Weekend Reading – February 22, 2014
What a week it’s been!
I finally completed the move from Blogger to WordPress after a very busy and stressful period of buying hosting with HostGator, canceling my account with them, and then repurchasing hosting with Liquid Web because of capacity and customer service issues with the former. Couldn’t be happier with my decision thus far. Dividend Mantra 2.0 is off to a fantastic start. Judging by the feedback I’ve received it seems you readers are really enjoying the new look and the new features! I’ve also been testing out WordPress as I catch up on some drafts and get some serious writing done. I really like what I see so far with WP, as I’ve been writing my heart out. And I have to mention the move from Blogger to WP was made possible because of Emily from Emily White Designs. She helped get everything migrated over properly, so thank you Emily!
Of course, as a dividend growth investor I’ve also been quite pleased with some of the dividend raises I’ve received over the last week or so. Many of us are lucky if we see routine raises at our day jobs, let alone high single-digit or low double-digit pay hikes year after year. But that’s exactly what we get for the most part as dividend growth investors, with the likes of The Coca-Cola Company (KO) giving us a 8.9% raise just a couple days ago, and Lorillard Inc. (LO) following that up with a 11.8% raise. These dividend raises allow us to compound our wealth even faster, as the increased dividend payouts allow us to reinvest at greater rates by being able to buy more shares in companies that are also paying us more money via regular dividend raises. It’s this wonderful cycle of more money buying more money. And who doesn’t love more money??
A busy week, indeed. I keep forgetting that I’m on vacation! This sneak peek into financial independence is going very, very well. I’m telling you, it’s going to be hard to go back to work when my two-week break is up. But I’m more motivated than ever to make this break my eventual everyday reality. In the meantime, I’m going to include some light weekend reading.
But before I do, I just wanted to say once again: thank you to all readers for your continued support. It means a lot to me. This move to WordPress would not have been possible without you all! I appreciate you more than you appreciate me, because it’s truly wonderful to have an audience that enjoys my writing. I hope I’m able to continue inspiring and entertaining for many years to come. Now that I’ve got that off my chest…
Below, you’ll find a short list of articles I’ve recently read and enjoyed. I hope you enjoy them as well.
How to find long term dividend stock ideas
Dividend Growth Investor recently ran a screen against David Fish’s invaluable Dividend Champions, Contenders, and Challengers document and came up with some excellent candidates for further research. He also included some recent analyses on the screened stocks.
Canadian MoneySaver Webinar
Avrom is hosting his first ever investing webinar on May 6th, 2014. Very cool, right? Congrats to Avrom for this great achievement and free resource to the community.
Resigning from My Job and Moving to Thailand
Angela shares a heartfelt story on the anxiety she felt resigning from a job she generally enjoyed that paid good money to chase her dreams and imagination in Thailand. It’s a great story, because it shows that you don’t need to hate your job to chase after big goals like financial independence or traveling the world. Even if you love your job you lack autonomy if you don’t have enough passive income to do what you want at any given time. What if you love your job today, but tomorrow you feel like taking a month off and your boss says no? If you have no other options then no it is. However, if you build up income sources that are not dependent on your day job you can take that month off and more. In the end, what I’m talking about here – and what Angela is talking about – is freedom, not hatred toward a job.
Dividend Stocks Forever: An Endangered Species?
Tim discussed the potential of increased dividend taxation and what that might mean for future dividend growth. It’s an interesting subject, but I’m inclined to agree with Tim and deal with it on a company-by-company basis if the time ever comes.
Building a No-Cost Dividend Growth Portfolio with Loyal3
I’ve noticed a lot of chatter recently regarding Loyal3 – a brokerage that offers a limited number of stocks that you can buy commission-free. That means $0 to buy. I haven’t personally signed up for an account, so I can’t honestly review or recommend the company, but W2R has and did. My concerns mostly lie in the fact that this business model (no-cost trading) has been tried before, and it typically doesn’t last long. Maybe Loyal3 will be different. However, I always subscribe to the notion that there is no free lunch in life. Perhaps that’s just my conservative side. The nice thing is that Loyal3 currently offers no-cost options for transferring your shares to another account, so if they decide to start charging trading fees you could move on out if necessary.
