My Full-Time Fund is my dividend growth stock portfolio. I think it’s an apt name for it, because it works full time so I don’t have to.
Indeed, the Fund generates five-figure dividend income for me that, when combined with other sources of passive income, allows me to choose my endeavors not based on money but rather happiness and purpose. And that is, in my view, how life should really be lived.
The Fund has undergone a lot of changes over the years, changes which I’ve documented as much as possible along the way. And it’s in that spirit of openness and transparency that I continue revealing to the world exactly where I’m putting my money to work (and keeping my money at work).
I’m incredibly proud of the collection of stocks that now make up my portfolio. These are really fantastic businesses. And I’m very happy to own a very small slice of all of them. They have competitive advantages that allow them to, over longer periods of time, grow their profit and dividends, which in turn grows my wealth and income.
My main goal with the Fund, however, is to grow my passive dividend income. Stock prices go up and stock prices go down (I usually prefer the latter), but it’s really the dividend income the Fund generates that is the backbone of the financial freedom that affords me my lifestyle.
So I’ll go over the transactions from the prior month, showing what I bought (or sold), along with a little discussion on the thought process behind these transactions.
I first purchased 10 shares of Polaris Industries Inc. (PII) on 9/13/16 for $74.71 per share.
Polaris flies under the radar. But considering the fact that the company has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years, it probably shouldn’t. The dividend growth pedigree is definitely there.
Polaris has a great long-term track record of growing its business. And while the core business is certainly intact – with tremendous gains in their market share for motorcycles – the discretionary nature of their products means that their results can be a bit cyclical.
Nonetheless, I think the stock is attractively valued here. The yield was near 3% when I purchased, which compares quite favorably to the five-year average of 1.7% (that’s a spread of more than 100 basis points, folks). Moreover, the P/E ratio, which is below 14, is substantially lower than its recent historical average.
This purchase adds $22.00 to my annual dividend income.
I then sold 15 shares of Penske Automotive Group, Inc. (PAG) on 9/26/16 for $48.08 per share.
This is a very solid business, if a bit too cyclical for my tastes.
I picked up shares in the business for $38.70 just a couple months ago, so a ~25% run in two months is something to take a look at.
My sale was prompted mostly due to valuation. I valued shares at around $40 back in August. $48 strikes me as a bit pricey here in an industry that could be seeing a peak in the cycle. Furthermore, the company doesn’t have the lengthy dividend growth streak I really like to look for. It’s one thing to sit on a stock with 25+ years of dividend growth when it’s overvalued; it’s another thing to sit on a stock like PAG in a similar circumstance, in my opinion.
This was effectively a small investment that I saw a lot of value in when I bought it, putting aside the dicey recent dividend history. That compelling value isn’t quite there any longer. If it were to fall substantially, I’d be interested in perhaps taking another look. But I sold out completely here.
This sale reduced my annual dividend income by $16.18.
My next transaction involved the sale of 25 shares of Magna International Inc. (MGA) on 9/28/16 for $41.31 per share.
This was simply me lightening up on Magna. I still like the business a lot. I still have a position. But I never intended for the position to be so large. What happened here is that I added more shares as the stock fell into the low $30s, going a bit heavier than I had originally planned on. The intention was to lighten up when it recovered a little, so that’s what I did.
The reason I don’t want to be too heavily exposed to Magna is due to the cyclical nature of its business, which is much like Penske. It, too, lacks that lengthy dividend growth track record I typically look for, but I saw a lot of value in the name as I averaged down.
That said, Magna is super interesting in regards to the dividend: the company has a “corporate constitution” that entitles shareholders of common stock to dividends that amount to at least 10% of Magna’s after tax profits for the corresponding financial year.
Whereas most companies I invest in have that implied relationship, Magna actually spells it out.
Then again, that only gives some protection to the dividend. If profit were to drop precipitously over a short period, or if the company takes a loss, the dividend can easily be cut or eliminated under that constitution.
This sale reduced my annual dividend income by $25.00.
I also purchased 15 shares of Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) on 9/28/16 for $80.81 per share.
Duke strikes me as roughly fairly valued right now. It’s no steal.
But I find the yield, which is well over 4%, as appealing in an environment where yield is so hard to come by. And I think their dividend growth, which is now 12 consecutive years strong, will continue for years to come.
