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Progress Log: Investing for Passive Income

Colton

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Hi, my name is Colton and I’m a dividend growth investor.

It’s been a long time since I posted on this forum and I’m starting this thread to create an additional layer of accountability for myself.

It would also be nice to provide some value to others on the forum, as well as engage in conversation with other people who are interested in passive income. I don’t discuss my investments with friends or family, so this is my chance to share this journey and show what I’m doing.

(I don’t know if this will be interesting to anyone, but I hope that it will be.)

A little about me – I’m 25 years old and I earn the bulk of my income through an ecommerce business that I started a couple of years ago. It has been, and still is, a great opportunity for me but it has its downsides.

I am building this dividend growth portfolio to overcome the downsides of my business and job. To build a stream of income that is truly passive and will grow over the course of my lifetime and beyond.

In this thread I will be detailing my short term (monthly) financial goals as they relate to investing.
This thread may evolve over time but here’s my plan for now:

At the start of each month, I will set a goal to reach a certain average monthly income from my portfolio. Each week, I will purchase dividend growth stocks and share my purchases here. I’ll state my monthly investment income as well.

Starting Point:
Average monthly investment income: $259.98
Total Accounts Value: $88,480

Next week I will provide an update and post my goals for July here.

Until next time.
 
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MTF

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$88k is very little money for any sensible returns from dividend stocks. Is there any way you can get better returns investing, say, $40k of it back into your business?

What if you could double, triple or quadruple that $40k this year via your e-commerce business and next year have a $200-300k portfolio? Or better yet, keep reinvesting most of your profits in your business for triple-digit or higher returns and then, having made high six figures, focus on dividend stocks?
 

Martzee

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Hi, my name is Colton and I’m a dividend growth investor.

It’s been a long time since I posted on this forum and I’m starting this thread to create an additional layer of accountability for myself.

It would also be nice to provide some value to others on the forum, as well as engage in conversation with other people who are interested in passive income. I don’t discuss my investments with friends or family, so this is my chance to share this journey and show what I’m doing.

(I don’t know if this will be interesting to anyone, but I hope that it will be.)

A little about me – I’m 25 years old and I earn the bulk of my income through an ecommerce business that I started a couple of years ago. It has been, and still is, a great opportunity for me but it has its downsides.

I am building this dividend growth portfolio to overcome the downsides of my business and job. To build a stream of income that is truly passive and will grow over the course of my lifetime and beyond.

In this thread I will be detailing my short term (monthly) financial goals as they relate to investing.
This thread may evolve over time but here’s my plan for now:

At the start of each month, I will set a goal to reach a certain average monthly income from my portfolio. Each week, I will purchase dividend growth stocks and share my purchases here. I’ll state my monthly investment income as well.

Starting Point:
Average monthly investment income: $259.98
Total Accounts Value: $88,480

Next week I will provide an update and post my goals for July here.

Until next time.
I am in the same boat. A dividend growth investor and options trader. I consider my trading my business and trade it as a business. In 2014 I started an LLC and invest aggressively. But with a small account (yours at $88k, mine is currently at $72k) I also added another feature to my dividend growth investing - my stock position monetizing by trading options around those positions. My dividend income is small, currently, $400 dividend received this year, projected dividend next year $3,600, but my options income is in average at $4,500 a month. Once I reach $10k a month of combined income, I will start looking at shifting to full-time trading.

I post here in this forum too (time to time) to keep myself accountable and encourage those who think it is not possible to invest in the stock market and make money (many believe it is gambling, many believe, you can't make a decent income and money in the stock market as they look at it from the 401k perspective, that is not a way to make money for sure. You must be an active money manager like a business, not a passive buy and hold dude...

Congrats, you can make it and I wish you good luck! I will follow your thread regularly.
 

Metz

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Eventually, I'm trying to do the same as you, building a dividend-rich portfolio for passive income -- which is dope plan, by the way (though clearly I'm biased). I'm bootstrapping an e-commerce site that I launched last month (after closing down my first one because I realized the new branding and platform was much easier to work with) but one of the reasons I even started the thing was because of its potential to build passive income.

For now, I sell print-on-demand clothing and the only time spent is on coming up with new designs and then marketing strategy. Even though this current site is just starting out, I've had a handful of mornings where I woke up to sales notifications. While I don't intend on remaining solely PoD, the site is optimized where already I'm making money while sleeping which is pretty passive. I feel, especially with your current portfolio, you've probably already experienced that.

