 Dividend Growth Investing Using ETFs
DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. The last few articles I have written have been about how to keep from losing a lot of money in the stock market. If you failed to read that article on time to play defense in this Bear Market, please read it below before continuing: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/defense-for-a-bear-market When you feel comfortable investing again, I have found a couple of ways to simplify your investing in Dividend Growth Stocks by using ETFs. I am putting a little money into these but you still need to keep the majority of your money in CDs and Bonds in the upcoming month. DGI investing is perhaps one of the most lucrative investment methods. DGI stands for Dividend Growth Investing. It means investing in companies that are good solid companies that have good upward growth ability but also pay dividends. The dividends on solid companies range from 3% to 8%. What is great when the market is doing well is you not only collect the dividends to reinvest, but your stocks typically go up in price due to being a growth stock. So if you make 5% on dividends and the stock appreciates 6% in the same year, your real return is closer to 11% than just the 5%. I read this past week that 90 percent of the money made in the stock market over the past 50 years has come from dividends on stocks. So do not ignore these. I never invested much in Dividend Growth stocks until this year, and while the market has been bad, those I purchased have not suffered equally with those that did not pay dividends. I am not saying you will never lose money on dividend stocks, but they seem to hold their value very well. The problem is finding the RIGHT dividend stocks to buy. I have several articles in the INVESTMENTS tab showing different methods to buy stocks such as Dividend Kings and Dividend Aristocrats. Well, I have found what I believe to be an even better method to make money on Dividend Stocks. I have found a huge number of Dividend ETFs. I had been investing in some of them already, but I now have a list of 13 ETFs. If you are unfamiliar with ETFs, they stand for Exchange Traded Funds. They normally are on a specific type of stock. Some are managed, and some are just a complete set of all stocks making up a specific category. Many of these listed ETFs are managed, meaning a manager is overseeing the purchase of specific stocks. This can be good or bad, but in Dividend Growth Stocks, I believe it is good. If you have been purchasing Dividend Growth Stocks already, if like me, you have found it hard to decide which stocks are the best in paying a good dividend and also having a lot of upside in stock price. What I love about ETFs is it is over a huge number of stocks, so you get an average of those making up the ETF. I expect all of these to do well when we get to the bottom of this current bear market. Some people think we are there, but I am not confident that we are there yet. As I mentioned in my Defense in a Bear Market above, to me a bottom is when we have 4 out of 5 days on an uptick in the market. So far, we have only had 2 or possibly 3 of 5 go positive. So bear in mind, I want you to purchase these for dividend growth. I put a little money in all of them so I would remember to invest in them all. I personally have a few dollars in all 13 of these. Here is a list of the DIVIDEND GROWTH ETFs VIG – Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF SCHD – Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF DRGO – Ishares Core Dividend Growth ETF FVD – First Trust Value Line Dividend Index Fund SDIV – Global X Super Dividend ETF AMPL – Algerian MLP ETF VNQ – Vanguard Real Estate ETF NOBL – Pro-Shares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF LVHD – Legg Mason Low Volatity Dividend ETF DHS – Wisdom Tree US High Dividend ETF SDY – SPDY Series Trust S8P Dividend Aristocrats ETF FDVV – Fidelity High Dividend ETF AOA - AOA - I shares Aggressive Allocation Dividends ETF I want to mention that AOA is an ETF over a broad range of other Dividend ETFs. This might be the safest of all these due to the large amount of diversification. In my other articles, I have explained that ETFs are much simpler and safer than buying individual stocks as you typically have dozens of stocks (if not 100’s) making up the ETF. So purchasing these might not return as much as perfectly chosen stocks, but the odds of failure is also greatly diminished. I have owned 6 of these listed for over 2 years. I am particularly impressed with LVHD as even in these volatile market times, they have continued to show a profit. NOBL, VIG, and FDVV are also some of my long-term favorites. I feel strongly about AOA as I mentioned earlier. Another minor tip when you get ready to buy these ETFs, use limit orders and put in the order at 50 cents to $1 less than market value. Do that on 4 of them, and if the market value dips during the day like it has, then you will buy one or 2 of them. Do the same thing the next day until you buy all you need. I put in LIMIT orders on 4 at $10 each, and most days only one triggers to buy. However, on a big down day, be aware that most likely all 4 will buy. This is a simple method to automatically net out another ½ to 1 percent on your investments. Not crucial long-term, but every dollar saved is another dollar you can invest. So when we get to the bottom of this bear market, seriously consider using this method to get rolling in Dividend Growth Investing. I think it has the most potential of the varying methods available to investors. For now, my new money is going into CDs and I-Bonds. I read an article this week stating that I-bonds will drop to 6.8% on November 1st. So if you buy before end of October with yield of 9.62% for next six months, that means your second six months will be 6.8% still allowing a full year percentage above 8% which is super return. With inflation raging and 30 year Treasury bills going higher in rate, I am eager to hear why the rate dropped so much. Article on I-Bonds: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/best-investment-for-end-of-2022 List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net http://www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops
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 DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment.