A Glimpse Into My Busy DIY Landlord Week
Joe shares his busy week with us, and this experience is just one reason I don’t invest in rental properties. I have no desire whatsoever to be a landlord. Dealing with tenants, repairs, cleaning, vacancy issues, security deposits, and leaking toilets among many other issues is just my cup of tea, nor an idea of a good time. I feel Joe’s pain here. I invest in dividend growth stocks because PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) doesn’t call me about a toilet that runs. PEP just sends me a cash every three months. That’s a relationship I quite enjoy. I’m aware rental properties can be quite lucrative, but I’m okay leaving some money on the table. And I’m also aware management companies can handle most of this stuff for you, but that cuts into the aforementioned lucrative aspect of these investments.
These 34 Dividend Growth Stocks Go Ex-Dividend Next Week
I published an exclusive article over at Daily Trade Alert that lists 34 dividend growth stocks that go ex-dividend next week. I also highlighted one company in particular that I feel is a pretty solid value at today’s price.
Should I Buy a Stock at Its 52 Week High
The Dividend Guy discusses some recent purchases he made with some stocks at 52-week highs, and how he did after the buys. I think the takeaway here is that even buying high quality dividend growth stocks at a peak isn’t generally all that bad of an idea, because even if they tank after you buy (like what happened to Mike after he bought MCD and WMT) you’re still collecting dividends while you wait for the stock to recover. This can turn a poorly-timed purchase into a great buy if you hold and keep reinvesting the dividends all along the way. None of us possess a crystal ball, so all we can do is analyze a company to the best of our ability and purchase when the valuation makes sense. Mr. Market is going to do what he wants to do, so no sense in getting caught up in that.
Welcome to Income Surfer
Bryan shut down Fast Weekly and moved over to WordPress with a brand new blog. Can’t say I disagree with the move since I did the same thing recently. He also included a great interview with the great Prof. Robert Shiller.
BLS Consumer Statistics: What Do They Tell Us?
Done By Forty discussed consumer statistics and pondered what they tell us. I’ve got my hand raised. Pick me, pick me! Answer: we spend too much freaking money. Spending money isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I always try to make sure I’m getting value in every dollar I spend. And saving money/building wealth isn’t about avoiding the occasional $4 latte anyhow; it’s about cutting way down on the big three – housing, transportation, and food.
The Long Case For The Coca-Cola Company
Passive Income Pursuit published his analysis on Coca-Cola over at Seeking Alpha, and concluded it’s a pretty solid value at today’s price considering the risk and brand strength. I obviously agree after adding to my position this past week.
6 should-be-common-sense realities about doing what you love for a living
David highlighted some of the common myths about what it means to do what you love for a living and get paid for it. I agree with his thoughts here. I’ve come to change my view on this blog from simply a hobby to share my journey to financial independence to a real passion and outlet for me. I don’t plan to quit writing once I reach the mountaintop, but instead plan on writing even more because once I get there I want to share the view with everyone. I plan to transition away from doing something I don’t love (working at a car dealership) to doing what I love (writing/inspiring/investing) over the coming years, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. I won’t get rich at it, but I don’t need to.
Position Review: Year 5 Of Owning Emerson Electric
Retire Before Dad reviews how Emerson Electric Co. (EMR) has performed for him over the last five years. It looks like he’s done fairly well with this company, as have I. I continue to hold EMR, and like RBD do not plan on adding any more right now at today’s price. But it’s a solid industrial, and I can’t see any reason why solid dividend growth wouldn’t continue.
What It Means To Be Poor In America
Charles reminded us what poor really means. I couldn’t agree more, as I wrote about how rich we really are a while back when comparing a modern day middle-class American to pretty much anyone who’s ever lived on this planet anywhere, at any time. Try to never lose perspective. If you have the internet access and electricity necessary to read this article you’re already doing better than many other people around the world. Those of us chasing after financial independence are truly blessed.
Dividend Growth Update
It looks like we have a new convert. BJ has seen the light, and is interested in dividend growth investing as a potential strategy to bring him closer to financial independence. It’s great to see someone “get it”. I wish him the best of luck if he decides to pursue this strategy more and build up his portfolio.
Full Disclosure: Long KO, LO, PEP, EMR
Thanks for reading.
Thanks so much for the mention Jason. My following is smaller than yours, so I really don’t know how you made it so long. I love your new site, and I’m glad you are enjoying some R&R. It doesn’t look like I’ll be down your way before our son is born, but I should make it in a couple months. Take care :o)
-Bryan
Thanks for the list! I’m hoping I can find a little time to read some of these articles. Been so busy, but I just wrote an article finally real quick one and posted it.
