I have set three main goals for my dividend growth investment portfolio:
First goal for 2016 is to at least invest $6,000 into my portfolio but will like to aim for $7,500 – $8,000. Pretty simple really, any funds I do not need for necessities and bills will be used towards my portfolio.
Second goal is to build my core portfolio on REIT companies who pay monthly dividends and/or have high dividend yield. I will do this for the first year of my portfolio growth and from there branch out to other sectors. The reason I plan on doing this is with monthly dividend payouts I can buy more stocks in my core REIT companies which in turn will increase my monthly dividend amount quicker. Great compounding in my mind!
My third goal which should really by my first goal is spend less each year from now on because the money I save can be used on my portfolio. The one thing that I spend too much money on is food. Sure we all need to eat but being a 33 year old single bachelor, I should not be spending $300 plus a month on food. My goal is to spend no more than $200 a month on food with my goal being closer to $150 as time goes on. This is a savings of $1200-$1800 a year. This leads me to my internet and mobile phone expense. Currently I have Verizon DSL which costs me $70.51 a month and in the process of switching to Comcast Xfinity Cable which will cost me around $49.95 plus taxes a month.
My Verizon service will not end until February 9th, (Update: As of 1/24/2016 I have canceled my Verizon service and now with Xfinity. Switching over sooner will save me a few dollars because of my last bill being prorated.) so I will have 2 bills for February but starting March I will be saving $15 a month which comes to $180 a year. For my mobile phone I use Ting which even right now I have saved about $65 a month from when I first had a mobile phone with AT&T which was costing me around $100 a month for services I did not need or use. I plan on saving even more by utilizing free wifi around my city which I can log onto instead of using my Ting’s service and doing so I plan on saving around $10-$17 a month which means a savings between $120-$204 a year.
Thanks for reading and I will see you in retirement.