With that in mind though, does your e-commerce site require your attention all the time? If so, are there any parts of it that you can automate so that you can reinvest your time into activities that generate more money and then use that extra growth in both your portfolio and reinvesting into your site? Then again, how are you defining passive income? For me, passive income is money that I'm making where I'm not actively babysitting something; I build a system that, once set up, runs on its own and just needs adjustments like new products, a new interface, more payment options -- whatever improvements to make the system run better and to attract and retain customers -- but those improvements require a few hours here and there, not a full work week's worth.

Especially with saying how your interest in building a dividend portfolio is to help overcome your business's shortfalls, I'm a little curious about why not plug those holes first and *then* build that kind of portfolio.

No judgment or anything but like I said, would love to hear more about your process because maybe the answer to finding the goal you're looking for is a lot simpler than it might appear. If the goal is to create passive income, maybe your e-commerce site could be the engine you're looking for (and admittedly, one you have much more control over and need less money to make a larger impact, depending on your margins).
 
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Omsubedi

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Hi, my name is Colton and I’m a dividend growth investor.

It’s been a long time since I posted on this forum and I’m starting this thread to create an additional layer of accountability for myself.

It would also be nice to provide some value to others on the forum, as well as engage in conversation with other people who are interested in passive income. I don’t discuss my investments with friends or family, so this is my chance to share this journey and show what I’m doing.

(I don’t know if this will be interesting to anyone, but I hope that it will be.)

A little about me – I’m 25 years old and I earn the bulk of my income through an ecommerce business that I started a couple of years ago. It has been, and still is, a great opportunity for me but it has its downsides.

I am building this dividend growth portfolio to overcome the downsides of my business and job. To build a stream of income that is truly passive and will grow over the course of my lifetime and beyond.

In this thread I will be detailing my short term (monthly) financial goals as they relate to investing.
This thread may evolve over time but here’s my plan for now:

At the start of each month, I will set a goal to reach a certain average monthly income from my portfolio. Each week, I will purchase dividend growth stocks and share my purchases here. I’ll state my monthly investment income as well.

Starting Point:
Average monthly investment income: $259.98
Total Accounts Value: $88,480

Next week I will provide an update and post my goals for July here.

Until next time.
Hi Colton, congratulations on your passive investment income. I think learning on Sell to Open a Call Option (STO Call option or shortinga call option, in Wall st. Jargon), and assessing liquidity of options in the stocks you are holding will definitely help making your monthly income larger without increasing your risk.
 

Omsubedi

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Hi, my name is Colton and I’m a dividend growth investor.

It’s been a long time since I posted on this forum and I’m starting this thread to create an additional layer of accountability for myself.

It would also be nice to provide some value to others on the forum, as well as engage in conversation with other people who are interested in passive income. I don’t discuss my investments with friends or family, so this is my chance to share this journey and show what I’m doing.

(I don’t know if this will be interesting to anyone, but I hope that it will be.)

A little about me – I’m 25 years old and I earn the bulk of my income through an ecommerce business that I started a couple of years ago. It has been, and still is, a great opportunity for me but it has its downsides.

I am building this dividend growth portfolio to overcome the downsides of my business and job. To build a stream of income that is truly passive and will grow over the course of my lifetime and beyond.

In this thread I will be detailing my short term (monthly) financial goals as they relate to investing.
This thread may evolve over time but here’s my plan for now:

At the start of each month, I will set a goal to reach a certain average monthly income from my portfolio. Each week, I will purchase dividend growth stocks and share my purchases here. I’ll state my monthly investment income as well.

Starting Point:
Average monthly investment income: $259.98
Total Accounts Value: $88,480

Next week I will provide an update and post my goals for July here.

Until next time.
Hi Colton congratulations on your passive income. I believe learning on Sell to Open a call options will definitely help you increase your monthly returns without increasing/exposing you to more risk.
 

Johnny boy

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Grow your business, build or purchase a SAAS business that can be managed anywhere and with little attention given to it, and make a lot more than 2500 a year lol. You won’t have to be chained to any one location, you can spend an hour or two a week on it, and then you’re in a 10x better spot.
 
