RECENT BUY : V.F. Corporation (NYSE: VFC)

We Recently Purchased The Following:

V.F. Corporation (VFC)

Purchased 8 shares of VFC on 1/26/2017 at $52.00
Total Spent: $416.00; added $13.44 in forward dividends.

Based on our Collection of Recent Buys chart, it appears that VFC, TGT and UL are clear favorites among DGI investors this month.  I think we could make an argument to buy any one of the three mentioned but since our family already own shares in the other two, we decided to add V.F. Corporation (VFC) to our portfolio.  With the recent purchase, the number of companies held in our family's dividend stocks portfolio that pay us dividends is at an even 60! 

From our research, we are attracted by the yield, payout ratio and dividend history that VFC offers.  We believe that VFC is a good long term hold that offers a nice risk/reward ratio. Nevertheless, we understand that everyone has their own risk tolerance and stock screening methods. With that said, please make sure to do your own research when buying any stocks. 

But in case V.F. Corporation (VFC) does intrigue you, below are few links to Seeking Alpha articles to help you begin your research:

1. V.F. Corp. - Where Is The Love - Abba's Aces
2. V.F. Corporation: A High-Yield Dividend Aristocrat - Wait For It - Chuck Carnevale
3. Would You Consider V.F. Corp. Today? - Eli Inkrot
4. V.F. Corp.: Forget The Dividend - Millennial Investing
5. Learning From V.F. Corp.'s 'Expensive' Past - Eli Inkrot

Company Description

From Google Finance:

“V.F. Corporation (VF) is engaged in the design, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of branded lifestyle apparel, footwear and related products. The Company's segments include Outdoor & Action Sports, Jeanswear, Imagewear, Sportswear, Contemporary Brands and Other. The Company owns a portfolio of brands in the outerwear, footwear, denim, backpack, luggage, accessory, sportswear, occupational and performance apparel categories. The Company's brands primarily include The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Wrangler, Lee Nautica, Majestic and Kipling. The Company's products are marketed to consumers shopping in specialty stores, upscale and traditional department stores, national chains, mass merchants and its own direct-to-consumer operations. Its direct-to-consumer business includes VF-operated stores, concession retail stores and e-commerce sites. The Company's brands sell products in international markets through licensees, distributors and independently-operated partnership stores.”

With our recent purchase of V.F. Corporation (VFC), the estimated forward dividends for our family's dividend stocks portfolio grew another $13.44, putting our yearly dividends at approximately $3,400/year (excluding our Edwards Jones account) and $3,785/year (including our Edward Jones account).  

We did not previously own V.F. Corporation (VFC), therefore, the recent buy of VFC added yet another dividend paying company to our family's dividend stocks portfolios (WF and EJ Accounts). The total stocks held in our family's dividend stock portfolio is now 60 different dividend paying stocks/ETFs and also 5 companies that either don't pay a dividend our has currently suspended their dividends.

Our family's dividend stocks portfolio may be found

by clicking on the link below:

DIVIDEND STOCKS PORTFOLIO

We also maintain an extensive list of stock analysis

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF STOCK ANALYSES

We also just started a list of Recent Buys by other bloggers

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF RECENT BUYS

HERE IS A QUICK FACT SHEET FOR THE STOCK I JUST PURCHASED:

V.F. Corporation (VFC)

P/E: 18.0

Payout Ratio: 55%
Dividend Yield: 3.30%
44 consecutive years of dividend increases
Last Ex-dividend date: 12/07/2016

Next Ex-dividend date: approx. 03/07/2017
Have paid a dividend since: 1941 (75 years)
Pays a dividend 4 times a year
Market Cap: 15.67 Billion
52-week high: $67.10
52-week low: $50.48
Purchased Price: $52.00

What are your thoughts on of recent purchase?

What are you buying?

RECENT BUY : Gilead Sciences Inc (NYSE: GILD)

We Recently Purchased The Following:

Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD)

Purchased 7 shares of GILD on 1/19/2017 at $71.33
Total Spent: $499.31; added $13.16 in forward dividends.

We currently own shares of Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD) our family's dividend stocks portfolio. We initially purchased shares in GILD back on 9/9/2016 when we picked up 8 shares at $78.53. But with the current price near the 52-week low, we decided to add a few more shares of GILD to our family's dividend stocks portfolio. With our recent purchase, we now own 15 shares of GILD and have lowered our cost basis from $78.53 to $75.17. We also now receive $28.20 a year in dividends from GILD! 