I try to make sure my portfolio has dividend growth stocks across both the respective yield and growth spectra. Duke offers me plenty more current income in exchange for, perhaps, some income growth I might see with other investments. And I’m okay with that. Every business has different dynamics. Every stock offers me something a little different.
This transaction was an addition to shares I already owned in Duke. I don’t foresee myself owning much more than I do, though I might take a look if it were to drop 5% or 10% from here.
This purchase adds $51.30 to my annual dividend income.
Finally, I purchased 20 shares of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM) on 9/28/16 for $50.11 per share.
I recently covered WSM as an undervalued dividend growth stock of the week, viewing its valuation favorably right now.
The yield was right around 3% when I bought, which is not only compelling in absolute terms but also relative terms – the five-year average yield for this stock is 2%. Investors are right now paying much less for this company’s earnings, sales, assets, and cash flow than they typically have, on average, over the last five years.
This is one of those rare cases where the business is high quality and the fundamentals are still pretty much intact, yet the stock has absolutely cratered. WSM is now down more than 33% over the last year. (This case reminds me a lot of what Tiffany & Co. (TIF) looked like a few months back when I was buying in at $60.)
They’ve increased their dividend for 11 consecutive years now, with impressive dividend increases all along the way. The payout ratio is now at a moderate level, so I suspect dividend growth to moderate. But I think 7% dividend increases are certainly achievable, which, when combined with the yield, would offer a pretty attractive profile in regards to yield and growth.
This purchase adds $29.60 to my annual dividend income.
Overall, I’m really pleased with the moves I made this past month.
I was a little more active than I usually am – and more active than I like to be, in all honesty.
But I saw an opportunity to lighten up on my exposure to the auto space, which is very cyclical. Some of my holdings there have skyrocketed in a short period of time, dropping the yields to less attractive levels, relative to other opportunities.
And those opportunities, being Polaris, Duke, and Williams-Sonoma, all offer better dividend metrics and, arguably, valuations.
Netting everything out, I added $61.72 to my annual dividend income.
This invisible full-time worker of mine just got a raise, baby! Wait, that means I got a raise, too? Yeah!!
The Fund is now worth $309,692.20, and it’s spread out across 104 positions. This is a 0.46% decrease from last month’s value of $311,110.84. The Portfolio page has been updated accordingly.
Keep in mind that the Fund is technically worth a bit more, and actually has 105 positions. But I haven’t received my shares in Versum Materials Inc. (VSM) yet. The spin-off from Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD) should show up in my account within the next day or so. However, I wanted to reflect that which is actual as of today.
Looking forward, I hope to make one stock purchase in November. I’m not investing nearly as much as I typically have been over the last six years, as I’m simply not working and earning as much as I used to. I suppose the urgency to save and invest thousands upon thousands of dollars every month isn’t quite as strong anymore now that I’m financially free. I’ve also started philanthropic giving, which is diverting some of my free cash flow elsewhere. But I suspect I’ll be able to do a little something before November, which is super exciting. Investing remains a passion of mine, even if it no longer really needs to be. As such, I’m looking forward to seeing what opportunities present themselves.
As a final note, I recommend using Personal Capital to manage your portfolio. It aggregates your accounts, and gives you powerful visualizations that are actionable. The best thing of all is that it’s free!
How about you? Able to take advantage of some solid opportunities this past month? Happy with your portfolio?
Full disclosure: I’m long PII, MGA, DUK, WSM, TIF, VSM, and APD.
Thanks for reading.
Image courtesy of : bplanet at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
It is amazing how much you’ve grown your portfolio by in the last couple of years Jason, congrats. You’re smashing your passive income amounts awesomely. I’m not familiar with any of the names you mention really, but the yields and such sound good. I hope they’re good investments for you however long you hold them.
Tristan
Tristan,
Thanks, man!
Yeah, I set out to become free as soon as possible. I was willing to do whatever it took. Eat ramen noodles. Ride the bus to work. Save. Invest. Repeat. So on and so forth. I’m really proud of where I’m at. 🙂
Hope you’re having just as much fun and success as I am!!