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Omsubedi

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Guest-5ty5s4

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Grow your business, build or purchase a SAAS business that can be managed anywhere and with little attention given to it, and make a lot more than 2500 a year lol. You won’t have to be chained to any one location, you can spend an hour or two a week on it, and then you’re in a 10x better spot.
Johnny, do you know anyone who has done this? How they found the business to buy, what it cost, what kind of skills they already had or didn’t have, and how they manage it?
 

Johnny boy

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Johnny, do you know anyone who has done this? How they found the business to buy, what it cost, what kind of skills they already had or didn’t have, and how they manage it?

first place id look

Or, look within your industry to see opportunities to build a software solution to a problem, advertise it, build it, etc. And then let it run. Once it is up and running it requires only occasional updates.

If I had extra capital I didn't know where to put, before any options trading I would purchase classic cars and lease them out and expect a 15% yearly return.
 
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Empires

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If I had extra capital I didn't know where to put, before any options trading I would purchase classic cars and lease them out and expect a 15% yearly return.
Are you still working on this? I think I remember you starting a progress thread on this
 

Colton

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Update – 7/3/21

On Monday, I purchased shares in the following businesses:

Kimberly Clark (Consumer packaged goods)
Verizon (Telecom)
Lockheed Martin (Defense)
Campbell Soup Company (Consumer packaged goods, food)
American Electric Power (Utilities)
Pfizer (Healthcare)
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (Healthcare)
PepsiCo (Consumer packaged goods, food)
Pinnacle West (Utilities)
Gilead Sciences (Healthcare)

These are, for the most part, businesses that I consider to be good values in the current market. Lately I have been dividing my purchases between a larger number of businesses to add an additional layer of protection. It’s the same concept as buying into an index fund, but on a much smaller scale. The upside is that every purchase I make will have an increased element of diversification and valuations will average out. The potential downside is less efficient use of capital (Could I identify the single business that represents the best value out of all the above options?)

After these purchases, the average monthly investment income of this portfolio now sits at $263.25.

By the end of July, I will aim to reach $280 per month.

Thoughts:

The temptation to chase high yields at the expense of quality is a persistent obstacle to overcome -
especially as someone who wants to use dividends to help pay bills in the near future.

To avoid this, I must only invest in businesses that I understand. I must weigh multiple factors when choosing businesses to invest in, such as dividend payout ratio, growth streak, growth rate, and business quality.

Nothing in this thread should be taken as investment advice. I am simply sharing my own personal journey and thought process.

Until next time.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@MTF
In my case, I would not be confident that I could get better returns by investing this money back into my ecommerce business.

@Martzee
I have only briefly looked at options trading and it is something that I should probably learn more about. It would take a lot to convince me to actively trade the stock market, but I’m going to follow your thread with interest as well.

@Metz
Like you, I also get paid through my ecommerce business while I’m sleeping. However, I am in a different situation because I prepare each and every one of my orders by hand.
I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve my existing business, or “plug the holes” as you said. But I see this as something that should be done while I am investing in dividend growth stocks and not before.

@Omsubedi
Thank you. I’ll definitely do further reading on call options.

@Johnny boy
I am always looking for ways to grow my ecommerce business, as well as looking for new business opportunities, so thanks for your suggestion.

However, liquidating my investment portfolio to fund one of these business ideas would be reckless in my view. Whatever money is invested into my ecommerce business (or a new business) will not come from selling shares in my portfolio. I believe that while I am taking risks with starting new businesses, I should also be investing in a conservative manner so that my wealth will be protected and I can simultaneously build a reliable source of passive income for added financial stability.
 
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Metz

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@Metz
Like you, I also get paid through my ecommerce business while I’m sleeping. However, I am in a different situation because I prepare each and every one of my orders by hand.
I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve my existing business, or “plug the holes” as you said. But I see this as something that should be done while I am investing in dividend growth stocks and not before.
Ahh, that makes a lot more sense as to why the model you're working with isn't truly passive the way you want it. Would there be any way to outsource fulfillment then or is it not worth the investment or delegation at this point? I guess in my head, I'm just thinking about ways for you to free up your time so you can chase finding more sales, boost your profit, and then you have more money to invest back into your portfolio to get you to your goal faster. But I understand sometimes fulfillment ought to be done in-house, whether because of the products themselves or just the current scale of the business.