Based on our research, and the numerous articles relating to GILD, we find that GILD is a great value at current prices and a stock we certainly don't mind holding in our dividend stocks portfolio. Below are just a few links to Seeking Alpha articles on GILD:

1. GILD is a core holding for 2017 - Trey Henninger
2. Why Gilead is undervalued - Truth Investor
3. How will Glead far in 2017 - Jonathon Weber
4. Gilead is a fantastic stock to own at this price - Michael Wiggins De Oliveira
5. Cure your portolio with Gilead - Blue Chip Investing
6. Don't Trust Gilead's P/E Ratio - Erick Kobayashi-Solomon

Company Description

From Google Finance:

“Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a research-based biopharmaceutical company. The Company focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of medicines in areas of unmet medical need. The Company's principal areas of focus include human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), liver diseases, such as chronic hepatitis C virus infection and chronic hepatitis B virus infection, cardiovascular, hematology/oncology and inflammation/respiratory. Its HIV products include Genvoya, Stribild, Complera/Eviplera, Atripla, Truvada, Viread, Emtriva, Tybost and Vitekta. The Company's liver diseases products include Harvoni, Sovaldi, Viread and Hepsera. The Company's cardiovascular products include Letairis, Ranexa and Lexiscan/Rapiscan. Its oncology product is Zydelig. Its respiratory products include Cayston and Tamiflu. Its other products include AmBisome and Macugen. The Company's Nimbus Apollo program is a Phase II ready clinical program for NDI-010976 and related metabolic and liver diseases.”

With our recent purchase of Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD), the estimated forward dividends for our family's dividend stocks portfolio grew another $13.16, putting our yearly dividends at approximately $2,831/year (excluding our Edwards Jones account) and $3,242/year (including our Edward Jones account).  

Since we already own Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD), the total stocks held in our  dividend stocks portfolios (WF and EJ Accounts) remains at 59 different dividend paying stocks/ETFs and also 5 companies that either don't pay a dividend our has currently suspended their dividends.

Our family's dividend stocks portfolio may be found

by clicking on the link below:

DIVIDEND STOCKS PORTFOLIO

We also maintain an extensive list of stock analysis

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF STOCK ANALYSES

We also just started a list of Recent Buys by other bloggers

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF RECENT BUYS

HERE IS A QUICK FACT SHEET FOR THE STOCK I JUST PURCHASED:

Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD)

P/E: 6.59

Payout Ratio: 16%
Dividend Yield: 2.64%
1 consecutive years of dividend increases
Last Ex-dividend date: 12/13/2016

Next Ex-dividend date: approx. 3/13/2017
Have paid a dividend since: 2015 (1 year)
Pays a dividend 4 times a year
Market Cap: 93.88 Billion
52-week high: $103.10
52-week low: $69.78
Purchased Price: $71.33

What are your thoughts on of recent purchase?

What are you buying?

DOES WRITING DOWN GOALS GUARANTEE SUCCESS?

Is there a correlation between writing goals and success?

I might be a little biased because I've been writing both short-term (annual) goals and long-term (10 year) goals since I was in my mid 20s!  I don't consider myself a success just yet, but I do credit my accomplishments thus far to the goals I've set for myself.  For me, it ensures that there is progress each and every year and I don't become complacent. 

Even though there are many different studies that have linked goals to success, I am not sure that one can say that simply writing goals will "guarantee" success! One fabled Harvard University study sure appears to reveal a very telling story though.  In that study, only three percent of Harvard MBA students questioned had set and wrote goals on a regular basis. The stunning revelation of this study is that 10 years later, 50 percent of the total net worth of the group was held by just three percent of the group which made roughly ten times as much as their fellow MBA classmates. They were the same three percent that had a habit of setting and writing goals as students, then continued to write goals and review them regularly!!

