Recent Buys

I recently started my new position as a Development Operations Analyst and so far the experience has been very good. This is the first job where we have a kitchen always full of snacks and K-Cups. It's a little hard right now because I am trying to figure out all of the operations and trainings, but I will be working hard to grow with the company for the foreseeable future. The market has been all over the place and it's kind of hard to keep up with the swings. I am just going to focus on adding to my portfolio and block out the noise. I am not good at timing the market, but I can't go wrong adding partial shares in these two staples.

Buys
Company		Amount	Share Price
Pepsi		$10.00	$94.22
Coca-Cola		$10.00	$41.91

A reader (Anonymous) also mentioned a few other stocks (YUM, SBUX, and DNKN) that look very good at the moment. I definitely want to add to my existing position, but am scavenging for the funds to do so. I appreciate the comments and it helps me to stay focused on these crazy market swings. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

How do you feel about my recent buys? What are you looking to buy soon?

Stock Purchases for December

 I decided to put some extra capital to work on Friday. Each one of my purchases I made at Motif earlier this month are now selling for less than my cost basis. I wanted to put a little more capital to work but in order to receive a $150.00 bonus I am required to make 5 trades within the next 30 days. This will be my second trade so far and I felt like it was a great time with the slight market correction. I wish I had a little more capital but I am still waiting for a few checks to come in. If stocks continue to fall I may add another trade or two for the month of December. Here are my recent buys:

*Update: Motif just called to inform me my order wasn't able to be executed on Friday. Therefore I was able to get cheaper prices on 9/10 of the stocks listed below. It's always great to get the cheapest price possible.The market continues to trail lower due to the price of oil and possibly people selling off due to consumer spending for the holidays.

Name	Symbol	Action	Price	# Shares	Est. Amount
Baxter International Inc.	BAX	Buy	$71.77	1.01	$72.49
GlaxoSmithKline PLC ADS	GSK	Buy	$42.42	1.56	$66.18
National Grid PLC ADS	NGG	Buy	$68.92	1.01	$69.61
Bank of Nova Scotia	BNS	Buy	$55.04	1.22	$67.15
Diageo PLC ADS	DEO	Buy	$114.09	0.6	$68.45
General Mills Inc.	GIS	Buy	$52.10	1.39	$72.42
Emerson Electric Co.	EMR	Buy	$58.43	1.17	$68.36
BHP Billiton PLC ADS	BBL	Buy	$41.42	1.55	$64.20
Verizon Communications Inc.	VZ	Buy	$45.58	1.49	$67.91
AT&T Inc.	T	Buy	$32.16	2.14	$68.82
TOTAL					$685.59

10 New Positions Acquired at Motif Investing

I am happy to announce that I will be finally starting a new I.T. career in two weeks. The job title I was given was Development Operations Specialist. I will basically be testing new products that have been developed by the software programmers. I have to provide quality assurance by preventing mistakes and avoiding problems when delivering solutions to customers or clients. I will also be providing trainings and technical support when needed. Lastly I will also be improving the usability for our Microsoft SharePoint platform in order to keep important data organized and readily accessible. It seems like I have landed a great future with a rapidly growing business.
 Even though I have been extremely busy with getting my career path straight, I did find time to put together 10 buys for the month. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out whether I wanted to go this route but I feel like buying baskets of stocks helps me stay diversified into many sectors. Buying into 10 companies provides more value to me because if one or two companies slump, then I have another eight to carry the rest of my portfolio. It was extremely difficult at first because it is tough to find that many companies in a market that is at an all time high. I could have easily picked a bunch of energy stocks but that sector seems too volatile to me. I want to protect my hard earned capital by investing into the healthcare, utilities, telecom, consumer defensive, consumer cyclical, and industrials sectors. I was able to do this all in one purchase with the help of Motif Investing for the flat rate fee of $9.95. The added bonus was I will be receiving a $150 bonus if I make 5 trades within the next 45 days. I am the first to jump at any free money that will be given to me just by investing into companies that will make me even more money. Now let’s take a look at the companies I started out with in my new portfolio:

