Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG): $5
General Mills (GIS): $5 (Roth)
Exxon Mobil (XOM): $5
Kellogg (K): $5 (Roth)
SJW (SJW): $5
Clorox (CLX): $5 (Roth)
Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD): $5
Colgate (CL): $5 (Roth)
Kraft-Heinz (KHC): $5
Northrop Grumman (NOC): $5 (Roth)
Both SCHD and SJW crossed the full share threshold. Exxon Mobil is freakishly close, but not quite there yet, next week. Other than that, we just keep chugging along.
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"Building wealth is a marathon, not a sprint"
You've likely heard or read this more than once. Wealth doesn't happen overnight. It takes years of effort and consistency. It's important to remember that because if you get impatient, you start making mistakes and shooting yourself in the foot. As great as it would be to envision your money moves as some sort of dramatic "Dragon Ball Z" style power up, that's just not how it works, at least not in the early to mid-stages.
While this is important to keep in mind while on your journey, one thing that I'm surprised doesn't get brought up more is the fact that it's a downhill battle. That is to say that the further along you go, the easier it gets. Compound interest starts to kick in, the dividend reinvestment snowball starts to get rolling, company increases have a bigger and bigger impact as your portfolio builds. Soon, you do start to see more drastic progress. It gets even better when you realize that it is just going to happen automatically going forward.
This applies to liabilities as well as assets. The longer you stay focused on eliminating debt, the easier it gets. The balances start to shrink, which means that the amount of interest that you get charged starts to dwindle as well. You start to see more and more progress as time goes on. Soon, you're eliminating entire payments from your monthly budget and improving your cash flow dramatically. Going back to the earlier comparison, it's almost like chucking off a set of weighted clothing during a fight.
Yes, building wealth is a marathon, but it's a weird kind of bizarro marathon where you start off exhausted and gradually get your energy back as you run towards the finish line. Maybe it's just me, but that's a nice little extra motivator. Knowing that the waters get smoother ahead does make it easier to hunker down for the short term and endure the rougher waves to ensure that you get to that point.
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ConEd (ED): $4
General Mills (GIS) $4 (Roth)
Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG): $4
Kellogg (K): $4 (Roth)
HP (HPQ): $4
Clorox (CLX): $4 (Roth)
Schwab US Dividend Equity Fund (SCHD): $4
Colgate (CL): $4 (Roth)
SJW (SJW): $4
Northrop Grumman (NOC): $4 (Roth)
ConEd broke the full share threshold. A bunch of the others today came very close but didn't quite make it. Hopefully, next week should see that come to pass. We've got a ways to go as far as the Roth goes so those'll be staples in the months ahead.
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ConEd (ED): $5
General Mills (GIS): $5 (Roth)
Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG): $5
Kellogg (K): $5 (Roth)
Realty Income (O): $5
Clorox (CLX): $5 (Roth)
Main Street Capital (MAIN): $5
Colgate-Palmolive (CL): $5 (Roth)
Exxon Mobil (XOM): $5
Northrop Grumman (NOC): $5 (Roth)
Both MAIN and O crossed the full share threshold, so that's pretty cool. Love reducing the amount of post-decimal digits. On a similar note, I'm hitting the same positions in the Roth and won't be adding any new ones until a position crosses that aforementioned bar. I don't want to make the same mistake I made with the main Robinhood account and overload on fractional positions.
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I intended to have the automatic recurring buys be the brunt of my investment moves...buuut I gotta pull the trigger myself every so often. I do still plan to put more focus on defense, given what's coming, but I think I can move the needle on this front as well.
ConEd (ED): $3
General Mills (GIS): $3 (Roth)
Realty Income (O): $3
Kellogg (K): $3 (Roth)
Main Street Capital (MAIN): $3
Clorox (CLX): $3 (Roth)
Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD): $3
Colgate-Palmolive (CL): $3 (Roth)
HP (HPQ): $3
Northrop Grumman (NOC): $3 (Roth)
One interesting development, and I'm surprised I didn't mention this before, is that Robinhood now offers IRA's. Even better, they match a portion of your contribution (1% to be exact). Naturally, I decided to take advantage of it. As noted above, I decided to go with the Roth. I was tempted to just slip money in over the course of the year and then fire it in a massive DBZ style blast of capital in December, but DCA has been working well so far and if I play it right, I may still be able to do that, albeit to a much lesser extent. We'll just have to see how things play out over the course of the next few months.
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I missed out on being able to do this last year due to technical difficulties, but it was always interesting to tally up the total for the year. As such, let's see how things went in 2022.
Grand total comes to $761.98. 2020's total was $215.02 so that's not too bad for 2 years of growth. Sadly, I wasn't able to provide separate totals for taxable and retirement accounts as there was a transition period where I lumped it all together. Speaking of retirement, you can clearly see the impact of the IRA transfer and when it kicked in. Could 2023 see the grand total crack the $1,000 mark? SRLP is out of the equation, so I am starting off with a setback, but we'll see how things play out. Should be interesting, to say the least.