It is up to you to choose to believe if the link truly exists, but for me and my family, we have no doubt that our written goals have allowed us to show progress each and every year! Regardless if the link to success exists or not, there are still many DGI bloggers that we follow whom have set goals for themselves this year.  And since the beginning of the year is a very appropriate time to set short-term goals, you may have come across a few 2017 goals posts.  In case you may have missed them, below is a link to a few posts from bloggers that we follow:

2017 goals from around the DGI community:

• A Frugal Family's Journey
• Buy, Hold Long
• Desidividend
• DivGro
• Dividend Diplomats - Lanny
• Dividend Diplomats - Bert
• Dividend Dolphin
• Dividend Growth Investor
• Dividend Hawk
• Dividend Ten
• Get Financially Integrated!
• Passive Income Dude
• Pollies Dividend
• Retire Before Dad
• Retire by 40
• Roadmap 2 Retire
• The Dividend Guy
• The Expat Investor
• My Dividend Pipeline

In case you are interested in writing goals but don't know where or how to start, below is a quick 5-step plan to help you set and hopefully complete your goals:

1) Set goals that motivates you - Your goal should be specific to you. They should also be achievable (and not impossible).

2) Set measurable goals - Your goals should be specific. For instance, timelines and quantities should be spelled out within the goal.

3) Put your goals in writing - Your goals should be written down either on paper or in digital format on the computer.

4) Check on your goals periodically - You need to make a commitment to check on your goals monthly, quarterly or bi-annually.  And be ready to adjust your plan, current habits, or find extra motivation if progress towards a certain goal is falling behind. 

5) Celebrate the completion of goals - It is important to celebrate and reward yourself for completing goals or milestones. Use each success as momentum to complete the next. Big or small, it is important to recognize each success! 

Feel free to browse through the goals from fellow bloggers for ideas!!

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - JAN 2017

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 $3,057 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 first few months of the year. 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 January 1st):
$291,145 (down $1,898 from our post last month)

Percentage Owed:
35.2% (up .27% from our post last month)

Home Equity:
$534,255 (up $1,673 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 5 months (125 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 3 months (135 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:

Mortgage Balance History

NEW Links to 2017 Collections (JUST ADDED)

Hello Everyone! 

Hope everyone's year has gotten off to a great start. We just wanted to share this quick post to let everyone know that links to our two collections have been updated to reflect the 2017 year.  We will continue to update the lists in the coming days. Feel free to book mark and return frequently for updates. 

In case this is your first time visiting our blog, our family maintains two collections as tools for the dividend stock investing community.  Below are direct links to both collections:

Collection of Recent Buys

and

Collection of Stock Analyses 

Our goal is to make these collections become the centralized source when one begins their research on a particular dividend stock company. Whether your a beginner or a veteran, we hope these collections become an invaluable reference tool for you all.  Best part, unlike other subscription based sites, We plan to keep this completely free for everyone to enjoy and benefit from. Feel free to share with all of your friends and family! 

Don't forget to bookmark or add this page to your favorites!!

Net Worth Report (January 2017 Update)

Originally, I was only planning to provide annual Net Worth updates.  However, since I am now part of an active list of bloggers who provide their net worth on Rockstar Finance's page - The Ultimate List of Blogger Net Worth, I have decided to start providing quarterly updates.  Providing quarterly updates will allow us to keep our readers more updated with our overall progress towards Financial Independence. It will also allow us to stay accurate and current on the Rockstar Finance's Ultimate List of Blogger Net Worth. ;)

To close out the 2016 year, our family net worth is as follows:

Retirement Savings:                      $ 452,520

P2P Lending Accounts:                   $  12,577

Dividend Stock Accounts (DSA):     $  82,269
DSA - Surplus Cash:                      $  19,137
College Savings Accounts:              $  60,868

Cash and Savings:                         $  64,594

GRAND TOTAL

$691,965
(Increase of $54,701 since January 2016 total: $637,264)

Although we do not count it as part of our Net Worth,
it is still nice to know that our Home Equity is:

$532,582*

(Increase of $80,914 since January 2016 total: $451,668)

Although we don't consider our home equity as part of our Net Worth, we understand that some people do.  So for those who include home equity in their Net Worth, our family's net worth would be considered: $1,224,547 (Increase of $135,615 since January 2016 total: $1,088,932).  It's a pretty awesome figure when you include the home equity but until we can accumulate 7 figures without our home equity, I refuse to consider myself a millionaire. 

* Although others do consider home equity, and even cars, collections, etc. as part of their net worth, it is our opinion that since these items are not very liquid and the value of these items is highly dependent on what others are willing to pay for them (at the present time), we have decided not to consider these type of assets as part of our family's recognized net worth.