My plan was to have an overall dividend yield of at least 3.5% and I ended up with 4%. The overall volatility of this portfolio is fairly low compared to the market as a whole. As you can see I have a beta of 0.77 and an overall P/E of 13.89. I don’t expect to receive a ton of gains here but I also don’t expect to lose much money either if the stock market heads downward. Slow and steady always wins the race! I did add two riskier plays (GSK and BBL) to my portfolio but I don’t feel like this was a bad thing. The dividends for both those stocks are over 5% and I am hoping that I can buy up some more shares in the near future. I realize that I didn’t get the best deals in the market in terms of value (DEO, BAX, and GIS) but I do believe these companies will do fine for the next 20-30 years. I did notice that a few others bought into BNS, BBL, and GIS. I also think that VZ and T are looking good with the recent dip so if these two continue to decline I will be the first to dollar cost average into those positions.

 I would love to hear what the rest of the DGI community thinks about my recent investment. I am open to any suggestions or thoughts going forward.

Recent Buys Creates Dividend Paying Machine

My recent sell of Sony (SNE) has given me $793 of capital to reinvest into companies that are paying dividends. 100% of my portfolio consists of stocks that pay dividends. The only growth stock I would consider buying is BRK.B but for now all of my stocks pay dividends. After over half a century of paying out dividends to shareholders, Sony decided to cut their dividend. This was a huge red flag and I had no choice but to sell here. The bad news is I had a capital loss of $160 due to the sell, but the good news is I have decided to quickly put that money back to work. I have decided to buy into companies that I feel will be long term dividend payers. I was focused on higher paying dividend stocks with good P/E ratios so that I know my money is being invested properly this time around. The criteria for my new picks were stocks that had a higher dividend yield than 2.5% and a lower than 19 P/E.

Company	Amount Invested	Share Price	Dividend Yield	P/E	Annual Dividends	Years of Dividend Increase
Kraft (KRFT)	$200	$56.37	3.73%	13.98	$7.45	0
McDonald’s (MCD)	$150	$94.70	3.59%	17.16	$6.34	38
Kellogg’s (K)	$150	$61.75	3.17%	12.14	$4.76	9
Unilever (UL)	$100	$42.00	3.60%	18.46	$3.66	4
Wal-Mart (WMT)	$100	$76.49	2.51%	16	$2.51	39
Microsoft (MSFT)	$50	$46.41	2.67%	17.64	$1.34	11
Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (DPS)	$50	$64.05	2.56%	17.67	$1.28	4
Total Invested	$800				$27.34

 

My recent sell of Sony did net me a loss of $160 but let’s take a look at the pros of why I made the decision to sell in the first place.

·         I was able to diversify my new capital into 7 companies that are currently paying dividends on a quarterly basis.

·         Since I used Loyal3 I was able to take advantage of the credit card benefit of 1.5% cash back. This gave me an extra $12 of free money right from the start.

·         I created a mini portfolio consisting of stocks that had a less than 19 P/E and higher than 2.5% dividend yield.

·         I can now add an additional $27.34 of forward dividend income with my new investment vs. the $0 of dividend income I would be getting from Sony if I would have kept it.

·         With the exception of Kraft, my new investments have over 4 years of dividend increases.

·         Piece of mind!

What do you think of my recent decision? Would you have done anything different?

 

Recent Buys DNKN, UL, APPL, DIS, WMT, and MCD

 

Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, NJ

After a much need vacation to South Jersey, I am now back to my normal life. It’s always hard to come back to reality after a fun and adventurous vacation. One or two vacations a year is what I am limited to. I am grateful to have experienced what life should be like on my last adventure. The reality is I basically have to buy my freedom. How much does freedom cost? I am unsure of the dollar amount but a good estimate would be between $600,000 and $800,000. I can invest that money into real estate, stocks, and CD’s. This would allow me to live off of the passive income from my investments.

