Fun Goals (Update) - Hike No. 3

No work for dad, and no school for kids, means our family got to enjoy a nice family activity today. Instead of sitting around the TV, or watching videos on the pad, our family decided to go out and do a hike up the Hollywood Sign this morning.  It was roughly 6 miles round trip and took over two hours (with kids) but we made it all the way to the top and back! 

At the end of the day, we are still an anonymous blog. But we just thought we'd add a little more personal touch to the blog this year. Hoping to break up the serious stuff with some fun stuff, we plan to share a few photos of our fun adventures throughout this coming year. Hope you enjoy the personal touch. :)

 (Views on our way up to the Hollywood sign)

(Views looking towards Burbank)

(View of Griffith Park Observatory)

You can also see the top of a few buildings in downtown LA in the distance

(View of Burbank before clouds cleared away)

Even though we have lived in California all our lives, this was the first time my wife and I hike up the infamous Hollywood sign.  It is a very popular hike and for good reason. The views were amazing! 

With less than 3 weeks into the year, I am happy to report that we just completed hike number 3 of our goal to finish 26 hikes. Go us!! :)

Stocks Added to Collection of Stock Analyses - January 2016 (Week 2)

For those who are not yet familiar with our extensive collection of individual dividend stocks. The entire collection is currently comprised of 1,024 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 29 stock analyses to date!     

January 2016 - Week 2:

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

1. Automatic Data Processing (ADP)
• by Sure Dividend
2. Clorox Company (CLX)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
3. Dover Corporation (DOV)
• by Sure Dividend
4. Ecolab Inc (ECL)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
5. Genuine Parts Company (GPC)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
6. McDonalds Corp (MCD)
• by Dividend Value Builder
7. Parker Hannifin (PH)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
8. Paychex (PAYX)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
9. Procter & Gamble (PG)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
10. Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS.B)
• by The Conservative Income Investor
11. T.Rowe Price Group (TROW)
• by Sure Dividend
12. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA)
• by Sure Dividend
13. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)
• by The Conservative Income Investor
14. W.P. Carey Inc (WPC)
• by Harvesting Dividends
15. Ecel Energy Inc (XEL)
• by Roadmap 2 Retire

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

RECENT BUY (NYSE: ORCL)

WE RECENTLY PURCHASED THE FOLLOWING

Oracle Corporation (ORCL)

Purchased 11 shares of ORCL on 1/13/2016 at $34.50
Total Spent: $379.00

Another winter deal in the books! With Oracle reaching a new 52-week low today, we decided to place an limit order to buy 11 shares of ORCL at $34.50 and by the end of the day, we check our e-mail to find that our order had executed during the afternoon session. 

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) is a global leader in database technology. It has more than twice the market share than its nearest competitor, IBM.  In addition, ORCL is slowly gaining market share in hardware and cloud. Revenues from hardware and cloud are expected to grow meaningfully in the coming years. At current values, we feel ORCL is a great long term buy.  Although the dividend yield is a bit lower than we prefer, we are confident that given the low payout ratio, ORCL will continue to raise their dividends for years to come! 

Company Description

From Google Finance:

“Oracle Corporation (Oracle) is a provider of enterprise software and computer hardware products, and services. The Company’s offerings include Oracle database and middleware software, application software, cloud infrastructure, hardware systems including computer server, storage and networking products, and related services. It operates through various segments, including new software licenses and cloud software subscriptions, which include software licenses and Oracle Cloud offerings; cloud infrastructure-as-a-service, which provides deployment and management offerings; software license updates and product support, which includes support, enhancements and upgrades for Oracle software products; hardware systems products, which includes servers, storage, networking, virtualization software, operating systems and management software; hardware systems support, which provides software updates for software components, and services business, which offers consulting services”

With today's purchase of Oracle Corporation (ORCL), the estimated forward dividends for our family's dividend stocks portfolio grew another $6.60, putting our yearly dividends at approximately $3,589/year (excluding our Edwards Jones account) and $3,947/year (including our Edward Jones account).  