Cheers.
hey jason,
I remember when i first started following dm, your portfolio was sitting around 150K. And look at it now… I can’t wait for the monthly income updates! One of my goals back then was to see a consistent 4-figure per month dividend stock portfolio; and although I’m not there yet, I can see that it’s definitely in the cards. I finally have that mindset to be happy when prices are low.. I mean I understand the logic (I just wish I had more capital to invest!), it’s just that it is hard although not as much to pick up shares of quality companies at lower prices. I do that consistently now, although my last few buys within the last couple of months could’ve been better served if I waited a bit longer.
However, I know it’s a long term deal, and I’ll just have to buy more shares and average down. This is now a completely different mindset than the one I had 10 years ago or so, in which I gauged my success on capital gains.
I don’t know much about those other companies, but I am a fellow DUK shareholder. This is one equity I’ve held on to for over 5 years, and it has been one of my better investments. This was back when my portfolio was mostly utilities; the yield was great and my reasoning was that everyone would likely pay their electric bill.
Anyways, keep the posts coming… as always they are a pleasure to read. Can’t wait for the dividend monthly income update!
j
j,
I remember reading The Intelligent Investor and thinking to myself how hard Graham was trying to smash home the idea that investing is mostly psychological. It can be tough sometimes to do the opposite of what seems natural, but that’s where the most long-term wealth and income is. 🙂
I’ll have the passive income update going live soon, which will also show my core personal expenses for the prior month. That way the two are compared right away, which is fun. Although I don’t think financial freedom is very much about money, it’s still important to have the basic infrastructure in place. I’m super happy with where I’m at. Very proud. Took a lot of hard work to get here. And I can honestly say it’s all worth it.
Thanks for all the support. Keep it up over there on your end!
Best regards.
Thank you for the update Jason! It’s always helpful to see what others are doing in order to reflect our own actions.
I was wondering though: I keep hearing a lot about Personal Capital, which is primarily targeting Americans. I tried signing up for it but since I’m Dutch I wasn’t able to 🙂 Have you ever talked to a European that has a similar-type portfolio manager by any chance? I can’t seem to be able to find a similar solution here other than dabbling in Excel (and I don’t quite like Excel to be honest) 🙂
Also, on Daily Trade Alert you use a valuation system to end up with the Dividend Payout Ratio and Current Dividend Yield numbers. I don’t know if you ever went into detail on how you get to those numbers (I tried searching on Daily Trade Alert, but no luck so far), but if you haven’t, would you be interested in explaining the magic behind your system a little perhaps?
(by the way, congratulations on your new site!)
Joram,
Hmm, I’m not aware of financial tools available over on your side of the world. I’m sorry about that. I wish I could help more, but I’m simply unfamiliar with how things work over there. I will say, though, that we’re really fortunate here in the USA with all of the tools and resources available to us. That’s something I’ve always said. It almost makes it really sad that more people aren’t saving and investing, since there’s just so much there to encourage it and make it easier. I mean, people have it so easy these days (compared to how it was just 20 years ago).
As for your other question, I think you’re talking about the dividend discount model analysis. I explain the reasoning for using the analysis just below the value I come up with, in every article. I explain the mechanics of the analysis in my book. But you can really just do a simple search online to get an explanation as to how it works. You’re just using a discount rate that makes sense for your own expectations, and then the long-term dividend growth is what you think is reasonable. It’s subjective, but I do try to be conservative with all of my projections. My valuations usually come out not too far away from Morningstar and/or S&P Capital IQ, so I think that says something.
Thanks for dropping by!
Best regards.
Hi Jason,
I was afraid you’d say that 😉 My wife’s uncle (she’s American) used to work at the IRS and invested his savings in a similar way as what you’re doing. And he told me the same thing you did: America is, depending on the state you live in, heaven on earth for FI-enthousiasts. Definitely things that make my wife and me thinking about migrating!
I’ve been reading up on the mechanics and came to understand that it was very much a subjective thing to do. I wasn’t sure where/how you did your calculations and estimates, but yeah… if it was really a simple tool éveryone would be investing like crazy and be FI at 33! 🙂
Thanks for the response!
Hi Joram. I don’t know any European service exactly like Personal Capital, but if you speak a little German and don’t mind using a German software, you might like Portfolio Performance (open-source). It does not manage your accounts automatically, so you have to enter stuff manually or import them via .csv oder .pdf files, but it provides a very good overview across your different accounts – I have all but abandoned excel ;-). I don’t know whether it’s ok to post links here, you might want to search for portfolio performance and Andreas Bucher, that’s the developer.
