I know I am a little late to the game with this article, but I wanted to take some time to assess my savings rate for December. Better late than never, right? The last month of the year is always tough to save in, considering all the holiday shopping, meals with out-of-town family members, re-uniting with friends that are around the holidays, etc. With all the headwinds I was facing during the month, was I able to weather this storm and still defeat the Dividend Diplomats’ 60% Savings Challenge?
Endless Liabilities Owning a Car Part Deux
Well… my car was back at it again this month, as more repairs and maintenance were absolutely necessary given the winter and our CPA season of “busy season” coming on deck. I wanted to make sure a specific repair was taken care of before trenching through snow, ice and hundreds/thousands of miles of driving over the next 90 days. It’s an easy repair actually, but one that I have a tale of two cities, for lack of better words, to describe – Brakes and Rotors.
Dividend Diplomats Weekly Purchases – 1/5/15
This week started out with a lot of excitement, at least for any dividend investors looking to initiate a long-term position. Right out of the gate, the market began to slide and reached its lowest point by mid-day Tuesday. Luckily, for both Lanny and me, we were able to catch the market at its lowest point and purchase some new/additional shares for our portfolio.
Recent Sale 1/2/15 – ARCP
Deciding to sell a stock is a tough decision, especially when you realize your largest loss. While we all perform our due diligence prior to investing to provide assurance we are investing in a strong, dividend growth stock, we assume a certain risk when we decide to purchase shares that conditions may change in the future that could cause the stock value to decline. Myself, and many others investments, shared such an experience over the last couple of months as we decided to divest in one troubled stock. Here is my story about selling my investment in ARCP.
Lanny’s Portfolio Review and Life Lessons
Similar to as Bert has performed on his review and assessment, I wanted to piggy back on that idea, and to have a snapshot of what my portfolio holds at December 31, 2014, but also introduce 5 life lessons I have taken from 2014. I typically do keep a copy in PDF of my portfolio every quarter, but this also provides a blog’d example of where I stand, so I can always refer back on the site the historical position of my portfolio. To echo what Bert had stated – this has been a wild year for us dividend investors on our pursuit to financial freedom, and I’m excited to dive into what had happened! Continue reading
Bert’s Dividend Income Summary- December
Happy New Year everyone! 2014 is officially in the books and we turn the page to a new, exciting year. 2015 will be the year of major moves, as we all continue to build on our success and grow our passive income. You know that dividend income we all received this year, we will receive more this year just from the power of DRIP and increasing dividends (See the impact of dividend growth on your portfolio). Since the year is over, I wanted to take one final look at the dividend income I received in 2014 and review my December 2014 totals. I have a surprise in store for everyone, possibly a new dividend record for me! So let’s begin.
12/31 Stock Purchase – SLB
So as it turns out, Lanny was not the only Diplomat to get the itch to purchase one final stock in 2014. With the drop in oil prices, I just couldn’t hold off on purchasing a stock with their hands in the oil game, right? So which stock did I purchase? Let’s find out.