We did not previously owned ORCL; therefore, our family's dividend stocks portfolios (WF and EJ Accounts) added another great company.  We now hold total of 51 different dividend paying stocks/ETFs and also 4 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:

Oracle Corporation (ORCL)

P/E: 16.30
Payout Ratio: 27.4%
Dividend Yield:1.7%
2 years of dividend growth
Last Ex-dividend date: 1/4/2016

Next Ex-dividend date: approx. - 4/4/2016
Have paid a dividend since: 2009 (6 years)
Pays a dividend 4 times a year.
Market Cap: 143.1 Billion
52-week high: $45.33
52-week low: $34.52
Purchased Price: $34.50

What are your thoughts on of recent purchase?

What are you buying?

2016 GOALS! - A Frugal Family's Journey

New year means a fresh list of NEW goals!!

2015 was a decent year for our family.  Our net worth continued to grow this past year but with a relatively flat market and a few bad buys in oil and energy, we certainly did not see the same growth as we've been enjoying in years past. 

In all, we managed to accomplish 9 of our 12 goals from last year. 

1. We earned $3,000 in dividend income.
2. Our projected annual dividend exceeded $3,500.
3. We own more than 40 dividend producing stocks/ETFs.
4. We maintained a min. 6% ROI from our P2P notes.
5. We wrote more than 84 blog posts.
6. All time hits crossed the 150K mark.
7. Stock Analyses Collection grew above 800.
8. Cash out first $100 from Google AdSense.  

Although we are happy with these accomplishments, we hope to have an even more productive year in 2016. Similar to last year, we have split up our goals into different categories. What is different this year is that we've removed our P2P goals since our long term plan no longer includes growing our P2P accounts. We did, however, add a few "fun" goals to the list!  It our way of bringing a little sense of balance and enjoyment to our family's journey.

BELOW IS A LIST OF OUR NEW 2016 GOALS!!

DIVIDEND STOCKS:

1.  Earn $3,600 in dividend income.

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

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

BLOG:

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

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

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

7.  Cash out $200 from Google AdSense.
8.  Join DIV-NET or Seeking Alpha.

FINANCIAL MILESTONES:

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

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

11.  Reduce mortgage balance to $292,000.

FUN GOALS:

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

13.  Go on 26 hikes (1 every other week).
14.  Visit 3 new parks.
15.  Volunteer for a project/event (ex. beach clean up, clear hiking trail, race event, serve food, etc.)

We have created a landing page for our 2016 goals and plan to provide quarterly updates.  Please feel free to follow along and see our progress!!

2016 GOALS PAGE



Stocks Added to Collection of Stock Analyses - January 2016 (Week 1)

For those who are not yet familiar with our extensive collection of individual dividend stocks. The entire collection is currently comprised of 1,009 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.     

January 2016 - Week 1:

Below is a list of newly added stocks analyses for the 1st week of January (as well as the last few days of December).  

1. Air Products & Chemical (APD)
• by Sure Dividend
2. Becton Dickinson (BDX)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
3. Colgate Palmolive (CL)
• by Sure Dividend
4. Compass Minerals Int'l (CMP)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
5. Diageo Plc (DEO)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
6. Home Depot (HD)
• by Dividend Value Builder
7. Pepsico Inc (PEP)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
8. Starbucks Corp (SBUX)
• by Roadmap 2 Retire
9. Suncor Energy (SU)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
10. Sysco Corp (SYY)
• by Simply Safe Dividends
11. Target Corp (TGT)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
12. Thomson Reuters (TRI)
• 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

RECENT BUYS (NYSE: UNP, RY, and GPC)

WE RECENTLY PURCHASED THE FOLLOWING:



Union Pacific Corp (UNP) 
Purchased 6 shares of UNP on 1/7/2016 at $73.25
Total Spent: $439.50
$13.20 added to annual dividends

Royal Bank of Canada (RY) 
Purchased 10 shares of RY on 1/7/2016 at $50.00
Total Spent: $500.00
$23.22 added to annual dividends

Genuine Parts Company (GPC) 
Purchased 5 shares of GPC on 1/8/2015 at 80.00
Total Spent: $400.00
$12.30 added to annual dividends

With the market of to its worst 5-day start to a year on record, we decided to take advantage of the Winter Sale! We purchased a few shares of Union Pacific Corp (UNP) and Royal Bank of Canada (RY) during Thursday's session. And on Friday, with the market seeing more decline, we seized the opportunity to pick up a few shares of Genuine Parts Company (GPC). 