P.S. Hi Jason, great to have you back blogging :-).
Pay raise, awesome! Gotta love dividend stocks for that exact reason. Whether you added capital or not, its fun being able to manipulate the money you have in order to achieve a raise.
Looks like you continue to roll along nicely, so keep up the good work!
My wife and I have sold over $110,000 worth of investments in the past month with more possibly to come. I wrote up a huge post on everything but long story short, 7 years of a bull market, good gains over the past 4-5 months and a $170,000 mortgage eating away at our monthly expenses. It was time to get rid of that baby! This move will free up over $1,200 a month in expenses which we intend to fully max out her 401K with — not to mention, we will always have a roof over our heads!
ADD
ADD,
It’s definitely fun getting a raise. Making the small moves from lower-yield stocks to higher-yield stocks did a lot of the lifting. And I also reinvested last month’s dividends, so it really didn’t require any heavy lifting on my part. That’s just my money working for me. It works really hard. I think sometimes it needs a break, but it always refuses. 🙂
Best of luck with the moves to pay off your mortgage. Although the math sometimes says it’s better off not to do that, it’s psychologically rewarding for most people to have that monkey off their back. It’s a monkey I never wanted, which is just one more reason why I rent cheaply. But to each their own.
Thanks for dropping by!
Cheers.
Good day Jason
just read you update on your full time fund and really enjoyed it. I am glad to see all the hard work you put into the full time fund is paying off. I think your strategy of living a frugal life, and investing in stocks was a great plan to be as you say, Mr free at 33. I have enjoyed reading your journey on buying stock dividends a lot of wisdom, and inspiration you have passed on to all your readers. Glad that you have a great portfolio of stocks that providing income for you. Just keep us updated on the full time fund. Hope you have a great day Michael.
Michael,
Thanks for the kind words. Readers like yourself have made all of this worth it for me. Blogging is sometimes a thankless (and very low-paying) job, but being able to inspire and motivate countless people out there in the world is just such an incredible reward. It really is.
I’ve worked really, really hard to get here. So it feels nice to kind of back off the accelerator a little bit these days. I know that there are challenges out there waiting for me, so I suspect I’ll be on to something really different and interesting at some point down the road. But I am enjoying this epoch of relaxation and writing.
Thanks for the support. Hope you enjoy all that’s yet to come!
Best wishes.
Thanks for the update, Jason. Your sells and buys were all very deliberate. It’s good that you are regularly pruning the portfolio. I also made some tweaks, selling out of CAT and rolling the proceeds into NIK and FLO, mostly due to valuation and lack of dividend growth concerns.
-Mike
Mike,
That sounds like a good move there with CAT. I also sold out a few months ago. The business has been really struggling, yet the stock hasn’t. I suppose that’s what you’ll see when rates are so low and you’ve got a stock offering a pretty appealing yield. I did okay with the investment, but the portfolio is slowly moving away from the cyclical stuff.
Best of luck with those investments. I think we’ll be okay with FLO over the long run. I’ll be eating some sandwiches on Nature’s Own bread a little later today, so I’m doing what I can. 🙂
Cheers!
Hello Jason, how do you stay on top of so many stocks, I was surprised when you sold PAG without really much happening in the stock in the news. My portfolio is less than 10% of what you have, generally I have no idea what is going on with those companies. Even if I put enough time to look in more detail, it gets challenging when I look at the company balance sheets or income statements, so many huge numbers that is hard to even make sense out of, like short term debt, long term debt and tons of other terminology. Maybe a good blog post idea, how to stay on top of the financials of the companies you invest in so that you can determine when is a good time to sell some that don’t fit the criteria used for buying any more. Thanks a lot, keep up the good work.
Hakki,
Well, I’ll first say that buying individual stocks isn’t for everyone. If you don’t have the interest or time to learn about and follow businesses, it might be best to just buy index funds. Of course, index funds are really no panacea. Buying an index fund is just buying dozens or hundreds of stocks all at once. You’re just not doing the picking, instead relying on someone else to do that for you. My portfolio is more or less a fund, except that it’s been customized for and by me. I just find index funds amusing because someone will go and buy, say, the S&P 500 and then forget about it. But they’re really buying ~500 stocks. So someone would feel “overwhelmed” by going out and buying those 500 different stocks individually, but they feel just fine buying the index fund and then going about their life. It’s packaging and perception. It’s just mental gymnastics. Nonetheless, some people feel better doing it that way. So that’s one suggestion.
