Happy Sunday everyone. The weather has been beautiful here in Cleveland and August could not have started off any better. It has been a great weekend in the dividend investing community as well and we have spent some time reading a lot of great articles this weekend. It is an infrequent occurrence here on our website, but we wanted to take some time and put together a brief list of some of the articles we thought were great reads. Let’s take a look at our Weekend Reading list, the Sunday Night edition!
First, before diving into some of the articles in the community during the week, we wanted to take some time to recap our week as it has been pretty eventful. Here are some of the articles published on our website this week:
- Recent Purchase – Dow Chemical– When we put our watch list together a few weeks ago, Lanny targeted Dow Chemical and wanted to take advantage of a recent downturn to add to his current position.
- Ending a Short Chapter in My Career – A few months ago, Bert changed careers to seek a better lifestyle and greener pastures. However, as he found out quickly, the new career was anything but that and made a decision to change careers once again.
- Recent Purchase – IBM – Following Lanny’s lead, Bert had some extra capital and also took advantage of a pullback in a stock that he already owns.
- Lanny’s July Dividend Income – Let’s just say that Lanny had one heck of a month in dividend income. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when Kraft pays a special dividend as a part of their mega-merger. Regardless, he still would have killed it even without the one time payment!
Now that we have quickly summarized our week, it is time to look at some of the articles from the community. I would like to apologize in advance if we left out an article or two from our listing.
- Stop Going Through the Motions by American Dividend Dream. This was a great article that made me think for a while after reading. American Dividend Dream was tired of the daily routine and did something about it this last week. Best of all, the results couldn’t have been better!
- Five Reasons Why Florida Might Be The Best State To Seek Out And Achieve Early Retirement by Dividend Mantra. Honestly, all Jason really had to say is that he was tired of the cold, brutal winters in the Midwest and wanted to escape to a place that is warm year-round. Being from Cleveland, we would have understood! However, Jason proceeded to give four addition reasons (besides for weather) for why we should pick up and move to Florida to seek financial independence.
- The Debt-Free Dilemma by Cottage Retreatist. This was my first time visiting the blog and I am kind of upset it took me this long to stumble on the website. Natalya has an amazing, but unique problem. After knocking out their goal to be debt free, their family is not too sure what to do with their excess savings as they are on pace to blow their savings goal out of the water. A great problem to have! But most importantly, congrats Natalyia on becoming debt-free. Your hard work paid off big time and now the fun begins!
- How Much I Spent on Coffee My First Three and a Half Years of Grad School by Mr. Modern Millennial. Dylan quantified one of our favorite cost savings tips and analyzed just how much money he spent on coffee during his time in school. Quite frankly, I am a little shocked the total isn’t higher considering the amount of hours, readings, and homework needed to complete a grad school degree. As two coffee drinkers here, we have realized huge cost savings by brewing coffee at home versus purchasing coffee at a local coffee shop.
- Leveraged Money is Just and Illusion by The DivGuy. Mike shines some light onto the current situation in China and a great discussion about leveraged money ensues. Not only does he discuss the broader market as a whole, but he also discusses how he has used leverage in his life and provides some helpful tips/guidance based on his experiences.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to write these great articles and to all of our visitors for their continued support and comments. Reading your articles and responding to your comments made sipping on our morning cups of coffee that much more enjoyable this week. Hopefully everyone takes some time to enjoy the rest of their weekends!
-The Dividend Diplomats