Spoonman,
My wife and I are both following the same path and growing our dividend income every month.
I'm having trouble finding value in the current market. Almost everything seems overvalued, especially the "blue chips".
I have seen some value in tech, energy, and materials. Recently added IBM, BP, BBL, AAPL.
What have you been buying lately?
Larry
spoonman's Journal
@larry
I've been buying AAPL, APD, and I'm thinking of initiating a position in DLR (a REIT). CVX is looking good right now, specially after their recent dividend hike.
I was going to put some more money in AFL, but it got away from me before I could. Everything else is overvalued or slightly overvalued.
I've been buying AAPL, APD, and I'm thinking of initiating a position in DLR (a REIT). CVX is looking good right now, specially after their recent dividend hike.
I was going to put some more money in AFL, but it got away from me before I could. Everything else is overvalued or slightly overvalued.
@spoonman
Good picks. I missed AFL too recently, set my limit order too low.
When Japan has another earthquake, AFL will go on sale, so that's something to watch for, I guess. (Not hoping for anyone to have an earthquake, just an observation of what happened in the past.)
CVX does look interesting as a long term holding. I'd like to get it closer to $105 vs $120, though.
APD is a good one too, I'll add to my watchlist.
It seems that all the reits are very overvalued, I guess everyone is chasing yield. I do like AHT, LSE , LXP on a correction.
Thanks, Larry
Good picks. I missed AFL too recently, set my limit order too low.
When Japan has another earthquake, AFL will go on sale, so that's something to watch for, I guess. (Not hoping for anyone to have an earthquake, just an observation of what happened in the past.)
CVX does look interesting as a long term holding. I'd like to get it closer to $105 vs $120, though.
APD is a good one too, I'll add to my watchlist.
It seems that all the reits are very overvalued, I guess everyone is chasing yield. I do like AHT, LSE , LXP on a correction.
Thanks, Larry
#007 05/04/2013 -- When to pull the ERE trigger?
Right now I have the vague goal of pulling the ERE trigger when our passive income exceeds the $16K/year threshold. Sometimes I wonder if it'll be worth working a few extra years in order to give ourselves an extra-extra margin of safety (i.e. an additional one on top of the one already being built into our plan).
Lately I've come to the (preliminary) conclusion that it won't be worth it. By the time I'm slated to pull the trigger I will be 35 y/o, but even now (at 33) I'm starting to feel the fatigue of sitting in a fucking cube the whole day. I just can't imagine enduring the work fatigue longer than the 20 months I have left in the accumulation stage. Now, it should be noted that I enjoy what I do, it's just that sitting down the whole day isn't doing me any good. When the clock strikes 11am and your body feels like it’s 6pm, you know you've got a problem (it doesn’t happen every day, but it does happen). The other thing I'm worried about is the non-linearity of the amount of fatigue I feel as I get older. As it is right now it feels like a lot, but tolerable nonetheless. I fear that there will come a point where the cube routine will become unbearable.
For the the time being, I’ll just keep on trucking.
Right now I have the vague goal of pulling the ERE trigger when our passive income exceeds the $16K/year threshold. Sometimes I wonder if it'll be worth working a few extra years in order to give ourselves an extra-extra margin of safety (i.e. an additional one on top of the one already being built into our plan).
Lately I've come to the (preliminary) conclusion that it won't be worth it. By the time I'm slated to pull the trigger I will be 35 y/o, but even now (at 33) I'm starting to feel the fatigue of sitting in a fucking cube the whole day. I just can't imagine enduring the work fatigue longer than the 20 months I have left in the accumulation stage. Now, it should be noted that I enjoy what I do, it's just that sitting down the whole day isn't doing me any good. When the clock strikes 11am and your body feels like it’s 6pm, you know you've got a problem (it doesn’t happen every day, but it does happen). The other thing I'm worried about is the non-linearity of the amount of fatigue I feel as I get older. As it is right now it feels like a lot, but tolerable nonetheless. I fear that there will come a point where the cube routine will become unbearable.
For the the time being, I’ll just keep on trucking.
It doesn't mean that you need to quite working completely.
Perhaps it is a good thing to work towards basic FI first with your current job. Once that is complete.. look for another job.. One that potentially pays less, but is more fun to do. Even if you would just make enough money to cover expenses, due to earnings on your investments, your ERE margin of safety still increases. And I'm sure you can find a job that pays more than your basic expenses without being a life drainer.
Perhaps it is a good thing to work towards basic FI first with your current job. Once that is complete.. look for another job.. One that potentially pays less, but is more fun to do. Even if you would just make enough money to cover expenses, due to earnings on your investments, your ERE margin of safety still increases. And I'm sure you can find a job that pays more than your basic expenses without being a life drainer.
The essential issue with the current job I have is that it requires long hours in front of a computer. The subject matter and the stuff I get to do is awesome, but sitting down for long hours is taking a toll on my body, especially my leg muscles. The job is not soul-crushing, it is leg-crushing =).
I’ve been thinking that after I leave the corporate world I want to become a library page. I used to be a library page in high school and also in college. What you do in that job mainly revolves around putting books away (so lots of walking) and occasionally minding the front desk to help patrons. In that job there is a nice balance between physical activity and rest. I might also pursue a gig at bike shop or some sort of local business that doesn’t require me to sit down the whole day.
I’ve been thinking that after I leave the corporate world I want to become a library page. I used to be a library page in high school and also in college. What you do in that job mainly revolves around putting books away (so lots of walking) and occasionally minding the front desk to help patrons. In that job there is a nice balance between physical activity and rest. I might also pursue a gig at bike shop or some sort of local business that doesn’t require me to sit down the whole day.
#008 05/14/2013 -- The Challenges of a Post-Retirement Life
I need to confess that I am post-retirement stories collector. Well, more like a junkie =). I often read (with envy) the adventures other people have once they reach retirement. When I first started my journey three years ago I used to read the problems of post-retirement people with amusement, telling myself “aw, come on! How could you be complaining? You’re retired, for goodness’ sake!”
For a about a year now I’ve begun to realize that the post-retirement challenges are nothing to mess with. I’ve also come to the realization that some of those problems will be impossible to predict. I can read and dissect a post by BNL on the “The Retirement Identity Gap” and tell myself that I will be ready, but deep down I get a feeling that I will inevitably be go through the negative experience and come to terms with it on my own. I can read and re-read Alain de Botton’s “Status Anxiety” and learn about the woes and ways of dealing with status anxiety, but in the end it’s something that I won’t be able to evade simply by reading about it.
I can sit down and plan my financial future with a good degree of precision and trust my ability to make sound financial decisions. It’s very difficult for me to do the same with non-quantifiable things, like thinking about how it will feel like to move to a smaller apartment, etc. But I keep on trying, because that’s just what I do. I just can’t help myself from attempting to extrapolate and “predict” the future.
My future, wiser self will probably read back on this and giggle.
I need to confess that I am post-retirement stories collector. Well, more like a junkie =). I often read (with envy) the adventures other people have once they reach retirement. When I first started my journey three years ago I used to read the problems of post-retirement people with amusement, telling myself “aw, come on! How could you be complaining? You’re retired, for goodness’ sake!”
For a about a year now I’ve begun to realize that the post-retirement challenges are nothing to mess with. I’ve also come to the realization that some of those problems will be impossible to predict. I can read and dissect a post by BNL on the “The Retirement Identity Gap” and tell myself that I will be ready, but deep down I get a feeling that I will inevitably be go through the negative experience and come to terms with it on my own. I can read and re-read Alain de Botton’s “Status Anxiety” and learn about the woes and ways of dealing with status anxiety, but in the end it’s something that I won’t be able to evade simply by reading about it.
I can sit down and plan my financial future with a good degree of precision and trust my ability to make sound financial decisions. It’s very difficult for me to do the same with non-quantifiable things, like thinking about how it will feel like to move to a smaller apartment, etc. But I keep on trying, because that’s just what I do. I just can’t help myself from attempting to extrapolate and “predict” the future.
My future, wiser self will probably read back on this and giggle.
I think you're right. It's easy to be glib about what you'll do in retirement. But after hitting FI it's a big leap to leave your job. Not to mention fitting in without a job - MMM posted a recent email by a guy who's able to retire, but who's wife's family will look down on him if he does. I felt really bad for the guy - he's got everything materially in hand but really seems trapped.
Not to mention that there's a certain sense of privilege that comes with not having to work, which can be pretty daunting when other people are struggling to make ends meet.
Not to mention that there's a certain sense of privilege that comes with not having to work, which can be pretty daunting when other people are struggling to make ends meet.
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George the original one
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- Location: Wettest corner of Orygun
> Not to mention that there's a certain sense of privilege
> that comes with not having to work, which can be pretty
> daunting when other people are struggling to make ends meet.
That's the same sense of privilege that comes with being highly paid while other people get minimum wage. Somehow we don't find that daunting, so why would retirement be different?
> that comes with not having to work, which can be pretty
> daunting when other people are struggling to make ends meet.
That's the same sense of privilege that comes with being highly paid while other people get minimum wage. Somehow we don't find that daunting, so why would retirement be different?
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My_Brain_Gets_Itchy
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secretwealth
- Posts: 1948
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:31 am
What consoles me in no longer working full time in my occupation is:
1. Those still working full-time in my occupation look down on me as having failed.
2. I don't have to work.
3. There are plenty of people who make a lot--A LOT--more than me. Many (most?) of those people provided less--A LOT LESS--value to society than me.
4. Did I mention I don't have to work?
1. Those still working full-time in my occupation look down on me as having failed.
2. I don't have to work.
3. There are plenty of people who make a lot--A LOT--more than me. Many (most?) of those people provided less--A LOT LESS--value to society than me.
4. Did I mention I don't have to work?
@GeorgeTOO - I kinda feel that way about being high paid, too... But the early retirement angle compounds it. It means (for me at least) that I was highly paid for long enough that now I can live a life of complete leisure if I so choose.
I guess I feel the difference between high/low wage is less than low wage/not having to work.
Silly perhaps, but there it is.
I guess I feel the difference between high/low wage is less than low wage/not having to work.
Silly perhaps, but there it is.
Nice journal spoonman. I'm a big fan of dividendmantra and for some reason your journal reminded me of his blog.
Anyways if I'm reading this right, you have savings of around 110k and you are getting dividends of 10k? So your yield is around 10%? How are you getting this because a stock is considered to have a high dividend if it is yielding 3.5%+. We're talking about large cap stocks of course.
Anyways if I'm reading this right, you have savings of around 110k and you are getting dividends of 10k? So your yield is around 10%? How are you getting this because a stock is considered to have a high dividend if it is yielding 3.5%+. We're talking about large cap stocks of course.
@m741 - I read that story on MMM as well, it's incredible how far peer pressure can go in making people's life miserable.
Everytime I go to a family gathering I get this powerful feeling that I should really be going out of my way to make everyone know how financially well off I am. I imagine myself hosting the family gathering in a huge house that I got with a jumbo loan...but then I snap back to reality and remember what it would take to maintain that illusion.
@GeorgeTOO - That's good point you make, but it will take me a long time to personally internalize it and not feel guilty.
@SW - I imagine the first one in your list must've taken you a while to get used to (or leverage to your advantage). The perception of failure is one of the things I just know I might struggle with in the beginning.
Everytime I go to a family gathering I get this powerful feeling that I should really be going out of my way to make everyone know how financially well off I am. I imagine myself hosting the family gathering in a huge house that I got with a jumbo loan...but then I snap back to reality and remember what it would take to maintain that illusion.
@GeorgeTOO - That's good point you make, but it will take me a long time to personally internalize it and not feel guilty.
@SW - I imagine the first one in your list must've taken you a while to get used to (or leverage to your advantage). The perception of failure is one of the things I just know I might struggle with in the beginning.
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George the original one
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- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
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The guilt is not directed toward my peers (I actually feel a nice, smug sense of superiority toward them =)), is more towards those less fortunate than myself in the world. There's people out there without jobs or having a hard time elsewhere in the world, and here I am criticizing corporate America and my high paying job. Is more a feeling that I get telling me "you better be damn sure you want to do this because others would kill for this opportunity".
#009 05/26/2013 -- May Dividend Income Update
May was a solid month for our dividend income. This was one of those months where we got one more paycheck than usual as well as a bonus. I also managed to find some attractively priced compaies (DLR, and to a lesser extent, APD), something that has been increasingly hard in this richly valued market.
We have officially crossed the 10K/year mark and now have our sights on the 11K/year mark. I am confident that we will surpass the 11K/year mark by the end of 2013, but it will be more difficult to reach the 12K/year mark if the market keeps going up relentlessly. Despite the challenges, we will continue to plow forward. We have an investment horizon of decades, so buying some mildly overvalued stocks is not going to kill us in the long run, especially if we manage to average down our cost basis further down the road.
This month we managed to increase our passive income by $526.44. From that amount, $28.28 came from companies that increased their dividends this month. The organic dividend increase was not as spectacular as April's, but it is nice nonetheless.
In my last dividend income update, I neglected to include a summary of dividends for the month. From now on I will include it as part of my monthly entry. For May, we received $773.50 in dividends, all of which got swept into the purchase of new shares (I don't participate in DRIP programs, I just channel new money into companies I deem to be attractively priced).
Since I only started doing these updates last month, below is a summary of dividends received in previous months:
April: $515.32
March: $1066.32
February: $587.05
January: $254.85
As you can see March was an awesome month for dividends received. It's only a fluctuation, but I get a thrill out it anyway. When we see spikes like that (and also like the one in the month of December, which was $1125.06), that's when we tell ourselves, "holy shit, we're almost FI!". It's a fluctuation that makes our FI dream appear close enough to taste.
May was a solid month for our dividend income. This was one of those months where we got one more paycheck than usual as well as a bonus. I also managed to find some attractively priced compaies (DLR, and to a lesser extent, APD), something that has been increasingly hard in this richly valued market.
We have officially crossed the 10K/year mark and now have our sights on the 11K/year mark. I am confident that we will surpass the 11K/year mark by the end of 2013, but it will be more difficult to reach the 12K/year mark if the market keeps going up relentlessly. Despite the challenges, we will continue to plow forward. We have an investment horizon of decades, so buying some mildly overvalued stocks is not going to kill us in the long run, especially if we manage to average down our cost basis further down the road.
This month we managed to increase our passive income by $526.44. From that amount, $28.28 came from companies that increased their dividends this month. The organic dividend increase was not as spectacular as April's, but it is nice nonetheless.
In my last dividend income update, I neglected to include a summary of dividends for the month. From now on I will include it as part of my monthly entry. For May, we received $773.50 in dividends, all of which got swept into the purchase of new shares (I don't participate in DRIP programs, I just channel new money into companies I deem to be attractively priced).
Since I only started doing these updates last month, below is a summary of dividends received in previous months:
April: $515.32
March: $1066.32
February: $587.05
January: $254.85
As you can see March was an awesome month for dividends received. It's only a fluctuation, but I get a thrill out it anyway. When we see spikes like that (and also like the one in the month of December, which was $1125.06), that's when we tell ourselves, "holy shit, we're almost FI!". It's a fluctuation that makes our FI dream appear close enough to taste.
Last edited by spoonman on Thu Sep 18, 2014 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#010 06/02/2013 -- Chronophilia
It’s amazing how we assiduously adhere to self imposed temporal constructs: seconds, hours, days, deadlines, calendars. The majority of these constructs are associated with work and I believe the pressure to adhere to these imaginary time constructs can be damaging to the mind and body.
There are natural rhythms that we adhere to, such as night and day cycles and the seasons. When it’s summer, you wear light clothes to stay cool. When you’re sleepy, you doze off (at least you’re supposed to, unless your adherence to temporal constructs is preventing you).
When I enter ERE I hope to scale back my work-imposed obsession with temporal constructs. I look forward to the moment when I look around and wonder what day of the week it is.
I read a nice sci-fi novel by China Mieville called The City and the City. The story took place in fictional eastern European country whose citizens adhered to interesting _spatial_ constructs, things that other people find plain weird. The book made me realize that the temporal constructs that our modern society has in place are far weirder.
There is a tribe of forest dwellers somewhere in South America or Oceania (I forget where exactly) that does not share the same sense of time of other societies. They’ve no notion of seconds, minutes, and hours.
What about the timing of investments that will make ERE possible? For the most part, dividends will be coming in (as they have in the past three years for me) steadily and I won’t really have to pay attention to specific dates as long as my dividend “cistern” has an adequate cash buffer. Sure, I’ll monitor the companies I own but that won’t require that much time at all. The monitoring will operate on a timescale at a higher level than minutes, hours, and even weeks.
It’s amazing how we assiduously adhere to self imposed temporal constructs: seconds, hours, days, deadlines, calendars. The majority of these constructs are associated with work and I believe the pressure to adhere to these imaginary time constructs can be damaging to the mind and body.
There are natural rhythms that we adhere to, such as night and day cycles and the seasons. When it’s summer, you wear light clothes to stay cool. When you’re sleepy, you doze off (at least you’re supposed to, unless your adherence to temporal constructs is preventing you).
When I enter ERE I hope to scale back my work-imposed obsession with temporal constructs. I look forward to the moment when I look around and wonder what day of the week it is.
I read a nice sci-fi novel by China Mieville called The City and the City. The story took place in fictional eastern European country whose citizens adhered to interesting _spatial_ constructs, things that other people find plain weird. The book made me realize that the temporal constructs that our modern society has in place are far weirder.
There is a tribe of forest dwellers somewhere in South America or Oceania (I forget where exactly) that does not share the same sense of time of other societies. They’ve no notion of seconds, minutes, and hours.
What about the timing of investments that will make ERE possible? For the most part, dividends will be coming in (as they have in the past three years for me) steadily and I won’t really have to pay attention to specific dates as long as my dividend “cistern” has an adequate cash buffer. Sure, I’ll monitor the companies I own but that won’t require that much time at all. The monitoring will operate on a timescale at a higher level than minutes, hours, and even weeks.
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DividendGuy
- Posts: 441
- Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 9:58 pm
I'm completely with you. I truly can't wait for the day when I lose track of time. Who really cares if it's Monday or Thursday? I think our time constraints hold us back, as you do. It'll be extremely freeing when I no longer have to worry about waking up at a certain time, going to bed at a certain time or doing much of anything at a certain time.
Great post.
Great post.