Portfolio

Here is my current portfolio.  I'll update this monthly.

TICKER	SHARES	PRICE	Value	P/E	Weight	Dividend	Yield	Dividend
AFL	16	63.71	$1,019.36	9.88	1.03%	1.48	2.32%	$23.68
ARCP	319.2109	13.03	$4,159.32		4.22%	1.00	7.67%	$319.21
BAC	64	15.49	$991.36	25.08	1.01%	0.04	0.26%	$2.56
BAX	22	76.52	$1,683.44	21.55	1.71%	2.08	2.72%	$45.76
BNS	43	67.99	$2,923.57	13.58	2.97%	2.37	3.49%	$101.91
CVX	9	130.39	$1,173.51	12.7	1.19%	4.28	3.28%	$38.52
DE	8	87.63	$701.04	9.59	0.71%	2.40	2.74%	$19.20
DLR	46.716	61.23	$2,860.42	30.75	2.90%	3.32	5.42%	$155.10
ESV	30.4057	53.71	$1,633.09	8.98	1.66%	3.00	5.59%	$91.22
F	78.5891	17.72	$1,392.60	11.02	1.41%	0.50	2.82%	$39.29
GE	136	26.46	$3,598.56	18.1	3.65%	0.88	3.33%	$119.68
GM	35.286	37.41	$1,320.05	20.07	1.34%	1.20	3.21%	$42.34
IBM	3	192.5	$577.50	12.18	0.59%	4.40	2.29%	$13.20
INTC	233.7387	33.7	$7,876.99	16.72	7.99%	0.90	2.67%	$210.36
JNJ	12	101.8	$1,221.60	18.82	1.24%	2.80	2.75%	$33.60
KMI	73.919	37.55	$2,775.66	32.68	2.82%	1.68	4.47%	$124.18
KMP	36.6557	82.64	$3,029.23	23.65	3.07%	5.52	6.68%	$202.34
KO	65.4685	42.43	$2,777.83	22.58	2.82%	1.22	2.88%	$79.87
Malox	471.547	22.07	$10,407.04		10.56%	0.1522	1.46%	$150.00
Mdlox	277.339	21.96	$6,090.36		6.18%	0.124	1.21%	$73.69
NU	68.095	45.54	$3,101.05	18.16	3.15%	1.57	3.45%	$106.91
OHI	26	38.56	$1,002.56	24.55	1.02%	2.00	5.19%	$52.00
PG	9	80.55	$724.95	21.71	0.74%	2.57	3.19%	$23.13
PM	45.4914	86.02	$3,913.17	16.69	3.97%	3.76	4.37%	$171.05
PSEC	386.127	10.67	$4,119.98	8.82	4.18%	1.33	12.46%	$513.55
SDRL	60.1422	37.5	$2,255.33	3.47	2.29%	4.00	10.67%	$240.57
SLW	63.415	26.64	$1,689.38	29.55	1.71%	0.28	1.05%	$17.76
SO	54.2565	44.89	$2,435.57	20.74	2.47%	2.10	4.68%	$113.94
T	73	36.17	$2,640.41	10.54	2.68%	1.84	5.09%	$134.32
TGT	54.3177	60.01	$3,259.61	20.3	3.31%	2.08	3.47%	$112.98
V	2	220.2	$440.40	26.04	0.45%	1.60	0.73%	$3.20
VTR	15	64.73	$970.95	39.42	0.98%	2.90	4.48%	$43.50
VZ	13	50.75	$659.75	11.35	0.67%	2.12	4.18%	$27.56
WMT	50.3124	77.09	$3,878.58	16	3.93%	1.92	2.49%	$96.60
WR	102.045	36.82	$3,757.30	15.36	3.81%	1.40	3.80%	$142.86
XEL	108.915	31.81	$3,464.59	16.31	3.51%	1.20	3.77%	$130.70
XOM	20.1357	102.73	$2,068.54	13.89	2.10%	2.76	2.69%	$55.57
VTI	2	102.14	$204.28	4.25	0.21%	0.423	1.74%	$0.85
			$98,594.64		100.00%		3.86%	$3,871.92

Investment Stategy

After a hiatus of not posting anything, I've returned!  I failed miserably on trying to post a new entry everyday for 2 weeks.  Life just got busier and harder.  And here I am trying to figure out finding the perfect balance in life.  One thing I've been doing a lot lately is reading other blogs.  I think I enjoy reading more than writing.  I love learning other people's point of views, and the way they approach their own lives.  What I mainly been reading about is investing.  Specifically, dividend growth investing.  One of my goals is financial independence by the time I'm 45.  And a big part of achieving that independence is formulating a strategy of receiving income after retirement.  Meaning, I want to exit the rat race at 45, and live off other forms of investments.

After many months of research and study, I've decided to pursue the route of dividend growth investing. So what is dividend growth investing?  Dividend growth investing is investing in high value companies that have been continually raising their dividends year over year.  Take for example Coca-Cola.  It has raised it's dividend consecutively for the past 51 years!  And it pays about a 3% yield.  Doesn't matter if the market is up or down, Coca-Cola still raised it's dividend.  This stock is also Warren Buffet's 2nd largest holding.  This strategy invests in companies like Coca-Cola, to help pay for my future.  I'm grateful for such strong diligent companies, that they would set aside some of their profit to help me become financially secure in the future.

Before I decided to pursue dividend growth investing, I did what many people do, invest in mutual funds/index funds, stash cash into a savings account, and fund a 401k plan.  This can work for most people, but if you're trying to get out of the rat race sooner, definitely won't work.  For the past 6 months, I've been trying to rebalance my portfolio, and let it work for me.  I've been selling off my mutual funds and been putting that capital towards dividend growth stocks.  I'm now up to 36 positions and what I feel like is a pretty diversified portfolio.  I still have a long ways to go and adjustments that I want to make.  I'll probably be posting what consists of my portfolio and show my research into companies I own and want to own.  I hope I can continue to grow my portfolio and learn what others are doing.

What's your investing strategy?