lower than January, but as my portfolio grows and expands the monthly differences will smooth out and matter less as time goes by.

I hope these monthly dividend income reports provide inspiration for any investors out there that are just starting out. It's easy to see these payments rising month after month and it shows that it's possible to one day pay for monthly expenses with dividends, which would provide an investor opportunities and freedom to pursue other interests than full-time work. Without further ado:

Freedom Fund Update - March 2012

Well, the time has come to update the Freedom Fund once again as we start another month. The Freedom Fund is my portfolio, and I think it's aptly named. My portfolio is my way to freedom; freedom from working at a job I don't enjoy to purchase goods I don't need to impress neighbors I don't care about.

I feel extremely fortunate and thankful that I'm able to post these updates every single month which shows the power of monthly contributions to investments because of the high savings rate I maintain. It shows how a relatively large sum of money can be built through the power of time, patience and perseverance.