Lanny’s August Income & Expense Summary

August is officially in the books after a quick review of the income & expense breakdown for the month.  It was probably the best overall month that I’ve had in a while, as I was home predominantly again for the period outside of just one week that was 2.50 hours away from home, plus a lot of fun activities happening during this time period.  Wonder if I still am achieving the 60% savings challenge?  Only one way to find out, let;s check out my income & expense summary for August!

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Top 5 Benefits for Dividend Investors in a Stock Market Downturn

The last one month has seen the stock price of the S&P 500 decline by more than 8%, and 8.22% to be exact (as of Labor Day weekend)!  There are many things working AGAINST the market at this point in time – China, Oil prices, Canada officially in recession, as well as many other global crises occurring.  However, and most importantly – I feel that consumer sentiment is also moving against the market, as the Michigan survey has indicated a downslide from July 2015 to August 2015.  What does this stock market downturn mean for Dividend Investors?  One Word.  Opportunity.   Continue reading

Bert’s Recent Buy – 3M Company (MMM)

Well everyone, Lanny wasn’t the only one on this website to take advantage of the market downturn as he purchased JNJ earlier in the week.   After finishing my recent obsession of building up my stake in IBM a few weeks ago, I began hoarding cash with a new target in mind.  I have been monitoring this company on and off over the last year or so and the recent downturn in the market presented too good of an opportunity for me to continue sitting on the sideline.   Let’s see which stock I purchased this week!

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Lanny’s Recent Purchase – JNJ

Mr. Market you can keep taking that downturn all you want.  As long as us Dividend Diplomats have capital and we feel there is an opportunity, we are going to try and strike, in the words of Austin Carr – throw the hammer down.  The market was on a nice decline today, came slightly back, but then took another slide in the park for us.  Let’s dive in about who, why and how much I bought of a certain stock!

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Bert’s August Income and Expense Summary

Last month I ended my three-month hiatus of posting savings rates articles and afterwards, I vowed to publish my monthly summary in a timely fashion.   One of my goals for 2015 is to defeat the Dividend Diplomats’ Savings Challenge and save 60% of my monthly income 6 times in 2015.  Will I be able to recover from my just miss in July, where I saved 56.9% of my income?  Let’s find out!

Piggy Bank

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