November 2021 (Recap) - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

 

Our family had to hit the pause button on building our dividend income portfolio while we were trying to cash flow our home improvements last year and the earlier part of this year. I'm happy to say that our home improvement project is now complete and we resumed active trading back in May. Since we made a few purchases this past month, we saw our forward dividends increase this past month a roughly $265! I must admit that it is great to see our monthly and forward dividends start to grow once again.

Although we no longer post full details of our buys and sells activities, we had 0 sells and 6 buys this past month.

Sells (decrease in Fwd Dividends: $0):

• None

Buys (increase in Fwd Dividends: $264.40/yr):

• VZ (VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY)
• AI (C3.AI INC CL A)
• BMY (BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB CO)
• DAL (DELTA AIR LINES INC)
• DHC (DIVERSIFIED HEALTHCARE TR)
• T (AT & T INC)

What is everyone else doing? Are you buying anything right now?   

Now for what you all came to see, below is a list of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio.

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, 13 companies/ETFs/Partnerships/Cash In-Lieu. The total monies received from those 13 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $334.87 

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

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
11/01/21 - VZ (VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS COM): $12.80

11/01/21 - O (REALTY INCOME CORP): $44.04 - Cash In-Lieu

11/01/21 - BMY (BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB CO): $4.80
11/01/21 - T (AT & T INC): $78.00

11/04/21 - KD (KYNDRYL HLDGS INC): $10.88 - Cash In-Lieu

11/12/21 - BKR (BAKER HUGHES A GE CO): $16.20

11/15/21 - O (REALTY INCOME CORP REIT): $4.15

11/15/21 - ONL (ORION OFFICE REIT INC): $15.06 - Cash In Lieu

11/15/21 - OHI (OMEGA HEALTHCARE REIT INVESTORS INC): $33.50

11/15/21 - BRMK (BROADMARK REALTY CAPITAL INC): $3.50

11/18/21 - DHC (DIVERSIFIED HEALTHCARE TR): $1.75

11/19/21 - ET (ENERGY TRANSFER LP): $53.38

11/30/21 - LTC (LTC PROPERTIES INC REIT): $7.60

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

11/2/21 - T (AT & T INC): $49.21

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $334.87

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

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

Dividend Stocks Portfolio

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - November 2021

              

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include 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:

It's official! According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $1,208,700 (up $15,600 in the last 30-days). Wow!! Yes, that is not a typo. In fact, our home value has gone up almost $300K since the beginning of the year. Not sure if everyone else is seeing the same but the housing market is out of control here in Southern California. 

As mentioned in our post back in May, a nearby home in our community sold for an unexpected $1.4 million dollars! We can't believe the home sold for as much as it did! More importantly, we can't believe that we now own a home that is worth over $1 million, and still climbing! And as of September of this year, our family is now sitting on a million dollars in home equity!!

Mortgage Balance (As of November 1st):
$169,737 (down $2,487 from our October post)

Percentage Owed:
14.0% (down 0.3% since our October post)

Home Equity: 
$1,038,963 (up $13,087 from our October 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 an awesome rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 5 years and 9 months (69 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 6 years and 3 months (75 months) left on our mortgage. Personally, I would like to have it paid off before I retire, and ideally a couple of years beforehand. 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 for as long as possible so it can continue to grow. 

With my wife back to work, we are blessed that we now have more money to both invest and through towards the mortgage. We did some home improvement projects last year but this year has been all about building wealth and decreasing our mortgage payoff date. We are actively buying dividend stocks again and thereafter throwing unspent monies towards the mortgage balance. At a certain point, we may consider using some of the money from our dividend stocks account to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance. The dividend stocks account is roughly 60% of our mortgage balance so there isn't enough just yet. But the idea is to build the dividend stocks account while simultaneously decreasing the mortgage balance until both numbers are equal. At that point, whether we decide to do it or not, the option would exist to wipe out the mortgage using the dividend stocks account. 

October 2021 (Recap) - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

We had hit pause while we're trying to cash flow our home improvements last year part of the beginning of this year. I'm happy to say that our home improvement project is now complete and we resumed active trading back in May. Although we saw our forward dividends decrease this past month, generally speaking, it is great to see our monthly and forward dividends start to grow once again.

Although we no longer post full details of our buys and sells activities, we had 3 sells and 5 buys this past month.

Sells (decrease in Fwd Dividends: $299.16):

• NOV (NOV INC)
• KMI (KINDER MORGAN IN)
• VER (VEREIT INC)

Buys (increase in Fwd Dividends: $127.64/yr):

• VZ (VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY)
• OHI (OMEGA HEALTHCARE REIT INVESTORS INC)
• PNW (PINNACLE WEST CAP CORP)
• LMT (LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP)
• OXY (OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM) - trade warrant 

What is everyone else doing? Are you buying anything right now?   

Now for what you all came to see, below is a list of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio.

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, 9 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 9 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $240.94 

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

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
10/12/21 - MO (ALTRIA GROUP INC): $40.50

10/15/21 - VER (VEREIT INC): $23.10

10/15/21 - OXY (OCCIDENTAL PETE CORP): $2.10
10/15/21 - LADR (LADDER CAPITAL CORP CL A): $20.00

10/15/21 - CAH (CARDINAL HEALTH INC): $31.90

10/15/21 - BRMK (BROADMARK REALTY CAPITAL INC): $3.50

10/29/21 - EIX (EDISON INTL): $9.94

10/29/21 - LTC (LTC PROPERTIES INC REIT): $7.60

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

10/28/21 - CMCSA (COMCAST CORP CL A): $102.30

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $240.94

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

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

Dividend Stocks Portfolio

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - October 2021

             

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include 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:

It's official! According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $1,198,100 (up $21,490 in the last 30-days). Wow!! Yes, that is not a typo. In fact, our home value has gone up almost $300K since the beginning of the year. Not sure if everyone else is seeing the same but the housing market is out of control here in southern California. As mentioned in our post back in May, a nearby home in our community sold for an unexpected $1.4 million dollars! We can't believe the home sold for as much as it did! More importantly, we can't believe that we now own a home that is worth over $1 million, and still climbing! And as of September of this year, we are now sitting on a million dollars in home equity!!

Mortgage Balance (As of October 1st):
$172,224 (down $2,482 from our September post)

Percentage Owed:
14.3% (down 0.4% since our September post)

Home Equity: 
$1,025,876 (up $16,682 from our September 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 an awesome rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 5 years and 10 months (70 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 6 years and 4 months (76 months) left on our mortgage. Personally, I would like to have it paid off before I retire, and ideally a couple of years beforehand. 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 for as long as possible so it can continue to grow. 

With my wife back to work, we are blessed that we now have more money to both invest and through towards the mortgage. We did some home improvement projects last year but this year has been all about building wealth and decreasing our mortgage payoff date. We are actively buying dividend stocks again and thereafter throwing unspent monies towards the mortgage balance. At a certain point, we may consider using some of the money from our dividend stocks account to wipe out the remaining mortgage balance. The dividend stocks account is roughly 60% of our mortgage balance so there isn't enough just yet. But the idea is to build the dividend stocks account while simultaneously decreasing the mortgage balance until both numbers are equal. At that point, whether we decide to do it or not, the option would exist to wipe out the mortgage using the dividend stocks account. 

September 2021 (Recap) - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

 

Our family had decided to stop adding to our stock portfolio while were trying to cash flow our home improvements towards the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I'm happy to say that our home improvement project is now complete. We resumed active trading back in May and, as a result, seeing our monthly and forward dividends continue to grow once again.

Although we no longer post full details of our buys and sells activities, we had 1 sell and 5 buys this past month.

Sells (decrease in Fwd Dividends: $0):

• LI (LI Auto Inc)

Buys (increase in Fwd Dividends: $163.20/yr):

• PSX (PHILLIPS 66)
• LTC (LTC PROPERTIES INC REIT)
• IQ (IQIYI INC ADR)
• OHI (OMEGA HEALTHCARE REIT INVESTORS INC)
• PNW (PINNACLE WEST CAP CORP)

What is everyone else doing? Are you buying anything right now?   

Now for what you all came to see, below is a list of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio.

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, 14 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 14 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $324.62 

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

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
09/01/21 - WFC (WELLS FARGO & CO): $6.00

09/01/21 - ENB (ENBRIDGE INC): $66.31

09/08/21 - ARMK (ARAMARK): $4.40
09/10/21 - LUMN (LUMEN TECHNOLOGIES INC): $31.25

09/10/21 - IBM (INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORP): $19.68

09/10/21 - XOM (EXXON MOBIL CORP): $52.20

09/10/21 - AEP (AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER INC): $11.10

