 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. WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THE PREFERRED STOCK CHANNEL There are so many websites offering stock market advice today. It is difficult to know which ones to use and which to ignore. I looked at dozens of them in the last year. Without hesitation, I can say that the Preferred Stock Channel has been one of the best in consistently guiding me to stocks that have made good money on dividends. There are 3 categories of investments that mainstream magazines and writers tend to overlook. Many of the huge hedge funds include these 3 types of investments in them. Those 3 slightly mentioned investments are: BDC (Business Development Companies) CEFs (Closed End Funds) Preferred Stocks I won’t discuss a lot about these, but I can say these 3 plus my Dividend Growth Stocks have been responsible for over 80% of my returns in 2022 and 2023. Read about each of those here: Business Development Companies - BDCs Closed End Funds - CEFs Preferred Stocks Many Preferred Stock shares pay excellent dividends, and some pay above 10%. Many can be purchased well below their par value which is normally $25 per share. Preferred Stocks (or Preferred Shares) are simply a class of equity stocks. They hold a senior position over common shares. One of the big differences (which is of little significance to small investors) is that Preferred Shares do not hold voting rights. In concept, they are much like a bond, but they are not a debt. In case of bankruptcy, bonds being debt would be paid first, then Preferred Shares, and if any money was left, the rest would be paid to the common stock shareholders. Preferred Stocks typically always sell at $25 which is par value. If you pay over $25 a share, you are paying a premium. Under $25 means you are purchasing at a discount. The dividends are paid on the value of $25 even if you purchased it at a lower rate, meaning you can get substantially higher returns than the stated rate if you buy at a good discount. It is easy to understand that if you can buy something below it’s Net Asset Value, then money can potentially be made if the stock moves back to its par value. I have purchased many of these over the past year paying 12 to 19% dividends. As I mentioned last week, every time I buy an investment, on that day, I issue a stop loss order to sell it if it drops to 92% of the price I paid. Each month if it increases in value, I set it to the new higher 92% value. Over 90% of the ones I purchased are still active after holding them for months. Of the few that did sell off, some happened after 6 months and quarterly dividends were paid once or twice. Bottom line is they are very profitable when doing it with my stop loss immediate sale if price drops. If some unforeseen news comes out on a company, I don’t have to be concerned about that and I just let the stop loss order handle the dip. Of course sometimes there is a momentary 10% drop and you would have made more if you had rode out the dip. However, what I am concerned about is the 40% drops where you can rarely make up for the loss over 2 to 3 years. Nothing prevents us from coming back after the stock price settles and repurchasing the same stock again. So what is so great about the PreferredStockChannel.com? They show you what is paying the highest dividends. Remember: Always always always, look up the company and see why the stock is paying such a high dividend. Sometimes a company is in distress, and you may wind up losing money on that kind. However, if you pay attention to these, some are just out of favor in the stock market or have gone through a dip in price. I pay attention to the charts and don’t buy if on a steady downhill slide. Look for a bottom on the chart and at least some rebound. Also look at the 52 week price range. If near the top of the 52 week price range, I do not buy. I always review all the tabs at Fidelity.com on all stocks and ETFs before I buy and see the analysts opinions. As the Preferred Stock article explains, you need to be sure that the stock is Cumulative, Perpetual, Redeemable, and preferably Fixed Dividend. (Meaning Non-adjustable interest.) I always buy at a discount, never at a premium. In other words, the prices is ALWAYS under $25 or I move to the next one. These are some of the things the Preferred Stock Channels helps me to identify. They send out a weekly email that is super (be sure to sign up for that. I read them all every week.) I am going to show you some examples of this weeks email(in April 2023) and how I used it to buy one stock and then one I did not buy and why.  I used this chart to look at several of these, and found no apparent reason to fear CSSEP. Chicken Soup for the Soul Preferred Stock. Here is the information from Fidelity when I researched CSSEP. The highlighted items are important. Price is well below the Par value of $25 (40% discount) and paying 16.357% dividend on April 27. Note major dip and recovery in the graph. I bought this stock on Monday.   There are so many options on the Preferred Stock Channel that I could not possibly cover all the options. However, here is one of my favorite links that shows the average by industry how the stocks are paying. Then you can click on the ones you are interested in and look at the list making up that industry.  Here is an example of one I did not buy. CVR Partners (UAN) shows to be paying out over 28% in dividends. In actuality, they are a partnership paying out distributions, not dividends. If you look at the yearly payouts, they have been very high every year except 2020.  This all sounds good until you see that in March of 2022, CVR paid out $5.24 per share, before cutting payout in half to $2.26 in next quarter. In August they paid out $10.05, but then only $1.77 in November. This inconsistency makes me believe they may start missing payouts. In the weekly email, they warned of this.