My ultimate vacation would be to hop in my car and drive from Minnesota to the Florida keys, with no itinerary. I live in Minnesota and I would love to do this well, right now. It has been a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long winter. Take care. Nice buy on Ko.
Very nice links – thanks a lot! 🙂
But the problem is to read everything in the big http://www….
I try to read faster…
ssssss…..ssssss… next article…. sssss…. next…. 😉
Best regards
D-S
DM,
Thank you for the mention. EMR hasn’t beaten the market the past few years, but as you probably agree, that’s not the main concern. Income is steady and 57 years of increases is a hard habit to break. The new site is great, and commenting is much easier now.
-RBD
Thanks for the mention Jason! The new site looks great and I hope to be following in your footsteps to WP in the first half of the year. There just never seems to be enough time to get everything done that I’d like. I’ve got a whole bunch of writing to do as well as continue on the rental property search and get things done at the house when I’m home, oh and work. Guess which one I want to eliminate from that list. Have a great weekend!
Mantra, first off thank you for the mention! 🙂
Also looks like your readers are loving the site! And yes it is so much easier to comment and read your posts now. Good stuff!
Cheers
Avrom
Thanks for the mention Jason, and I’m glad you’ve had such a successful first week of your two-week FI test run!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Jason,
Thanks for the mention here, I was shocked!
I do plan to continue to build my portfolio of dividend stocks through regular monthly purchases. I can only hope to have the same success that you and the other dividend bloggers have had.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
BJ
Bryan,
No problem at all on the mention. Best of luck with the new site!
I actually never felt a rush to move from Blogger to WordPress. Blogger made it super easy to publish content, and I never wanted to go through the nightmare of trying to move everything. But I wanted to own my content, and I knew that I could also provide a richer experience on this platform.
Have a great weekend.
Take care!
Thanks for the mention Jason, WordPress looks great. You might need a vacation from your two week break. You know what the end goal feels like, here’s to finishing with a beer in hand.
SWAN,
I hear you on being busy. I don’t know how I can go back to fitting in a 50-hour workweek. I’m busier now than I was when I was working. 🙂
Hope you find time to relax!
Cheers.
Fozzy,
Yeah, you guys have been hammered this year. Feel bad for you! My family back in Michigan has been telling me it’s one of the worst winters ever.
Too bad you can’t make it. The weather lately has been wonderful. We’re really blessed down here.
Thanks for stopping by!
Best regards.
RBD,
Thanks for the kind words on the site. Glad you like it. I find it much easier to keep in touch with everyone, and the commenting is much better here.
And I’m with you on EMR. Great dividend growth record and a very solid business. Who cares about beating an arbitrary index over an arbitrary amount of time. I care about my investments throwing off enough passive income to pay all my bills and then some. 🙂
Best wishes.
JC,
No problem on the mention. It was a great analysis on KO.
I totally hear you on not having enough time for everything. Even during this vacation I haven’t had enough time to do everything I want. Life is a work in progress, right?
You have a great weekend too.
Cheers.
D-S,
Lots of articles to read, and I called this “light reading”. 🙂
I do love to read, especially when it’s about early retirement or stocks!
Best wishes.
Avrom,
I hope your webinar is a huge success! I wish you luck. 🙂
Yeah, I agree. This new platform is much better. I’m really enjoying being able to interact with everyone much easier.
Have a great weekend.
Best regards.
W2R,
It’s been a wonderful week. I’m looking forward to taking it easy tomorrow before having another full week off. This is the life! I feel spoiled. 🙂
You enjoy the rest of your weekend as well!
Take care.
Hi Jason,
Did you read the article in Barron’s weekly paper about Kinder Morgan? It didn’t get a good write up and I was actually thinking about shorting the stock with put options. If you get the chance you should pick up the paper an read it since you own KMI.
Thanks,
Frank
BJ,
I appreciate you stopping by. No problem on the mention. Glad to see you getting on board with what I feel is a very robust strategy. 🙂
Best wishes.
Frank,
Just read the entire article.
The attacks on KMP seem to be missing the forest for the trees, pointing to low CapEx budgeting for a smaller part of the business (E&P). This argument is put forth even though Kinder Morgan has been using the same accounting procedures for decades now. Now all of the sudden it’s a problem because Kevin Kaiser says so (who is Kevin Kaiser??).
