Dividends and Divergences: June 2018 Dividend Income: Humble Beginnings

So, a few months back I stumbled upon a series of blogs by dividend growth investors, people who invest in the stock market as a way to build passive income through dividend paying companies. I was never much of a stock guy, I preferred to keep my money in the bank where I could see it and know that if it went away, it was because I spent it. Seeing the numbers some of these guys were pulling in, however, inspired me to jump in and get a piece of the action. I'm sure I'm quite late to the game, but better late than never, right?

These aforementioned bloggers use their sites to post and track their progress. Not only have they built something of a community, but it motivates them to go further. On top of that, it's just interesting and fun. As such, I thought I'd add similar content to my own library and chronicle my own investing journey.

So, how much did I make in my initial outing? Well, Flowers Foods (FLO) paid me a whopping. Thirty. Six. Cents.

Isn't it amazing how much money you can make by getting in the stock market? Pretty soon I'll be able to buy a candy bar, you guys!

We can joke, but honestly, I think it's important to see this. This isn't an "I had a few thousand dollars lying around so I was able to build an awesome portfolio in the span of a couple of months" situation (it's a trap a lot of the investing blogs I've read fall in to in all honesty.) We're very much in the "box of scraps" phase at this point.

But, 2,5,10 years down the line when those numbers do become more impressive, you'll be able to look back and see where it all started. It might even motivate a reader or two to try and follow suit. They can see that investing in stock isn't just the purview of the wealthy. Yeah, some companies' stocks are really expensive, but that's not the case for all. Flowers stock, for example, is pretty cheap, going for about $20 a share. Heck, Barnes and Noble (the company that I first invested in to launch my "career" as a DGI) is going for 5-6 bucks a share.

It should also be noted that this income figure comes close to matching what I made in bank interest, $0.42, that month. Most of that came from my online Capital One accounts, which pay a much higher interest rate than the standard "brick and mortar" banks, and had significantly more money put into them than my Flowers investment did. So,while the number is comically small, it shouldn't be so quickly dismissed.

So, yeah, that's the June report. I think this is gonna be fun.