NEW 2017 GOALS! - A Frugal Family's Journey

NEW YEAR means NEW GOALS!!

2016 was a decent year for our family but you wouldn't have come to that conclusion based on the percentage of our goals that we had accomplished this past year. 

In all, we managed to accomplish 7 of our 15 goals last year. 

1. We finished the year with 370,402 total all-time page views.
2. We finished the year with a total of 1,376 followers on Twitter.
3. We increased the value of our retirements to $453,633.
4. We ended the year with a mortgage balance to $291,145.
5. We tried out 37 new restaurants and/or dessert places.
6. We completed a total of 55 hikes.
7. We took the kids to 3 new parks.

But as I stated in our recent post (2016 year end recap), even though we only completed 46.6% of our goals this year, I still considered this past year a success! Here is why:

1. Our total dividends, albeit not as much as we would have liked, still grew.
2. Our dividend stocks account, although didn't reach our goal, still saw a roughly 26% gain year-over-year!
3. Even though we did not post as much as we had hoped, our blog continues to reach more and more readers.
4. I was able to get outside and enjoy various places around me. The sights, sounds and taste that I experienced on my restaurant trips and hikes were quite memorable.  
5. I took my kids on am amazing road trip that include a total of 4 different states and 5 State Parks! We did, however, stay at 7 different hotels (which we learned that we will never do again). haha
6. I learned that blogging is fun but it isn't the end of the world if I took a break from it. 
7. And best of all, I can still say that our family remains on track to pay off our home and retire in less than 10 years!

Overall, whether the increases are big or small, the main goal is to keep move forward. Personally, I've been writing both annual and long-term goals since my early twenties. I can say with confidence that our family would not be were we are today without having accomplished the short term goals along the way. Sure, like everyone else, there were setbacks along the way.  But the goals have always helped us get back on track.  They keep us accountable and help ensure that we always progress.

I'm not sure if it is a renewed sense of motivation, or maybe its just the beginning of the year, but we hope to have an even more productive year in 2017!! 

BELOW IS A LIST OF OUR NEW 2017 GOALS!!

Similar to last year, we have split up our goals into different categories. Once again, we have a few "fun" goals in the list. :)

DIVIDEND STOCKS:

1.  Earn $3,550 in dividend income.

2.  Increase projected annual dividend income to $3,750.

3.  Bring value of dividend stocks accounts to $90,000 total.

BLOG:

4.  Write at least 100 posts (8.33 posts/month).

5   Reach 575,000 total hits by end of the year.

6.  Reach 1,800 Twitter followers by end of the year.

7.  Reach 400 all-time earnings from Google AdSense.

FINANCIAL MILESTONES:

8.    Increase value of retirement accounts to $500,000.

9.  Increase Net Worth to $675,000 (excluding home equity).

10.  Reduce mortgage balance to $270,000.

FUN GOALS:

11.  Try out 12 "new" restaurants/dessert place.

12.  Go on 26 "new" hikes (1 every other week).
13.  Visit 3 new parks.
14.  Volunteer for two project/event (ex. beach clean up, clear hiking trail, race event, serve food, etc.)
15.  Get kids outside more - A total of 52 activities (run, walk, hike, etc.) as a family, with a minimum of 1 mile and 30 minutes each.

We have created a landing page for our 2017 goals and plan to provide quarterly updates.  Please feel free to follow along and see our progress!!

2017 GOALS PAGE



A Frugal Family's Journey - 2016 Goals (Recap)

Recap of 2016 goals!!

With another year on the books, our family is blessed to say that we did see some progress. The largest gain came from our home. In 2016, our family saw our mortgage balance continue to decrease while our home value saw a nice recovery. And with the recovery of the housing market well underway, supported by nice growth in the stock market, our family's net worth continued to grow this past year.  We saw gains in our retirement accounts, kids college funds, and dividend stocks account. All in all, we saw a roughly $46K (or 7.3%) gain from the year prior.  

As for the goals we set out to accomplish at the beginning of the year, it wasn't a total failure, but we certainly wished we could have done much better.  In all, we managed to accomplish only 7 of our 15 goals this past year.  We may have set the bar too high (and while likely dial it back this coming year), but we had just figured that even if we came close on some goals that it would be a success. And that is exactly what we did on several goals!  

