The Best Website for Your Financial Plan

As many of my readers know, I recently got married (about 5 months ago now).

Well, Investopedia has an interesting article entitled, "The No. 1 Reason Why Couples Fight."  Any guesses on what the number one reason is?....

Money.  Yep, I'm sure many of you guessed it.  Money.

Since our wedding my wife and I have had several in depth "money" discussions, but fortunately we have yet to fight over this topic.  In fact, thankfully we've  been able to sincerely and candidly (but still lovingly) discuss this area of our lives and appear to be for the most part on the same page with each other.  Thank the Lord!

Nevertheless, despite these conversations, we both didn't have what I would call a clear "financial plan" I think.  In fact, we've recently found ourselves spending almost all (and even more than) what we were making some months (despite my job and her part time job.)  This, as you can guess, makes it difficult to invest..

Fortunately, however, I believe we have found an answer.  The answer came to us in a single website - a website that will allow us to develop a comprehensive financial plan and monitor our progress- everything from spending, budgeting, goal setting, investing, you name it.  And the best part - it's completely free as well.  If you haven't used this program yet, you need to...

Investment Advice From an Unusual Source

Sometimes you never know where you'll come across quality investment advice.  Sometimes it may be hard to find; other times it may be easy.  Sometimes you may not even be actively looking for it...But, if you have trained yourself to - as the saying goes - "know it when you see it,"  you may find it in unusual places without even looking.  Otherwise, you may miss it altogether...

Weekend Reading: 15-21 May

It's time again for my Weekend Reading List highlighting the quality articles that others have written throughout the week.

Below are the articles I believe will be worth your time, and will benefit you the most as a fellow investor:

Dividend Growth Stocks - "How to Build a Sustainable High Yield Portfolio"

DividendMonk - "Novartis (NVS) Dividend Stock Analysis"

DividendGrowth Investor - "Dividend Stocks Increasing Retirement Income for Investors"

DividendNinja - "Derek Foster Interview"

TheDividendGuyBlog - "Dividend Stock Battle: AT&T vs Verizon"

ThePassiveIncomeEarner - "Dividend Income: May 2011"

DividendMantra - "Recent Buys"

All of these articles are well worth the read.  Great work all,

DivPartisan

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New Page! "Portfolio Progress"

But first, a humorous graph highlighting the many emotions 'regular' investors go through: 

We dividend growth investors avoid all these headaches though! 

"How so?" you may ask.  

By choosing high quality, dividend growing companies and holding them throughout the ups and downs....ie (most of the time) holding them forever! 

If you'll notice, you start at 'optimism', and if you "cut out the middle" and avoid frantically following the daily market swings and gyrations you end again with..optimism. 

Anyway, back to the point of this post.  There have been many benefit's to the launching of DividendPartisan back in January 2011.  First, I am extremely grateful for the encouragement I have received throughout these initial months and would like to start by saying thank you to all who have read and commented on the site.

Another particular blessing - since the site's launch I have become much more diligent in monitoring and evaluating my portfolio's performance.  I do not believe I was negligent beforehand, but DividendPartisan has afforded me the opportunity to actively and purposefully assess my portfolio's strengths and weaknesses on a continual basis that I did not do before.

Furthermore, I feel I have done my best to be candid to my readers in all aspects of my portfolio: my purchases, my sales, it's performance, etc.

In an effort to continue to openly share the direction of my portfolio and my personal journey of developing passive income to show God's love and financially assist many worthy causes around the world, I have decided to add a "Portfolio Progress" Page that will highlight the details of my portfolio's dividends progression over the years.

See the growth of my Dividend Portfolio since 2010 here or by clicking on the 'Portfolio Progress' page above.

That's all for now.  Thank you again for reading,

DivPartisan

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Weekend Reading: 8-14 MAY

Many of the quality investing blogs and websites I try and follow throughout the week all post a "Weekend Reading List" that highlight the best articles others have written in the past seven days. As a result, I have created my own list as well. Below are the articles I believe will be worth your time, and will benefit you the most as a fellow investor:

5 Utility Stocks I'm Considering

For those of you who read my Dividend Portfolio Analysis, one of the things you may have noticed is that I currently only own one Utility company: Southern Company (ticker: SO).  Southern Company has been raising dividends for 10 years now, has been an excellent part of my portfolio, and I am very optimistic about its future. 

Furthermore, SO was one of the few companies I call "The Original Six." To provide a brief background to my dividend investing days before DividendPartisan, the very first purchase for my Income Portfolio was near the beginning of 2010 of six individual stocks, SO being one of them.  The other originals were: ABT, JNJ, PAYX, PEP, and WM.  This initial 'mix of six' provided me a relatively diverse foundation to begin with: 2 stocks in Healthcare, 2 in Industrials, 1 in Consumer Defensive, and 1 in Utilities;  all six part of my strategy of choosing solid dividend payers.

Since then I have added seven more companies (ADP, ANH, CINF, GE, LEG, PG, and WMT)  making it a current total of 13 in my income portfolio.  

I am now looking to possibly add another utility by the end of the year, which would help further my diversification and would also provide another attractive yield.

The following are 5 Utility Stocks I am considering for purchase at some point in the future:

Top 20 Stocks Watchlist Updated

In the month of April I initiated positions in Walmart (WMT) and Anworth Mortgage (ANH).  As a result of these purchases, I have removed these two companies from my Top 20 Stocks Watchlist and have added two new companies.

From my initial Watchlist, Walmart ranked #1 and Anworth Mortgage ranked #6.  Though they fell in line at rankings other than #1 and #6, I have replaced WMT and ANH with two new worthy dividend companies that are both relatively attractively valued at this point.  The two new companies and their respective spots on the list are:

Monthly Progress Review: April

It is time for my Monthly Progress Review.

Listed below is a summary of the dividends I received, as well as the purchases I made for the month of April in my Dividend Income Portfolio:

Dividend Portfolio Update: May

At the start of each month I update my Dividend Income Portfolio highlighting the following: 

     * Current holdings 
     * Each holding's current yield 

     * Each holding's respective % of my portfolio
     * Each holding's % of my total income 

     * 2011 Total Annualized Income 

     * Morningstar's Average Star Rating of my portfolio

                  

See an updated list here for the month of May, or click on the 'Portfolio' Tab above.

I initiated two new positions this month, so be sure to see my new holdings and let me know whether you agree or disagree with my decisions..

On Thursday I will post my Portfolio ‘Progress Update’ showing in detail my income received as well as the purchases/sales I made for the month of April. 

Be sure to check back to see the latest for my dividend income portfolio's progress.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for reading,

DivPartisan

If you enjoy reading DividendPartisan, please consider subscribing to my Feed or exchanging links