Your Next Five Moves by Patrick Bet-David is a very interesting book. He makes you realize that to be successful in business, is very much like playing chess. You must be planning your next move. Patrick Bet-David is a very successful businessman. The book is based on the concept that to be successful, you must be thinking several moves ahead. You must continually be thinking and planning for the future. WHAT I LEARNED FROM YOUR NEXT FIVE MOVES In the introduction, Mr. Bet-David quotes Kimbal Musk, the brother of Elon Musk. Kimball Musk stated “Elon is able to see things more clearly in a way that no one else I know of can understand. There’s this thing in Chess where you see 12 moves ahead if you’re a Grand Master. And in any particular situation, Elon can see things `12 moves ahead.’ ” Elon Musk is one of the smartest businessmen alive, so this means we must think ahead to be at the top of our game. Also in the introduction, Patrick Bet-David tells his childhood story of escaping from Tehran during the Iraq-Iran war in 1987. I will not go into details on it in the review, but the story is very compelling. He urges us all to become either a great Entrepreneur or Solopreneur. These are highly driven workers with a vision while working inside a large corporation. Businesses like Google encourage people to do work to build the company in various innovative ways. They give them time to devote to their ideas for improving the company. People who do this are referred to as Solopreneurs. In the book, Mr. Bet-David gives us 7 points or goals for his book.
The book gives us MOVES to help us. There are 5 paths to achieving these moves.
Patrick Bet-David is a highly educated man. He mentions that he has read over 1,500 business and success-related books. To help others, he has created a YouTube channel called Valuetainment. Here he shows videos on how to be successful. In 2020, his YouTube channel grew to over 2 million subscribers. To win, a person must know what they want to get out of life to find the place they need to be. As mentioned earlier, the book is all about “MOVES” to get you where you need to be mentally. Move #1 is to get to know yourself. Patrick Bet-David had the drive to follow Ray Dahlio’s concept of total transparency that he details in the book “Principles.” Mr. Bet-David learned from his HR department that having respect for his employees was smarter than total transparency and limited what they made transparent. To continue to learn, we must continue to read. That is something Patrick Bet-David does continually. We all must realize what we learned in the past may not be true in today’s business world. Mr. Bet-David urges us to really know ourselves. He quotes Benjamin Franklin who once said “There are 3 things extremely hard: Steel, a Diamond, and to know one’s self.” Move #2 is to Master the ability to Reason. We must take responsibility for all things. Never blame others, but take full responsibility. When we take responsibility; we can deal with a crisis. Move #3 is about building the right team. You can not be a huge success as a one-man company. You must acquire great talent and try to find people who share your goals. Hopefully, these people will be even smarter than you. To be successful, find trusted advisors who will question your decisions. In your business, communicate your expectations clearly, early, and often. Let everyone working for you know your core values. Create a principles-based culture in your company. Move #4: Master your strategy to scale. It is easy to start, but you must have more capital to expand your startup. After getting started successfully, you must develop leadership. It is crucial to get the right people in important positions. To keep sharp, always stay paranoid. Never let your guard down as you never know who you can trust. Not everyone is sincere and loyal. This is very important. Move #5 – Master Power Plays To beat the Goliaths in your industry, you must control the narrative. You don’t start trying to bring them down at their greatest strength. Find your narrative and strengths and start using those against the other companies. Focus on your strengths and understand your weaknesses. Never disclose every aspect of your strategy. Stay one move ahead all the time. Don’t hesitate to promote yourself. Be bold and engaging. If you do something wrong, own up to it and accept your loss and be accountable for yourself. Cultivate your power and stay battle tested. Have options that will give you power. Never have more than 30% of your revenue come from one customer. Be ready with a new strategy when plans don’t go your way. In other words, be thinking five moves ahead all the time. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net http://www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are of my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment.
