Dividends

Every year right around the end of January, I try to plan out my dividend income and capital allocation goals for the year. I started doing this in 2017, continued the process in 2018, and still find the process useful enough that I’m doing it again in 2019.

At the most basic level, my planning process amounts to putting excess cash to work from our Big Fat Cash Pile AND trying to put that cash into smart places that generate a growing stream of dividend income. The devil is in the details of course…

I’m not going to sugar coat the obvious here… the Tako family net worth declined in 2018. The year 2018 turned out to be a perfect showcase for stock market volatility.

Most of the year the stock market was in a happy place — The economy was growing, consumers were borrowing and spending more, and unemployment was also super low (all of which are important ingredients for a rising stock market).

It looked as if 2018 was going to be yet another year of positive stock market returns…

December is gone and a new year has begun! Now that 2019 is here, it’s time I did one of those final “tally-up” blog posts which detail all of our annual numbers. I’m usually just as curious as you guys to see how much we spent … and earned in dividends for 2018!

This last year was just a blur of activity…

The market giveth and the marketh taketh away. Lately the market has been doing a lot more taking away than it has giving.

That’s just how the investing game works! Market prices can vary significantly in any given year, and investors often get way too focused on the price….