About

Addendum

March 5, 2015 – I’m adding a note to update the “About” page (should have done this months ago).  I officially retired as of November 2014.  I have also completed my 401K rollover to an IRA with Fidelity.  I will be using these funds primarily for DG investing.  ** END OF UPDATE **
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July 2014 – My first official post on my own blog began a very short time ago, at the word “About” in the line above.  So yeah, I’m new at this.  I’m venturing out into the blog world to create a kind of journal.  Writing it down seems to help clarify things for me.  My name is Steve and I live in Michigan with my wonderful wife and furry children.

A couple years ago (2011 to be exact), I took an interest in dividend growth investing, or “DGI” as some like to call it.  During that year, we paid off our mortgage and became completely debt free.  I was pushing 60 years old and thoughts of retirement entered my brain on a frequent basis.  At about that time, my wonderful wife retired from her job as a school teacher, spending over 3 decades improving the minds of our youngsters.  I too will soon “go out to pasture”.  Should you be curious,  I have worked in public safety in one form or another for the last 40 years.  I’m getting to the “Dividend Gravy” part, I promise.

At any rate, I contributed to a 401K for oh, about 22 years.  My returns have not been impressive by any means, but not horrible.  In 1998, we both opened Roth accounts and watched them flounder with the whims of the market.  In 2011, while searching for an investing “mission” that I really wanted to hang my hat on, I came across dividend growth investing on SeekingAlpha.com.  It was the pair of shoes that I had been searching for.  For me it was a great fit and it was something I was comfortable with.  Hat….shoes…. too many clothing metaphors…. sorry.

Well, on to the “gravy” part.  The plain fact is that DGI can have a very profound impact on financial security in retirement when one begins the process fairly early in life.  Besides money, time is a critical element in accumulating significant wealth.  Clearly, I will never see the same benefit from DGI as would someone who begins the process in their twenties or thirties.  But, my wife has a decent pension.  I will have a semi-decent (aka small) pension.  We will have health insurance through my employer (a biggie in my book), and we will have Social Security.  Those things are the meat and potatoes of our retirement income.  I will at some point roll my 401K into an IRA at a brokerage.  That, along with our Roth accounts will be devoted to DGI.  Our dividend income will never put us in the lap of luxury but should add some lovely gravy to our plates.  So yup, this is my dividend gravy blog.  I’m still a relative newbie to the DGI process.  We’ll have to see how it goes, but I’m encouraged by the progress we have made so far.

I guess that’s about enough “About” for now.  Thanks for stopping by.