                I’m never going to hit the lottery because I never play so I have to suck up my pride and continue working for that freedom. I am not looking to be rich. I just want to be free to do what I want. If I want to go hiking in New Hampshire or Vermont; I don’t want to have to worry about when I have to get back home in order to be at work the next day. “Live free or Die” is the New Hampshire slogan. I wish I could pack my things and just drive along the beautiful Kancagmagus highway. I am tied to a ball and chain and can’t break free. That’s how I feel pretty much every day. Although the thought of packing a suit case with whatever I need seems appealing; I would only have the funds to live free for a comfortable 20 months. What an amazing 20 months that would be!  

                I have been consistently adding to my portfolio on a weekly basis. This week I decided to buy into 6 great companies that I feel will continue to produce solid dividends in the future. 

Company	Amount Invested	Share Price
Dunkin Donuts (DNKN)	$50	$44.15
UNILEVER (UL)	$50	$42.18
APPLE (APPL)	$100	$101.12
DISNEY (DIS)	$100	$89.12
Wal-Mart (WMT)	$50	$76.02
McDonalds (MCD)	$50	$93.45
TOTAL	$400

What are you buying this week? Are you a fellow shareholder of the companies I mentioned above?

Recent Buys, 6 New Blogsters, and a New Goal

I have been consistently adding to my portfolio on a weekly basis. This week I decided to buy into 6 great companies that I feel will continue to produce solid dividends in the future. 

Company	Amount Invested	Share Price
TIME WARNER (TWX)	$50	$75.95
UNILEVER (UL)	$50	$44.09
APPLE (APPL)	$100	$98.99
DISNEY (DIS)	$50	$90.65
KRFT (KRFT)	$100	$58.38
MATTEL (MAT)	$50	$35.02
Total Capital Invested	$400

 

This week I am just going to give you a short description or opinion of each of these companies. I have written about all of these companies in the past so I want to keep things simple this time around.

Disney

Disney may not seem cheap at the moment but you really have to look at the long term growth for the company. I don’t really like to speculate, but I am anticipating the next 4-5 years are going to be huge for Disney. The dividends are low but the growth possibilities are huge.

Mattel

Another company I would like to briefly talk about is Mattel. Mattel doesn’t seem to get much love because of their poor quarterly earnings. I am honestly in shock because every time I go to a child’s birthday party, most of the action figures or toys are made by Mattel. If you walk into a Toys-R-Us, you will be amazed at how many toys Mattel actually makes. Again I might be speculating here, but I don’t think phones and tablets will ever replace toys in general. I am really hoping Mattel will figure out how to stay innovative and continue producing toys that kids will love for years to come. In the meantime I will continue making small purchases at the current cheap prices.

Time Warner

I wish I could have TimeWarner as a cable service but unfortunately only Comcast is available in my area. Comcast is obnoxiously overpriced and I would never get cable from them.

Apple

Could Apple be a future trillion dollar company? I wouldn’t doubt that at all. This company never seizes to amaze me even though I don’t own any of their products.

Unilever & Kraft

What household doesn’t have Unilever and Kraft products? I purchase Axe products and Kraft shredded cheese all the time.

 

New Blogsters

I am pleased to announce that I have added 6 new blogsters to the list. I can now stay up to date with each and every post that you make. Thanks for the ongoing support and I look forward to reading your articles.

 

 
Tawcan

Dividend Digger

Roadmap2Retire

Two Investing

Average Dividend Yield

Dividend Growth Journey

 

My Net Worth Goal for 2015

I recently wrote about how I successfully completed a net worth goal for 2014. In order to stay motivated and continue moving forward I have posted a new net worth goal for 2015. In order to successfully complete this goal I must have a new net worth of $50,000 by the end of 2015. I am ahead of the game because there are still 3 months left in 2014. Cheers to a bright and successful future!