A New York-based company called Construction Robotics has designed and built a bricklaying robot called SAM (Semi-Automated Mason) that can place up to 3,000 bricks during an 8-hour day. That’s about three times the number of bricks that the fastest human bricklayers can set. The machine requires at least two humans to load materials and finish…
In 2002, a nineteen-year-old garbage man in the U.K. named Michael Carroll won a lottery jackpot worth $14 million dollars. Instead of making smart money moves with his winnings, he spent his fortune on jewelry and a mansion where he threw lavish parties with drugs and prostitutes. A decade later, he was broke and working…
A few readers recently expressed a lack of confidence in their investing. They are uncomfortable with where their money is and unsure how to make changes. I sensed some fear because of the recent downturn, maybe for good reason. So today’s post is about how to invest money more confidently by increasing your financial security…
After choosing a domain name and starting my blog back in September of 2013, the software behind the scenes called WordPress asked me to declare a tagline. Unprepared, the first three words that came to mind were Invest. Retire. Travel. Those three words accurately presented the message I wanted to convey to my readers so I went…
Sometimes I assume my blog audience is a bunch of 42-year-old Dads like me balancing work and kids while building income streams. But the emails I get tell a different story. Many readers are beginner investors only recently finding my website and getting started with investing. Some are young. Some are not so young. With all…
Very few decisions during your time on this earth actually change the trajectory of your life. After a party in 2007, I scanned the huge Evite email list to try to find a woman I met there. Then I ‘stalked’ her on Facebook and asked her out. We have three kids together now. Though truly…
About a decade ago, I was hanging out with a good friend of mine who’s a veterinarian. At the time, I was always looking for speculative investments. So I picked his brain about the profession. When I asked if any specific companies were notable in veterinary medicine, he mentioned one called MWI Veterinary Supply. The…
20 years ago, I was a college junior enrolled in investing and corporate finance courses. Being freshly educated about the time value of money, I knew my youth was my most powerful investing advantage. But I didn’t have much money. A few years earlier, my Uncle gifted me one share of Chevron stock through the…
As my investing strategy has evolved over the years, I’ve completely moved away from DRIP (dividend reinvestment plan) investing. In part, because of the extra 1099-DIV tax form and costs basis data. The varying fees are annoying too. But also because I prefer to pool dividends and reinvest them into more undervalued stocks. I still…
At age 27, I was broke, unemployed, and living at home with my parents. Not surprisingly, I was single too. Sounds depressing, right? Not so. I had recently returned from an epic 14-month backpacking trip to Asia and Latin America, spending just $10,000 on the entire journey, then completed a three-month, 8,000-mile road trip throughout the U.S and…
For my birthday in 1995, my uncle gifted me one share of Chevron (CVX) stock out of his dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP). He was an employee at the time. He instructed me to regularly invest small amounts of money into the program and automatically reinvest the dividends I received. Eventually, he said, the quarterly dividend would…
It’s time for another installment of the series, Basic Technical Analysis for Dividend Investors. Last time, I introduced the subject of technical analysis and suggested that it should only be used as a secondary and supplemental tool after exhaustive fundamental analysis. This post will discuss one of my favorite technical indicators, Bollinger Bands. Technical analysis…
Does technical stock analysis deserve a place in a dividend investor’s tool belt? Yes, I think it does for adding insight to short-to-mid-term trends and pricing. But technical analysis should only play a secondary and supplemental role after exhaustive fundamental and qualitative analysis. Some dividend investors may steer clear of technical analysis entirely because it…
I recently made a simple move that increased my passive income by $12 per year. This move has other positive effects on my long-term goals because it helps to simplify my finances and taxes, and will further diversify my investing through pooling dividends to buy new stocks. I transferred all of my Verizon (VZ)…
Update: I received an email indicating PG has left Computershare for Wells Fargo Shareowner Services and is raising fees. I find this disappointing as we’ll need new accounts at WF. For information on how to transfer shares out of a DRIP, see my post on it here. One of my financial goals for the year…
Before a company’s annual meeting, shareholders receive a package in the mail or via email. It contains an invitation and some documents known as proxy voting materials. The proxy voting package outlines upcoming proceedings that will take place at the annual meeting. Usually, this includes voting on the Board of Directors, confirmation of the public…
I have recently done some sector weighting analysis on my portfolio. By evaluating my portfolio, I can see where I am overweight and underweight large sectors of the economy. When determining my watch list priorities, I can use this analysis to help guide my purchase selection. Stocks can be broken into nine sectors. They are:…
January 5th, 2014 marked the 10 year anniversary of buying my first share of Verizon Communications (VZ). Verizon became the third core holding in my portfolio after Chevron (CVX) and Coca-Cola (KO). Those three stocks, along with Bank of America (BAC), I consider to be the four pillars of my investment portfolio that I intend…
As of late 2017, I still hold all of my Coca-Cola shares in the Coca-Cola DRIP. However, I’m no longer reinvesting the dividends. In addition, I do not start any new DRIPs these days. For a more recently tally of my Coca-Cola DRIP investment, check out the post How My 20-Year Investment in Coca-Cola has…
Please read my latest update, 20 Years In The Chevron DRIP. I have been dividend investing as a core investment strategy since May of 1995. That year on my birthday, my uncle gifted me one single share of Chevron stock, symbol CHV at the time, now CVX. He was an employee for the company and he…