Saturday, December 24, 2016

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - DEC 2016

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: $825,625 (down $6,866 in the last 30-days). Real estate typically cools down (literally) in the winter months so we expect the decline to carry forward into the next few months. And with the high likelihood of a rate increases in the near future, we expect our home to decline even further.  But from a property tax standpoint, and since we have no intentions of moving, we welcome the declines in value. :)

It's fun to calculate and certainly makes you feel a little bit more wealthy but, 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 December 1st):
$293,043 (down $1,893 from our post last month)

Percentage Owed:
35.4% (remained unchanged from our post last month)

Home Equity:
$532,582 (down $4,161 from our post last month)
   
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 10 years and 6 months (126 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 11  years and 4 months (136 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 6-9 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:

Monday, December 19, 2016

Stocks Added to Collection of Stock Analyses - December 2016

For those who are not yet familiar with our extensive collection of individual dividend stocks. The entire collection is currently comprised of 1,295 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
We started the year providing weekly updates to our Collection of Stock Analyses. Although we started out strong, we eventually realized that we simply did not have enough time to keep up with the weekly updates. We still plan to continue growing our Collection of Stock Analyses but unfortunately can no longer commit to a weekly updateTo date, our 2016 Collection is now comprised of 346 stock analyses.
     
December 2016 (Update):
Below is a list of newly added stocks analyses that were recently added to our 2016 Collection of Stock Analyses:

Air Products & Chemicals Inc (APD)
by DividendTIME

Altria Group (MO)
by Sure Dividend

Automatic Data Processing Inc (ADP)
by Dividend Growth Stocks

Best Buy Inc (BBY)
by Sure Dividend

Flower Foods Inc (FLO)
by Sure Dividend

Johnson Controls Inc (JCI)
by Dividend Growth Stocks

McDonald's Corporation (MCD)
by Dividend Growth Stocks

Pentair Inc (PNR)
by DividendTIME

Procter & Gamble Co (PG)
by Dividend Growth Investor

Realty Income Corp (O)
by Sure Dividend

Southern Company (SO)
by Dividend Growth Stocks

The Walt Disney Company (DIS)
by Dividend Growth Investor

Unilever Plc (UL)
by DividendTIME

Waste Management Inc (WM)
by Sure Dividend

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 201520142013)



Also don't forget to check out our:


Collection of Recent Buys

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Collection of RECENT BUYS (November 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! :)

During the month of November a total of 64 buys were found throughout the DGI community. With the market on the rise since the US presidential election, and the DOW is now approaching 20,000, it appears that buying activities have slowed a bit.  I'm not sure about other investors out there but the property taxes and the holiday season has put a damper in our family's investing budget. We still have a set percentage going to retirement accounts and college savings but our supplemental dividend stocks account certainly takes a backseat during the time of the year. :( 

Below is a chart and corresponding table that identifies those companies that were purchased more than once this past month. 

To summarize the past month, out of a total of 64 buys found around the DGI community, a total of 48 companies were purchased with a total of only 10 companies that were bought more than once.  From the buys collected,  DGI investors picked up a stock not purchased by others 75% of the time
For the month of November, Unilever (UL) lead the charge as the most popular stocks among DGI investors this past month. UL was purchased by 5 different investors throughout the DGI community. We only made one purchase this past month but our family did manage to grab a few shares of this popular choice among DGI investors. Our family picked up 20 shares of Unilever (UL) at $24.33.
Three companies tied for as the second most popular stock this past month. In November, CVS Health Corp (CVS), Unilever (UL), and Realty Income (O) was purchased by 3 different investors throughout the DGI community. Both CVS and UL carried their momentum from October when they were in an unprecedented 13-way tie for the third most popular stock.

Now rounding up the third most popular stock for the month of November is a 6-way tie between:   
  1. AT&T Inc (T)
  2. B2Gold Corp (BTG)
  3. J.M. Smucker Co (SJM)
  4. Ventas Inc (VTR)
  5. Nike Inc (NKE)
  6. Amgen Inc (AMGN)
All thirteen companies were purchased by 2 different investors throughout the DGI community

Data used for this SUMMARY is from our 


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 blogger is 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 generally 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! 

Friday, December 2, 2016

NOVEMBER 2016 - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

Below is a recap of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio –  November 2016 (recap).

DIVIDENDS

During the past month, our family received dividends/partnership distributions from a total of 14 companies/ETFs/Partnerships!! The total monies received from those 14 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $162.89

Below is a breakdown of the dividends/partnership distributions received this past month:


WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
11/01/16 - VZ (Verizon Communications Co): $14.44
11/01/16 - DE (Deere & Co): $10.80
11/01/16 - T (AT&T Inc): $12.17
11/02/16 - POT (Potash Corp): $2.00
11/10/16 - AAPL (Apple Inc): $3.42
11/14/16 - OKS (Oneok Partners LP): $9.48
11/15/16 - OHI (Omega Healthcare REIT Investors Inc): $6.10
11/15/16 - KMI (Kinder Morgan Inc): $14.00

11/21/16 - TIS (Orchids Paper Products Co
): $17.50
11/21/16 - CAT (Caterpillar Inc): $6.16
11/21/16 - ARTNA (Artesian Resource Corp): $9.13
11/25/16 - HCP (HCP Inc): $3.33
11/25/16 - COP (Capital One Financial Corp): $2.80

11/28/16 - RY (Royal Bank of Canada): $6.14

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
11/01/16 - T (AT&T Inc): $45.42

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $162.89


In case you interested, our family's dividend stocks portfolio 
may be found by clicking on the link below: