Articles Comments

My Financial Independence Journey » Entries tagged with "investing"

The Difference Between Yield and Yield On Cost

The Difference Between Yield and Yield On Cost

Yield is basically just a fancy term for return on investment.  However, “Yield” and “Yield on Cost” (YOC for short) are two related terms that I see confused, conflated, and generally misunderstood by way too many people and way too often.  This usually happens when someone fires off an article or blog post saying how dividend growth investing is a terrible idea.  Familiarizing yourself with the difference between these two terms is easy and very … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing

Getting to Know the S&P500

Getting to Know the S&P500

Everybody and their uncle is familiar with the S&P500 index as a indicator of how well the economy is doing and as a benchmark for their own success as an investor.  But how much do people really know about the S&P500 and it’s component companies? … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing

The Pitfalls of Ethical Investing

The Pitfalls of Ethical Investing

From time to time, I hear about people who are concerned about ethical investing.  Ethical investing does not refer to avoiding the Goldman Sacs style of investing where you sell a product to one group of people while simultaneously placing bets against the product.  That would definitely not be ethical, although it is a shrewd business model.  Rather, ethical investing is all about making sure that your investments are properly aligned with your moral and … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing

A Primer on Federal Income and Investment Taxes

A Primer on Federal Income and Investment Taxes

Tax season is upon us yet again.  We all pay an exorbitant amount of money in taxes.  Seriously, go look at your pay statement and see how much money was ripped out of it by the government.  It’s okay if you feel the need to sob uncontrollably while drowning your sorrows in a bottle of vodka after that.  I’ll wait.  I think most of us are intimidated by taxes, but because we pay so much … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing, Reflections

Dividend Growth Investing vs the S&P500

Dividend Growth Investing vs the S&P500

I’ve always wondered how my dividend growth portfolio was doing vs some common index, like the S&P500.  I’ve got lots of S&P stocks like CocaCola (KO) in there.  But I’m missing some of the big boys like Apple.  So does the lack of certain non-dividend stocks hinder my capital gains?  Maybe it helps? I’ve heard a lot of investors say that they think that their dividend growth stocks are as good as an index fund.  Thinking … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing

8 Things To Do Before You Start Investing (or most of personal finance summed up in one post)

8 Things To Do Before You Start Investing (or most of personal finance summed up in one post)

The basics.  Everything starts with the basics.  Personally, I’m pretty excited about dividend growth investing and achieving financial independence.  I’m presuming you are too. But before one can embark on this journey, there is a whole universe of personal finance that must be mastered.  But fear not, it’s really not that hard.  If you’re determined and moderately intelligent (as I’m sure you are, as you’re reading this blog) you’ll blitz through this list in no … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing, Reflections

Achieving a 10% yield on cost in 10 years

Achieving a 10% yield on cost in 10 years

Many dividend growth investors consider how long it will take a given stock to reach a 10% yield on cost (YOC).  The ideal target is for a 10% YOC to be achieved within 10 years.  How quickly a stock reaches a 10% YOC is a function of the yield at the time of purchase and the dividend growth rate.  Math, a table, and an example all follow! … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing

Man Up and Admit Your Money Mistakes In Order to Learn and Improve

Man Up and Admit Your Money Mistakes In Order to Learn and Improve

If you’ve been investing in anything for a reasonable period of time, you’ve undoubtedly lost money somewhere along the line.  I know I have.  So at the risk of embarrassing myself, I thought I’d lead us on a little trip down memory lane, where I recount some of my failures and see if I learned anything along the way. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing

The Big Blog FAQ Part 1

The Big Blog FAQ Part 1

Suba at WealthInformatics left a comment on my previous post about my asset allocation.  Which was very awesome of her.  Unfortunately, she asked so many good questions that just one comment reply couldn’t hold all the answers.  And the comment reply filled up and filled up until it hemorrhaged out into a blog post.  Thus, we have the this blog’s first FAQ.  And why “part 1″?  Because I’m sure that more parts will follow as … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing, MFIJ blog