In May the stock market saw a tremendous bounce back and rally, one seemingly for the ages. Many who decided to stay on the sidelines and not invest when the markets were down 30 plus percent are probably kicking themselves. I am certainly not saying that we can’t have another 30 percent correction in the coming months, I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t begin buying on any 30 percent correction. So if we have another correction, it will simply be another opportunity to stack shares at great prices. That being said let’s take a look at the dividends I was paid in the month of May 2020!
In May I was paid $129.33 in my 3 accounts combined. The breakdown is below:
M1 Finance Main Account: $107.61
M1 Finance Roth IRA: $9.34
Fidelity Traditional IRA: $12.28
Here is all of the payouts over the course of May by each holding:
April was a wild ride as the markets came storming back following unprecedented stimulus into the markets and the economy by both the Federal Reserve and the Federal Government. I saw a bit of a decline in dividends paid from the past couple of months, but still earned triple digits dividends which is fabulous. I also opened a new Roth IRA for my wife as I have already essentially maxed my Roth IRA out for the 2020 calendar year.
In April I was paid $106.53 in my 3 accounts combined. The breakdown is below:
M1 Finance Main Account: $85.37
M1 Finance Roth IRA: $17.25
Fidelity Traditional IRA: $3.91
Here is all of the payouts over the course of April by each holding:
March was the beginning of shelter in place and shutdowns in large swaths of the global economy. In the sea of uncertainty the dividends kept rolling on in. I did have one holding suspend dividends which was Cracker Barrel (CBRL) otherwise the show goes on.
In March I was paid $129.80 in my 3 accounts combined. The breakdown is below:
M1 Finance Main Account: $86.36
M1 Finance Roth IRA: $17.11
Fidelity Traditional IRA: $26.33
Here is all of the payouts over the course of March by each holding:
Realty Income, The Monthly Dividend Company®, is an S&P 500 company dedicated to providing stockholders with dependable monthly income. The company is structured as a REIT, and its monthly dividends are supported by the cash flow from over 6,400 real estate properties owned under long-term lease agreements with commercial tenants.
To date, the company has paid 596 consecutive common stock monthly dividends throughout its 51-year operating history and increased the dividend 106 times since Realty Income’s public listing, which makes this dividend suspension so surprising.
The headlines, emails, and notifications we are receiving seemingly every few minutes during this corona-virus pandemic has many of us gripped with fear of the future. I hope to share some encouragement with you in the midst of this storm on the horizon and to ensure you that this storm will pass. The news outlets and media no longer have the near monopoly status they once had, because of this they like other online and social media outlets have to drive revenue via click bait tactics. Now I am not saying this pandemic is not to be take seriously, but what I am saying is it is being made out to be something bigger than it likely is, and that is driving lots of profits to these news and media agencies. In turn we are having to filter through all the noise and notifications which turns us, like the stock market, into irrational beings.
The stock market is irrationally consistent. What I mean is the stock market over the course of many decades produces an average return of somewhere between 7-9% profit. Some years its down, most years its up, at the end of the day your average is between 7-9% that is why I call it irrationally consistent. So when it is irrational in the red and going down, this is when we as long term investors are given an amazing opportunity to stockpile highly coveted assets (Blue Chip Companies) at a huge discount some 50-70% off (even now). Companies like Lowe’s, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, and many more that have weathered many recessions and corrections and consistently rewarded shareholders with dividends and capital gains.
So that is where we are today, we have an incredible opportunity in front of us, that we can use to our advantage to fill our portfolios at an accelerated pace with shares of these companies. By doing so, we can reap the rewards of this gift of the corona-virus pandemic with an accelerated compounding effect for many decades to come. Stay encouraged, and put your money to work today, so you won’t have to work tomorrow!!
I also just dropped a video that also touches on this topic head over to my channel and check it out:
Dividends Paid in February 2020 – A New Record is Set!
February 2020 was a wild ride, with the huge correction at the end of the month, and it being a leap year, it was a really crazy month. That being said, I had an amazing month in terms of dividend income, a new record actually. Let’s break it down and see how it all shook out.
In February I was paid $151.86 in my 3 accounts combined. The breakdown is below:
M1 Finance Main Account: $92.50
M1 Finance Roth IRA: $4.80
Fidelity Traditional IRA: $54.56 (MSM $5 per share special dividend accounted for much of this)
Here is all of the payouts over the course of February by each holding:
So far 2020, at first glance, looks like it might be a repeat of 2019 where the S&P 500 index was up almost 30%. In the first half of January the S&P 500 Index is already up over 2%. While a market like this makes it seem really easy to make money, I have a feeling there will be a dramatic drop at some point this year and I don’t really have any thing factual to back that up, more of a gut feeling. That being said take this opinion with a grain of salt, however this gut feeling has me investing a little different as well, which is what I want to share with you all today.
