Net Worth (Update) - 4th Quarter 2014



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.

 

As of the end of December 2014 (4th Quarter), our family net worth is as follows:

 

Retirement Savings:                       $385,339

P2P Lending Accounts:                    $  17,952

Dividend Stock Accounts (DSA):      $  60,445
DSA - Surplus Cash:                       $    6,889
College Savings Accounts:               $  30,669

Cash and Savings:                          $130,363

 

GRAND TOTAL

$631,657
(Increase of $59,341 since 9/1/14)

 

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

$441,189*

(Increase of $15 since 9/1/14)

I'm not sure how other feel but I must admit that I look forward to doing our Net Worth reports. Thankfully, we have managed to continue to grow our net worth each and every quarter (although some quarters are clearly better than others).  

During this last quarter, you've probably notice a large infusion of cash and savings.  This cash infusion comes with both good news and bad. The bad news is that my wife lost her great grandfather during the month of September. Her great grandfather was a very frugal man who lived and raised his family in the same house he grew up in. He never had a mortgage because the house was already paid off when he inherited it.  However, because of this and his frugal lifestyle, he amassed a pretty sizable nest egg.  And since her great grandfather truly valued education, he made sure that part of his money went towards college savings for grand kids, great grand kids, and great-great grand kids (he was 95 years old when he passed). 

So during this last quarter, my wife and I inherited $30K, which we are planning to spread out into our kids college education throughout the 2015 calendar year. We feel very blessed to have this inheritance as it now reduces our obligation to save for our kids college and thus free up our money to invest for other reasons. My wife and I already decided that we plan to do the same for future generations to come.

NOTE: If you follow us, you know that we do not consider the home equity in our home as part of our net worth. 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 assets as part of our recognized family net worth.

2015 Goals - A Frugal Family's Journey

New year means a fresh list of NEW goals!!

 

This past year was a pretty good year for our family.  Although our net worth did not grow as much as it had the previous two years, it still felt like we accomplished quite a bit. Albeit smaller steps, we still took few steps towards our ultimate goal of Financial Independence. 

 

Since we didn't start blogging until March of 2014, we did have a list of goals generated last year (at least one that we publicly announced). Nevertheless, the items we considered to be significant accomplishments for us in 2014 were:

1. We finished selling all stocks that did not pay a dividend.
2. We now own stocks in over 30 companies that pay us a dividend.
3. We received more than $2,500 in dividends.
4. We have over $17,500 combined our P2P accounts.
5. Starting our blog on March 15, 2014.
6. Reached over 45,000 views on our blog.
7. Created 77 posts on our blog.
8. We were approved for Google AdSense in November.
9. We now have a twitter account.
10. Our mortgage balance has been reduced to $336,849.
11. I received a promotion in July of 2014 and more importantly, a roughly 5.5% raise.

We are looking forward to an even more productive 2015.  We hope to make significant strides in our dividend stock accounts, P2P accounts, blog, and other financial milestones. 

 

BELOW IS A LIST OF OUR 2015 GOALS

DIVIDEND STOCKS:

1.  Earn $3,000 in dividend income.

2.  Increase projected annual dividend income to $3,500.

3.  Increase number of holdings to 40 (stocks and/or ETFs).

 

P2P ACCOUNTS:

4.  Have a combined $20,000 from both accounts.

5.  Maintain an average interest rate of 6.0% or higher (combined).

 

BLOG:

6.  Write at least 84 posts (7 posts / month).

7  Reach 150,000 total hits by end of the year.

8.  Increase stock analyses collection to 800+.

9. Cash out my first $100 from Google AdSense.

 

FINANCIAL MILESTONES:

10.  Increase value of retirement accounts to $425,000.

11.  Increase Net Worth to $650,000 (excluding home equity).

12. Reduce mortgage balance to $312,000.

 

We have created a landing page for our 2015 goals and plan to provide quarterly updates.  Please feel free to follow along and see our progress!!

