Stocks Added to Collection of Stock Analyses - March 2016 (Week 12)

For those who are not yet familiar with our extensive collection of individual dividend stocks. The entire collection is currently comprised of 1,127 stock analyses (and still growing). The collection essentially provides links to various stock analyses that we found throughout the dividend blog community since 2013. Last year we added a total of 445 stock analyses to the collection. If you would like to view archives from previous years, please follow the respective links provided at the end of this post. 

2016
Our currently readers already know that we recently began providing weekly updates. We started providing weekly updates back in November of 2015 and we are committed to continuing with the weekly updates throughout 2016. We hope the weekly updates not only provides more value to our readers but also helps ensure that we continue to keep our collection up to date.  Our 2016 Collection is now comprised of 131 stock analyses to date.
     

March 2016 - Week 12 of 52:

Below is a list of newly added stocks analyses for the 4th week of March: 

1. Air Products & Chemicals Inc (APD)
• by  Dividend Value Builder
2. Automatic Data Processing Inc (ADP)
• by Dividends Growth Stocks
3. Coca Cola Co (KO)
• by Sure Dividend 
4. Digital Realty Trust Inc (DLR)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
5. H.B. Fuller Co (FUL)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
6. NU Skin Enterprises Inc (NUE)
• by Harvesting Dividends 
7. National Retail Properties Inc (NNN)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
8. Sherwin Williams Co (SHO)
• by Sure Dividends
9. Verizon Communications Inc (VZ)
• by Dividends Growth Stocks
10. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA)
• by Dividends Value Builder

Links provided directly in this post!

Please feel free to leave me a message if you prepared a stock analysis that I did not include in my post.  I would be more than happy to add your stock analysis to both this post and our collection of stock analyses.  Please make sure to confirm that it is a dividend paying stock and that it is a individual stock analysis.

  

My goal is to make this collection become the centralized source where one begins their research on a particular dividend stock company or at the very least, a source to confirm if a company stock is worth buying. Whether your a beginner or a veteran, I want this list to become an invaluable reference tool for you all. Best part, unlike other subscription based sites, I plan to keep this completely free for everyone to enjoy and benefit from.

Feel free to share with all of your friends and family! 

Click on Link Below

2016 - Collection of Stock Analyses

(Archived 2015, 2014, 2013)

Also don't forget to check out our:

Collection of Recent Buys

Retirement Accounts (Update) - March 2016

As our readers already know, our family has switched our focus towards diligently building our Dividend Stocks Portfolio and to some extent P2P Lending Accounts in an effort to build additional income streams for retirement so we don't have to solely rely on the typical retirement vehicles.

We will still continue to track are retirement accounts (pension, 457K, Roth IRAs) as they are still part of our retirement plan.  Plus, although they are mainly invested in mutual funds, we still need to keep an eye on them and re-balance them periodically.

EXISTING RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS
(MARCH 2016 - 1ST QUARTER UPDATE):

Since we see such little change in these accounts, we decided sometime last summer to stop providing monthly reports of our retirement accounts. We've probably posted 2 updates since.  This year, we've decided to do quarterly updates.  

Below is a quick update to show the current values of our retirement accounts for the 1st Quarter of 2016.  Please visit the RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS page on our blog to see our retirement savings journey!

PENSION

Cash Value of Pension
March value: $239,650
February value: $237,730
January value: $236,189

457K

Total value of 457K
March value: $112,765

February value: $112,991

January value: $118,761

Roth IRAs

Total value of Roth IRA accounts 
March value: $53,940
February value: $53,517
January value: $55,747

  

Watch the inconsistency in the performance of our 457K and Roth IRAs only validates our decision to switch our focus towards building a dividends stocks portfolio. Based on the numbers above, our pension is really the only shining star thus far this year! 

Currently, the total amount of our retirement accounts is valued at:
$406,355

Click below to view retirement accounts page
RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS

Fun Goals (Update) - Mud Run & Hike No. 12

As promised, I am trying to add a more personal touch to the blog this year. Hope you enjoy the various posts and pictures from our family adventures. Thank you for following along with us on our journey to FI! 

WARRIOR DASH

Well, after being sick for two weekends straight, I was certainly glad to get back outdoors. On Saturday, I did a new mud run or OCR (obstacle course race) as some would call it. It was just a beginners course with 3.2 miles and 12 obstacles but it certainly didn't lack in the "fun" category.  I'm still waiting on some action photos from the race but it was definitely the muddiest I've been after a race and this was my 3rd mud run too!

Entrance were everyone is still clean!

