Which “Always Buy” Stock is Cheapest?

Posted on January 19, 2016 by DividendDiplomats

Breaking News! The stock market had an insane week last week. Every day was an exciting new chapter. On Friday, the thrilling conclusion, the S&P 500 closed down 2.38% and this wasn’t even the lowest point of the day. Bottom line is that there are many great stocks available at a discount right now and investors have been scooping them up left and right. Heck, Lanny and I were both active as we both added to our stakes in ADM (See Bert’s purchase summary here and Lanny’s here). With each subsequent red day in the market I become more motivated to add a rock-solid dividend paying company to my portfolio that I can buy and hold till I reach financial independence. During times like these, I decided to look no further than my list of 5 “Always Buy” stocks to determine which one of these companies is trading at a price that may be too low to resist.

Watch List

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My Top 5 Reasons to Make Larger Stock Investments ($3,000+)

Posted on January 8, 2016 by DividendDiplomats

Now, we all know from my 2016 goals post that my plan was to contribute to the stock market a minimum of $24,000, as well as to make 3 large trades that are at minimum $3,000 per order (it can be higher as well!). I have had a few individuals message me, as well as other friends ask me this one question – why? They also have asked/stated – wouldn’t that then eat into your capital and then you would not be able to strike when an opportunity exists/occurs? I wanted to respond and shed more light on why I want to make these more “significant” purchases than my typical $600 to $2,000 purchases of stock I would make last year.

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Bert’s Final 2015 Goal Review

Posted on January 5, 2016 by DividendDiplomats

Over the last few weeks, we all have spent many hours preparing tough/challenging goals for the year ahead of us. Why not? It is fun and exciting to think about the future and map out where you want to be a year from now. Before I fully shift modes and focus on knocking out my 2016 goals one by one, I figured I should take a cold hard look at my 2015 goals and see how well (or poorly) I performed during the year. Even though it was not articulated as well as it could have been in my article, the results of 2015 were a major influence in setting the table in 2016. So now, let’s have a look at my final 2015 goal review and see where/how I can improve in 2016.

goals

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Lanny’s 2015 Portfolio Review

Posted on January 3, 2016 by DividendDiplomats

I keep a copy in PDF of my portfolio every quarter, and have a deeper dive at 12/31, 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. As we have done in the prior year, this post will be a review and re-cap overall of my portfolio, the contributions, dividend going forward, dividend received, what I can analyze from the current position, etc.. It’s always fun to see what the year compiled into one snapshot of all of the hard work that goes into it. I am excited to see where it stands and what can be done going into this new year! Let’s dive on in. Continue reading →

Bert’s December Dividend Income Summary

Posted on January 1, 2016 by DividendDiplomats

Happy New Year everyone! It still blows my mind that the calendar has officially turned over and it is 2016. HOLY COW! I hope you all have had the chance to set your goals so we can hit the ground running in 2016. It seems appropriate that the first article published on our website in 2016 is a review of the dividend income received during my favorite dividend month of the year…December. Let’s take a look at my December dividend income summary, my final report of 2015!

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Lanny’s December Dividend Income

Posted on December 29, 2015 by DividendDiplomats

The LAST month of the year. The last month to tally up dividends for your annual/yearly total. Typically, within investing in US-based companies – December is usually a big quarter end, as well for all you Mutual Fund & ETF holders out there, in regards to dividend distributions, as well as capital gain distributions. With 11 months in the book and not one crossing the 4 digit mark yet – did the time finally come this December? I had my hopes high, so let’s see if Santa delivered over the 1K mark this Christmas!

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Top 5 Dividend Aristocrats with Low Debt to Equity Ratios

Posted on December 17, 2015 by DividendDiplomats

Recently, we saw the ugly side of debt. As we all watched Kinder Morgan’s stock fall and wait for the final, inevitable sword of a dividend increase, there was one thing that became evident…KMI’s debt level was too high and the results were unsustainable in the current market environment (See Lanny’s awesome write up/analysis about KMI from earlier in the week). The pressures mounted and management plus the Board of Directors decided to slash their dividend to preserve cash flow for capital expenditures and cover interest/dividend payments. While debt isn’t a bad thing, I don’t want you leaving this intro thinking that’s my conclusion, runaway/uncontrolled debt can present many problems. The name of our game on this website is investing in stocks with a growing dividend income stream, so we try to avoid companies and stocks that take us off of this course. Which is very ironic considering that Lanny and I purchased shares in KMI just under a month ago (here and here) With the wound from KMI still fresh, I wanted to run a stock screener and identify several Dividend Aristocrats with low debt levels. Check out our newest installment of our Top 5 list series (foundation stocks and low dividend yield/high dividend growth rate stocks)….the Top 5 Dividend Aristocrats with Low Debt to Equity Levels.