2014

2014 was certainly a year of changes for me.  My job changed from a drudge to a delight, as I shifted from teaching junior high school to high school.  The GF and I visited Dubai, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and South Korea, all for the first time ever.  We made a major life decision to move back to the USA, and leave the teaching industry.  And, we started, and continue to, decompress our lives, only hanging onto things we really need.

In the midst of all of this I'm still marching towards FI.  The funny thing is, I don't really think about it much anymore.  Saving and investing are just natural reactions to me now.

Having said that, and now that the Kechi One's fiscal year (January 15-January 14) is over I can report that I saved 49% of my income from 2014!  This is shy of my goal which was at least 50%, and I'd have been happier with 55%, but again this was with taking trips, eating out, giving presents, etc.

My portfolio is now fluctuates around $80,000 and puts out over $2,000 a year in dividends.  I've got a ways to go, but I'd say I've made huge strides.  I started investing in 2012, and in three years I feel I've built a solid foundation to spring forward from.

I haven't invested in any new positions since November, as I'm saving my money for the move coming up in March/April.  Depending on the job situation, I'm not sure if I'll be able to initiate anything new till June or July.  I'm very excited for the future and can't wait to make more progress in 2015.

I hope you all had a great 2014, and best of luck in 2015!

Portfolio Update November 2014

I've had little bit of action in the last month, including a sell.  I'm pretty happy with the way things are going lately!

I recently decided to get some money back to work for me in my Vanguard account, so when my money hit my account I decided to put $2300 into the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VTSMX).  Things brings me up to a total of $8571.56 in VTSMX and 166.537 shares.  My average cost per share is $47.380 and the current price as of this writing is $51.47.

I have been looking at getting more money to work for me in the stock market as a whole.  I am very often torn between the Dividend Mantra "seek out strong companies at a good value," and the Jim Collins "just throw into in an Vanguard index fund and forget it," methods of thinking.  They both make very valid arguments!  So rather than throw all my eggs into one basket I've been using both methods to invest.  So far it's been working great!  I'm up on all Vanguard accounts, and there have been very few losses on the individual company front.

One day I think I'd like to move everything to index funds as it's less to think about, but catching huge yields on companies like on SBSI or NSC has kept my looking for the next opportunity in DGI.

My portfolio's total value cracked $80,000 for the first time every just before I made this last purchase.  A new five digit value is something that I like and keep me motivated.  After this last purchase my portfolio was at $82,296.  Not bad for an English teacher right?

 Rounding out the action was actually a sell order.  Back in I got in on the GoPro IPO via Loyal 3.  I managed to get in about $250 at an average price of around $32.  GoPro has seen it's up and downs, but I decided to sell my position here for a few reasons.  First and foremost, GoPro doesn't pay a dividend.  I'm not sure if they will start to pay a dividend or not.  Second, GoPro was just a fun thing I tried as I had never been part of an IPO before.  I honestly wasn't sure what it was going to do, but it's been up as much as 150% at times.  I've held the stock for almost six months now however and realized it's time to take my money somewhere else.  It was fun, but this stock doesn't really belong in my portfolio.  To be honest Twitter is also on this list, but I'll wait a little bit longer.  Finally, I figured it's a good time to sell for tax reasons.  I'm still going to be way under the line for taxable income and this was a good time to sell.

All in all I'm feeling very good!

Mental Wins

When I first started on my journey to financial independence I looked for every last scrap of blog post I could find in order to motivate myself to keep pushing forward.  This world, weather your in Japan or Jersey, has many temptations, and almost all of those cost money.  The goal however was to not just save my money but to invest it wisely so that over time my passive income would grow larger than my expenses and at that moment I would have the choice to exit the rat race.

Ohhhh so tempting....

It's not always easy.  I'm a big gamer and with new consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One (both of which I could run out and buy right now if I wanted) as well as the number of games they promise, it's very difficult not to purchase them with the click of a button.  I also like technology and my "screens."  For the last four or five years I've survived on a 24" Samsung TV that displays everything in beautiful 1080p, its just in 24 inches.  I'm constantly tempted by much larger 40 and 50 inch TVs.  Heck, even a 32 inch is technically a 100 % increase in screen real estate.  But, no.  I've managed to avoid all that lifestyle creep.

Not exactly what I have but you get the idea...

How?  By reading others blogs and following others' stories.  One such man is the one and only Dividend Mantra.  This man needs no introduction, as if you are reading my blog, I'm sure you've read his.  DM is a monster when it comes to blogging and picking winning stocks.  I can't lie, a bunch of stocks I've purchased have been based on his advice.

I followed his blog religiously, and remember very specifically an article he wrote that struck a jealous chord in me.  It was back in May of 2012, and I was just a little beginner still excited by each email I would receive from OptionsXpress about an incoming dividend (I still get excited, it's just they come so often now!).  DM, because he is the man, keeps great records and is willing to share them with all of us online.  He updates us every month on the value of his "Freedom Fund," his name for his portfolio that will set him free.  Let me preface this by saying that I completely understand he puts very little value in the value (hehe) of his portfolio.  By that, I mean, his barometer for success is his dividend income not the overall value of this portfolio.  In fact, many times he's stated he wouldn't mind seeing the value of the overall market (and in correlation the value of his portfolio) fall so he can pick up stocks at a better price.

Having said that, it still holds true that the bigger the value of your portfolio the more dividend income you're likely to receive.  You'd have to agree it would be very difficult for a $10,000 portfolio to bring in the same kind of dividend income as a $68,000 portfolio.  So, you'll understand when back in May of 2012 I read DM's post about the value of his portfolio reaching $68,000 while I was sitting there with just under $10,000 in all of my investment accounts.  Granted DM had been investing for a good year or two before me, but still it's hard not to look how far others have climbed and realize how much farther you have to go yourself.

Well, it was quite the mental win for me when just this last week I was updating my spreadsheet and low and behold, my total portfolio value crossed the $68,000 mark!  I couldn't believe it.  I was now that guy standing tall, on a milestone peak that just a few short years earlier I was looking up at!  It felt great and I really needed to tell the world!

Again the value of the portfolio is really just a mental win, the real victory is the financial win because my forward annual dividends crossed $2,000 a year!  That's right!  I've basically bought back more than a month and a half of my life, every year, for the rest of my life!  That to me is amazing, and quite motivating to boot!

Whew...  That was a lot of exclamation points.

What's interesting about this is that it didn't "seem" so difficult.  Staying the course has become easier.  I don't mean it's always easy to not spend money and invest it, and I don't mean the journey hasn't been long (two and half years at this point).  What I'm trying to say is that it seems very natural, to me, that I'm where I'm at now.  I suppose that makes sense as I've watch my investments grow every step of the way.  Watched and tracked how my dividends have increased and seen the compounding effect of time.  I'm sure this must be how it was for DM, and every other blog I read about where people are investing and chasing their dreams.  However, when I was starting out it I had to fight just to obtain $8.00 a year in dividend income.  Now my portfolio generates this and more automatically.

There are still many other FI bloggers out there with portfolios bigger than mine, and that's fine.  We are all going to the same destination, we are just taking different roads and at different points on those paths.  I'm not a very competitive guy but I do like to see where I measure up with others who are similar to me.  Who knows, maybe somebody reading this is in my position two and a half years ago. If you are, let me tell you, stay the course.  It's worth it.

Portfolio Value Reaches $50,000!

I never thought I'd ever write that title, especially if you asked me 22 months ago.  But just yesterday I bout 56 shares of KMI which pushed my total portfolio value to more than $50,000! 

That put's me half way to my first $100,000, which most people say is the hardest.  I believe it now.  I've seen the money that I socked away start to trickle back to me in dividends and capital gains.  Once I get to the magical 100k mark the journey to 200k will be supported by that raging inferno. 

A short update after a long long pause but I feel good.

Milestone: Portfolio Surpasses $30,000!

I've been in Japan for the last little while but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching the market.  If you haven't been following, the market is on fire like the flames from Mt. Doom (in Mordor).  Because of that it's pushed my portfolio passed the $30,000 mark!  This is a big achievement for me.  I have never had this much money at my finger tips before.

I could, if I so wanted, go out and buy a Mini Cooper right now with zero need to go to a bank.  I could, if I was so persuaded, take a huge long vacation staying in expensive hotels and dining at the finest restaurants.  I could even, if the feeling so arose, pay for a six year college education including one year of study abroad in Japan (I should know).

However I don't feel like doing any of those things.  In fact the next vehicle purchase I make will probably be more than ten years down the road and it will be a bike.  My next vacation is being taken on a bike.  And, although I don't think I'm going back to school anytime soon (not that I didn't have a good time), my next educational foray will probably be via Treehouse.

Perhaps the surreal thing is that although it took me about four years to pay off six years of college, credit cards, and a car, it's only taken me fourteen months to save up a stash equating to 85% of that same amount.  That really demonstrates: how interest rates kill you if you aren't on the receiving end of them, and the job of money is to make money.

Back in January I revealed for the first time what I am holding.  At that time my portfolio was worth $25188.70.  With the recent drive in value by the market I just hit $30125.13!  That's an increase of almost $5000 in about two months.  Not to keeping adding cherries on top but I still have capital that I want to deploy.

I'm not a genius.  Looking at my portfolio people might be confused.  "Apple!?  That's not a dividend paying stock!"  "Why's he buying individual equities but also Vanguard 500?"  Well that's because I'm not a genius.  And yet here I am on my way to FI.  I am also not a big enough fool to think this can't go back down.  In addition it's more about how much the portfolio firing off in dividends than it's actual total value.  But I'm not going to ignore the obvious correlation between portfolio size and dividend payout.  Put simply "the more, the more."

Frankly a stock sell off would be pretty cool right now as it's getting harder to find good values.  But in the mean time I'll enjoy the view from 30,000.

Mata ne,

Kechi