The Goliath

Another shot of the Goliath

Sign where everyone goes after the race for a photo

Sorry I didn't take many photos but I wasn't sure how I could take along my cell phone without the risk of losing it or getting it damaged in mud and/or water. Wished I had a GoPro because I would have taken some pretty cool shots! Maybe when we are Financially Free! :) For now, I'll have to settle for the photos taken along the way by the race organizers. 

OSO CREEK TRAIL

Then on Sunday, the entire family went on our longest trail to date.  I'm very proud of my 3 year old son who did 2.88 miles (without being carried!) on Sunday.  Yes...it took us almost two hours, but considering this was his longest trail to date, he was a champ!

The hike we did was in Mission Viejo, CA called the Oso Creek Trail. It was a very family friendly hike with trails ranging from just short of a half mile long to ones that were close to 6 miles. There were so many people out that day either walking their dogs or taking a nice stroll with their families. We even found a really cool park and playground for the kids. Surprisingly, they still found enough energy to play for a short while after our hike. As you will see from the photos, it was a very scenic trail with several unique points of interests. We will definitely be back later this year!  

Art columns and tile walkway

One of several bridges to cross the creek

View of the creek from the trail

 My daughter getting a better view

 Cool circular maze along trail

 Kids excited to go down and go through the maze

 Bridge view from creek level

 flower lines walkway

Small decorative bridge that doesn't cross the creek

Awesome playground with 3-story slides

So with Sunday's hike, I am happy to say that I am on my 12th hike and now just 14 hikes away from completing my 2016 fun goal of 26 hikes!! 

Hope you all had a great weekend! Hope everyone is enjoying the added personal touch to our blog this year. :)

Best wishes, AFFJ

Stocks Added to Collection of Stock Analyses - March 2016 (Week 11)

For those who are not yet familiar with our extensive collection of individual dividend stocks. The entire collection is currently comprised of 1,117 stock analyses (and still growing). The collection essentially provides links to various stock analyses that we found throughout the dividend blog community since 2013. Last year we added a total of 445 stock analyses to the collection. If you would like to view archives from previous years, please follow the respective links provided at the end of this post. 

2016
Our currently readers already know that we recently began providing weekly updates. We started providing weekly updates back in November of 2015 and we are committed to continuing with the weekly updates throughout 2016. We hope the weekly updates not only provides more value to our readers but also helps ensure that we continue to keep our collection up to date.  Our 2016 Collection is now comprised of 121 stock analyses to date.     

March 2016 - Week 11 of 52:

Below is a list of newly added stocks analyses for the 3rd week of March: 

1. Aflac Inc (AFL)
• by Dividend Monk
2. AT&T Inc (T)
• by Dividends Growth Stocks
3. Best Buy Inc (BBY)
• by Dividend Value Builder
4. Duke Energy Corp (DUK)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
5. Eversource Energy (ES)
• by Harvesting Dividends 
6. Raytheon Company (RTN)
• by Dividends Growth Stocks
7. Wells Fargo Corp (WFC)
• by Simply Safe Dividends

Links provided directly in this post!

Please feel free to leave me a message if you prepared a stock analysis that I did not include in my post.  I would be more than happy to add your stock analysis to both this post and our collection of stock analyses.  Please make sure to confirm that it is a dividend paying stock and that it is a individual stock analysis.

  

My goal is to make this collection become the centralized source where one begins their research on a particular dividend stock company or at the very least, a source to confirm if a company stock is worth buying. Whether your a beginner or a veteran, I want this list to become an invaluable reference tool for you all. Best part, unlike other subscription based sites, I plan to keep this completely free for everyone to enjoy and benefit from.

Feel free to share with all of your friends and family! 

Click on Link Below

2016 - Collection of Stock Analyses

(Archived 2015, 2014, 2013)

Also don't forget to check out our:

Collection of Recent Buys

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - MAR 2015

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include the equity in our home.  Although, we do realize that it is technically part of our overall net worth, we decided that since our home equity is not an asset that we can count on for income (unless we sell and buy something cheaper) we would exclude it from our net worth calculation.

For the purpose of this blog, we are more interested in documenting our loan balance rather than our home equity.  With that said, we will use the current Zillow value as our estimated home value and use it to figure out the percentage we owe on our home. For those interested, we will include the amount of our home equity, but know that we are less concerned with the equity since we have no plans to cash out or otherwise sell our home. Our main goal is to pay off our home on or before my retirement date. 

HOME VALUE:

According to Zillow, our home is currently worth: $770,923 (up $5,046 in the last 30-days). If you follow us, the reality is that whether our home prices rise or fall, it really doesn't mean much to our family as we have no intentions to sell or otherwise move.  We are very lucky to be able to say that we love were we are and couldn't see ourselves living and/or raising our family any other place. :)

Mortgage Balance (As of February 6th):
$309,921 (down $1,823 from our last post)

Percentage Owed:
40.2% (down from .5% from our last post)

Home Equity:
$461,002 (up $7,345 from our last post)

At this point, I'm not too sure what to make of the housing market and the direction is it headed.  With the recent rate hike by the Feds in January, and likely more later this year, the future mortgage rates will surely be impacted. With that said, I am certainly glad we have a fixed rate mortgage.  I can sleep much easier at night knowing that regardless of what the Feds do, whether they decide to keep it the same or continue raising rates, my mortgage payment will not be affected.    