As I said, this weekly Preferred Stock Channel email is worthy of study. As always, I want to encourage you to do your own studies and make no decisions on buying or selling without consulting an investment advisor or an attorney. These are just for examples of how I use the Preferred Stock Channel to help me make decisions. Keep studying investments. There is a dividends group on Facebook that allows members to offer up advice on good paying dividend stocks and ETFs. I am member of that group and have found some good (and some not so good) advice there. Study and study some more. Have a great week finding some good dividend stocks to purchase. List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html Facebook Internet Direct Store http://InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops
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 Try Giving Yourself Away by David Dunn
This is a great book about how to live a joyful life. I think it is one of the top 4 books I have ever read. I started to seriously read books at the start of 2022. Here in April of 2023, I have now read a total of 124 books, which is an all-time high for me. In the past, I did good to read 10 books in a year, and most were not of much value but just for entertainment. I want to mention the name of the other 3 books that really set me in the right direction. The first I read 3 years ago was The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. For years I struggled with debt and tried so many ways to get out of debt. But I never fully bought off on doing just that one thing. Dave Ramsey sets you up with a simple 10-baby-step plan that works. I stuck with his exact plan and 9 months later in September of 2021, we were debt free except for our house. We then focused on it and were free of the mortgage in August of 2022. It has made all the difference and we now have plenty of money to invest. With all the other books I have read, we now have a solid plan. Read about all the different methods to invest on the Investments tab if on a Laptop. (Click on the 3 lines on top of screen if on phone). I write a new article each week on either Investments or minimalism and we currently have over 50 articles available. The earlier articles are at the bottom of the lists. The second book that got me started on the right path regarding how to study investments was recommended by my good friend and author, Joshua King. He says no one author ever helped him more than Robert Kiyosaki. I have read five of his books, and highly encourage you to read them. Start with what I think is the best of all: Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I just realized I never did a book review on that book. Here is my review of Unfair Advantage which is another great Robert Kiyosaki book. I recommend reading them all, but best to start with Rich Dad, Poor Dad as he refers back to it in his later books. Mr. Kiyosaki is the one that made me realize that all of the financial education I received in college was not true. Get a degree, go to work for a big corporation, feed that 401-K, and HOPE you can retire someday. Things are not the way they used to be. I think in The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy said, “We are not in Kansas anymore Toto.” 😊 Two of Robert Kiyosaki’s greatest points are that your home is not an investment and that rich people don’t work for money. They understand passive income and buy assets that return great cashflow. What worked 20 years ago is not valid today, and as things rapidly change, what we know today may not work tomorrow. Never stop reading and learning. The third book that has changed my life is Mastering Successful Personal Habits by Zig Ziglar. I am reading his best-selling book, “See You at the Top”, and I highly recommend it. Zig Ziglar teaches so many solid fundamentals on how to live. Trust God, live with great personal affirmations every day, and have habits that make your life better and better. I try to read those great personal affirmations every day, and they have made me a better Christian. Hard to affirm good things about yourself if you are not living up to those standards. Zig Ziglar is the one who recommended the next book “Try Giving Yourself Away” by David Dunn. The book review today is on “Try Giving Yourself Away.” I think this David Dunn book has had the greatest effect on me of all books I have ever read besides the King James Version Bible. This books teaches you so many things. I intend to read and re-read this book, and will read a Zig Ziglar book at least every other month. He knows how to fire you up to set goals and be determined. And most of all, to get results from your goal setting. I first obtained “Try Giving Yourself Away” by David Dunn through the Inter-Library Loan (ILL) program at my library. After reading it, I wanted every member of my family to read it. I found a copy on eBay and purchased it last week. WHAT I LEARNED FROM “Try Giving Yourself Away.” David Dunn said he developed giving himself away as a hobby. In giving himself away, he proved the biblical axiom that you can not outgive God. When you give and sacrifice, God blesses you back way more than you give. When you bless others, it seems to come back to you double. I started doing this as a hobby 10 days ago, and these have been 10 of the best days of my life. I intend for Giving Myself Away to be a part of