Well, I just passed my two year anniversary and now it’s time to post my May 2016 dividends. In May, I came in at $24.06 in dividends which is a small increase over May 2015. Here’s the breakdown:
| LOYAL3 | |
| Symbol | Dividend |
| AAPL | $0.06 |
| HAS | $0.54 |
| SBUX | $0.10 |
| ROTH IRA | |
| Symbol | Dividend |
| CLX | $5.61 |
| ATVI | $0.26 |
| AAPL | $4.12 |
| PG | $6.25 |
| MORL | $1.39 |
| HCP | $5.73 |
TOTAL: $24.06
Time flies when you’re tracking dividends. It is hard to believe I’ve kept this blog going for two years now. I know it isn’t always the most exciting blog but it really keeps me on task to follow my investing progress. And who knows, my journey might inspire somebody else to work towards financial independence. While two years of blogging isn’t setting any records, I’ve seen several dividend and finance blogs come and go over the past two years. In honor of the anniversary, I’ll link back to my first blog post and also share this Warren Buffett quote from my first post:
“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
– Warren Buffet
While I’ve spent countless hours reading and writing about dividend investing I’ve been making a costly mistake when it comes to investing in my children’s college education. With my eyes focused on my retirement accounts I’ve been blind to what’s been happening in my kids’ Educational Savings Accounts (ESA). Recently, I woke up from my ESA slumber and made some changes for the better.
Years ago, I opened Coverdell ESAs for my kids with USAA. Why USAA? Because that’s where I kept my checking, savings, and insurance products. I guess I was being lazy because it was convenient to keep my money at a one-stop shop. Until recently, I never realized how subpar the investing options were with USAA. Almost two years ago I discovered better brokerage services for my Roth IRA when I stopped funding my Roth with USAA and opened an account with Optionshouse. What I failed to recognize at the time was that my ESA accounts I had for my kids could also do better outside of USAA. Well, better late than never. I recently found a better ESA option by switching to Charles Schwab. Schwab has some great fee-free investment options that easily outperform the USAA mutual funds I was invested in. Also, the available USAA funds that were performing well had investment minimums which prevented me from putting my kids’ college investment in any of the decent USAA mutual funds. Luckily, I found Schwab and the minimum investment barriers were knocked down to a $1000 minimum.
Let’s compare the mutual fund I was using at USAA to the Schwab mutual fund I recently transferred my kids’ ESAs to.
OLD USAA ACCOUNT:
USCRX (USAA Cornerstone Moderately Aggressive Fund) : 5y = 2.45%, 10Y = 3.35%, Expense = 1.18%
NEW SCHWAB ACCOUNT:
SWPPX(Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund): 5y = 10.92%, 10y = 6.87%; Expense = .09%
Not only has the Schwab S&P 500 fund more than doubled the 10 year performance of the so-call moderately aggressive USAA fund, the Schwab fund’s expense is 1.09% less than USAA’s fund. A mistake like this could result in thousands of dollars of missed opportunities over time. Please learn from my mistake and do your homework when shopping ESAs.
April 2016 dividends are in so it’s time to share my progress. April was a lackluster month but I still brought in $5 more than last year. This April I brought in $25.17 which brings my annual total so far to $150.88. Here’s a breakdown of my April dividends.
| LOYAL3 | |
| Symbol | Dividend |
| KO | $4.46 |
| NKE | $0.04 |
| KHC | $1.32 |
| WMT | $1.45 |
| ROTH IRA | |
| Symbol | Dividend |
| KHC | $6.69 |
| PM | $5.48 |
| MORL | 5.73 |
TOTAL: $25.17
Looking ahead at May, I’m expecting another quiet month. Things will jump up again in June though. Thanks for stopping by!
Dear Dividend... 