Mortgage Background:
For those that have not read the Preface on our home equity, we currently hold a 15-year fixed rate mortgage at the incredibly low rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 11 years and 4 months (136 months) so we are setting out to pay off our mortgage on or before my retirement date. Right now we are a few months behind the target retirement date. Currently, we have approximately 12  years  - 2 months (146 months) left on our mortgage.  Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in another 10 years (or less). If we accomplish that, I plan to use the last few years to aggressively build our passive income to help supplement our retirement and defer tapping into the 457K as long as we can so it can continue to grow. 

Right now we are not putting any extra money towards the principal given our low 2.875% interest rate. We feel that we could make our money grow faster by investing it and while keeping the money more liquid. At a certain point, maybe in 8-10 years, we may consider using money from our investment accounts to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance.  Until then, we will continue to grow that money outside, rather than have it locked into our home.

  

Click on the link below to view our mortgage balance history:

Mortgage Balance History

Stocks Added to Collection of Stock Analyses - March 2016 (Week 10)

For those who are not yet familiar with our extensive collection of individual dividend stocks. The entire collection is currently comprised of 1,110 stock analyses (and still growing). The collection essentially provides links to various stock analyses that we found throughout the dividend blog community since 2013. Last year we added a total of 445 stock analyses to the collection. If you would like to view archives from previous years, please follow the respective links provided at the end of this post. 

2016
Our currently readers already know that we recently began providing weekly updates. We started providing weekly updates back in November of 2015 and we are committed to continuing with the weekly updates throughout 2016. We hope the weekly updates not only provides more value to our readers but also helps ensure that we continue to keep our collection up to date.  Our 2016 Collection is now comprised of 114 stock analyses to date.     

March 2016 - Week 10 of 52:

Below is a list of newly added stocks analyses for the 2nd week of March: 

1. 3M Company (MMM)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
2. B & G Foods Inc (BGS)
• by The Broke Dividend Investor
3. C.R. Bard Inc (BCR)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
4. Cummins Inc (CMI)
• by Dividend Value Builder
5. HCP Inc (HCP)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
6. Johnson Controls Inc (JCI)
• by Dividends Growth Stocks
7. Southern Company, The (SO)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
8. Unilever PLC (UL)
• by UK Value Investor
9. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA)
• by Simply Safe Dividends

Links provided directly in this post!

Please feel free to leave me a message if you prepared a stock analysis that I did not include in my post.  I would be more than happy to add your stock analysis to both this post and our collection of stock analyses.  Please make sure to confirm that it is a dividend paying stock and that it is a individual stock analysis.

  

My goal is to make this collection become the centralized source where one begins their research on a particular dividend stock company or at the very least, a source to confirm if a company stock is worth buying. Whether your a beginner or a veteran, I want this list to become an invaluable reference tool for you all. Best part, unlike other subscription based sites, I plan to keep this completely free for everyone to enjoy and benefit from.

Feel free to share with all of your friends and family! 

Click on Link Below

2016 - Collection of Stock Analyses

(Archived 2015, 2014, 2013)

Also don't forget to check out our:

Collection of Recent Buys

Collection of RECENT BUYS (February 2016 Summary)

Since I began investing in dividend stocks approximately two years ago I've been keeping a personal log of what other dividend bloggers and dividend investors are buying.  Until now, I've just done it for my own personal knowledge and it has proven to be a great resource I use when I have no idea what I should buy. 

The collection essentially highlights the Recent Buys I have discovered throughout the dividend blog community. I always like to see what others are buying.  And with this collection, one can easily see all the buys in one centralized source. I Hope everyone has found it to be a great resource!

In case you just want a quick summary of what everyone has been buying this past month, below is a chart that depicts just that! :)

(The chart and table above only includes companies with more than 3 buys)

During the month of February, a total of 116 (12 less than January) buys were found throughout the DGI community. With February seeing a bit of a recovery from the rough start to the year, it looks like DGI investors were a bit less active this past month.  Although there is less great buys out there, must admit it is nice to watch the portfolio rebound from the January lows!

To summarize the past month, out of a total of 116 buys found around the DGI community, a total of 66 companies were purchased, with 20 companies bought more than once.  From the buys collected, it appears that 56.89% of the time DGI investors picked up a stock  that was not purchased by others.  Last month, the difference was 53.1%. Always great to see the diversity among the DGI community as it helps opens our eyes to some companies that may not otherwise be on our radar.    