BELOW IS A LIST OF OUR NEW 2016 GOALS AND ALONG WITH A NARRATIVE OF WHERE WE ENDED UP:

DIVIDEND STOCKS:

1.  Earn $3,600 in dividend income.

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - Although we did (barely) receive more dividends than our 2015 total, we fell short of our goal by $460.58 with a total of $3,139.42 in dividend income.  I must admit that our buying activity was not quite what we had hoped for. With a few unexpected expenses this past year, a toddler in pre-school a few days a week, and living off just one income, we simply didn't have as much left over as we would have liked to invest into our dividend stocks portfolio.  It should be noted that we still, however, consistently invest monies into our retirement and kids college funds.  Our retirement portfolio is something we are trying to build on side (on-our-own) to help supplement our retirement income. 

2.  Increase projected annual dividend income to $4,100. 

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - With such little buying activity this past year.  In fact, I believe we may have sold more stocks than we purchased this past year! In the end, we finished with a projected annual dividend income of $3229.22 which is pretty close to the total dividends we received this past year. 

3.  Bring value of dividend stocks accounts to $90,000 total. 

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - Although we saw tremendous growth  in our dividend stocks portfolio (approximately 26%), our buying activity (or lack thereof) resulted in yet another unfinished goal.  We ended the year with our account valued at: $82,291. Really hoping our buying activity can increase significantly this coming year!

BLOG:

4.  Write at least 100 posts (8.33 posts/month).

• NOT ACCOMPLISHED - Due to a six week hiatus and a slow end to the year (with 6 posts in November and only 4 in December), we only managed to complete 86 posts this past year. With some consistently, this goal is reasonable and certainly achievable.     

5   Reach 350,000 total hits by end of the year.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - We finished the year with 370,402 total all-time page views! Thank you everyone who have stopped by or follow us. We hope you continue to stop by from time to time to see the progress we've made on our journey to financial freedom! 

6.  Reach 900 Twitter followers by end of the year.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - We finished the year with a total of 1,376 followers on Twitter! I'm pretty sure that it was with the help of tweets and our twitter followers that also helped us reach our page views goal. Thanks again everyone.

7.  Cash out $200 from Google AdSense.

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - Although I did cash out once this year, I did not have enough money accumulated to cash out a second time.  I fell $36.04 short of reaching the $300 mark! Not sure if other bloggers are experiencing lower revenue stream from Google AdSense but we certainly have seen a decrease in activity and overall gains in the last few months.  Who knows, maybe its related to our 6-week hiatus.

8.  Join DIV-NET or Seeking Alpha.

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - To be honest, I just couldn't find the time to take on another task. There were certainly ups and downs felt on our blogging journey this past year.  Although we ultimately decided to press forward, I will be the first to admit that the blog has taken a back seat to other things in our life. 

FINANCIAL MILESTONES:

9.    Increase value of retirement accounts to $450,000.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - Consistency is the key! Even though we were not able to buy many new stocks for our dividend stocks portfolio, we still diligently put away money each and every paycheck towards retirement.  With this effort, we managed to increase the value of our retirements to $453,633!

10.  Increase Net Worth to $675,000 (excluding home equity).

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - We ended the year with just a little over $625K.  Not bad, but well short of our goal for the year.  Maybe we were simply being to optimistic. Either way, since we have so far to go still to reach this goal, we are thinking of simply repeating the same goal. 

11.  Reduce mortgage balance to $292,000.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - Really proud to say that we managed to hit this goal as we finished the year with our mortgage balance down to $291,145.  Not bad considering our home value is just north of $800K!

FUN GOALS:

12.  Try out 12 "new" restaurants/dessert place.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - What can I say, we like to eat! This past year, in addition to destroying our goal to try out 12 new restaurants, I am proud to say that I become a Yelp Elite in the process! I like to think that it was my quality reviews and photos taken, but I'm pretty sure the quantity played a small part. In all, we ended up trying out 37 new restaurants and/or dessert places! I know what you are thinking, this probably didn't help the budget.  But the reality is, whenever possible (almost half the time) we generally try to use a paper coupon (from newspaper of Retailmenot website) or online coupon (like Groupon or Living Social).  Best of all, I am able to expose my kids to a huge variety of foods! As a result, my kids are far from being picky eaters. I say that is worth every penny!

