Revisiting Goal #5

Yesterday, I posted my goals for 2012.  I started thinking more about goal #5, which is to generate an additional $2000 per year in dividend income.  Just doing some simple back of the envelope calculations, this is what I find:

Assume:
8% dividend yield (I know this is high, but I have some stocks in mind that will average this)

(0.08) x $2000 (my dividend goal) = $25,000 total to invest to reach my goal

Sounds like a lot!  But it can be done, here's how:
-I make almost 3k a year in my taxable account in dividends.  All of this money will go towards it.
-I make about 13.5k a year in my bank stock dividends.  Lets say I take 3 of the 4 quarterly checks and put them towards this.  Thats $10,000, leaving me about $12K short.
-For the rest of the 12K, I'll need to invest around 1k a month.  I could almost do that now since my car and tv are paid off, and I can easily do it if I get a new job and downsize the apartment.

So there you go.  The goal is ambitious, but doable. And boy would it be nice to have that extra money coming in next year!

Goals for 2012

Merry Christmas to all!

2011 was a tough year for me.  I went through a pretty rough patch in the spring/summer which I'm still paying for both emotionally and financially, but things are calming down now.  Then, a few months later, I took a pay cut at work, making life even more difficult.  Because of these things, its been easy to look forward to 2012 and try to figure out what I want to do so that I'm much better off in 12 months time.  Without further ado, my personal financial goals for 2012:

1.  Get a new job.  Fingers crossed, I think I'm pretty close to fixing this one, but nothing is set in stone.  I had a great onsite interview on December 19th that I'm waiting to hear back on, and I have another onsite interview at a different company some time in early January.  I think either of these jobs would be a better fit for me than my current one, and the compensation will be better than my current one as well.  Hopefully I'll have a more clear idea of what is going on by the end of January.

2.  Move into a less expensive apartment.  I'm hoping this one won't be too hard either.  My lease is up at the end of March, and the apartment I'm currently in is one of the last artifacts of my failed engagement.  Its way too big for just one person, so I'm looking forward to downsizing some, and its also pretty far from where I work, so a move closer to work would be nice too.

3.  Start maxing out my 401k.  This one is sort of related to goal 1, as I should be able to do this as soon as I get a new job.  Doing this makes it easier to contribute to a roth IRA, as contributions to 401ks dont count towards one's MAGI. Speaking of roth IRA's:

4.  Contribute as much as possible to my roth IRA.   If I get a new job it might be really tough to contribute to this anymore, so I at least need to make sure that I contribute all I can for 2011.  I'll probably have to wait to do my 2012 taxes to contribute again, just to see where I'm at income wise.

5.  Increase my dividend income by $2000 next year.  I currently make around $18k a year in dividends.  I think 20k a year is a doable goal, especially if goals 1 and 2 get accomplished (and if I can't do #4).


Well there it is.  It will be fun to look back on this list throughout the year to see how I'm doing.  What are some of your goals?  What do you think of these?  Too aggressive/not aggressive enough?

Some Good News

Sorry for the lack of posts recently.  Things are going ok here; still doing online surveys (since the end of september I've made over 100 bucks), and still dragging myself to work every day.  Since I last posted, I have two very good pieces of news.

First, the bank stock that I owned announced a major dividend increase, from 34 to 40 cents a share.  This represents a quarterly increase for me of over $400!  The dividend will pay around the 15th of January.  Great news for me, considering the recent news I posted that I took a pay cut at work.  And on that matter:

I have an interview with a large biotech company on monday.  I'm pretty excited about this, if I got the job, I think it would definitely be a pay increase, and also be doing things that I want to do.  Wish me luck!

Big J

November Dividend Update

Well, its been a pretty rocky month for me personally.  I took a paycut at work, and there's really no telling how much longer I'll be employed period.  I knew this was a possibility, which is one of the reasons I really wanted to focus on saving and investing for cash flow.  The whole situation has forced me to take a long hard look at how much I'm making in dividends currently to see if I could live off of them currently.  I think it would be close, but I'd be much better off waiting longer.  However, I just got the news this morning that my bank stock dividend is going up 5 cents a share quarterly, which represents over a 300 dollar a quarter increase, which is great for me!  Anyway, on to the November dividend update:

CLMT - $279
LINE - $414
O - $10.16
ERH - $42.38

TOTAL = $745.54

Not bad!  I'll be happy when the Feb-May-Aug-Nov dividend totals are over $1000, but 'm getting close to it!

In other news, I'm thinking of getting rid of one of my savings accounts and just taking the money and buying up shares of a very conservative dividend stock (think PG, JNJ, etc.).  Thoughts?

Recent Purchase

On this recent dip, I decided to add to a position of mine.  Its ERH, a closed end fund, which I feel are an important part of a balanced portfolio.  I purchased 155 shares of it  at 10.45.  This pays out a distribution monthly, so starting January 3, I'll be receiving 53.63 per month total from this position. I'm pretty happy about this, although unfortunately not all of the news is good on the finance front, as I had to take a 10% pay cut at work.  My postings might be scarce for a while as I spend more of my free time looking for a new job.  Looking forward to the day when I'm able to respond to a pay cut by simply walking out the door for good.

Recent Purchase

Well, I finally purchased stock for my re-vamped Roth IRA.  If you recall, I wrote a few weeks ago about how I was changing around my roth IRA.  I've had my eye on ARR for quite some time now.  Today was the ex-dividend date, so I decided to go ahead and buy today on the dip.  I bought 1110 shares at 6.97.  Using the current dividend yield, I will be collecting $122.10 per MONTH.  I realize this is a pretty risky play, but the idea here is to purchase high-yield, high risk stocks in the beginning, and then over time, use the large dividends and annual contributions to purchase incrementally lower yield/risk stocks.

I'll be collecting some dividends next week in my taxable account, so I'll be looking to buy something there soon as well.

Big J

A New Source of Cash Flow

I'm still waiting for a dip in the market to purchase some stocks for my roth.  Also, I should have more money in my taxable account sometime early next week, so I plan on making a purchase there as well.

I wanted to take a quick minute to tell people about a nice little source of cash flow I found - taking online surveys.  In the last month, I've made over 60 dollars from the comfort of my own home just taking surveys.  I use global test market.  I'm getting no compensation for plugging them, I just thought it would be of interest to those who read this blog.  In the month of September, I made almost 80 bucks in dividends, the amount I made in surveys this past month almost equaled that, and I didn't have to put down any of my own money to do it.

Happy Investing,
Big J