my day-to-day living for the rest of my life. I had an aunt that was like Mr. Dunn. She went out of the way to always help and encourage everyone, especially children. Her name was Goldie Brown, and she made an indelible impression on me as a young person. Lots of people ask young people how they are doing and what they have been doing, but Goldie LISTENED and followed up and asked how things that were important to me were going. Never underestimate your power of encouragement with a young person. We all need it, but children are very impressionable. I want children I meet (especially my grandkids and great-grandkids) to know I hear them and really care. Mr. Dunn said he was brought up to believe that to acquire a lot in life, you had to “GET”, not “GIVE”. As he started his new hobby, it did not take long for him to discover that life was now more fun and filled with adventure. His examples of what he did are fantastic. I won’t for brevity and time’s sake mention any of those. That will give you an extra blessing when you read the book. To be effective, you must cultivate the “Giving Yourself Away” habit. Time is fleeting. I urge you to not wait another day to get started with this great hobby. Don’t waste another day without becoming an encourager. All of us can give appreciation, kindness, interest, loyalty, and understanding to those around us. There are so many ways to bless others. Just little acts of kindness mean so much to others. The bible teaches there are rewards for just offering a drink of water to strangers. None of us knows what the person we are talking with has been through in their life. Show compassion and love to all you meet. When you go into a store, and you see a hard-working employee, tell that person what exceptional work they are doing. Many have never received even one compliment. All they hear are customer complaints. You will make their day with a kind word of encouragement. Take time to send little notes of appreciation when you see someone being kind and helping others. Any deed worthy of praise should receive some recognition. Mr. Dunn said you should never do something to encourage and then receive remuneration for it. That negates the giving. Always do what you do for free with no intention of receiving something in return. Giving yourself away must be for free, not by being purchased. Freely give and freely receive the blessings that come back from your good sowing. When you give a gift, be sure it is a portion of you. Don’t just give money or things of value. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Rings and Jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only true gift is a portion of thyself.” Always, always, give a portion of your heart. The Bible teaches that out of the heart come the issues of life. Be sure you give real gifts, not things with no thought from yourself. I will not try to cover all of this book. Just be blessed and read it all. This book will change your life as you see example after example of ways David Dunn gave himself away. Try spending a few minutes every day being an encourager. It will amaze you how much appreciation you get from a simple kind word given at the right time. I will mention that this book contains 145 pages. All of the information I mentioned here came out of the first 10 pages. I purposefully gave no examples of what David Dunn did so that they will be fresh and new for you when you get the book. Get a copy of this book and it will bless your soul. I got my copy off eBay for just $4.08. What a bargain for something that will allow you to be blessed all your life when you adopt this super hobby of “Try Giving Yourself Away.” 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 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.
Some Great Dividend Stocks for 2023 If you are like me, you like to have some examples of what will work in today's stock market. There are many voices out there crying for our attention. Unfortunately, most are trying to sell you something. If a person is making a profit off of their advice, it is wise to double-check the recommendations. It may not be better than a mediocre return. Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes mediocre returns are great. I remember the first quarter of 2022 when the S&P 500 dropped like 30% in one quarter. Anything that made money then looked good. To offset these kinds of losses, be sure to mix your investments and always hold a large portion in bonds and CDs or ready cash. Here are some links on bonds, CDs, and Treasury bonds. I-Bonds have been a very attractive investment over the past year. The rate resets every six months. Earlier last year they were paying 9.62% for six months, but have dropped to 6.89% which is still excellent for a bond. What is a Bond? Safe Money in I-Bonds Of course, the main focus of my investments is in what is called Dividend Growth Stocks and ETFs. I have several articles in this category. What is DGI Investing? Dividend Growth Investing with ETFs One of the simpler methods to invest in the stock market is to just purchase full stock market ETFs such as ITOT, SPY, VTI, or SCHB. Investing with Stock Market ETFs I keep a large number of what are called Blue Chip Dividend Stocks in my Schwab Portfolio. They do not pay huge dividends like REITs and Closed-End Funds(CEF) and Business Development companies. (BDC) I have articles on