09/15/21 - BRMK (BROADMARK REALTY CAPITAL INC): $3.50

09/20/21 - RDS.B (LTC PROPERTIES INC): $28.80

09/23/21 - EDIV (SPDR S&P EMERGING ETF MARKETS): $47.89

09/24/21 - SU (SUNCOR ENERGY INC): $12.40

09/24/21 - LCEAX (INVESCO DIVERSIFIED DIVIDEND FUND CL A): $15.74

09/29/21 - GILD (GILEAD SCIENCES INC): $17.75

09/30/21 - LTC (LTC PROPERTIES INC REIT): $7.60

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

N/A

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $324.62

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

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

Dividend Stocks Portfolio

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - September 2021

            

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include 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:

It's official! According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $1,183,900 ($34,000) in the last 30-days). Wow!! Yes, that is not a typo. In fact, our home value has gone up almost $200K in the last several months. Not sure if everyone else is seeing the same but the housing market is out of control here in southern California. As mentioned in our post back in May, a nearby home in our community sold for an unexpected $1.4 million dollars! We can't believe the home sold for as much as it did! More importantly, we can't believe that we now own a home that is worth over $1 million! And as of this past month, we are officially sitting on a million dollars in home equity!!

Mortgage Balance (As of September 1st):
$174,706 (down $2,376 from our August post)

Percentage Owed:
14.7% (down 0.8% since our August post)

Home Equity: 
$1,009,194 (up $40,676 from our August 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 an awesome rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 5 years and 11 months (71 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 6 years and 5 months (77 months) left on our mortgage. Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in roughly 5 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 for as long as possible 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, 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.

August 2021 (Recap) - DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

 

Our family had decided to stop adding to our stock portfolio while were trying to cash flow our home improvements towards the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I'm happy to say that our home improvement project is now complete. We resumed active trading back in May and, as a result, seeing our monthly and forward dividends continue to grow once again.

Although we no longer post full details of our buys and sells activities, we had 3 sells and 1 buy this past month.

Sells:

• LI (LI Auto Inc)
• WFC (Wells Fargo & Co)
• VEREIT INC

Buys:

• IQ (IQIYI Inc)

What is everyone else doing? Are you buying anything right now?   

Now for what you all came to see, below is a list of the dividends/partnership distributions that we received from our family's dividend stocks portfolio.

DIVIDENDS 

During the past month, 11 companies/ETFs/Partnerships. The total monies received from those 11 companies/ETFs/Partnerships was: $420.51 

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

WELLS FARGO INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:
08/02/21 - BMY (BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB CO): $4.90

08/02/21 - T (AT & T INC ): $78.00

08/03/21 - VZ (VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS COM): $12.55
08/06/21 - VOD (VODAFONE GROUP PLC): $106.48

08/13/21 - BRMK (BROADMARK REALTY CAPITAL INC): $3.50

08/16/21 - KMI (KINDER MORGAN INC): $74.79

08/19/21 - ET (ENERGY TRANSFER LP): $53.38

08/19/21 - DHC (DIVERSIFIED HEALTHCARE TR): $1.75

08/20/21 - BKR (BAKER HUGHES A GE CO): $16.20

08/31/21 - LTC (LTC PROPERTIES INC): $4.75

08/31/21 - HP (HELMERICH & PAYNE INC): 15.00

EDWARD JONES INVESTMENT ACCOUNT:

02/02/21 - T (AT & T INC ): $49.21

OVERALL DIVIDENDS TOTAL THIS MONTH: $420.51

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

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

Dividend Stocks Portfolio

Mortgage Balance (UPDATE) - August 2021

           

If you have viewed our family's Net Worth Page, you probably already know that it does not include 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:

It's official! According to Zillow, our home is currently worth $1,145,600 ($48,771 in the last 30-days). Wow!! Yes, that is not a typo. In fact, our home value has gone up almost $150K in the last months. Not sure if everyone else is seeing the same but the housing market is out of control here in southern California. As mentioned in our post back in May, a nearby home in our community sold for an unexpected $1.4 million dollars! We can't believe the home sold for as much as it did! More importantly, we can't believe that we now "almost" own a home that is worth over $1 million! If things continue, we could be sitting on a million dollars in home equity by the end of the year!!

Mortgage Balance (As of August 1st):
$177,082 (down $4,535 from our July post)

Percentage Owed:
15.5% (down 0.7% since our July post)

Home Equity: 
$968,518 (up $31,735 from our July 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 an awesome rate of 2.875%.  My goal is to retire within 5 years and 10 months (70 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 6 years and 6 months (78 months) left on our mortgage. Nevertheless, I would like to have it paid off in roughly 5 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 for as long as possible 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, 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.