If there is more volatility in the stock market this year, we may need to re-evaluate how and what we are investing in and that is certainly something I am doing. I recently made a video discussing a strategy that I am employing in my DGI (Dividend Growth Investing) portfolio, where I am evaluating and buying only the holdings that are nearing their ex-dividend dates and that are either on discount or are fairly valued. I still believe this is a great way to continue investing to accelerate the dividend compounding in my portfolio, and plan on continuing to do that in 2020. So check out that video if your interested in learning more about that, and that is a way I recommend you make money in the stock market this year. Another strategy I plan on employing is adding to my more defensive positions like United Technolgies (UTX), utility companies, and large cap blue chip DGI companies. The final strategy that is something that most good investors do on a regular basis is look for value opportunities in good companies that are going through some issues, but will eventually come out of and recover. Investing in this manner is certainly not flashy and won’t give you massive gains into your accounts, but I believe it will keep a good stream of dividend income and growth coming into the portfolio. With the combination of these methods, I believe no matter how 2020 turns out at year end I will have continued success investing and making money, and encourage you to consider doing the same (if it makes sense for your situation). Happy Investing everyone!
A lot of publicity has gone into the 5G revolution that is going to take place, and some are placing bets on companies that may or may not be players in this coming financial boom. I for one like to play it fairly safe, and have more concrete information on companies that I invest in. With that being said a small cap company that will play a major role in the expansion of 5G is a company that has already been a player in the 4G LTE expansion. That company is Inseego Corp. (INSG), Inseego has been making 4G LTE hotspot routers for the cellular phone giants Verizon and AT&T for years. I personally used an Inseego Verizon 4G LTE Mifi hotspot to work off of for six months, when me and family traveled in an RV across the southern parts of the US. It worked flawlessly and many times had a better connection than my smart phone in remote areas.
I believe one of the big expansion opportunities once the 5G network is built out will be people cutting all cables including ISP (cable internet) providers and moving to add home 5G plans to their cellular provider plans, specifically Verizon who is building their 5G network the most aggressively. This is where Inseego will come in to play as they have already built a home 5G router. They also already have built a 5G Mifi hotspot device ready for Verizon. A lot of hedge funds have been ahead of this one and have added Inseego, so this may be timely for you to jump ahead of the curve. I have added a speculative position on this company, although as always do your own research and make your own investing decisions! Also I am very bullish as well on the future growth of Verizon (VZ), for all the reasons mentioned and the expansion of all the 5G devices they will be selling! Happy investing!
M1 Finance has kicked off 2020 with an incredible promotional offer where when you sign up and fund your account with as little as $100 you get a $20 bonus. So you could use that extra cash to buy additional fractional shares, or you could choose to not buy any stocks and withdraw your $120 and literally get a free $20 after it shows up in your account.
So here’s to a great financial start to 2020, if you are unfamiliar with M1 Finance, it is an investment platform that can automate investing. It allows for super flexible portfolio construction with their pie and slice concept, and allows you to buy fractional shares of companies that most of us could otherwise not afford to invest in (think Amazon over $1,800 per share). Here is more about M1 and some of their features:
I have been building out my portfolio for nine months now, which I realize is not a very long time at all. That being said I have learned so much in these nine months, and realize this dividend growth investing game is a very long term game that really pays off in the end not the beginning. Even knowing that I believe in setting incremental goals and celebrating when those smaller goals are met on top of celebrating the bigger goals. I set the goal of reaching $100 per month in projected dividends by the end of 2019 and reached that, just had seen a $100 payout in a month yet, until now!
In December I was paid $106.85 in my 3 accounts combined. The breakdown is below:
M1 Finance Main Account: $74.31
M1 Finance Roth IRA: $10.84
FIdenity Traditional IRA: $21.70
Here is all of the payouts over the course of December by each holding:
Ticker
Amount Paid
M1 Main Acct
M1 Roth IRA
Fidelity IRA
BPR
$1.79/$6.60
☑
☑
DGRO
$4.40/$1.43
☑
☑
WM
$2.59
☑
USRT
$2.71
☑
MCD
$2.49/ 2.53
☑
☑
DFS
$ 2.22
☑
V
$ 0.60
☑
ROST
$ 1.01
☑
BAM
$ 0.96
☑
BIP
$ 3.97
☑
BEP
$ 5.26
☑
KSS
$ 6.59
☑
LIN
$ 1.22
☑
SBSI
$ 2.41
☑
ABR
$ 15.24
☑
O
$ 1.87
☑
MAIN
$ 8.22
☑
STAG
$ 2.14
☑
EPR
$ 3.77
☑
MMM
$ 5.65
☑
AWK
$ 0.64
☑
NEE
$ 1.27
☑
UTX
$ 1.64
☑
WTR
$ 1.11
☑
DUK
$ 2.23
☑
SO
$ 2.07
☑
JNJ
$ 2.62
☑
INTC
$ 1.93
☑
WEN
0.83
☑
AVGO
1.67
☑
CSL
0.33
☑
ITOT
1.82
☑
Total:
$106.85
Thanks for stopping by. Happy New Year and happy investing in 2020!
