At the beginning of every new year, one of the first things I do with our finances is to take a hard look at our budget and see where we can get the most bang for our buck. At first this usually involves doing the normal thing that most people do - taking a look at our bills and seeing where we can shave some expenses. But there’s something else I like to do with the extra money in our budget that I feel is just as important as cutting corners on expenses. I like to take a look at where we can best grow it! There are lots of good options for what to do with extra money if you’ve got it. You might apply it to some kind of debt you have so that you’ll end up saving a boat-load in interest payments (after all, saving money can … [Read more...] about What To Do With Extra Money In Your Budget – 3 Good Choices
dividend stocks
My Broker Lets Me DRIP Stocks – Why That’s Great
Time and time again on this blog we’ve proven that we sometimes don’t know we can do something until we ask for it. That was exactly the case this week when I learned that I can DRIP stocks with my broker. Until now I didn’t think that my account had this feature, but I was glad to find out that it does and I will certainly be putting it to use. For those of you who don’t know, DRIP stands for dividend reinvestment plan (or program). It is also sometimes abbreviated DRP. When people say you DRIP stocks, they are usually referring to some system you enroll in where instead of receiving your dividend payments by check or cash each quarter you instead automatically buy more shares of that same dividend paying stock. There are a lot of … [Read more...] about My Broker Lets Me DRIP Stocks – Why That’s Great
Using the Dividend Yield Formula to Evaluate a Stock Prospect
As part of my love affair over the last year with investing in dividends, I’m going to continue to introduce posts that focus on one particular aspect of evaluating a particular stock prospect. So this week, we’ll be looking specifically at the dividend yield formula and what it can tell us about the stock or company. … [Read more...] about Using the Dividend Yield Formula to Evaluate a Stock Prospect
My Dividend Stock Portfolio Update – May 2013
What a wild ride the last 4 months have been! It’s been a while since I’ve done a dividend stock portfolio update, and I thought this would be a great time to report (i.e. celebrate) my earnings. … [Read more...] about My Dividend Stock Portfolio Update – May 2013
Can the Dividend Payout Ratio Help You Pick a Good Stock?
In this month’s issue of Money Magazine, I came across an article entitled “When the Wilder Ride is Worth It”. The article was addressing how sometimes a company’s stock and dividend payment can be a better prospect for stable income than its bond. To make this comparison, they looked at the return of the bond against the dividend appeal (which was largely based on it's payout ratio) and any inherit stock risk based on the company itself. Whenever I find an article like this about semi-guaranteed income, I tend to pay extra special attention to it - and with good reason. Strategies such as taking advantage of dividend payouts will be important to my financial situation because it will be one of the key elements that helps me to … [Read more...] about Can the Dividend Payout Ratio Help You Pick a Good Stock?
Reader Debate – Would You Borrow Money to Invest in Stocks?
I wanted to try something different on My Money Design and throw a question out to my readers to debate. I’m very interested to see what the outcome will be. The inspiration for this topic comes from a stellar comment that was left on my “How Much Money Would I Make If I Rented Out A House?” post. The commenter, Richard, laid out some great plans for how he was going to build his wealth empire. Essentially, he was going to borrow money to put together a real estate portfolio. This is the classic old mantra of using “other people’s money” to get rich, and it is certainly a path where a lot of people seem to have found great success. Unfortunately I’m far too much of a weenie to invest in real estate (… yet). I prefer to invest … [Read more...] about Reader Debate – Would You Borrow Money to Invest in Stocks?
Rethinking My Strategy for What Stocks to Buy This Year
One thing you will learn in investing is that nothing is ever absolute and that rules are made to be broken. With that said, I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to what stocks to buy this year and my previous declaration to use the Dogs of the Dow strategy. As I get closer to actually making a purchase, I’m starting to reconsider my initial plan and may have an alternative solution that would make more sense. Here’s is where my mind is at: … [Read more...] about Rethinking My Strategy for What Stocks to Buy This Year
Our Long Term Financial Goals and How We’ll Meet Them in the New Year
Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone is safe and having a smooth transition into this new start. It seems this event is always marked with a great deal of optimism because people feel like they have a symbolic marker from which they can wipe the slate clean and start out fresh. It might be eating habits; it might be quitting your bad vices. For me, it always marks a time to re-evaluate our long term financial goals and see if our actions will get us to where we want to be. … [Read more...] about Our Long Term Financial Goals and How We’ll Meet Them in the New Year
