The Beginning

All stories have a beginning, though my first post to Dividends… with Children feels more like joining a work in progress that began nearly a year ago.

It was December, 2013 when I purchased my first dividend-producing stock with the sole intent of holding it as an “investment” that could continually pay me well into retirement. At the time I had accumulated a low six-figure cash stockpile and knew I wanted that money to be working for me and not earning pennies in interest sitting at the bank. Through thorough research in the months leading up to that first purchase, I chose dividends-paying securities.

Digging into the details of my journey is a topic best suited for other posts. The more appropriate question to answer in this first post is simply, why start yet another dividend blog?

Through my research I read articles on numerous dividend-related blogs. Some were simple, others more complex. To name a few that jump out: My Dividend Pipeline, Dividend Mantra and All About Interest. These blogs and their personal stories served as both inspirational and educational to help focus what I wanted out of life and how I might go about achieving it without jeopardizing my family’s well being.

A common theme running through the majority of the dividend and financial freedom blogs was the authors were younger than I, and also single. They didn’t have a stay-at-home wife and two kids to support like I did, and thus their journey to financial freedom runs parallel to mine rather than on the same track. As such, my track has far more challenges to overcome despite the end goal being the same, and surely there are others out there — husbands or wives — who face similar obstacles.

I was always a fan of the sitcom Married.. with Children growing up and have seen far more episodes than I dare attempt to recollect. One night the bright idea popped into my head of sharing my journey to financial independence as a more evolved and modern version of Al Bundy, someone who loathed the daily routine of working for “the man.” Just like that Dividends… with Children was born.

Topics I’ll discuss here will run the gamut from talking stocks to frugality, the dreaded day job to saving, and anything else that comes to mind relevant to my journey. I’m no stranger to writing for the Internet, but I am to writing about myself. This first post was far harder to construct than I imagined and turned out far different, too.

To start this adventure, I will keep things simple as evidenced by the site design — or lack thereof. I’m not even including an image on this first post as a reminder to humble beginnings. There’s no logo. No ads. No flashy this or that. Not even a social media channel. The site will evolve as I do and take small baby steps each day toward the ultimate goal of signing off from living to line someone else’s pockets to waking up in the morning and doing what I want to do for the remainder of the day.

I want this site to continue to motivate me. I want it to inspire you. Someday, ultimately, I want it to help inspire my children because my stable of income-producing assets will eventually be theirs. I wouldn’t have it any other way.