2022 has officially wrapped. From a macro standpoint, it was kind of a dumpster fire. However, on the micro front, things went surprisingly smoothly. The job consolidation ended up being a big boon and it enabled me to make fairly steady progress on both fiscal and physical fronts. There may not have been any DBZ style leaps, but there was definite progression. The MVP title has to go to Capital One. Them doing away with their IRA savings accounts allowed me to move the needle in ways that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. While I liked the security of the savings accounts, I do think this is better. More growth and it isn't like the investments in those accounts are particularly risky so I don't need to sweat it.
Enough of that, though, this is the dividend post, so it stands to reason that we get to them. December is always a showstopper for investors be they veterans or neophytes. Last year's record breaker was a testament to that. Will this month's live up to the hype? Let's find out, shall we?
Kroger (KR): $1.78
SJW (SJW): $3.57 ($0.69 taxable/$2.88 IRA)
Intel (INTC): $0.41
JM Smucker (SJM): $0.20
Sherwin Williams: $1.20 (IRA)
Pfizer (PFE): $1.26
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): $0.65
Microsoft (MSFT): $0.04
Exxon Mobil (XOM): $8.21 ($2.75 taxable/$5.46 IRA)
Yum! (YUM): $0.18
Emerson (EMR): $0.33
Unilever (UL): $0.20
AGNC: $1.31
JP Morgan Exchange Traded Fund (JEPI): $4.88 (IRA)
Scott's Miracle Gro (SMG): $7.92 (IRA)
Walgreen's Boots Alliance (WBA): $1.53
Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD): $5.54 ($0.62 taxable/$4.92 IRA)
Target (TGT): $0.44
IBM: $0.18
3M (MMM): $0.48
Chevron (CVX): $0.44
GlobalXSuperdividend (SDIV): $0.13
Coca Cola (KO): $5.00 ($1.48 taxable/$3.52 IRA)
Realty Income (O): $3.62 ($1.39 taxable/$2.23 IRA)
Wendy's (WEN): $1.33
Main Street Capital (MAIN): $0.26
ConEd (ED): $0.69
NextEra Energy (NEE): $2.64 ($0.09 taxable/$2.55 IRA)
Stag Industrial (STAG): $0.13
McDonald's (MCD): $0.42
Home Depot (HD): $3.80 (IRA)
Hershey's (HSY): $2.07 (IRA)
Flowers Foods (FLO): $1.48
iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF (DGRO): $4.29 ($0.35 taxable/$3.94 IRA)
VF Corp (VFC): $2.77
Vanguard Utilities ETF (VPU): $0.59
Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM): $6.93 ($1.08 taxable/$5.85 IRA)
Stanley Black & Decker (SWK): $4.80 (IRA)
Invesco High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (SPHD): $0.15
Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG): $0.68
Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF (VOOG): $0.08
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO): $3.82 ($0.48 taxable/$3.34 IRA)
Vanguard Total Market ETF (VTI): $5.29 ($0.64/$4.65 IRA)
Vanguard US REIT Fund (VNQ): $1.22
Wisdom Tree (DON): $0.11
T. Rowe Price (TROW): $4.80 (IRA)
Kraft-Heinz (KHC): $1.77
SpartanNash (SPTN): $1.08
Lockheed Martin (LMT): $0.45
Domino's (DPZ): $0.10
DFA US Small Cap: $25.12 (401K)
T. Rowe Price Value Fund: $114.39 (401K)
American EuroPacific Growth: $7.48 (401K)
Baird Aggregate Bond Fund: $3.52 (401K)
So, when all is said and done, I received a moderate $32.44 in taxable accounts. Retirement contributions on the other hand, threw in $219.32. Grand total comes to a whopping $251.76. That is how you end a year. It didn't quite hit the 2X mark compared to last year, but it was pretty darn close. That T. Rowe Price fund in the 401K is mind blowing. The growth isn't quite what it was last year, but that's still a pretty sizable leap. Of course, now one can't help but wonder what next year's number will look like. But we have a way to go before that point and quite a lot to do in the meantime.
Interest clocked in at $2.20
Aside from DRIP and 401K contributions, there were no buys this month. Crazy, right? I was expecting a sizable expense in regard to the car, but thankfully, that turned out to be fairly minor. I also thought it best to build up a cash supply to give myself a buffer for the year, both for the looming macro threats as well as the endeavors that I laid out for myself.
I'm not sure the mid-quarters can keep up with this, to be honest. It's a little sad. It put up a valiant fight and held the title for quite some time, but it seems like December has cemented itself as the record breaker for the years to come. Maybe one year, I'll focus my stock buys exclusively on mid-quarter payers to bring it back into the fight, but that's something to ponder later on down the line.
Let's see what we can do in 2023. There will be headwinds, to be sure. This may be the toughest year to date, but there's still a way to win.
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