With China's stock market in complete disarray, crude oil prices plunging to lowest level since 2003, and corporate earning for the last quarter of 2015 widely expected to be underwhelming, there may be more deals to be had in the coming weeks.  Nevertheless, as a long term investor who is now seeking to buy and hold forever, we feel that we found three companies at great values that should continue to pay us "dividends" for years to come! 

As you observe the fact sheet on our recent purchases below, you will notice a common theme that is consistent found in stable, high quality companies: 1) Yields Above 3%, 2) 10+ Billion Dollar Market Cap, 3) 60+ year history of paying dividends.  Additionally, the P/E and payout ratios aren't that bad either!!  

With the recent purchases today, we added another two NEW stocks to our family's dividend stocks portfolio. Royal Bank of Canada (RY) and Genuine Parts Company (GPC) now brings our family's dividend stocks portfolio to a total of 50 stock/ETFs. Union Pacific Corp (UNP) was a company that we had already previously owned.

With the purchases mentioned above, our estimated forward dividends grew another $48.72 and now stands at approximately $3,941.85/year in 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 STOCKS WE JUST PURCHASED:

Union Pacific Corp (UNP)

P/E: 12.75
Payout Ratio: 37.13%
Dividend Yield: 3.01%
Dividend Growth rate (5yr AVG): 14.99%
9 consecutive years of dividend increases
Last Ex-dividend date: 11/25/2015

Next Ex-dividend date: approx. 2/25/2015
Have paid a dividend since: 1900 (115 years)
Pays a dividend 4 times a year.
Market Cap: 63 Billion
52-week high: $124.52
52-week low: $72.42
Purchased Price: $73.25

Royal Bank of Canada (RY)
P/E: 9.82
Payout Ratio: 45.86%
Dividend Yield: 4.49%
Dividend Growth rate (5yr AVG): 9.06%
4 consecutive years of dividend increases
Last Ex-dividend date: 10/22/2015

Next Ex-dividend date: approx. 1/22/2016
Have paid a dividend since: 1870 (145 years)
Pays a dividend 4 times a year.
Market Cap: 71.4 Billion
52-week high: $67.49
52-week low: $49.83
Purchased Price: $50.00

Genuine Parts Company (GPC)
P/E: 16.93
Payout Ratio: 52.22%
Dividend Yield: 3.04%
Dividend Growth rate (5yr AVG): 8.46%
4 consecutive years of dividend increases
Last Ex-dividend date: 3/5/2015

Next Ex-dividend date: approx. 6/5/2015
Have paid a dividend since: 1948 (67 years)
Pays a dividend 4 times a year.
Market Cap: 11.8 Billion
52-week high: $104.23
52-week low: $78.76
Purchased Price: $80.00

What are your thoughts about my recent purchases?

What are you buying?

Net Worth (Year-End 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 the year, our family net worth is as follows:

Retirement Savings:                      $ 410,707

P2P Lending Accounts:                   $  17,707

Dividend Stock Accounts (DSA):     $   73,520
DSA - Surplus Cash:                      $    5,779
College Savings Accounts:              $  54,867

Cash and Savings:                         $  74,684

GRAND TOTAL

$637,264
(Increase of $8,068 since 9/31/15)

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

$451,668*

(Decrease of $12,003 since 9/31/15)

In the 3rd quarter, we reported that our Net Worth saw its first decrease since we began reporting it. Glad to be reporting that we seem to be back on track as we saw an increase of $8,068 during the last quarter of the year. So as we start out 2016, out family Net Worth now stands at $637,264. 

Although we don't consider our home equity as part of our Net Worth, we understand that some people do.  So to be fully transparent, we would like to report that our home equity shrank $12,003 this past quarter and now stands at $451,668.  

So for those who include home equity in their Net Worth, our family's net worth would be considered: $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.