But I’ve actually covered how to keep up with a large portfolio over at Dividend Mantra, and I’ve covered it with depth. To sum it up, I recommend using Seeking Alpha’s email alerts. You put your portfolio together on their site and then get an email any time there’s any news of consequence (earnings, press releases, dividend announcements, etc.). Makes following hundreds of stocks very, very easy. That’s what I do. Also, using Personal Capital, linked in the article above, helps. It aggregates all of your information and pulls it together. Both SA and PC are free services. So I can’t really recommend them enough.
Hope that helps!
Cheers.
Hi Jason,
None of the stocks you mention ring a bell, but I suspect that is because I’m european. I’m currently rebuilding my cashposition since I did buy a lot of stocks earlier this year when some stocks on my watchlist dropped with no real reason ( except the usual noise). In september I only bought Emerson Electric, which seems like a decent buy ( 3.6% starting yield and a p/e of 19), I could have had a better entry point but if the stock goes down I can still buy some more.
Cheers,
Dividend Collector
DC,
Right. Some of these businesses just won’t be familiar to European investors because of how/where they operate. Duke, for instance, is the largest utility company in our country, but they’re naturally not a household name over in Europe. Although, some are really global. Tiffany is everywhere. Penske has massive exposure to the UK, but that won’t mean much to an investor in Finland. So it’s all relative.
Emerson is definitely one of my favorite businesses, though. A rather large position for me, which I’m quite happy with. 🙂
Have fun rebuilding your cash pile!
Best regards.
Was able to lighten up on PM, HCP and GE and almost doubled my positions with the proceeds in KO, AWR, and FLO. Had a wonderful month reducing my risks and averaging down. On paper it shows I lost around $40 in dividend income per year but I feel better mentally for the long term. Great update on the full time fund!
EPerk,
Hey, there you go. Sounds like a good move to me. Losing $40 in annual income isn’t really that much money, so it’s a great move if you feel better about your holdings and you’re able to sleep better at night. I’d be okay losing $40, if it meant that I felt a lot better about who I’m partnering up with. 🙂
Best of luck!
Cheers.
Great update. I’ve started tracking and posting my net worth and monthly income on my blog and I’ve been surprised at how helpful it’s been. Just knowing that other people are going to be evaluating your decisions has really helped ensure I put in the extra effort on any buy/sell decision.
TMC,
Definitely. Couldn’t agree more with that. That’s an anecdote/benefit I’ve mentioned numerous times while running Dividend Mantra. It’s not only investment decisions but spending decisions that kind of make you do a double take… just to make sure it’s something you’re okay putting out there in the world. I’ve kind of done things my way, regardless of what others think, or else I would’ve never been able to get here. But I do remember really thinking twice about expenditures here and there over the years. Kept me in line. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by!
Cheers.
Jason,
I’m very happy to have found your writing again after Dividend Mantra went quiet. Discovering that site a few years ago caused me to re-evaluate my strategy and, as a result, ended up “tearing up” my portfolio and re-building it with an eye towards dividend growth. I generally sell puts on stocks I want to own in order to enter my positions (plus there’s something about my anal retentive nature that likes my purchase prices as nice, round numbers). I’m currently sitting on about 37 positions and, similar to some other commenters, find it difficult to stay on top of what’s happening at so many companies. What are your thoughts on an ETF like VIG? You get a diversified, one stop shop for a dividend growth strategy at a very low cost (it is Vanguard after all). It would be a slight step backwards on yield but the portfolio maintenance requirements would disappear.
Keep up the good work.
UP Power,
I’m also glad you’ve found the site! 🙂
As for index investing versus individual stocks, I’ve been there and done that to the point of exhaustion. You say you’ve read Dividend Mantra. Well, then you’d know that I’ve talked about that extensively. It’s really just ad nauseam at this point… beating a dead horse. I say that’s really up to each individual. I don’t find the maintenance requirements of managing a portfolio to be onerous. I doubt I spend more than an hour a day with it. And it’s fun to me. If VIG weren’t so inferior, it might be an interesting discussion. But that’s not the case.