Still, good on you for grinding!

A question relating to your stocks: I've started to be a bit more conservative what with worries about inflation and how that affects commodities among a few other factors in the increasingly-post-pandemic world. What's your take on it all? Has it caused you to slow down due to the risk of a bubble.. do you dollar-cost-average to mitigate those dips and then just shares on sale when/if the bubble pops? Just curious about your take on it.
 
G

Guest-5ty5s4

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This concept seems very slowlane to me.

It’s just not a business. You’re investing your extra money into a money system, which is fine if you have no other use for it.

But like @MTF said and @MJ DeMarco says in the books, these passive investments are really better for people after they’ve made more money through active means.

Options trading can be better. It’s still not amazing with lower capital though.

Business trumps all. Forget about 30% per year - try 30% PER SALE
 

Martzee

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I have only briefly looked at options trading and it is something that I should probably learn more about. It would take a lot to convince me to actively trade the stock market
You do not have to be active with options, trade a wheel strategy - if you own 100 shares, place a covered call above your cost basis price (in case you get assigned you will be sold out for a profit) and then you can forget it. It will either expire worthless and you rinse and repeat it, or it will expire in the money and sell your 100 shares of the stock. In that case place at the money or slightly in the money put trade and again forget it - it will either expire worthless (then rinse and repeat) or you get assigned and buy back 100 shares of the stock. You will do this once a month only so it is not much active trading at all. And it significantly boosts your income (I roll calls and puts to avoid assignments so I collect dividends and premiums but if I get assigned it is not an end of the world to me - you can also use the options against a portion of your holdings).

Here is a picture of what options do to my portfolio income (on top of the dividends):
1625612030923.png
 
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Omsubedi

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You do not have to be active with options, trade a wheel strategy - if you own 100 shares, place a covered call above your cost basis price (in case you get assigned you will be sold out for a profit) and then you can forget it. It will either expire worthless and you rinse and repeat it, or it will expire in the money and sell your 100 shares of the stock. In that case place at the money or slightly in the money put trade and again forget it - it will either expire worthless (then rinse and repeat) or you get assigned and buy back 100 shares of the stock. You will do this once a month only so it is not much active trading at all. And it significantly boosts your income (I roll calls and puts to avoid assignments so I collect dividends and premiums but if I get assigned it is not an end of the world to me - you can also use the options against a portion of your holdings).

Here is a picture of what options do to my portfolio income (on top of the dividends):
View attachment 38765
Martzee, you Nailed it with the explanation.
 
G

Guest-5ty5s4

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You do not have to be active with options, trade a wheel strategy - if you own 100 shares, place a covered call above your cost basis price (in case you get assigned you will be sold out for a profit) and then you can forget it. It will either expire worthless and you rinse and repeat it, or it will expire in the money and sell your 100 shares of the stock. In that case place at the money or slightly in the money put trade and again forget it - it will either expire worthless (then rinse and repeat) or you get assigned and buy back 100 shares of the stock. You will do this once a month only so it is not much active trading at all. And it significantly boosts your income (I roll calls and puts to avoid assignments so I collect dividends and premiums but if I get assigned it is not an end of the world to me - you can also use the options against a portion of your holdings).

Here is a picture of what options do to my portfolio income (on top of the dividends):
View attachment 38765
It’s true. I do it too. I still can’t call this a business though.

Control is lacking, and scale is limited to your returns and your contributions.

My advice would be to build a fastlane business and ALSO sell options and/or invest in real estate.
 

Colton

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Update: July 10th, 2021

On Monday, I purchased shares in Clorox (CLX), Verizon (VZ), and Prudential (PRU).

I’m particularly excited that Clorox is trading at a reasonable valuation. This appears to be a rare deal on a high quality business.

Clorox has increased its dividend for 44 consecutive years, with a 5 year CAGR of 7.6%. Share price has seen a pullback recently as “cleaning habits” return to pre-pandemic levels, but the business is well diversified and continues to grow at a healthy rate. In my view it will be a great long term investment.

7257631-15644069852784834.png
Above: Clorox history of dividend increases

This week I also learned that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), another holding of mine, has just increased its dividend by 11%.

The Freedom Fund now generates $267 per month in passive income, not including capital appreciation.

Until next time.

P.S.