With the stock market pretty much tanking out for the year, I have had some people ask me if they should just stop investing. I think it is ok to stop putting money directly into Stocks and ETFs, but your habit of saving should never stop. As I mentioned in my article last week about playing defense in the stock market, now is a time to certainly be careful. You need to read that article if you failed to read it last week. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/defense-for-a-bear-market The key to getting a large amount in investments is tied to just a few basic fundamentals. The first is having a HABIT of investing every day. If a person can get disciplined enough to invest $50 a day, it will take just a few years to accumulate a large amount of money. I have that goal. Currently, I am only investing $25 a day, but intend to try and up it a bit every month. But just saving money is not enough. You need to have a plan on where and how to invest. Currently, 90% of my savings are going into either I-Bonds or CDs. A link to Capital One’s CD marketplace is included in the article above on defense in a bear market. Here is a link to buy I-Bonds. They are paying 9.62% until November when the rate resets. I anticipate that going to over 10% and if it does, those may be the best way to invest until we find a bottom on this horrible bear market. I-Bonds: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/best-investment-for-end-of-2022 Things that are important is to decide what to buy and how to invest. A good rule of thumb is to buy a lot of Dividend Growth Stocks and certainly buy several of the full index ETFs. DGI Investing: https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/dgi-investing Also besides those full stock market indexes, consider some real estate trusts. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/investing-in-reits-real-estate-investment-trusts If you do all of these and then diversify your portfolio and get into all the different categories of investments, you will be certain to not miss out on what specific sector is doing really well each year. This includes buying some Emerging Markets ETFs and foreign stock ETFs. Also, you can purchase Mutual funds that tie to certain categories. To get a lot of money coming in monthly, we must seek passive income. Common Passive Income Streams
Another good article to read is the one about passive income and its importance in your portfolio. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/why-passive-income-is-so-important We did articles on Dividend Paying Stocks and how to pick some good ones. One was on the Dividend Aristocrats and the other was on the Dividend Kings. Check those out for good leads on stocks that will not only pay dividends but grow in value also. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/what-are-dividend-aristocrats https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/what-are-dividend-kings So whatever you do, don’t quit stashing away some money to savings. If you just save $5 a day, that is $150 each month. My $25 a day gets me over $750 additional per month. Start small but do start and continue. Perseverance and not giving up is the key to long-term success in developing and maintaining a great retirement portfolio. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net http://www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
DISCLAIMER - I am not a Financial Advisor and do not work for any Brokerage Firm. The opinions given are of my own and are not to be used as professional advice. These are my findings and can hopefully help you to make informed decisions on investing. Consult a Broker or Lawyer before making any investment. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is a book I read earlier this year and forgot to do the book review. I believe it is one of the best 10 investment books I have ever read. Currently, it is free on Amazon Kindle, so get it while it is at the special low price. Check that the BUY NOW is zero in case the free time has expired. The book is not new. It was originally published first in 1937. However, the information is still very pertinent today. Mr. Hill spent over 20 years compiling this book. The success stories are gleaned from interviewing over 500 wealthy people. Andrew Carnegie inspired Napoleon Hill to take the time to put all of this together. WHAT I LEARNED FROM THINK AND GROW RICH There are 13 principles that Mr. Hill covers in the book. I am not going to try and cover them all in the review but will hit on some of the ones I felt were most important. These people who spoke to him all acquired great wealth in their lifetimes. None of their stories are identical, but I did pick up a common thread from reading about them.