Summing it up, it’d be like asking a gardener who enjoys growing vegetables why they bother to spend an hour a day with what they do when they could just go down to the supermarket and spend more to get less. It’s silly.
Also, there’s no “slight step backwards on yield” when VIG is paying out like 2.1% and my portfolio yields around 3.6%. 150 basis points is not “slight”.
Cheers!
Glad your back Jason. I’ve just started to live off my dividends, it’s a great feeling seeing money appear in my checking count automatically. I am planning to buy a rental property also to diversify my income stream but dividend growth stocks will be central to my strategy. Reg, Jon UK
Jon,
Indeed. It’s a great feeling to just wake up and be paid, isn’t it? It’s like being paid just to breathe and be alive. Works for me! 🙂
Best of luck with the rental properties and everything else you do. Success comes to those who want it and work for it.
Best regards.
Hi Jason,
I see that you changed a bit your strategy. You sell more shares and you buy some smaller companies as well. You doubled my sells in 2016 in one month :). Nothing to say against it if you find it useful.
At the moment I´m thinking a lot about IoT. So I bought in the last time General Electric with a first position. I like this company but there is still no dividend increase the next 1 – 2 years. Nevertheless interestuing products and strategy. I will add more shares in the future. I saw that you own Procter & Gamble as well. It was really hard for me to decide to change some shares into Coty. OK, I just changed 20 shares because I believe, that this company will have interesting new products and they can develop this company further. Dividend yield is low, but the increase is high. On the other side they pay only one time a dividend in August. Lets see what we will get in the future. But I decided as well to buy 20 PG in October to have the same amount of PG shares. After this I´m thinking of Wells Fargo and will add some shares. They have these problems but I will believe that they will go over it. I´m not a real friend of owning many bank shares but I think there is much value here. For my last position I´m not sure at the moment. I would like to buy a REIT like OHI or WY or something else. I have to look over it. I already own OHI and I like this company so I assume this will it be. On the other side I like Weyerhaeuser as well, but this would be a complete new position. We will see.
The problem is that there are still so many businesses I would like to have some shares. Even from the big companies there is much interesting to buy. But same for older companies which I bought in the past some shares and they fell down like Kinder Morgan. I decided in August to buy 100 more shares from Kinder Morgan. I think, this is a good long term investment.
What is really interesting for me is that you still buy new shares even that you are now financially free. Not the amounts like in the past, but you still upgrade your portfolio with additional dividend income. How will you proceed when you get regularly more capital income per month in the future than you need? Improving income doesn´t make much sense when you get for example 50% more income you use for your bills.
Thanks
Oliver
Oliver,
Well, I didn’t really change my strategy. These are all dividend growth stocks. As always, I’m mindful of my exposure to certain companies if I feel like the dividend pedigree just isn’t quite there. When a stock with a very short dividend growth track record jumps 25% and well past fair value in a very short period of time, I’m prone to sell. It’s one thing to hold on to, say, Realty Income when it’s expensive. But I think it’s quite another to hold on to something like Penske when it’s overvalued. But to each their own.
As for your question at the end, I actually answered that in the post. I’ve started philanthropic giving in earnest, so that’s diverting some of my free cash flow elsewhere. I’m still investing here and there because investing is still a passion of mine – and I’m really just barely financially free here, so I’m still boosting the passive income a little bit. But like I wrote about recently, much of the math is moot. So the urgency just isn’t there.
Best of luck with all of your investments. I think we’ll do well with these businesses. And I, too, still see a lot of appealing businesses out there that I’d like to partner up with. All in due time! 🙂
Cheers.
Very good read Jason. I really enjoy the numbers you show, the buys & sells and the reasoning behind them. I’m always learning, everyday, and it’s great to read something and follow the logic versus this time last year when I would have 10 other tabs open and Googling everything ha, ha.
