Tis’ the Season for Giving – Cash Dividend Bonuses that is…

Tis’ the Season for Giving – Cash Dividend Bonuses that is…

So I’ve left the DDI Portfolio mostly on auto-pilot over the last few months while I’ve tended to a death in the family, but upon my return I’ve been greeted with some good news!

Just last week I received a Special Dividend from Wynn Resorts (ticker: WYNN) good for $7.50/share! And this week things continued to get better with news that Las Vegas Sands (ticker: LVS) is going to pay a $2.75/share special dividend *and* increase the annual dividend by 40%. WOW.

To top things off, Costco Wholesale (ticker: COST) adds another whopping $7.00 special dividend to the list.

What’s interesting about this special dividend is that even though Costco has approximately $4.6 billion in cash, more than enough to pay out the $3 billion plus dividend, they chose instead to take advantage of the low interest rates available, and have sold bonds to finance the one-time payout. While I would have preferred that they pay a smaller dividend and use the cash on the balance sheet – as a small investor I don’t get a whole lot of say in the matter.

Holiday Bonus

All together these extra payouts are adding up to a nice holiday bonus! You know what, I’ll take it.

While extra dividend payments at the end of the year aren’t all that uncommon, there is a lot of talk about how the pending “Fiscal Cliff” and the possible tax increases that will go with it are encouraging more companies with extra cash on their balance sheets to throw off generous one-time or special dividends.

For those that follow the “Special Dividend” payers, this is the time of year when National Presto (ticker: NPK) has typcially announced their own special dividend, as I wrote about this time last year.

Time For Economic Improvement

With all this extra cash floating around, I’m looking forward to heading into December and the remainder of the holiday season, hopeful that the bonus payouts will continue to be generous. If the President and Congress can reach an agreement on how to manage the pending tax increases before  Christmas, it’s likely we’ll get several gifts in our stock portfolios stockings this year:

• Increased Dividend Payouts
• Special Dividends
• Rising Share Prices

I’ll remain optimistic that the coming months and the new year will bring continued economic improvement for all of us.

Here’s to continued continued success in passive dividend investing!

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Just TRY s#!7 – it’s OK to fail

I fail a LOT!

Let me say that again….I FAIL A LOT! Sometimes people ask me why I buy this stock or that stock or even why I’m even invested in stocks at all? The stock market is a casino, it’s rigged, it’s a scam.

It’s true, not every investment you make is going to rise – but the bottom line is, if you don’t TRY how will you ever know?

I once heard a great quote, “Show me a man who’s never lost money in an investment and I’ll show you a liar.”

The reality is you have to have vision and patience to be a successful investor. You have to take action and keep at it for a long time. Too many of us have become part of the “microwave” generation – we want what we want and we want it NOW! (or with the case of the microwave – within 30 seconds)

It’s why day-trading doesn’t work – when you invest your money, whether it be in stocks, oil, real estate, goats, stamps or Pokemon cards – you just can not be certain whether the next move your investment makes is up or down. You have to be willing to watch your investment fall before it rises or even rise before it falls. Over the short term, no one knows which way an investment will move.

But that’s where TIME comes in, it’s the great equalizer.

Lessons learned- Terra Nitrogen (ticker: THN)

Back in the late 1990’s I was looking for a few good income producing stocks to add to my portfolio. While watching NBR (Nightly Business Report) on my local PBS station one night I came across what looked to be a possible candidate: Terra Nitrogen (ticker: THN).

The stock was tradingin the $30-$40 range and was paying out a quarterly dividend of between $1-$3/share! I knew that this was a riskier play, but they looked to have a good niche business providing fertilizer products to mid-west farmers. I was pretty sure that farming would be around awhile and the payouts would likely continue. However by late 1998 because of some business problems the company cut it’s dividend to $ZERO and the stock price fell over the next few month, eventually reaching a low of $3.50.