Nothing in this thread should be taken as investment advice. I am simply sharing my personal journey and thought process.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@Metz
Outsourcing fulfillment may be possible for some of the items I sell, but not for the majority of them.

I have no issue keeping up with demand these days, in fact my main concern is figuring out how to make more sales.

Regarding inflation and the stock market, I don’t lose any sleep over it and I will continue investing as usual by dollar-cost-averaging into the market.

@thechosen1
This style of investing does take time to see results, so you’re not wrong.

@Martzee
That’s very interesting, thanks for the explanation. You’ve given me more to look into. Since you started your LLC back in 2014, have you looked back and figured out your average annual return?
 
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Martzee

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@Martzee
That’s very interesting, thanks for the explanation. You’ve given me more to look into. Since you started your LLC back in 2014, have you looked back and figured out your average annual return?
Yes, my average ROI on options is 45% annually (this year 39% so far so I might get better since we have 6 months left) + dividends + capital appreciation. Last year my entire account achieve 419% growth (but it was easy as I suffered some losses in 2019 and growing the account back was easy), this year I am up 259%. When reinvesting dividends and premiums the snowball rolls up very fast.
 

Colton

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Quality is the Name of the Game

(Update: July 17th, 2021)


This week, the focus was on quality.

On Monday, I purchased shares in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Kimberly Clark (KMB), and Clorox (CLX).

By all means, these are “boring” companies to invest in but I am excited nevertheless because they are some of the highest quality companies available on the market. And they are trading at reasonable valuations right now considering what you get as an investor.

These are the kinds of businesses that I want the Freedom Fund to be based around. Although they don’t provide the highest starting yields, they have excellent track records of paying increasing dividends year after year.

They’re the kind of businesses that allow you to never have a to lift another finger for the rest of your life and still be confident that your dividend income will continue to grow at a rate that significantly outpaces inflation.

These businesses rarely come on sale but occasionally you can grab them at-or-near fair value. Looking at JNJ specifically, they suffered some negative press this week related to their vaccine and sunscreens. These events always blow over with time but can present short term buying opportunities.

im-369895.jpg
Above: This week JNJ recalled some Neutrogena and Aveeno sunscreen sprays over benzene related concerns. Image credit: Wall Street Journal

While the core of the Freedom Fund is based around stocks like JNJ, there is also room for ancillary positions that offer higher starting yields with a bit more risk. These stocks are valuable in their own right because they provide more immediate income.

My personal rule is that each ancillary position will be limited to 1% of the total fund, while a core position such as JNJ may reach up to 8% of the fund.

Next week you can expect me to share a couple of higher yielding (ancillary) dividend growth stocks that I’ll be using to help reach my passive income goal for July.

Until next time.

P.S.

Nothing in this thread should be taken as investment advice. I am simply sharing my personal journey and thought process.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@Martzee
That’s fantastic, congratulations on your success!

I’ve been watching videos and learning about the wheel strategy. It’s a very simple concept, and the way people talk about it sounds like a free lunch with no catch.

What would you say are the major downside(s) of your strategy, compared to the standard buy-and-hold that I’m doing? I’m not seeing where the increased risk lies, but there must be a tradeoff if we’re talking about earning a 45% annual return, over 4 times that of the S&P500. If it is really that easy then I can’t imagine why every big-name investor wouldn’t take advantage.
 

Martzee

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Quality is the Name of the Game

(Update: July 17th, 2021)


This week, the focus was on quality.

On Monday, I purchased shares in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Kimberly Clark (KMB), and Clorox (CLX).

By all means, these are “boring” companies to invest in but I am excited nevertheless because they are some of the highest quality companies available on the market. And they are trading at reasonable valuations right now considering what you get as an investor.

These are the kinds of businesses that I want the Freedom Fund to be based around. Although they don’t provide the highest starting yields, they have excellent track records of paying increasing dividends year after year.

They’re the kind of businesses that allow you to never have a to lift another finger for the rest of your life and still be confident that your dividend income will continue to grow at a rate that significantly outpaces inflation.

These businesses rarely come on sale but occasionally you can grab them at-or-near fair value. Looking at JNJ specifically, they suffered some negative press this week related to their vaccine and sunscreens. These events always blow over with time but can present short term buying opportunities.

