Recent Buy

It felt great to get some time off from work! I'm back in Florida from a well-needed holiday break. I spent the last 8 days in Michigan with my entire family. We exchanged gifts, sang karaoke, played games and did other crazy family stuff. It was great!

However, that doesn't mean I'm not still focused on the long-term journey. I've been a bit busy with the aforementioned family activities, so I'm back now to post about a transaction I made just before Christmas. I've been watching the stock market here and there to varying degrees during the holiday, but overall I've been content to see what 2013 brings us and sit on what cash I still have. I'm happy with the addition to my Intel Corporation (INTC) position I made earlier in the month, and I'm just as happy to add to my largest position as you can read about below.

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.

Happy Holidays!

I'm currently spending time in Michigan with my whole family around me. It's wonderful to have everyone I care about around me. It truly reminds me why I'm so actively and aggressively pursuing financial independence. Time is everything to me, and it's great to spend it down with loved ones. I took an entire week off work to spend the holidays with friends and family, and the timing couldn't be more perfect! That creeping, tiring feeling in the back of my mind was inching closer and closer to the surface: I was getting burned out!

I hope all of my readers make the most of this time of year. It's a great time to reflect and realize what's most important in life.

Once again, thank you to all who support Dividend Mantra. This site would be nothing without you readers and supporters. I'll be back to regular posting by the end of the week.

Merry Christmas to all and have a wonderful holiday!

Thanks for reading.

Photo Credit: suphakit73

Holding Vs. Deploying Cash

I'm just another young guy, at 30 years and counting, trying to achieve financial independence at a young age. My main mission with this blog is to chronicle my journey from a negative net worth to retirement in 12 years. As such, this being my real life, it's of the utmost importance to me that I do everything in my power to maximize the possibility of this goal actually being achieved. As many of you already know, my strategy is to invest fresh capital on a monthly basis in attractively priced high quality dividend growth stocks and to keep most of my net worth there, eventually living off the dividend income my portfolio will provide.

One concept that dividend growth investors, including yours truly, often talk about is the right time to deploy cash. When's the right time to invest? If the Dow Jones Industrial Average just moved up 300 points over the last two weeks, is it better to wait for it to come down? I just got my paycheck yesterday, but I should hold it for at least a few weeks before I inject fresh capital into my portfolio right? The Shiller PE is above 20 right now...maybe we should wait for a correction, right?

This article is going to lay out my exact thoughts on this issue. The answer is - there is no right answer. Unfortunately, as many things in life, it depends. It depends a lot on how much capital you have to invest with, how long your investing horizon is and where individual equities are at in terms of valuations. Ultimately, opportunity cost is at the heart of this matter.

The Fiscal Cliff...Opportunity Or Doomsday?

Notice The Rainbow?

I wasn't sure I was going to even write about the upcoming potential "fiscal cliff" on this blog. Frankly, I'm not following any of  the latest news out of Washington, as I don't really care about politics or anything else that comes out our dysfunctional and argumentative headquarters USA. I always focus on the long-term. Changes in taxes and government spending levels have been almost as common as changes in Presidency. I'm investing in long-term opportunities, and my favorite holding period is forever. 4-year or 8-year changes in government taxation and spending levels are just blips on my radar. They can be pretty large blips, don't get me wrong...but they're still blips.

What I'm going to do is to give my quick take on things, and provide you some excellent links on this matter. 

If You Must Value The Market

He plays a mean ukulele

I don't engage in market timing. I have been purchasing shares in high quality companies that have a history of paying and raising dividends almost every single month since early 2010. This means I've been sticking to a strategy of valuing individual stocks, rather than trying to value the overall market. I've purchased equities when the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been below 10,000 points and I've also purchased equities when the DJIA has been above 13,000 points, as it is now. I buy monthly because it's a fairly holistic approach to investing, ensuring that I'm not trying to time purchases. I don't let the market really guide me, rather I let individual securities and their pricing guide my purchasing habits.

Time: It's Everything

I realized a few years ago what I truly value in life: time. Time is the only commodity that one can buy, but cannot truly purchase. I plan on buying mine by continuing to save large portions of my income, thereby having freedom to then "spend" this time however I'd like for the rest of my life once I'm financially independent.

Time provides so much. It provides opportunity, flexibility, freedom, chance. Some people say money is everything. I beg to differ. While money certainly has value (you have to buy food and pay rent), I could be afforded unlimited money, but with no time it won't matter very much at all. Conversely, give me unlimited time and no money and I think I'd be a very happy soul indeed.

Perhaps I was exaggerating a bit when titling this article. Is time truly everything? One most certainly needs more than time to live: food, water and air quickly come to mind. But, if you have literally no time (as in you cease to exist) then nothing else matters. So, while time isn't everything...if you don't have any you have nothing. Furthermore, as important as food, water and air is to survival, these live-giving qualities share something greatly in common with time: they're easily taken for granted until they're gone. It's easy to take the air we all breathe for granted. Take it away, and all of the sudden one realizes just how important it is.

All the same, it's easy to take time for granted. When you're working away in your younger years, spending your 20's, 30's and 40's with your nose to the grindstone it's easy to think you'll live forever. You're likely very healthy, very productive and you feel invincible. You're putting away money for a retirement that seems all too far away. Of course, you one day will find yourself older and much nearer to death than birth. This is when time, or the lack of it, all of the sudden gains perspective in the foreground, rather than a distant thought deep in one's consciousness.

Recent Buy

The "Fiscal Cliff". You can't watch television or read a newspaper without hearing or seeing news on the recent developments in regards to the cliff. Washington appears to be dysfunctional, and appears to enjoy it as individual lawmakers try to leverage partisan policy. This is evident on both sides of the aisle. I'm personally not someone who follows Washington very closely. As such, I couldn't care less what happens with regards to whatever mania/news comes piping out from headquarters U.S.A.

What I do care about is investing for the long-term. Our nation needs to cut spending and increase revenue on a pretty grand scale and whether this happens through negotiations or the cliff matters not over the very long-term. I'm not really paying attention to Washington. I continue to stay true to my course and inject fresh capital into the stock market by buying attractively priced dividend growth stocks with solid fundamentals. I'm continuing to buy part ownership in companies that have great prospects for future profitability through whatever economic climates persist.

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 November 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 Income Update - November 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.

These are probably my favorite posts. Dividend income is why us dividend growth investors do what we do, and the harvest this month was once again bountiful. I guess I'm easily entertained. Where some people crave going out for a night on the town and slamming down as many drinks as possible I truly enjoy tallying up my dividend income for the month and realize I'm one month closer to financial freedom. Call me an old soul.

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 - December 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.

It's important to keep in mind that while updating the overall value of my portfolio is important for historical reference and for purposes of keeping track of total return, my main focus is on the rising dividend income stream the Fund provides.