Top Posts Of The Week

Is it time to get in? Are we going lower? Is this a small correction or a beginning of a huge move down?

That sums up this week for me. I’m hearing everyone ask questions while no one really knows the answers. The jobs number on Friday will be a big factor but it will be a short term factor. Most dividend investors I follow don’t get wrapped up in short term factors.

I did have a little cash that I was able to put to work this week by adding a position in Leggett & Platt and Kraft. Pfizer and Williams-Sonoma are on my short list of stocks to watch but I’m going to stay patient over the next few weeks.

It’s been fun working on improving the tools section of this site this week and improving the lists. The most significant change has been adding Distributed Cash Flow and Coverage Ratio to the MLP list. That was a tough task that took many hours of work.

Now on to the top posts:

• Bloomberg had a great post that I missed last week highlighting companies with the fastest growing payouts. This is an important group to watch and consider over the next few months. Progressive, SunTrust and Regions Financial are all near the top of their list.
• If you are interested in retiring early take a look at DGI’s post on how to retire in 10 years with dividend stocks. There are some excellent points all dividend investors can use regardless of your retirement goals.
• My Own Advisor gives a personal account regarding cashing out your RRSP. I appreciate the real life example plus there is a lot of great info in the comment section as well.
• The Dividend Guy gives us solutions to compensate for low interest bond rates. I especially like point #8 but I am more than biased.
• Dividend Ninja has a good post that explains the Canadian version of the dividend aristocrats. This is part 1 of a 2 part series. While the rules are much more lenient for this group it is a good group to know.
• Dan Mac published a list of January 2014 dividend increases. Here’s to hoping one of these is in your portfolio.
• And finally the always interesting Financially Integrated asks an important question about job stability and wealth creation. I have recently come to value my steady well paying day job much more than I used to for many of the reasons listed in this post.