And I get the issue with the IDR, but that’s why I invested in KMI and not KMP. I realized that the structure is set up to benefit KMI if the partnership executes well. KMP investors are now upset and suing because apparently they didn’t read the investor materials that clearly present this fact.You can lead a horse to water…
As quoted in the article:
“THE SMART MONEY has gravitated toward the GP. Rich Kinder owns 242.7 million shares of the GP, worth $8.1 billion, having led a group that took it private in 2007 and then public again in 2011. His stake in the MLP is worth $26 million.”
I gravitated toward the GP right from the start. And I’m sticking with it. 🙂
Thanks for the article. It was an entertaining and informative read, but highly confounding.
Best wishes.
Charles,
I need a vacation from my vacation! Haha. Too funny. 🙂
But seriously, I love nothing more than what I’ve been busy doing. If financial independence means I’m writing and inspiring for most of the day then that works just fine for me.
Have a great rest of the weekend.
Cheers.
Thanks for this. Good reading:)
If you live in the first world and have a healthy body and mind then you can find a way out of poverty. I read that article and she is so defeatist. My mom grew up poor in Russia and she was able to come out of poverty. Here’s my story. I’m sorry it’s so long.
My mom was born in Russia and she grew up in a tiny village. When she was a little kid she knew she wanted to leave Russia, her original plan was to move to Australia but she ended up in the U.S. During her time the government was communist and if you passed your entrance exams you could go to college for “free” and I say “free” because well you know there is no such thing as a free lunch, no matter what the communist state tells you.
Anyway in college she met my father. He came to Russia on a scholarship from Costa Rica. They dated, graduated college together and got married. He went to Costa Rica for a little while and my mom stayed and became a professor in Russia. Eventually my mom and I finally moved to Costa Rica to be with my father. In Costa Rica things weren’t going very well.
My dad had some personal problems and couldn’t hold down a job. My mom had to be the breadwinner and ended up doing jobs that she believed were beneath her but she did them. She started working as a door to door salesperson, eventually she got a massage therapy license and went to work at a country club.
Because of my mom’s hard work we were able to move from a poor neighborhood to a middle class one. My dad still couldn’t get his act together and eventually he had an affair. That was enough for my mom and they got divorced.
Through an friend, my mom met an American man, and she thought he was nice, they dated, eventually they wanted to get married. So the three of us moved to the U.S. Unfortunately for my mom he was one of those Americans who dated foreign women to only take advantage of them. After four years of marriage that was enough for my mom and the marriage ended. My step-dad was controlling and didn’t want my mother to work but did allow her to go to college.
In college she met a friend who told her to go to barber school after hearing the end of the marriage, this friend of my mom’s was a barber and made some decent money. So she went off to barber school, became a barber, worked at a barbershop for 4-5 years, then was able to buy a small barbershop in another town.
This barbershop made a pretty decent living for her and I. Eventually through her job she met another man, Jim, and they ended up dating. He treats me and my mom pretty well. He’s a very different man from my biological father and my first step-dad. Jim is now my second step-dad and he’s amazing. He’s twenty years older than my mom but who cares. He’s a very good guy.
He doesn’t have a college degree but he worked his way up through his company eventually become a marketing executive. He comes from a huge family, he had about 10 siblings growing up, he joined the marines, then the navy, then when he got out he went to college and worked. Eventually he was able to find a corporate job and in those days the companies were willing to train you so they trained him and he rose through the ranks.
Also my mom and I became naturalized U.S. Citizens and let me just say that being poor in the U.S. is different than being poor in Russia and Costa Rica. We visited our Russian family a few years ago and the disparity in lifestyles was obvious. BTW, I moved out of my parents home and am on my own now.
My mom said that when she was in Costa Rica, there were many times when she felt depressed and she wanted to give up but she couldn’t because she had me. She doesn’t like it when people give her excuses either on why they can’t make it.
Anyway I’m in college and I share an $550 apartment with my bf. We live off-campus. This place isn’t a palace BUT we have electricity, AC/Heater, water, a queen bed, a flat screen TV, a blu-ray player, a coffee machine, a steamer, a George Foreman grill, pots and pans to cook with, an electric mixer, a sofa, a kindle fire tablet, a smartphone, about 20 blu-ray movies, a subscription to Amazon Prime. We even eat out twice a week.
We had to buy our furniture, our complex only came with a fridge, oven, dishwasher, and there is a washing machine/dryer we share with the rest of the building. We don’t have kids and we use birth control.
BTW we moved to the mid-west because of how cheap college is in the mid-west and cost of living is more affordable here in the mid-west. I know the mid-west is often the butt of many jokes throughout the country, but it’s actually a great place to live in. We want to move back to the southwest because that is where both of our families live. However even if we do move back, we can’t forget the fact that the mid-west was good to us.
A place like ours would cost at least $1000 in a bigger city. College costs about $200/credit here. In many other places it costs $450 or higher /credit. Still if this is what it means to be “poor” in America I guess it’s not too bad. Compared to my poor Russian relatives, we “poor” people live pretty well. Anyway, of course we want to finish college and go on to earn more. However we see money as a tool like you do. We have a dream of being FI.
Anyway I’m sorry for writing you a novel yet again, but I wanted to share my story. In my opinion the person who wrote that article about poverty is just giving up. She says, “I don’t have any teeth, I have bad skin.” My mom once knew a lawyer without many teeth. People came to him because he was good and they didn’t care about his teeth.
As for bad skin, eh not that big of a deal. I once knew this guy and we both worked at the same call center, he had really bad psoriasis. BAD. It was obvious he had it, but he still managed to hold down a job as his job didn’t involve face to face interaction at our call center. She said that she doesn’t belong in college because she’s poor, you don’t need to go to college for some fields.
My bf learned to program when he was a teen by reading programming books, you can learn to program on the net these days or go to the library. My bf got his first job as a junior developer at age 19 with only his high school diploma. You can go to community college and be trained for a career in 2 years, sometimes less than that.
I forgot to mention that my step-dad Jim, was working and going to college, well once he saw how much he was making at his job and that they were willing to train him for a better role in the company, he quit college. He never got his degree. Yet he worked his way up to executive. This was way back in the day before companies required MBA’s and college degrees from their executives and by the time he did become an executive he had years of experience on leading people.
I’m glad you read the article. It just seems any time Barron’s writes a negative article about a stock I own, it gets slammed. You’re right, this guy Kaiser has no merit… My take away from the article and I am no expert and I am not bashing the stock, is their E&P business makes up 20% of their revenues and they are not setting aside enough money for CapEx which could impact the dividend. Also, they are using debt to finance growth which can be a big problem, if rates go up, putting more pressure on the dividend… I guess there is two side to this story and Barron’s is only focusing on the negative. It would of been nice to hear both sides.
The Notify me of follow up emails is a great new feature to DM 2.0
Take Care,
Frank
I would like to thank you for the mention also!
I have been using Loyal3 to dollar cost average my way into TGT this year. It is really nice to buy shares directly from the companies, and have no commission costs. Plus, I get to earn credit card reward points for purchases.
You can invest as little as $10 in each security. The drawback is that there is a limited selection of companies, and the buys take a couple business days to be executed. However, this is not a big issue for long-term investors.
Dividend Growth Investor
DGI,
No problem at all!
Great information there on Loyal3. Perhaps I’ll sign up one day. I might give them another year or so and see if they’re still offering the same services, or if they’ve expanded on offerings. I first have to diversify outside of Scottrade with another major brokerage.
Cheers!
Dexter,
No problem! Hope you enjoyed some of the articles. 🙂
Take care!
Thanks for including my post! I completely agree with your answer: we spend too much, and cutting out lattes isn’t the answer. Big results come from changes to the big expenditures, like you noted: housing, transportation, and food.
Lila,
Thanks for adding the thoughtful comment there!
I agree with you. It’s all about perspective. Jealousy of what everyone else has will only destroy you. I’m quite content with my little life, and I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. The only thing I really want to change is simply to work much less, or not at all, so that I can write even more than I do now. But that’s it. I don’t want a nice car, a fancy house, or anything else like that.
And I definitely hear you on the Midwest. I grew up in Michigan, and it’s very cheap up there to own property. For instance, one of my relatives bought a really nice three-bedroom ranch for about $65,000. It’s over 1,000 sq. feet and it’s a great little house.
Keep up the great perspective. It’ll take you far! 🙂
Best wishes.
DB40,
No problem on the mention!
If you want success you have to be willing to make the big sacrifices. Saving $5 here and there isn’t going to cut it.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 🙂
Best regards!
I really like Charles Schwab, although their commissions are rather high at $8.95/trade. Otherwise, you might like Tradeking at $4.95/trade.
I too have been using Loyal3. I know they have a limited selection,but man they have some nice divy stocks. I am going to try to by them all, when there of value of course.