each of these categories. Just click on the INVESTMENTS tab on top of the page if using a computer or click on the block with 3 lines on it to get to the Investments menu if using a smartphone. You can also access the menu at the bottom of every article under “All Investment Articles”. This week US News and World Reports gave a list of several good Dividend Growth Stocks. One of them is special to me. It is Tyson’s Food. I worked for over 20 years at Wright Brand Foods which was purchased by Tysons in 2012 (as I remember). I then worked for 9 more years as a computer consultant with Tysons. They have hundreds of meat plants all over America and from the article they appear to be selling at a low price based on earnings. I will have a few comments about Tysons later. Here is the list of stocks they recommended with the current dividend rate. HE - Hawaiian Electric Industries 3.7% D – Dominion Energy Inc 4.6% TD – Toronto Dominion Bank 4.8% AMGN – Amgen Inc. 3.4% AVB – AvalonBay Communications 3.9% NSA – National Storage Affiliates 5.1% O – Realty Income Corp. 4.9% FIS – Fidelity National Information Svcs 3.9% TSN – Tyson Foods Inc. 3.2% VZ – Verizon Communications 6.6% IBM – International Business Machines 5.1% Here is a capsule of what they said about Tyson Foods. Tyson Foods is a packaged foods firm focused on meat products. Meat wasn’t a great industry in 2022 due to soaring livestock prices. The war in Ukraine caused a surge in grain prices, making it more expensive to raise cattle and poultry. The meat cycle seems to be turning in Tyson’s favor and grain prices have plunged in recent months. Even with current difficulties, Tyson shares are selling for just 11 times earnings which seem to be a tasty entry point. I have not reviewed any of these 11 stocks, but already own over half of them. I will consider each of these and will consider adding Tyson Foods. What is great about Dividend Growth Stocks is that if they pay 5% in Dividends and the stock goes up in price by 6% in one year, your real return is like 11%. So do consider these and get some good passive income. PASSIVE INCOME Explained List of All Investment Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/investments.html List of All Minimalism Articles https://lifecanbesimple.net/minimalism.html Facebook Internet Direct Store http://InternetDirect.us Internet Direct Laptops  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.
Why Work for 40 Years to Retire? If you are like me, you were taught to go to college, study hard, get a good job, and put a lot of money in your 401K at some large corporation and after 30 or 40 years retire and enjoy those golden years. In Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki says that rich people don’t work for money. He also said that working hard for money will never set you free. However, we have been taught all our lives that this is the way to do it. Get a good job and sock away money and “HOPE” we can retire one day. Rich people have learned to not work for money, but use their money to buy assets that will pay them back dividends. Passive income is receiving money in the night without having to put in hours of labor to receive it. We must realize that time is our most valuable resource here on Earth, and while we are here, we should fight to use our time as we desire. Unfortunately, many live their whole life making more money for their employer without considering Passive Income. Passive income is produced when we invest in something that returns dividends on the investment. You do not exchange time to receive them as you do in a job. This can be done in many ways. You can write books, invest in real estate, buy hard assets such as oil, gold, silver, etc., or do one of my two favorites, buy bonds or income-producing stocks and ETFs. I can not over-emphasize the importance of reading and studying about investments all the time. Things change and laws change, and what works yesterday may not work as well today. The more I study, the more options I find that make good dividends. Also as you study investments, you find out which ones are safest and those with the greatest risk. You can invest in REITs and get money into Real Estate without having to purchase any properties. Many advantages to doing it by investing. No wake-up calls when the toilet clogs, no background checks to see if the renters are going to pay. Just money steadily coming in from Real Estate Investments. Read about REITs here. REITs – Real Estate One of the simpler methods to invest in the stock market is to just purchase full stock market ETFs such as VTI or SCHB. Investing with Stock Market ETFs This past week I branched out of REITs and decided to invest directly in Real Estate through FundRise.com. In fund rise (and there are several other companies like them), you pool your money with other investors and the company purchases various real estate. The reason I choose Fund Rise was due to having two tiers. They have a low-end investment group where you can start at as low as $10 of money. They also have a higher tier which requires a $1,000 minimum investment, and you can set this one up as a ROTH IRA. I intend to do that long-term once I test out the waters. I just put in $100 this first month to see how well it works. According to my friend Joshua King who has been with them for 3 years, they have never paid out less than 5% in yearly