Monday, August 25, 2014

I was nominated AGAIN for a Liebster Award!!

 
liebster2 

In July, I was nominated for a Liebster Award by Happy, Healthy and Wealthy Girl.  Just recently, I was nominated again by two other bloggers.  Both All About Interest and My Dividend Pipeline nominated me for the award.  Thank you both for the recognition and support.    
 
In case you are wondering, after doing a quick Google search, I found out exactly what a Liebster Award was all about.
  • The Liebster Award was created to recognize and/or discover new bloggers and welcome them to the blogosphere.
  • This aware only exists on the internet, and is given to bloggers by other bloggers.
  • It is like a helpful hand for new blogger you like and want others to hear about.
Basic Rules:
  • In order to accept an award, you are supposed to answer 5 questions from the person who nominated you.
  • Then you find your own 5 new blogs to nominate the Liebster Award to and create a list of questions for them.
  • Lastly, post your Liebster Award proudly on your blog for all to see.

Thank you All About Interest and My Dividend Pipeline for the recent nomination!!

And thank you again
Happy, Healthy and Wealthy Girl for the original nomination!!
 
Here are my answers to the questions from All About Interest:
 
1. Where did you grow up and do you still live there?
I grew up in Norwalk, California. I lived in Norwalk from 2nd grade to my mid 30s. 
 
2. What are your plans once you reach financial independence?
I plan to spend more time with kids, travel and do volunteer work.  And of course, spend time blogging and staying in tune with the market.
 
3. What was your best/worst financial decision?
My best financial decision was selling my bachelor home at the height of the housing market and living with my in-laws for 9 months to save and watch the market cool down.  My worst financial decision was investing in a small time Ponzi scheme where I lost approx. $15K.  It was a lot of money to me at the time because I was only making about $25K at the time. 
 
4. What is your favorite part about investing? 
The best part of investing is watching it grow.  I do a monthly net worth report and must admit that I look forward to seeing the results each month.
 
5. Who's your biggest idol and why? 
My biggest ideal would have to be Kobe Bryant.  I know many people don't like him but I admire his work ethic and his competitiveness.  Greatness doesn't come easy and it certainly doesn't come overnight!
Here are my answers to the questions from My Dividend Pipeline:

1. If you could retire with ONLY 5 dividend stocks in your portfolio, what would they be? (cannot choose JNJ, KO, CVX, XOM, PG)
I would choose the following half-century dividend growth stocks: CL (51yrs), GPC (57yrs), ITW (51yrs), LOW (52yrs), and MMM (55yrs).
 

2. What is the most important thing you would do in your first month of early retirement that you can't do know because of your job commitments?
I would take morning jogs...with my current work schedule, I only have the opportunity to take a morning jog on weekends.  Unfortunately, that is when I catch up on my sleep.   
 
3. Mentally, how do you prepare for a massive stock market correction/collapse like we experienced in 2007-2009?
I would remind myself to be greedy when others are scared, picking up all the historically consistent and dependable companies at bottom basement prices. It doesn't hurt to be financially prepared for a correction/collapse either.  That is exactly why we always have excess funds laying around in our portfolios.
 
4. What one major sacrifice will you make next year to accelerate your FI plans? 
A sacrifice we have taken and will continue take is living on a budget.  As Dave Ramsey would say, where every dollar has a name. Staying discipline is the fastest way out of debt and so far the fastest way to build wealth. 
 
5. If you decide to open your own business today, what kind of business would it be? 
A dream business would be to own an exotic car rental business. Realistically, I would probably consider owning either a laundromat or mechanical car wash.    
For my nomination I pick:

 1. Dividend Diplomats - Two guys in their Mid-20’s string to exit the rate race before the “normal” retirement age of 59.5. Both are CPAs and both are dividend stock investors.

2. Dividendasaur - Neil grew up in Montana. He has served our County through serving as military intelligence for the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force. His blog takes you along his journey toward FI.

3. Wallet Engineers - A Chemical Engineer and Mechanical Engineer, with their non-traditional view of American finances (No debt, spend less and save more mentality). They blog about credit cards, mortgages, budgets, finances, investing, retirement and money savings.

4. Starting From Zero - A 21 year old who started investing in January of 2013 and blogging in February of 2014.  He has an ultimate goal of FI by 40. His blog takes you along his journey toward FI.

 5. A Dividend Dream - A blogger who fell in love with investing at 14-15 years old.  A dividends dream's ultimate goal is to one day live of the dividends from their investments. 
 
My Questions for my nominees:
1. What is your main reason for blogging?
2. Who is the one person you admire the most? Why?
3. How close would you say you are from retirement (percentage)?
4. What would you do with $10,000? 
5. What is your favorite book of all time?

 

 


8 comments:

  1. Nice answers. I didn't know you were into dividend investing. Good job.
    I also like traveling with my family when we reach FI. Thanks for sharing your answers.

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    1. Thanks for visiting and the kind words. We just started dividend investing about a year ago. Have been hooked ever since.

      Cheers to one day reaching FI and traveling the world! AFFJ

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  2. Hi AFFJ,
    We were also nominated once, too! I'm going to cop out and write my responses here and I'll let WE#2 to stop by as well and share.

    1) My main reason for blogging is to teach people. I wanted to blog about something (anything) and Wallet Engineer #2 suggested that we write about finances because we don't have a typical American mentality about finances.

    2)Probably my mother. She instilled in me an inexhaustible tenacity. She taught the worst that could happen is someone saying no - you're not going to die, so just try. And because of her I have more social grace than most engineers should be allowed, but still less than most.

    3) Not clear on the question, but I'm 3% to retirement and 97% from early retirement. Given that I plan to retire in 10-15 years you may expect me to be 6-10% of the way, but compounding interest makes it so my % towards retirement is exponential rather than linear.

    4) I have $10,000 so I know I invest it. If I received $10,000 as a windfall, I would try to start a business if I found an idea I was passionate about. Backup plan would be to travel on the cheap (think hostels).
    5) You're pretty mean trying to make me decide. I've never read a fiction book twice so there is no immediate winner. The book with the most lasting imprint has been The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan because it is so sprawling and immense. Otherwise, perhaps, Dune. Maybe I'll re-read Dune.

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    1. Thanks for your responses...always good to know a little more about a fellow blogger.

      Question #3 was really meant to see how close you felt you are to retirement? :) Sounds like you are pretty close.

      Thanks again...best wishes! AFFJ

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  3. AFFJ,

    I enjoyed your responses to the questions. These are fun to learn more about our fellow bloggers. I didn't know you were already nominated, there's a lot of these awards flying around it seems.

    Take care!

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    1. I agree with your Brent...I like reading bloggers answers to these questions and getting to know each one just a little better. Additionally, I think they do help to drive additional traffic to new bloggers. I'm still new and appreciate any help I can get and have no problem do the same in return. :)

      Best wishes! AFFJ

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  4. Cool I always enjoy reading these responses, makes me know my fellow bloggers a little bit better.

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    1. Tawcan - thanks for stopping by and for the comment. I think this Liebster Award was a great idea to help new bloggers gain more exposure while sharing a little bit of personal information to their readers.

      Best wishes. AFFJ

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