13.  Go on 26 hikes (1 every other week).

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - We started the year with a goal to complete one hike every other week but finished the year with much, much more.  I have to admit we thoroughly enjoyed the progress we made on this goal as is evident in our final tally. I am proud to say that we completed 55 hike this past year (an average of more than 1 hike per week!).  Along the way, our family had many great adventures and stories that will last a lifetime. And best of all, the fun times were had with very little money out of our pocket! Not sure with we will even come close to 55 hikes next year but we definitely plan to continue hiking.  

14.  Visit 3 new parks.

• (ACCOMPLISHED) - We managed to barely complete this goal with our 3 visit to a new park coming just a week ago.  I really like this goal because I want to raise my kids as adventure seekers.  So what better than trying out a few new parks each year! If you have little ones, I highly recommend it.  It amazing to see how much different playgrounds and park equipment are from city to city or even state to state (if you have the opportunity).

15.  Volunteer for a project/event (ex. beach clean up, clear hiking trail, race event, serve food, etc.)

• (NOT ACCOMPLISHED) - No excuses here.  We really should have given more effort and made time for a volunteer project.  I'm thinking, as a penalty, I may double this goal for next year to make up for the lack of effort! :)

If we were being graded on the amount of goals we had accomplished, we would have ended with an F. Thankfully, in life, it is not always about the grade we receive (or even what others think) but rather it is about we we ended up compared to where we started.  In my opinion, even though we only completed 46.6% of our goals this year, I still consider this past year a success! Here is why:

1. Our total dividends, albeit not as much as we would have liked, still grew.
2. Our dividend stocks account, although didn't reach our goal, still saw a roughly 26% gain year-over-year!
3. Even though we did not post as much as we had hoped, our blog continues to reach more and more readers.
4. I was able to get outside and enjoy various places around me. The sights, sounds and taste that I experienced on my restaurant trips and hikes were quite memorable.  
5. I took my kids on am amazing road trip that include a total of 4 different states and 5 State Parks! We did, however, stay at 7 different hotels (which we learned that we will never do again). haha
6. I learned that blogging is fun but it isn't the end of the world if I took a break from it. 
7. And best of all, I can still say that our family remains on track to pay off our home and retire in less than 10 years!

Hope you all had a great year as well!

BEST WISHES AND CONTINUED SUCCESS ON YOUR PERSONAL JOURNEY

May 2017 bring you good health and great wealth!!

DECEMBER 2016 - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

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

DIVIDENDS

During the past month, our family received dividends/partnership distributions from a total of 22 companies/ETFs/Partnerships!! The total monies received from those 22 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $225.16. 

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

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
12/01/16 - WFC (Wells Fargo & Co): $7.60
12/01/16 - ENB (Enbridge, Inc): $11.58
12/01/16 - AFL (Aflac Inc): $6.45
12/06/16 - JNJ (Johnson & Johnson): $3.20
12/09/16 - XOM (Exxon Mobil Corp): $8.25
12/09/16 - EXC (Exelon Corp): $19.06
12/09/16 - EMR (Emerson Electric Co): $16.80
12/12/16 - MMM (3M Co): $3.33
12/12/16 - TGT (Target Corp): $3.60
12/12/16 - IBM (Int'l Business Machines Corp): $8.40
12/12/16 - CVX (Chevron Corp): $19.44
12/15/16 - IP (Int'l Paper Co): $4.63
12/16/16 - ESV (Ensco Plc): $2.31
12/16/16 - RDS.B (Royal Dutch Shell Plc): $21.62
12/16/16 - NOV (National Oilwell Varco Inc): $2.25
12/16/16 - FLO (Flower Foods Inc): $5.28
12/29/16 - UNP (Union Pacific Corp): $12.71
12/29/16 - EDIV (SPDR Emerging ETF Markets Dividend): $19.11
12/29/16 - TROW (T Rowe Price Group Inc): $4.32
12/29/16 - GILD (Gilead Science Inc): $3.76
12/30/16 - VTR (Ventas Inc): $4.65
12/30/16 - FTR (Frontier Communications Corp): $36.81

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
No dividends received this past month

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $225.16

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

Dividend Stocks Portfolio