My great income producer now not only wasn’t generating income, but the value of the shares had dropped by 90%! I felt vindicated that I had sold my shares in the $6 range, well off the lows. A long 2 years past and in 2000 the company reinstated a greatly reduced dividend of $.22/share. But the glory days had NOT returned – as this payout would last for only 3 quarters and then would take a 1 year break. This process of starting and stopping the reduced dividend payouts would continue until 2004 when the share price had eeked it’s way back up to $9/share and had raised it’s dividend to about $.50/share.

The business began to flourish again and the share price and dividend continued to rise. Today the quarterly payouts are again in the $1-$3 range and the share price is well above the $100/share mark. Not only has the payout increased but the shares have increased by over 2000% from their all time lows.

Commit to the long term

As I think back on this lesson, I am now recommitting to holding my positions in the DDI portfolio for the long term. For me long term is 20/30/40 years. I am optimistic that the current markets are offering good income producing shares that will continue to grow both cash flow and price appreciation over the duration of the DDI portfolio.

Time for a mini-vacation at the lake…

Things are looking good!

The DDI portfolio is cruising right along generating passive income of  $283.89  month to date so far in July.

With about a month left of summer, before the kids have to go back to school, we’re going to take advantage of the great California weather and head on out to California’s Gold Country with a short stay at  New Melones Reservoir in Central California for a few days of boating, wake-boarding and tubing with our family and close friends.

Passive Income buys Time & Freedom

The DDI Portfolio builds steam like a train!

It’s time like these, that make me appreciate that I can take time off and know that I’ve still got a stream of income coming into to pay my bills.

Each day the DDI portfolio continues to grow the income stream, and is quickly approaching my target of paying out $500/month on a consistent basis.

Family time is something we highly value, so I figure now’s a good time to enjoy some of the fruits of my labor and take a few days off from managing my trading and income portfolios.

While catching some rays and enjoying an ice cold Blue Moon or Anchor Steam brew, I’m going to take some time to work on my 6 & 12 month life and business plans. Taking time out to recharge really helps to clear your mind and figure out what is most important in your life. I’m excited about coming back with a great action plan in had ready to roll.

But for now, let’s have some fun in the sun!

Don’t try this at home!

Don’t try this at home!

Yesterday I got an email from one of my readers, asking if they should buy one of the stocks I talk about buying for the Daily Dividend Investor portfolio or even those that have had recent increases in their dividends.

To be clear, I do NOT recommend that any of my readers buy any of the stocks or other investments I might write about here at the Daily Dividend Investor blog.

So why am I writing this then? Good question, read on…

Bought: Gladstone Investment Corp (ticker: gain)

Going for the Gain

It’s time to buy some Gain. Not the Proctor & Gamble laundry detergent, but rather Gladstone Investment Corp. who’s ticker symbol is GAIN.

After reviewing yesterday’s list of dividend increases, Gladstone Investment Corp. caught my eye for a couple of reasons.

Number one of course is the above average payout which is hovering right around an 8% annual yield.

The second thing and perhaps even more important to the DDI portfolio is the fact that this is a MONTHLY dividend payer. That’s important to the DDI portfolio because it means cash will be flowing in on a more regular and constant basis which in turn allows the portfolio to re-invest funds all that much sooner.

But, can it all be that easy?…

The 4 Daily Dividend Portfolio Investment Rules

Daily Dividend Portfolio Investment Rules

After living through the world wide stock market melt down in 2008 and 2009, I realized that if you are going to invest in equities, there is never a guarantee that any individual stock will hold it’s asset value. During the sell-off, many high quality stocks declined in value 30/40/50% or more, just like their lower-quality counterparts. There was often no rhyme or reason for valuations – the entire market had deiced to sell. During this volatile time, I decided two things:

1. Now is a good time to start buying.
2. If you are going to buy equities, purchase shares that offer dependable increasing dividends.

WSF : Wells Fargo Preferred Redeemed – What to buy?

WSF : Wells Fargo Preferred Redeemed – What to buy?

I logged into my Daily Dividend Investment account and found that much to my surprise Wells Fargo has redeemed all of the outstanding shares of the Wells Fargo 7% Capital Preferred (Ticker: WSF).