View attachment 38966
Above: This week JNJ recalled some Neutrogena and Aveeno sunscreen sprays over benzene related concerns. Image credit: Wall Street Journal

While the core of the Freedom Fund is based around stocks like JNJ, there is also room for ancillary positions that offer higher starting yields with a bit more risk. These stocks are valuable in their own right because they provide more immediate income.

My personal rule is that each ancillary position will be limited to 1% of the total fund, while a core position such as JNJ may reach up to 8% of the fund.

Next week you can expect me to share a couple of higher yielding (ancillary) dividend growth stocks that I’ll be using to help reach my passive income goal for July.

Until next time.

P.S.

Nothing in this thread should be taken as investment advice. I am simply sharing my personal journey and thought process.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@Martzee
That’s fantastic, congratulations on your success!

I’ve been watching videos and learning about the wheel strategy. It’s a very simple concept, and the way people talk about it sounds like a free lunch with no catch.

What would you say are the major downside(s) of your strategy, compared to the standard buy-and-hold that I’m doing? I’m not seeing where the increased risk lies, but there must be a tradeoff if we’re talking about earning a 45% annual return, over 4 times that of the S&P500. If it is really that easy then I can’t imagine why every big-name investor wouldn’t take advantage.
There are no downsides that I would call a downside. Some people consider them a downside, I don't.

For example. When you do a wheel and sell puts, what's the worst thing that can happen to you?

Well, here are the outcomes:

1) The stock drops below your strike.
2) You can roll the put down and away and you do it for credit (always for a credit!)
3) You cannot roll for a credit you let it be assigned and buy 100 shares.

People consider it a downside because they think if a stock drops too low you will buy too high than the current price. They are short-sighted. But if you did it against a stock you like and eventually want to own, and have money for the purchase (most people sell puts and do not have money to cover an assignment and then get burned), then there is no problem at all.

For example, I sold a put with 24 strike against SIG stock when it was trading around 30 a share. Then the stock tanked to like $8 to $10 a share. I got assigned at $24 a share. Others would freak out and cry "fault! this strategy doesn't work!! I am losing money!!!" Well, I stayed in the position and I was selling covered calls. Today SIG trades at $75 a share.

The same goes with the call side. People say that that you lost opportunity when selling calls and be forced to sell your shares while without calls you could run the stock and have a lot larger profits. Perhaps. But when selling the call, no one knows what the opportunity would be in the future. And I have heard a saying that "after each battle, everyone is suddenly an army general" in other words with hindsight everyone knows what you should have done. So if it happens and my shares are called away, I either sell in the money puts to buy the shares back, or buy the shares back right after the assignment (wash sale). So that is not a disaster for me either.
 
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Colton

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UPDATE – July 24, 2021

Hello and welcome to my weekly post in which I document the process of building an investment portfolio in real-time.

The goal of the portfolio (called the Dividend Growth Portfolio) is to provide an ever-growing stream of passive dividend income while delivering total returns competitive with the S&P 500. As the dividend income grows, it will eventually surpass living expenses and financial freedom will be achieved. In the meantime, the dividends offer extra financial security.

Each week, I share my stock purchases, disclose dividend payments, discuss which companies are increasing their dividends, and provide an update on the state of the portfolio.

Recent Purchases:

On Monday, I added 8 shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) to the Dividend Growth Portfolio.

JNJ has a 5-year dividend growth rate of 6%, with the most recent raise for 2021 coming in at 5%. This marks the 58th consecutive year of dividend raises from JNJ.

JNJ is a core position within the Dividend Growth Portfolio.

I also made smaller purchases into Clorox, Pinnacle West, Gilead, and Prudential.

Recent Dividend Payments & Raises

We didn’t receive any dividend payments this week. This is typical, as most companies pay out their dividends quarterly and these payments tend to congregate during certain times. Last week was a busier week for dividends, with payments coming in from Phillip Morris, Utz Brands, Ventas, Essex Property, W.P. Carey, Federal Realty, Leggett & Platt, National Fuel & Gas, Realty Income, Store Capital, and Medtronic.

These dividends were automatically reinvested into the portfolio to purchase more shares in businesses that will pay more growing dividends.

So far in the month of July, the following businesses within the portfolio have announced new dividend raises –

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) has increased their quarterly dividend from $0.4675 per share to $0.4770 per share. This represents a 2.03% increase. The stock currently yields 4.13%.