Like I said, I’m still learning but I love these kinds of articles & evaluations and I like seeing your portfolio grow and change. Thanks for taking the time to do this and I’m glad I found DM when I did, I enjoy creating my own Portfolio and educating myself 🙂
Regan,
Hey, I’m glad to hear that. Happy that you’ve taken the time and effort to educate yourself on these matters. Knowledge is power! 🙂
It’s really fun to build a portfolio out and then, years later, look back on things with a lot of pride. I don’t necessarily believe there’s anything inherently noble about investing or anything, but I do feel really wonderful when I look back and see how hard I’ve worked to get here. The benefits make all of the hard work worth it.
Have fun over there. Still much more to come for all of us!
Best wishes.
Hey Jason, this is the first time I’ve seen you mention other passive income sources. I am assuming you are referencing your book. Is this the only other source or do you have more invested from the sale of the original site? If so is it in the stock market?
Matthew,
Right. I actually referenced the book a number of times over at Dividend Mantra as another passive income source. It’s just that I didn’t actually separate it out, instead including it in with all of my online income. But I’ll be separating it out this time.
I do have other sources of income, like website work and writing, but none of that is passive, and so that’s not really included in that.
The next post that’ll be live on the site here will go over my passive income, comparing that against core personal expenses. So you’ll see what it looks like pretty soon. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by!
Take care.
Thank you Jason! Looking forward to the article.
Hi Jason, it’s so great to have you back and with a fresh new blog! I missed your articles.
Mr. Enchumbao,
Thanks, man. It’s great to be back! 🙂
Fresh blog. Fresh perspective. Fresh ideas. It’s super exciting. I planned on a trilogy of books, so maybe there’ll be a trilogy of blogs to go along with them. Who knows? Anything is possible.
Hope all is well!
Cheers.
A trilogy sounds like a great idea. I do notice and embrace the fresh new perspective. I’ll be adding your new blog to the blogroll.
Mr. Enchumbao,
Thanks so much!
I hope you and your readers continue to enjoy the content. I’ve got some really interesting posts planned for the next six or so months. 🙂
Cheers!
Solid update to say the least. It’s nice to see you continuing to make your buys, business as usual. It seems that many of our fellow dividend bloggers have been selling off most or all of their portfolios. I can appreciate those who sit tight and buy when values and yields make sense. DUK and SO are looking interesting to me though I haven’t added to a utility in a long, long time. Thanks for sharing!
Keith,
Business as usual, indeed. Stock prices go up. Stock prices go down. I prefer the latter, but otherwise care very little. I’m enjoying my lifestyle, which is really what this is all for. 🙂
I don’t follow many blogs anymore, but I had a couple people stop by to tell me they sold most/all of their stocks. I say to each their own, but I have no such plans. Not interested in killing my golden geese.
Thanks for dropping by!
Best regards.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of cash in September to invest but hope to for the remainder of the year. DUK looks very interesting to me right now.
Thanks for sharing.
John,
I hear you. I’m also not nearly as active with the stock buying as I used to be. But that’s really by design. 🙂
Hope you find some great deals when you’re ready!
Cheers.
Indeed, you are buy less these days than you ever did during Dividend Mantra. I’d be buying less at today’s valuations as well.
Christian,
The reasoning isn’t valuation concerns. Rather, the urgency to work hard, save at a high rate, and invest aggressively is no longer there now that I’m largely living the life I always set out to live. I still invest here and there to bolster my passive income (and because I have a passion for investing), but it’s just not a priority any longer. Also, as noted, I’ve started to give to certain charitable organizations. There’s a lot more to life than money, my friend.
Cheers!
Man that’s a lot of positions I’m interested to know how you keep track of that? Also how often do you keep an eye on them?
Congrats thought on your full time fund update and keep on keeping on! 🙂
Jef,
It’s not really that hard to keep track. I use Seeking Alpha’s email alert system. So whenever there’s an announcement (earnings, dividends, management change, etc.), I get an email.
It’s funny because I’ll have people who own index funds (like the S&P 500) ask how I keep track of so many stocks, but I guess they’re completely oblivious to the fact that they own more stocks than I do! It’s as if owning them separately is somehow magically different than buying them in a big group all at once. People are funny.
Thanks for dropping by!
Cheers.
Haha love the story and you’ve changed my mindset there on this Jase so thanks! 🙂
I’d not thought about it in this way before about owning an index meaning you’re owning a whole lot more companies
I suppose the saying you can outsource responsibility although you can’t outsource accountability comes to mind.