RECENT BUY : Ladder Capital Corp (NYSE: LADR)

WE RECENTLY PURCHASED THE FOLLOWING

Ladder Capital Corp (LADR)
Purchased 50 shares of LADR on 4/25/2017 at $13.75
Total money spent: $687.50
$63.00 added to annual dividends

We have continued to actively purchase shares of dividend stocks, but admittedly it has been quite some time since we have written post of a recent buy. We just thought we'd share this one as it does not seem to be as popular in the dividend stock investing community. We had a family member, who currently owns this stock, recommend it to us earlier this year.  So we started watching Ladder Capital Corp (LADR) around February and finally saw a good entry point when the stock dipped recently below $14.00.  

Since we did not previously own shares in Ladder Capital Corp (LADR), the recent purchase not only added $63.00 to our forward dividends but also became the 61st different dividend paying stocks/ETFs in our family's Dividend Stocks Portfolio.

They additional $63.00 added to our annual dividends puts our yearly dividends at approximately $3,295/year (excluding our Edwards Jones account) and $3,795/year (including our Edward Jones account). 

Our family's dividend stocks portfolio may be found

by clicking on the link below:
DIVIDEND STOCKS PORTFOLIO

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

Ladder Capital Corp (LADR)

• P/E: 12.27
• Payout Ratio: 107.52%
• Dividend Yield: 9.06%
• 0 consecutive years of dividend increases
• Last dividend Ex date: 3/12/2018
• Next dividend Ex date: approx. 6/12/2018
• Dividend Payback Period: 3 years
• Pays a dividend 4 times a year.
• Market Cap: 1.55 Billion
• 52-week high: $15.39
• 52-week low: $12.82
• Purchased Price: $13.75

What are your thoughts about our recent purchase?

What are you buying?

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - April 2018

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 $841,511(up $13,803 in the last 30-days). Home prices are just about as unpredictable as the stock market these days. Like the market, our home value has been a huge roller coaster this year. But always glad and thankful to see the value jump more than $10K in one month! :)

The reality is whether or not it is up or down, it really doesn't mean much to us since we have no intention of selling our home.  We mainly post these updates to see the remaining mortgage balance and keep us motivated to push forward to be debt free (including our mortgage) one day!  

Mortgage Balance (As of Mar 1st):
$262,084 (down $1,967 from our March post)

Percentage Owed:
31.1% (down a full 1% from our March post)

Home Equity:
$579,427 (up a whopping $22,426 from our March post)
   

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 9 years and 2 months (110 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 10  years and 0 months (120 months) left on our mortgage. Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in roughly 8-9 years. If we accomplish that, I plan to use the money we use to pay our mortgage and 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 6-8 years, we may consider using some of the 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.

MARCH 2018 - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

Below is a recap of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio –  MARCH 2018 (recap).

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, our family received dividends/partnership distributions from a total of 16 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 16 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $254.85. 

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

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
3/02/18 - HCP (HCP INC): $14.80
3/02/18 - ENB (ENBRIDGE INC): $20.92
3/09/18 - XOM (EXXON MOBIL CORP): $11.55
3/09/18 - EXC (EXELON CORPORATION): $12.05
3/12/18 - TGT (TARGET CORP): $11.78
3/12/18 - IBM (INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORP): $9.00
3/12/18 - CVX (CHEVRON CORPORATION): $16.80
3/15/18 - O (REALTY INCOME CORP): $3.29
3/16/18 - FLO (FLOWERS FOODS INC): $5.61
3/16/18 - CTL (CENTURYLINK INC): $13.50
3/19/18 - ESV (ENSCO PLC ): $5.00
3/23/18 - EDIV (SPDR S&P EMERGING ETF): $8.89
3/26/18 - RDS.B (ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC): $13.16
3/27/18 - BBL (BHP BILLITON PLC): $103.40
3/29/18 - NOV (NATIONAL OILWELL VARCO INC): $2.25
3/29/18 - GILD (GILEAD SCIENCES INC): $2.85

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

N/A

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $254.85

How did you all do? Hopefully you all continue to see your dividends growth month after to month, year after year! 

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

Dividend Stocks Portfolio