Your Sunday Portfolio's Update
Guy Flynt: January 8th, 2023
Hi everyone! To be transparent, I will give weekly updates on Sunday of my main portfolio. If I have more time, I will give biweekly updates on my second portfolio, the “Funds For Fun” account. The main account is the Alex Dividend Growth Portfolio (ADGI). For this taxable account, I use the stock trading platform called Public (this is an affiliated link where I get a small kickback if you sign up with my referral code/link!). Public charges no fees to invest, you can choose to have your dividends to be in a reinvestment plan (DRIP) (this is very important and will likely be explained in another blog), the platform is simple and user-friendly, and you can buy fractional shares. I have enjoyed Public’s platform during this past year and will continue to use it in the future. The link above is an affiliated link sign up today and get a free slice of a popular stock between $3-300! This is my compounding machine in which I hope to reach financial independence by using dividend growth stocks to supplement my income.
Currently I am planning on investing $263 each week. This number will go back up once I am done financing my wedding!
The second portfolio is to act as a high-return savings account. For this taxable account, I use an M1 finance account (Sign up today and get $10 for free!). I will use this fund to help pay a down payment on a car or house, and any other future expenses. Instead of getting a 1-2% yield/return, I hope to get an 8-12% return.
You can check out this Googlesheets link to see which companies I invest in, which ETFs my finance invests in, my Roth 401 allocation, and my “Funds for Fun” portfolio that I am using to pay for future expenses. You can also check this website called Track Your Dividends (I am not a sponsor, but use and enjoy their product) to freely track the dividends of companies you invest in. You can create multiple portfolios, and see the future value, diversification, and next upcoming payment of your portfolio. This is the main website I use to track my annual income and the future value of my portfolio. Sign up for free and effort start to track your portfolio. This link will send you to my fiancée and I’s holdings, 401k, and Funds For Fun account to see what we invest in and dividend income.
In each update I will go over my current mindset, any buys or sells, reasons for why I bought or sold certain stocks, the future mindset of the stock market, and visual graphics of my DGI holdings.
Financial Disclaimer: I am not a Certified Financial Advisor (CFA), I am a meteorologist. The blog posts about investing are my opinions and for your entertainment purposes. They should not be considered financial advice. Investing in the stock market is risky and you can lose money. If you want to invest in the stock market, or have questions about how or where to invest, please seek a CFA.
Affiliate Link Disclaimer: Some of the links are affiliated links with Public and M1 Finance. As a member of their platform, I earn a small portion if you click the link and sign up with them. I enjoy these companies and would not recommend them to you if I did not believe in their mission and platform. Thank you!
Alex Dividend Growth Portfolio Updates
Current Mindset
As the new stock year start’s off with a bang with volatility and some of biggest Tech companies at their 2022/2023 52-week lows, and I am happy. This being that as stock prices fall, I can take advantage of the drop, letting my money buy more shares. I just finished a financial book called, “The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life” by JL Collins. The author repeatedly said, take stock market plunges as a gift, they do not happen often. With this said, I will continue to weekly dollar cost average starting Wednesday January 18th, 2023. I took a break as I thought the market was to high, but was also trying to figure out how to finance my upcoming wedding! I am also bearish, and think by the end of the month, the market might take another plunge when the federal reserve meet. However, this is just a gut feeling, don’t take this as advice.
As I said in the last update, I thought I was done updating the portfolio. This was not true. I hope this time is the last for at least six months, but who knows. Taking inspiration from Joseph Carlson, a great YouTuber who talks about the market, in-depth details about companies and how they are performing, and stock analyses. I would highly recommend his channel, I learned a great deal from both of his channels and they are fun to listen to while I work. He had a video where he cleansed his portfolio of stocks that were not aligned with his goals. Compounding Machines! That got me thinking, and I took a look at my portfolio, and did the same.
The Buys and Sells
The Buys
I only had two buys in the last week. I bought $50 of Microsoft (MSFT) at $229 and $15 of Apple (AAPL) at $125.89.
The Sells
I sold completely out of two companies while taking some small positive gains going out the door. I sold Church & Dwight (CHD) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)
Why I bought and Sold
Why Did I Buy it?
I bought partial shares of Apple and Microsoft as they were both relatively cheap compared to the last 60-day and 120-day moving average. Essentially, taking advantage of the plunge in price and buying the dip.
Why Did I sell?
As I hinted in the beginning, I am taking the approach of Joseph Carlson, cleaning out stocks that I don’t think have a great MOAT in compared to other companies, that align with my portfolio values, or have second thought’s about.
Church & Dwight (CHD) is a great company, and in the past 30-years, has destroyed most indices through share buybacks and dividend increases. However, I do have some doubts about the ability to grow its dividend in the next 10-years with the future economy compared to the last two decades, and being competitors with the biggest consumer staple industry, Procter & Gamble (PG) makes me hesitant.
Same as Church & Dwight (CHD), I also think that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is a good company. Rock solid dividend growth, a good starting yield, and a good balance sheet. However, this stock would be perfect if I was 40, not 25. I have years of compounding ahead, and this stock I don’t believe will continue to increase it’s dividend like it has in the last 10 years.
Future Mindset of the Stock Market
I am still holding on to the mindset that the stock market will take another sharp plunge once the federal reserve meet late in January. As many others have likely discussed, 2023 will see a global and US recession, even though the US has been in one. With that said, the stock market will be volatile and likely in the red, and I welcome that as a young investor. I will start weekly DCA on January 18th, 2023, but will have a large amount of cash to buy into a new ETF and SCHD when I feel the time is right, or the price drops far enough. Also to balance out the portfolio as individual stock prices fall.
Asset Allocation and Total Income
Looking at my portfolio, I made changes to the allocation, and will buy a new stock once the price drops a bit more. iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF, stock ticker DGRO, is only second to my favorite ETF’s of all time. SCHD being first. From the ETF website, “The fund aims to find stocks that pay steadily increasing dividends by requiring a 5-year track record of increasing dividends while ensuring that the firms pay out no more than 75% of earnings.” I look at DGRO as a better dividend growth ETF compared to Vanguards Total Stock ETF (VTI).
Having both DGRO and SCHD, I felt comfortable selling CHD and JPM as I will get both consumer staple and financial exposure in these ETF’s. These will hold as my core, with the other 17 stocks as my strong compounding satellites. I look forward to this years stock market, and hope to increase my overall income to above $500.