Honestly, if you only gained those 3 things and learned from them, that would make reading the book worthwhile. Life is hard, and to succeed, we must THINK and when we do that, the right plan of action will come and with an application of time and effort, we can win if we don’t give up. Always remember, you are never defeated until you quit getting back up. Charles Schwab convinced Mr. Carnegie that much of what was taught in schools today is of no value whatsoever in connection with earning a living or accumulating wealth. Richard Kiyosaki also said the same thing in his book Unfair Advantage which I read and did a book report on two months ago. https://lifecanbesimple.net/blog/book-review-unfair-advantage-robert-kiyosaki In the preface/introduction of the book, Mr. Hill identified a very large number of people whom he revealed Mr. Carnegies secret and who he interviewed including: Dr. Alexander Graham Bell F. W. Woolworth Wilbur Wright John D. Rockefeller Henry Ford George Eastman plus dozens of others. Edwin C. Barnes was sure that riches would come to him if he could partner with Thomas Edison. He was not initially accepted by Mr. Edison, but Barnes was determined. He literally thought himself into a partnership with Edison due to his unwavering determination. He had initiative, faith, and a will to win. Henry Ford was a man with little schooling. But he learned perseverance and would not give up. When engineers told him his idea of a V-8 engine could not be created, he told the engineers to go back to the drawing board. After 6 months, they told him it was not possible. A year went by, and they had come up with nothing. But he told them to keep trying until they figured out how to do it. And history was made and the V-8 engine propelled Ford to great profits. Faith is the head chemist of the mind. When blended with thought, the subconscious mind translates it into a spiritual equivalent. (Much like prayer does for the Christian.) You must believe and act. Thinking alone won’t get you there. Repetition of affirmation orders your subconscious to respond. If you think you will lose, you’re lost. It is a state of mind. The man who wins is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN. Knowledge is important, but it alone will not attract money unless it is organized and intelligently directed. You must have a practical plan of action. This calls for power and it starts by being highly organized. HOW DO WE PURCHASE KNOWLEDGE
Just attending school will not do it. You must get specialized in a certain field. Being an apprentice is an example of acquiring experience from others. Imagination is important. It is one of the steps to riches. Man must develop his mind to creatively imagine things to help in acquiring riches. You must be organized and plan carefully to crystallize your desire into riches. You must have self-control and have a habit of doing more than is expected and more than you are being paid for. Master the details and show a willingness to assume full responsibility for your actions. A lack of decision is listed as one of the 30 major causes of failure. We must not procrastinate but take decisive action. Leaders in every walk of life decide quickly and firmly. Indecision is worse than almost any action. Know what you want and take action. This requires courage. Riches are there for those who plan and demand things of life. Be organized in life and have a plan of action. Nothing helps you succeed more than perseverance. Sustained effort is a requirement for success. Willpower and desire will lead you to success. A lack of persistence is one of the major causes of failure. The sixth sense of the mind is where creative imagination originates. Several fears can cause discouragement including timidity, procrastination, indifference, indecision, lack of ambition, self-reliance, lack of initiative, and self-control. And worst all is a lack of enthusiasm. Winners are enthusiastic. Get rid of your fears and take action. Be like those men interviewed and show initiative with self-control with much persistence. Don’t be afraid of criticism, but keep on keeping on. Those who win in life go the extra mile and don’t give up. Don’t let troubles cause you to fail. You have ABSOLUTE CONTROL OVER YOUR THOUGHTS. Do not let negativity slip you up. Men with negative minds never accomplish great things. The book closes with a list of 57 ‘ifs’ that would have allowed you to succeed IF that had happened. We must get past all the ‘ifs’ and go forward in life to have success. People just love to make alibis. Successful people do not make alibis. Life is like a checkerboard. The player opposite you is time. If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time. You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate indecision. Make up your mind and follow through. Those men interviewed had one thing in common. They all persevered and showed action which allowed them to acquire riches. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html www.lifecanbesimple.net http://www.InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops |
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