 

2015 GOALS PAGE



Stocks Added to Collection of Stock Analyses (Update) - End-Month (December 2014)



For those who are not yet familiar with my extensive collection of individual dividend stocks. The collection is currently comprised of 550 stock analyses (and still growing) with links to various stock analyses that I found throughout the dividend blog community.  

The collection was created in a Google Docs Spreadsheet so that I may continue to maintain and update the list periodically. My plan is to provide bi-monthly updates (one at mid month and another and the end of the month) to inform everyone of new stock analysis I have recently added to my collection. 

The collection goes back two years.  Eventually, as the collection grows, I am planning to only keep stock analyses for a one year time period. You should also know that to help highlight the stock analyses that have recently been created during the last 2 months, I have provided NEW!! at the end of those analyses.

The following is a list of newly added stocks analysis that were prepared during the second half of the month of DECEMBER (2014):

1. Aaron's, Inc (AAN)
• by Sure Dividend
2. American Reality Capital Properties (ARCP)
• by Dividend Growth Investor
3. Cardinal Health, Inc (CAH)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
4. Caterpillar, Inc (CAT)
• by Sure Dividend
5. Chevron Corp (CVX)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
6. Chevron Corp (CVX)
• by Roadmap 2 Retire
7. Church & Dwight Co, Inc (CHD)
• by Sure Dividend
8. Deere & Co (DE)
• by Sure Dividend
9. Emerson Electric Co (EMR)
• by Dividend Ladder
10. Flowers Food (FLO)
• by Sure Dividend
11. Helmerich & Payne, Inc (HP)
• by Sure Dividend
12. IBM Corp (IBM)
• by Sure Dividend
13. McGraw-Hill Financial (MHFI)
• by Dividend Ladder
14. Microsoft Corp (MSFT)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
15. Nucor Corp (NUE)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
16. TJX Companies, Inc (TJX)
• by Sure Dividend
17. Unilever Plc (UL)
• by Cazadividendos
18. Vector Group Ltd (VGR)
• by Sure Dividend
19. Waste Management, Inc (WM)
• by Sure Dividend

 

Hope you like the new and improved updates
with links provided directly in this post!

Please feel free to leave me a message if you prepared a stock analysis during Second Half of December 2014 that I did not include in my post.  I would be more than happy to add your stock analysis to this post and my collection.  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

Complete Collection of Stock Analyses

Also don't forget to check out our:

NEW!! Collection of Recent Buys

 

 

Collection of RECENT BUYS (Summary) - December 2014

Since I began investing in dividend stocks approximately a year and a half ago I've been keeping a personal log of what other dividend bloggers and dividend investors are buying.  Until now, I've just done it for my own personal knowledge and it has proven to be a great resource I use when I have no idea what I should buy. 

The collection essentially highlights the recent buys I have discovered throughout the dividend blog community. I always like to see what others are buying.  And with this collection, one can easily see all the buys in one centralized source.  And just last month, I started making my collection of Recent Buys available on my blog for everyone. Hope everyone has found it to be a great resource! 
 

In case you just want a quick summary of what everyone has been buying this past month, below is a chart that depicts just that! :)  

(The chart and table above only includes companies with more than 1 buy)

As you can see, the clear winner were oil and energy company stocks.  With the market making a little surge towards the end of the year and the Dow Jones now above 18,000, value is become just a bit harder to find again (outside of oil and energy stocks).

 

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

 COLLECTION OF RECENT BUYS

As with my collection of stock analyses, my goal is to make this collection also become a centralized source for everyone. It could become a place where one can get ideas on what to invest in next, to establish a desired stock purchase price, or simply to see what your favorite bloggers are buying.  Whatever your reason, my hope is that this collection proves to be a great reference tool and helps provide you that little extra advantage that you are looking for in order to succeed with your investing.

 

Please make sure to check back periodically as

the list will be updated frequently!

Happy Christmas Eve Everyone!

Hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!!

 

 

 And a prosperous 2015 year filled with more "dividends" than you received last year!!



ASK THE READERS - Should I buy BBL, GE, CVX, COP?

