Latest buy: WMT

The DOW is almost at its nominal all-time high. That doesn't mean all stocks are expensive, some are, some are fairly valued, and some are cheap. Even in an overvalued market, there are opportunities to pick op great businesses for reasonable prices. Back during the dot-com boom, it was really a large-cap stock bubble. Small stocks were perfectly fine. Most never were overvalued terribly, so they just kept plugging away as the tech bubble popped.

That said, I decided to pick up this dividend champion.

It was a good day for dividend growth investors

Sloppy growth, high unemployment, Europe in a recession, unsustainable Government debt, wars... These two dividend champions respond to the economic struggles by raising their cash distribution at a healthy clip:

The joy of dividends

Consider the following scenario:

Your friend, Joe, just got a job at Wal-Mart for $10 an hour. After FICA and other withholding he takes home $8. Over the course of the next two weeks Joe works 86 hours. That's 10 days, 8.6 hours a day, from 9.00 till 17.36, without breaks, sitting behind the cash register, sweeping floors and dealing with customers. 
At the end of this period his manager writes him a check for $688. Joe walks out of the building, to the parking lot, hands me the check without saying a word. I put it in my pocket, step into my car, and drive off into the sunset. Those 86 hours, as Joe was working, I was playing video-games, hanging out with friends, reading, watching movies and relaxing. Yet, I now have his paycheck.

Latest buy: WFC

With the markets skyrocketing towards their all-time highs, it becomes harder and harder to find quality businesses for reasonable prices. That said, I stick to the plan: Saving a large portion of the money I make and buying solid companies every month, build a solid portfolio while I'm still young and reap in the rewards later.  Let compounding do the heavy lifting for me.

January 2013 Dividend Income Update

Here's my first dividend income update: