Weekend Reading – June 28, 2014

happyweekendJune is almost over. And with that we reach the halfway point of 2014.

Crazy, right? 

You’re telling me!

It’s been a memorable year for me personally with all the changes in my personal and professional life, and in life you often find yourself compromising. But I’m in a great place right now, and I’m truly glad I took a leap of faith. It’s wonderful to be able to write more and inspire more, and June has been my most productive month of writing ever.

Tomorrow I’ll be going over how 2014 is treating me thus far as it relates to my goals for the year, and I’ll give you a quick hint: I’m off to a great start. And I can only hope all of you readers are as well.

In the meanwhile, I try to share some great reading material with you guys as often as I can. And with more time to read I have more time to share.

Below, you’ll find a short list of articles I’ve recently read and enjoyed. I hope you do as well!

We Make Ends Meet Without Money
This was a really interesting piece. Imagine if the whole world worked this way? I think, in the end, you’d just see people focus on what they enjoy and where they can deliver the most value, rather than what brings home the most money. You’d probably see some people still better off due to society placing more value on certain services, but I think you’d also see a lot less corruption and egregious pay for services. Really interesting.

Does diversification lead to lower quality of investments in dividend portfolios? 
Dividend Growth Investor talked a bit about diversification here, and I generally agree that pursuing diversification for diversification’s sake is a bad idea. I’ve never pursued a certain asset allocation model, but accidentally found myself widely diversified through most of the sectors. I think if you’re pursuing intelligent income diversification, you’ll naturally find yourself fairly diversified without much work. However, you’ll also see I don’t have much exposure to utilities or bonds, for instance, in my portfolio. And this is on purpose.

These 16 Dividend Growth Stocks Go Ex-Dividend Next Week
A little shameless self-promotion here. I wrote an article over at Daily Trade Alert that lists 16 stocks that go ex-dividend next week. I specifically took at look at Raytheon Company (RTN), and concluded that we’ll probably see better times to buy this stock. I also wrote about three stocks that recently increased dividends and another article that takes a look at a company that has increased its dividend for 38 consecutive years.

What’s in a Number?!
Bryan questioned the traditional personal finance advice regarding how much passive income/invested assets you may need to become financially independent or retire early. As Bryan points out, a little side income goes a long way, and you may be a lot closer than you think you are. He’s also thinking about starting up an investment partnership. A young Warren Buffett at work?

Why you shouldn’t trust Social Security’s lowball estimate
This was an eye-opening piece that discusses how SS income estimates may not be as reliable as you think they are, and there actually might be a little lowballing in place to keep you working longer. Really interesting stuff here, and gives me hope about my own potential Social Security income in the far future.

Franken-Caddy: The Car That Keeps Making Money!
J. Money shared this hilarious post about how his Cadillac is actually acting as a side hustle. I commented that if he could somehow rent out the backseat to someone on Airbnb he’d really be set!

Crossing the $100K Mark
Lanny recently crossed the six-figure mark in his investment portfolio! A round of applause. I still remember crossing that mark myself in March of last year after starting this journey three years prior with $5,000. Although the number isn’t really significant to our goals to live off of the passive income our portfolios generate, it’s really psychologically beneficial to know that you have that kind of asset base working for you. Congratulations, Lanny!

The Holy Grail of Travel
Retire Before Dad put this really nice post together on the holy grail of travel: traveling while financially independent. Having all the time in the world, as well as financial flexibility means you can take in the sites with little worry or care as to when it all ends. You can travel at your own pace, which is wonderful. I do have a desire to travel one day, once I’m financially independent. Inspiring stuff.

Financial dividend stocks – my next purchase in June
Dividend Life explains his methodology behind his eventual decision to invest in a particular company in the financial sector. He weeded out a few insurance stocks before finally settling on a mutual fund company.

Dividend Income – June 2014
Passive Income Earner earned over $700 in passive dividend income for the month of June, living up to his name. I expect June is going to be a fantastic month of dividend income for me as well, but probably not quite to this level. Really inspiring, as that’s more than enough money to cover rent for a lot of people.

2014 Goals Midyear Review
Joe is killing it so far in 2014. His family has already invested almost $35,000 this year in tax-advantaged accounts alone. Phenomenal!

2014 Financial Goals – June Update
Mark also went over his goals for the year and how he’s doing thus far. Looks like he’s having an amazing 2014 as well.

What do you do?
Richard Branson asked if you can sum up what you do in five words or less. I know I can: I aim to inspire people.

Semi Recent Buy and Two Recent Sells
JC revealed a few transactions in his portfolio, deciding to sell off an entire position, sell off part of another, and then finally add to another. Sounds like he had a very reasonable rationale for his recent actions.

Surround Yourself With Like-Minded People
FI Fighter wrote this introspective post on friendship, and how our relationships change over time as we eventually pursue different paths in life. I’m really lucky in that I still have the best friend as I did in high school. Although we’ve changed a bit over time, we still support each other and find enough common ground to enjoy our time together. And although I’m the only one in my family that’s interested in becoming financially independent, I enjoy my trailblazer status and my family supports my vision 100%. Beyond that, I’m lucky in that I’m part of this wonderful community where I get to surround myself (virtually) with like-minded individuals every single day. Am I a lucky guy or what?

Full Disclosure: Long RTN.

Thanks for reading.

Photo Credit: gubgib/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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34 Comments

  1. Some great reads there – thanks for sharing! 🙂 I can’t believe June is almost over already; 2014 is going way too fast! I’ll be doing a “halfway through the year” post next week at some point, though I know for a fact some of my goals are not going as well as others…

  2. DM,

    You’re the man – thank you for the mention in your weekend articles! Your articles on frugal fitness, getting out of being stuck in a rut, and the multi-stage dividend stocks have been incredible reads this month – we thank you for that. Extremely excited to read a few of those mentioned above and to see your upcoming posts on dividend income and goal re-caps. Thanks again, talk soon!

    -Lanny

  3. Boo Hoo. I didn’t make the weekend list. ;-( Just kidding. I know rental mortgage payoff’s are a slightly different cup of tea than most of your readers drink around here.

    On another note, I also very much enjoyed FI’s post on the changing nature of friendships.
    Thanks for the weekend highlights.

  4. I second Nicola on the quality of the articles shared. I especially like the one on diversification 😉

    Time just seems to fly so quickly, it is not even funny. The older I get, the faster time flies. Hence, the goal is to accumulate as much as possible now, so I can enjoy more time with loved ones for the most time I have left.

    Hope you are having a nice weekend in MI.

    DGI

  5. DM,
    Great list of articles this week. Thanks for including mine in your weekend reading. Travel and financial independence go hand in hand, so these kind of posts keep coming to mind. Writing about it helps me focus on the goal.
    -RBD

  6. Nicola,

    It’s crazy, right? 2014 is halfway complete. It’s just amazing.

    Goals aren’t always met. Although, if you shoot for the stars and land on the moon you still did pretty well. 🙂

    Cheers!

  7. Lanny,

    No problem at all. Glad to share!

    I’m excited to share how I’m doing with the goals and then go over dividend income. June is shaping up to be pretty impressive. 🙂

    Hope you’re having a great weekend.

    Best regards.

  8. IP,

    No problem. I hope you enjoy some of it. I thought the article on living without money was especially interesting. A little old-school bartering going on there.

    Have a great weekend!

    Cheers.

  9. Living At Home,

    I’m with you. I also really enjoy seeing others set challenging goals and then methodically work to achieve them. Inspires me to keep doing my thing. 🙂

    Take care!

  10. Curtis,

    Aww, I’m sorry. I just naturally don’t find myself reading up a lot on rental properties and what not. But I remember you saying that once the mortgages are paid off you plan to build passive income potentially via dividends or other sources. So I’m sure our paths will cross even more often then. 🙂

    Hope you have a great weekend, bud. And I also enjoyed Fighter’s post on friendship. I’m lucky, but it takes work to maintain relationships as we change in life. Luck and hard work. They seem to intersect all the time…

    Have a great weekend.

    Best wishes.

  11. DGI,

    I’m with you on time going by faster as we get older. I remember when I was a kid the summers would be so long…it felt like years before I had to go back to school. But when you get caught up in the grind, every day just seems like another. They blend in together, and all of the sudden the years are gone.

    The weekend up here is great. Just got back home a little bit ago after going out to lunch with my youngest sister. Always nice to spend time with family. 🙂

    Best regards!

  12. RBD,

    No problem! I always enjoy reading about travel, and people’s perspectives on it.

    I don’t write a lot about travel because, frankly, I haven’t traveled a lot. But that could very well change in the future! 🙂

    Best wishes.

  13. Looking forward to your half year report. I love score cards and stats so lay it on us. Also great reading list. Really enjoyed the diversification one as I relate to it. Hard to diversify globally when not as many dividend quality criteria filling companies fit into a diversified portfolio. As in example I am primarily invested in US companies but for tax purposes it is not as beneficial if I just stuck with my home country Canadian offerings. But if I just stuck with just Canadian companies which mainly consist of energy and financial I would be neglecting other huge sectors Canada is not really exposed to like consumer staples and information technology companies that have global outreach.

    But to tap into certain emerging markets I would have to give up some of my space in North American quality companies to take on more unproven companies sacrificing quality. Finding the right balance is a tough thing to do as no portfolio is 100% efficient. With certain sectors, markets and currencies overvalued and undervalued it makes that selection even tougher. It appears if you are a value investor and just acquire according to value the portfolio will essentially balance itself over time.

    Also kudos to Lanny hitting that $100,000 milestone. These are big ones to remember and its great to take some time to enjoy the milestone. My first hundred k was very memorable and gave me a lot of confidence going forward. I am sure when Lanny looks back at that number a few years later he will be thinking “OH only 100K! I am almost at 500k now!”

    Great reading overall!

    Good Day and Grind On!

  14. Good stuff there – I always appreciate you finding some good reads for us. Also agree regarding RTN – I actually pared back my holding in both RTN and LMT Not because they’re bad holdings, but they had grown disproportionately to the portfolio. I figured it was a good time to take some profits and reallocated.

  15. Thanks for including my post Jason. I don’t know about the “young Warren Buffett” bit, but I appreciate your complement. I just wanted people to think creatively. Just like the life changes you made were outside of the “convential wisdom”, I think some of the best answers are…….because they are OUR ANSWERS! We just got back from a great beach day. I hope you’re doing well
    -Bryan

  16. Thanks for the nice weekend round up. I enjoyed the PIE monthly dividend update. Pretty inspiring. Have a great weekend.

  17. Asset-Grinder,

    I agree $100k is a huge milestone, but one day it’ll be awesome to look back on something like that with pride as your portfolio value is 5x as much. One day…

    Yeah, the Canadian market does seem a bit limited to financials, energy, and natural resources. Not that those aren’t strong sectors to be invested, and the Canadian economy typically does very well with that exposure. But it’s also nice to be exposed to a couple of giant multinationals in other sectors like a JNJ or KO.

    Thanks for stopping by! Hope you’re having a great weekend over there.

    Best regards.

  18. Chris,

    I can’t blame you on RTN. The predicted growth rate of 0% over the next few years doesn’t look good, and the stock has had a huge run. LMT is in the same boat. You have to wonder what that looks like over the next 3-5 years. If there truly is little underlying growth then you either have a stagnant stock with little dividend growth or you have a pullback to compensate for the lower growth to change the P/E ratio. Of course, RTN could continue growing the dividend for a while even without growth in profit because the payout ratio is so low, but they’ll have to pick it up at some point. The growth has been pretty stagnant over the last few years.

    Cheers!

  19. Bryan,

    I agree. In the end, the best situation is the one that makes you happiest. That may be a conventional situation, or it may not. But it’s important to think outside the box because it’s there that you may find the best answer of all.

    Glad you guys had a nice day at the beach! I’ll miss that living up here. We have some nice beaches on the West side, but they’re a pretty far drive from where I’m at. Maybe I’ll make it out there this summer.

    Cheers!

  20. DivHut,

    Inspiring, indeed. Over $700 in passive income is awesome. That’s the kind of income that can actually change your life. Good stuff.

    I hope you have a great weekend as well! Thanks for stopping by.

    Best wishes.

  21. Hi DM,
    Thanks for posting another great reading list – I enjoyed the article from DGI about diversification in particular as I tend to over focus on that. I’m honored that you included my article too – I was wondering where all the extra page views were coming from!

    I’m looking forward to reading your June summary – it’s looking to be a good month for me and I hope for you too. I won’t have my final numbers until Monday though.

    Keep compounding and have a great weekend!

  22. Dividend Life,

    Glad to include you. Always nice to see how others are going about their respective journey. 🙂

    June is definitely shaping up to be a great month in pretty much every category. I’m really excited to share the details here over the coming week!

    Hope you’re enjoying your weekend.

    Best regards!

  23. Great read , i can’t stop reading those financial articles , they are so addictive 😀 . Believe it or not , i think i know all the things they share in these articles , yet somehow i still find a lot of pleasure reading them , i believe most readers of this site feel that too . Keep it going DM , cheer

  24. Cong,

    I’m in the same situation as you. I find that while I’m always interested in learning more and expanding my knowledge, most of my reading comes down to just pleasure and seeing different perspectives.

    Thanks for stopping by! Hope you’re having a great weekend.

    Cheers.

  25. Thanks for the mention!

    Slow and steady. I can’t wait to see what impacts the dividend increases will have on their own once I reach $1,000 per month.

  26. PIE,

    No problem at all.

    I’m excited to see you hit $1,000/month. I think the snowball is really starting to accelerate at that point. I’ll be celebrating the day I hit that level!

    Cheers.

  27. Thanks for the lovin’ mi amigo. If I end up renting out the backseat – or trunk (that b*tch is big!) – I’ll give you 10% of all earnings for the idea 😉 Ya never know!

  28. I need to put the pedal down to catch up to PIE!

    We’re on pace to earn about $8,700 this year in dividend income…need to save more and invest more.

    Thanks for the mention Jason, always appreciate the links from you.

    I look forward to reading what’s next on your site.

    Mark

  29. Mark,

    You guys are both doing pretty fantastic! $8,700 in passive dividend income is really solid. I’d consider myself about 60% financially independent at that point! 🙂

    Keep up the great work over there.

    Best wishes.

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