What I Have Learned Starting an Investing YouTube Channel
View condensed video version on YouTube ↑
I had the crazy idea to begin the journey of starting a YouTube channel that would chronicle my investing journey and portfolio, so I started it on April 20, 2019. I really didn’t have much of a clue what I was doing or where I wanted the channel to go. I also had no idea how difficult it was to actually be comfortable on a video talking to strangers. I mean I am a forty year old father of two children, who has been married for nearly 15 years (at the time of writing this). I say that to say I have seen a lot of things, conquered a lot, failed a lot, and generally am not concerned with what others think about me, generally speaking. Then I started making video content on YouTube and got nervous about it, life is weird sometimes, haha. At any rate let’s go over the things I have learned creating this channel, that might assist others thinking of getting started on the same path.
Lesson Number One: I had to learn not be nervous on camera, and speak without using so many speech fillers
One of the first things I had to learn, was to not be nervous, and speak without using so many “uh”, “umm” and “ah” fillers. The nervous thing got better by just making more videos, and I think that is really the best way to overcome it. The filler word issue, was one I didn’t even realize until I started watching myself on camera, and had to be purposeful about trying to correct it, and also edit out some of them.
Lesson Number Two: Make sure the people close to you are on board with you starting a channel.
For many people this may not even be a major consideration, but for me it was since I am married and have a family. I had to get their consent and think about how it would effect their lives as well. Creating content and setting up a brand can be time consuming, and that has certainly been the case for me as well. I am very thankful my wife and kids were and are very supportive even in the beginning when becoming monetized was not really a consideration (it was only a hope and dream). At any rate this is a key step to consider and discuss when beginning.
Lesson Number Three: Quality, trusted content is king
Let me explain what I mean here that quality, trusted content is king. When I started my channel I had a quantity mindset, where I was pumping out 4-5 videos per week, many of which were sub-par in quality. Needless to say those videos many times did not do so well. On most occasions, even early on, when I would spend the time methodically thinking through the content I would produce and do the best job I could editing it (this also is an evolution over time), the video would inevitably do better than a rushed video production. I also learned to do the extra research so I was not mis-speaking on a topic or providing ideas and insights that were not beneficial to those consuming my content. So the trusted aspect of this is also huge, because when people come to your content and know that they can trust your content it builds loyalty.
Lesson Number Four: It’s all about community
So YouTube is a vast community of both content creators and content consumers, with niche categories galore. The investing community on YouTube is from what I am learning still kind of in it’s infancy. There are a few big channels with over 500,000 subscribers, and maybe a couple with 1 million plus subscribers, but in comparison to some other categories on YouTube that’s a drop in a bucket. I say all that to say, it is very important to be in-grained in the community by visiting, subscribing, commenting, and supporting other content creators. This is in my opinion in the beginning the best way to grow your channel, and to see what other channels are doing to help inspire ideas and learn from others.
It is also critical to acknowledge those and interact with those that come to you videos and comment. A way to make the community feel included is to answer some of the questions that come in on a video and recognize the person who asked it (ask them first to make sure they don’t mind). Another way to make your supporters feel included is to do live streams/video premieres where they can join in a live conversation with others and yourself.
Lesson Number Five: YouTube opens up many additional other opportunities other than monetization
This particular lesson is one that I was completely oblivious to. I did realize that really big channels got paid sponsorships and partnerships with companies, I did not think that I would be able to partake in any of these until my channel was much bigger. Let me give some details into what I am trying to say here. Essentially as soon as my channel hit 1,000 subscribers I was sent a couple emails from a couple of newer smaller brokerages/cryptocurrency platforms to begin either an affiliate marketer for them, or to review their product on my channel. I declined all of the cryptocurrency platforms, as that does not make sense for my audience and content. I have however accepted two stock trading brokerages to be an affiliate marketer for. Being that my channel is still so relatively small, I have made very little from these, but it did open my eyes to the possibilities that are bound to come as my channel and brand continues to grow. One of the affiliates did pay me for my first video review of the platform and I was able to buy a new desk with that payout that I plan to use building a new studio to film in.
Another opportunity that becomes available to content creators is to create a blog in conjunction with the YouTube channel and also get ad revenue from the blog as well, obviously. So there are numerous doors that open up through the YouTube platform that many are unaware of.
Lesson Number Six: After monetization, it’s all about views and quality content, not adding subscribers
Views and quality content that provides value to your viewers will build your channel more than any other vehicle. I have seen some content creators get so fixated on getting more subscribers and not creating content that their current subscribers want to come back to the channel and view. Once you get monetized, every view you get is an opportunity to make a little more cash so why would you focus on subscriber count? This is backwards math, and I see some content creators go down the path of focusing on subscribers over content and their channels suffer.
So in conclusion, I have learned many things these past 8-9 months on YouTube, and I honestly have had an excellent experience on the platform. There are many videos and content creators that knock the YouTube platform, but I would dare to say that they may be misusing the platform or copyright laws or other policies/guidelines set forth by YouTube. If you have the desire to kick off a new channel, be prepared to be in lots of effort for very little return for quite a while, but also be prepared for many doors of opportunities to swing open wide. So just do it, and be kind and supportive to others, even when they are not being kind to you. All the best!
JMac Investing 