dividends and recently paid out 23% for this past year. Real Estate is an iffy business, and it is greatly affected by interest rates. So don’t invest here unless you can leave the money invested for at least 2 years. If I understand the rules, you can only get back money once per quarter once you invest. If you have no Real Estate investments and are new to this, I would suggest just buying the ETFs HOMZ and RIET managed by Hoya Capital. Both are paying above 8% and they pay dividends monthly. The reason most people never get a lot of Passive Income is fear. They may think that every dollar they invest will be lost. Of course, there is danger in any investment, but carefully planned investments can return good results. I read this week a quote by Ivan Horman from the book “Boost Your Brain Power.” Ivan said, “Aspiration without action is nothing, and when you have nothing, you are back to square one.” Get a plan and put it into action. The younger you start the sooner you will see results. When I study something new for several months and determine it might work well for me in my portfolio, I take action. I am not frozen in time with fear of failure. This past year I have invested more money into Dividend Growth Stocks, Closed-End Funds, and Preferred Stocks based on yield than ever before. I don’t spend hours studying each company, but make sure they are solvent and paying high dividends (many from 12 to 19.2%). If so, I buy a few shares and on that same day, I put in a STOP LOSS order to sell the entire holding if it drops below 92% of the price I paid. I have had a few stop losses fire this year, but over 90% have held and are paying excellent returns. We recently got our yearly dividend income above $1,000, and I hope to have it over $5,000 in 2 years. As dividends pay, compounding comes into effect and it gets easier to grow your money. And what is super about my plan is that in theory at least, no matter how bad the market goes down, my maximum loss on any one holding is 8%. I have only had this plan in effect for 6 months, and it takes 3 years of up-and-down markets to prove a strategy. But I think it is going to work well for us. Make no investments based on this, but consult an attorney or broker for help in making investment decisions. In my reading of books this past week, I came across a new term. ERE. It stands for Early Retirement Extreme. I have found a large number of people who claim to have gone from zero investments to over a million dollars in a short period. One fellow says he did it in 1500 days. He is the one I started studying first as it truly sounds incredible. I am going to give you some links to read about this almost unbelievable opportunity. Remember I am not recommending this nor am I selling anything. I just find this incredibly easy for the normal person. The younger you are the faster you could retire and have a lot of years to enjoy retirement. Most of these people are doing it by using minimalism to the Nth degree. They have cut costs to the bare minimum and are living disciplined lives. My thought is, if we can just be a bit frugal for 4 to 7 years, it is worth it to not have to work anymore. If you read my opening paragraph, I mentioned that working for 30 to 40 years and hoping to retire is not a good plan. I think common sense planning can make us get out of the day-to-day job grind quickly if we make excellent investment planning. I want to say up front that I am not endorsing any of the following blogs. I am just suggesting you read these peoples ideas and what they have accomplished. The first one I recommend is about the guy who decided to try and make a million dollars in 1500 days. This is a little over 4 years. He says some others have tried to duplicate his feat and failed, but read about it. He made it, and now at year 10 now has over 3 million. 1500Days.com He used other investors as a ramping board to get him started. One he used was called Get Rich Slowly written by J D Roth. Another is Mr. Money Mustache. Each site has some interesting stuff on them. What is the common link is that all are using common sense frugal living ideas. You may not want to live that way all your life, but would not a few years of discipline be worth it to not have to work all your life? Being an avid reader, I am exploring each of these sites daily and learning some great ideas. But of all the sites I have read, my favorite one is EarlyRetirementExtreme.com I like the Blog’s design. On the left side, go towards the bottom and read each link under 21-Day Makeover. Some of his ideas sound really extreme, but he explains how easily you can you get your first million. Don’t be naïve and think it will be easy. All of the people I read about that made a million dollars relatively quickly and did it differently. One bought old houses, lived in them, renovated them and moved to another one, and repeated the process. But one common thread is in them all and that is to not waste money and live simply and frugally. Every dollar you can use to purchase something making money gets you there more quickly. I encourage you to check out these sites. Most of the links here are in that first blog on 1500days.com. He lists some others that did not work well for me. All I listed are good ones. You might enjoy checking out some of the forums on Early Retirement Forums. 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