Duke Energy (DUK) has increased their quarterly dividend from $0.9650 per share to $0.9850 per share. This represents a 2.07% increase. The stock currently yields 3.77%


Passive Income Update

As of today, the Dividend Growth Portfolio is valued at $91,457 and generates about $274 per month in passive dividend income.
2021-07-23.png

Last week, I promised to talk about higher yielding dividend growth stocks that I’ll be using to boost my immediate income. As it turns out, I should be able to reach my July goal ($280/mo) without targeting high-yield stocks. Still, these are some of the companies I have recently invested in that pay unusually high starting yields. I personally believe that each of these companies are solid investments –

Enterprise Products (EPD) is an American midstream natural gas and crude oil pipeline company which currently yields 7.65%.

W.P. Carey (WPC) Real estate investment trust company. Currently yields 5.29%.

Enbridge (EPD) Midstream natural gas and crude oil pipeline company headquartered in Canada. Currently yields 7.08%.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to leave requests if you feel that I’m leaving anything out. I know these posts are still a little chaotic and that’s because I’m still trying to figure out the best format for these and tinkering with different ideas, such as naming the portfolio and what to cover each week to keep things interesting. I want these posts to be engaging and to inspire others to start investing, which is tricky because investing can be a dull subject.

Until next time.

P.S.
Nothing in this thread should be taken as investment advice. I am simply sharing my personal journey and thought process. You should always do your due diligence before investing.
 

Colton

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Update – 7/31/2021

The Dividend Growth Portfolio is currently valued at $92,332
And produces just over $280 per month in passive dividend income.

2021-07-31.png

So, after doing this for a few weeks I am thinking that a posting schedule of once per month would be more appropriate.

Dividend growth investing is a slow grind, and weekly changes in the portfolio will be miniscule compared to monthly changes. It’s taken 2 years of investing to get to this point.

If I come up with an idea to make weekly posts more interesting/valuable, then I may start posting more frequently again. But I’m not sure what to talk about really… if you have any questions or comments then be sure to drop a line here in the thread and I’ll still reply to you as soon as I see the comment.

Otherwise, I’ll plan to post once monthly for accountability purposes. I may include some details about my ecommerce business and other things I am doing to try and increase my income, because that is what will allow me to invest more money and grow the portfolio at a faster rate.
 

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End of August Update

It's been an interesting month, I have been throwing a few darts at the wall to try and grow my ecommerce business and researching ways to boost my investment income on the side. I also turned 26 last week.

On the investment side of things, the portfolio is currently sitting at a value just under $96k and produces an average of $290 per month in dividend income.

I have been researching covered calls as a potential income-boosting strategy for the portfolio and I have opened a paper trading account through TD Ameritrade to practice using the strategy. I'm also looking at several covered call etf's, specifically XYLD and JEPI. They appear to offer very high and reliable distributions, although they are not considered to be dividend growth stocks because the distributions fluctuate from month-to month.
-----------

Regarding the ecommerce side of things, I am trying out new propagation methods which will hopefully allow me to sell a higher volume of an existing product and bring several new ones to market soon. I'm in the business of rare exotic houseplants and gardening products.

Lastly, there is another business idea that I am playing around with. This week I will be digging into the idea further to try and flesh out a plan and decide how viable it is. I'm excited about this because the business idea involves doing something that I have been really wanting to prioritize from a personal standpoint but has taken a backseat to pursuing financial freedom.
 
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WJK

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I read this whole thread and I sure feel blessed in my investments. It looks like you are getting a little better than a 3.5% ROI (return on investment). Are your returns tax free? That rather a low ROI, but, it is working for you IF you can build up enough investment principal. You're only 26. Keeping going. You are doin' good.
 

Colton

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I read this whole thread and I sure feel blessed in my investments. It looks like you are getting a little better than a 3.5% ROI (return on investment). Are your returns tax free? That rather a low ROI, but, it is working for you IF you can build up enough investment principal. You're only 26. Keeping going. You are doin' good.
@WJK Thanks man, but the dividends only make up a small portion of the portfolio's total return. The portfolio has also gained about $12,000 this year due to capital appreciation alone. The reason I don't pay much attention to this number is that I don't intend to sell my shares, so the capital appreciation is kind of irrelevant to me. It's the actual dividend income that I will be using to help fund my lifestyle in the future.
 

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