 

We tried this out for the first time last month I thought it went well so I am planning to continue with an "Ask the Reader" post every month. 

As we did last month, we have selected four stocks on our current watch list that we have considered buying at this time.  But rather than stress ourselves out trying to decide which one to buy, we have decided to add some fun into our buying process and turn to our fellow bloggers and readers to find out what you think we should buy. 

Please spend a few minutes to vote for one stock from this group that you would consider buying in the upcoming week.  Also, please briefly tell us why you like the stock that you picked. 

Thanks in advance for your contribution!

STOCK #1 (BBL)

• Sector: Materials - Metals & Mining
• Market Cap: 93 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 4.26% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 11 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1990
• Payout Ratio: 56%
• P/E Ratio: 11.6

STOCK #2 (GE)

• Sector: Industrials - Electrical Equipment
• Market Cap: 252 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 3.5% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 3 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1899 
• Payout Ratio: 67%
• P/E Ratio: 19.1

STOCK #3 (CVX)

• Sector: Energy - Oil & Gas
• Market Cap: 206 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 4.10% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 19 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1912 
• Payout Ratio: 39%
• P/E Ratio: 10.0

STOCK #4 (COP)

• Sector: Energy - Oil & Gas
• Market Cap: 85.9 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 4.6% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 1 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1934
• Payout Ratio: 38%
• P/E Ratio: 9.25

**LET US KNOW WHICH STOCK YOU WOULD PICK AND WHY**

Collection of Stock Analyses (NEW additions) : Mid-Month (December 2014)

For those who are not yet familiar with my extensive collection of individual dividend stocks. The collection is currently comprised of 531 stock analyses (and still growing) with links to various stock analyses that I found throughout the dividend blog community.  

The collection was created in a Google Docs Spreadsheet so that I may continue to maintain and update the list periodically. My plan is to provide bi-monthly updates (one at mid month and another and the end of the month) to inform everyone of new stock analysis I have recently added to my collection. 

The collection goes back two years.  Eventually, as the collection grows, I am planning to only keep stock analyses for a one year time period. You should also know that to help highlight the stock analyses that have recently been created during the last 2 months, I have provided NEW!! at the end of those analyses.

The following is a list of newly added stocks analysis that were prepared during the first half of the month of DECEMBER (2014):

1. Air Products & Chemicals, Inc (APD)
• by Dividend Ladder
2. Acher-Daniels Midland Co (ADM)
• by Roadmap 2 Retire
3. Archer-Daniels Midland Co (ADM)
• by Sure Dividend
4. BHP Billiton Plc (BBL)
• by Cazadividendos
5. BHP Billiton Plc (BBL)
• by Pollies Dividend
6. Chevron Corp (CVX)
• by Pollies Dividend
7. Chevron Corp (CVX)
• by Average Dividend Yield
8. Cisco Systems, Inc (CSCO)
• by Dividends 4 Life
9. Coca Cola Company (KO)
• by Sure Dividend
10. Consolidated Edison (ED)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
11. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM)
• by Dividend Growth Investor
12. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM)
• by Pollies Dividend
13. Family Dollar Stores, Inc (FDO)
• by Sure Dividend
14. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
• by Sure Dividend
15. National Oilwell Varco (NOV)
    • by Dividend Developer
16. PepsiCo, Inc (PEP)
• by Market Realist
17. Realty Income Corp (O)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
18. Texas Instruments, Inc (TXN)
• by Dividend Growth Stocks
19. Union Pacfic Corp (UNP)
• by Roadmap 2 Retire
20. Walmart Stores, Inc (WMT)
    • by Sure Dividend
21. Walmart Stores, Inc (WMT)
• by Dividends 4 Life
22. 3M Company (MMM)
• by Dividend Ladder

Hope you like the new and improved updates
with links provided directly in this post!

Please feel free to leave me a message if you prepared a stock analysis during First Half of December 2014 that I did not include in my post.  I would be more than happy to add your stock analysis to this post and my collection.  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

Complete Collection of Stock Analyses

Also don't forget to check out our:

NEW!! Collection of Recent Buys