The most popular company this past month was Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADP), which was purchased by 8 different investors throughout the DGI community. Last month, ADM was in a 2-way tie for second with a total of 6 buys in January.   

There was a 2-way tie for second place between The Walt Disney Co (DIS) and HCP, Inc (HCP), which were both purchased by 7 different investors throughout the DGI community. Last month, HCP was in a 3-way tie for fourth with a total of 3 buys while DIS just received honorable mentioned awards for the 2 buys logged in January. 

There was a 3-way tie for third place between Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)  and Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and Omega Healthcare Investors Inc (OHI) with a total of 5 buys. 

In fourth place was Flowers Foods Inc (FLO) with a total of 4 buys.

And although not included in the chart, there were a total of 13 companies with 2 buys:

1. 3M Company (MMM)
2. Bank of America Corp (BAC)
3. Caterpillar Inc (CAT)
4. Diageo Plc (DEO)
5. Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD)
6. Pepsico Inc (PEP)
7. Principal Financial Group Inc (PFG)
8. Starbucks Corp (SBUX)
9. Target Corporation (TGT)
10. T.Rowe Price Group Inc (TROW)
11. United Technologies Corp (UTX)
12. Ventas Inc (VTR)
13. Wells Fargo Corp (WFC)

Data used for this SUMMARY is from our 

 COLLECTION OF RECENT BUYS

Purchases made by A Frugal Family's Journey:

Unfortunately, our family was not very active in the buying category this past month. In fact, as mentioned in our recent monthly portfolio update we ended the month without a single buy!  Considering we put $4,500 of new capital to work in January, the month of February was a huge disappointment. 

The estimated annual income for our family's dividend stocks portfolio  stands at $3,839 (including our Edward Jones Account) or an average of approximately $320/month.

What have you been buying?  Please feel free to share in the comments or send me a link to your Recent Buy post in case I happened to have missed it.

If you have a chance, make sure you also take a look at my COLLECTION OF STOCK ANALYSES!! As with my collection of recent buys, my goal is to make this collection also become a centralized source for everyone. It could become a place where one can get ideas on what to invest in next, to establish a desired stock purchase price, or simply to see what your favorite bloggers are buying.  Whatever your reason, my hope is that this collection proves to be a great reference tool and helps provide you that little extra advantage that you are looking for in order to succeed with your investing.

Also, if you have a chance, make sure you also follow or visit Adam over at I Want to Retire Soon (IWTRS) as he provides a weekly summary of recent buys! A link to past summaries is maintained on his blog. Another great resource for ideas if you are not sure where to invest next! 

Stocks Added to Collection of Stock Analyses - March 2016 (Week 9)

For those who are not yet familiar with our extensive collection of individual dividend stocks. The entire collection is currently comprised of 1,101 stock analyses (and still growing). The collection essentially provides links to various stock analyses that we found throughout the dividend blog community since 2013. Last year we added a total of 445 stock analyses to the collection. If you would like to view archives from previous years, please follow the respective links provided at the end of this post. 

2016
Our currently readers already know that we recently began providing weekly updates. We started providing weekly updates back in November of 2015 and we are committed to continuing with the weekly updates throughout 2016. We hope the weekly updates not only provides more value to our readers but also helps ensure that we continue to keep our collection up to date.  Our 2016 Collection is now comprised of 105 stock analyses to date.     

March 2016 - Week 9 of 52:

Below is a list of newly added stocks analyses for the 1st week of March: 

1. AbbVie Inc (ABBV)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
2. Emerson Electric Co (EMR)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
3. Guess Inc (GES)
• by Dividend Value Builder
4. International Business Machine Corp (IBM)
• by Harvesting Dividends 
5. McGraw Hill Financial (MHFI)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
6. Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)
• by Dividends Growth Stocks

Links provided directly in this post!

Please feel free to leave me a message if you prepared a stock analysis that I did not include in my post.  I would be more than happy to add your stock analysis to both this post and our collection of stock analyses.  Please make sure to confirm that it is a dividend paying stock and that it is a individual stock analysis.

  

My goal is to make this collection become the centralized source where one begins their research on a particular dividend stock company or at the very least, a source to confirm if a company stock is worth buying. Whether your a beginner or a veteran, I want this list to become an invaluable reference tool for you all. Best part, unlike other subscription based sites, I plan to keep this completely free for everyone to enjoy and benefit from.

Feel free to share with all of your friends and family! 

Click on Link Below

2016 - Collection of Stock Analyses

(Archived 2015, 2014, 2013)

Also don't forget to check out our:

Collection of Recent Buys