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.
DWC,
Glad you took the first step! Blogging is incredibly difficult and time consuming, but it’s also uniquely and wonderfully rewarding in so many ways. I hope you find as much success with it as I have.
More importantly, I hope your journey to financial independence is extremely successful.
Best regards!
DM,
Thanks for the kind words! I’ve written thousands of news articles for the Internet that have provided — and continue to provide — the capital for dividend-paying stocks. I understand the commitment and that’s why I’ve grappled with the idea for months. Now I have three jobs; a day job (boooo), an income-producing website, and a blog. Just reading that back is scary.
One of several takeaways I’ll utilize from your endeavors is responding to all the comments. That must be insanely time consuming, but also fulfilling the same time.
On a side note, I have a website-related question that I’ll email directly. I sent it through your contact form a couple days ago but I’m guessing it didn’t make it. Nothing big.
Onward and upward!
First comment on your blog. Yeehaw!
I found you through dividend mantra. Good luck,
Joel
Actually, mine’s the second comment. I see that Jason beat me to it.
Joel,
Thanks for stopping by! A couple quick comments are incredibly encouraging and motivational. I already have two more article topics swirling around in my brain and hope to have one published by tomorrow.
Of course, there’s no better place to come from than Dividend Mantra.
Good luck on your journey and hope to see you stop back in the future.
Happy to have you on board the dividend blogging community. I always find it interesting to see what people comment on my blog and question some of my writing as well. It gives you another perspective when reading about what others buy or think of the the market in general. Look forward to your dividend updates,
Divhut,
Thanks, and glad to join the community. I’ll hit you up for a link swap once I put up a resources/whatever I call it page in the next few days, and consider your site on my to-read rounds.
I’m anxious to put up by first “buy” post and have a little capital to make a small buy right now, but I’m trying to be patient for the right opportunity.
I will say my most recent buy was 21 shares of OKE a week ago for 53.10 a share, my first position in the company. I can’t believe how much it has gone up in just a few days.
Usually me buying a stock is a green light for said stock to go down. Not that it matters in the long run, because it doesn’t.
Welcome, welcome! Glad to see another new face in the DG community. While I don’t have children yet, they will be coming into the picture at some point and being able to generate a growing stream of passive income before, during, and after they enter our lives will be important. It will be fun to follow along, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of your activity and DG portfolio.
Thanks, W2R!
It’s definitely challenging to navigate the waters of investing when you have many new financial obligations with kids that you didn’t without. I find there’s a fine line between being frugal out of selfishness and not skimping on your kids. I’m incredibly frugal when it comes to me, but when it comes to the kids, I’m far more lenient.
I hope to build out the site and get my DG portfolio up in the next couple weeks. It’s already in Google Docs, but I might need an alternate version that’s a little more simplified.
Best,
I also found you through Jason’s (DM) site from one of your comments. I’m also more in your position since my wife will be giving birth to our first child within the week at this point. I’ve been thinking about starting up a dividends/financial woes based blog in the last few months that will focus on family legacy finances. I’m just terrible with online endeavors, but I can only get better by doing it. You’ve been bookmarked and I look forward to your journey.
Clint,
First and foremost, congratulations!!! Many great memories lay ahead for you and your family.
This is take-two responding as the first try timed out and I lost all the text. If you feel passionate about writing for the web then by all means, go for it. All you can lose is some of your time.
In my case, I spent 5-6 months contemplating launching this site until I finally pulled the trigger. I’m glad I did, but I’m still struggling to find time for it. That’s part of the journey, though; to get away from the reliance of an employer and have more control over my time.
I hope to do quite a few posts related to investing for kids. In fact, I’m currently researching ways for my kids (ages 6 and newly turned 9) to start their own little businesses. They are interested and I’ve helped encourage generate that interest, but we haven’t come up with the right solution. Yet
Thanks for stopping by and again, CONGRATS!
Best,
DWC,
I congratulate you for taking that huge first step. The first few purchases are the most difficult. As soon as you start seeing those dividends grow larger, it will reiterate why you chose the dividend path.
I wish you luck and glad you found some inspiration in my blog. We’re all on similar paths with an end goal of financial independence being the theme.
My wife is actually in the process of quitting her job and that may pose a little bit of a challenge to meet some of my goals. Either way, I plan to keep putting away as much capital as possible that will work for me instead of earning less than inflation in a bank account.
I look forward to your future posts and like the “Married with Children” them you chose.
Thanks, AAI!
After the first couple purchases I got a little arrogant, actually, and way overdid one stock in particular (TGT). That will become evident when I publish my portfolio in hopefully the next few days.
I’ve definitely enjoyed watching the dividends take off over just 10 months. Granted I had a lot of seed money to get the snowball rolling. I get giddy every time new dividends deposit and have fun deciding where to reinvest them.
My wife also doesn’t work but we’re both strongly for her actually raising the kids rather than paying someone else to do it. It’s definitely not easy and she’s constantly hopping with one thing or another, but there are many ways to save money on the big ticket items like groceries, while still eating healthy. It can be done
Best,
DWC