Mega Dividend Growth Investing Update (PPC Ian)

Hey friends, it's so good to be back. It has been a while. Thank you for your patience with me. In the video today, I want to cover seven dividend stocks that I personally own. They all have big news. I want to share with all of you the ones I'm buying right now. I have a number of other stock market updates that I want to share with all of you. I have yet another segment later in the video where I want to go through something I'm doing for my kids right now in terms of financial investing, financial planning. It's a big video today. So, let's get started. The first stock that I want to share with all of you is McDonald's. As you can see on the screen in front of you right now, McDonald's just announced their earnings and the earnings came in reasonably strong. It's exciting to see overall that the systemwide sales at McDonald's are up 4% and EPS earnings per share is up 11%. It was a really strong quarter for McDonald's. Also, the consolidated operating income increased 7% and adjusted 8% for the quarter. I think a lot of people counted this stock out. A lot of people were concerned about this stock and it fell quite a bit in share price. Now, unfortunately, over the last week or so, the stock has been rallying. I don't like that because I want to buy more shares at bargain basement prices. As you can see on the screen in front of you right now, here are a few things about McDonald's that I wanted to share with all of you today. My patrons on the backyard and corner tiers already know this. I'll include a link to that in the pin comment below because I share my trades over there. But I've been buying a lot of McDonald's. It's been one of those stocks that I've been buying almost on a weekly basis. Some of my recent buy orders are shared right here. I bought at $2751 240 and10 232.9 234.85 and again at 26354. Now, the stock has rallied all the way back up to $2784. Personally, I'm still buying here, but I do think it's fairly valued, and I don't want to buy too much more if it trends up a lot from here. But what's interesting to see is the lowest forward PE that I was able to capture during this downturn was my $232.99 trunch. And that put the forward PE for 2026 at 18.0. 09. Now at the current share price of 27804, the forward PE on projected 2026 earnings is 21.59. I believe at 21.59, the stock is fairly valued. Now, the dividend yield, the best dividend yield I got on my lowest tunch of 232.99 was a solid 3.3%. This is right around my portfolio average, but this stock in general has a dividend growth rate above my portfolio average and I project that they will continue to grow the dividend quite well. Now, the current starting dividend yield is 2.8%. That's a little bit on the lower side because it has rallied a bit. Now, my first Tron simple dividend yield on cost is a staggering 10.5% because I've been in this stock a very long time. And that's simple. That doesn't even include reinvested dividends. That is the power of long-term DGI, dividend growth investing. What I want to share about this stock and each of the stocks as I go forward in the video today is a lesson. So the lesson that I learned from this situation with McDonald's is stock sales, they will only last so long. Sometimes a sale will last a few weeks, sometimes a few months, sometimes a few years. We're going to talk about one later that lasted for quite a few years. But with McDonald's, this setback, this sale, if you will, it only lasted a number of months, and now it's back to fair value. And so, what I have learned as a long-term dividend growth investor is when I see a core quality company like McDonald's go on sale, I buy it. And I buy it as much as I can, as quickly as I can, because I just never know how long the sales will last. Now, again, I'm still buying McDonald's here, but it really is at that inflection point. So, that's the first stock today. Now, put a like on this video if you own McDonald's or you like McDonald's, if you're loving it like I am. And please share in the comments below, too, what you think about McDonald's. Now, I want to keep going. The next stock that I want to cover today, as you can see on the screen in front of you right now, is Pepsico. This is another core stock for me. It is one of my old positions that I've held for a very, very long amount of time. And as you can see on the screen in front of you right now, they recently announced earnings as well. And the big headlines are that net income increased by 5.6% and core constant currency EPS grew by 1 and a.5%. Now, of course, 1 and a.5% EPS growth is not what we want to see as investors. We'd like to see what McDonald's is showing. That being said, right now for a CPG food, salty snack foods company like PepsiCo, seeing that growth on the EPS and of course the revenue as well is a really nice to see. And so I think things are not over for this company. I think they're facing a time of challenge, a time of setback, but I think it will be back. It is one of my core stocks. Now I want to share some fun facts about PepsiCo. As you can see on the screen in front of you right now, this is another one I'm buying right now. I'm not buying it as aggressively as McDonald's, and I don't plan to buy it as aggressively as McDonald's, but I cannot ignore PepsiCo at the current prices. Now, some of my recent buy orders were at $128.34. That one was amazing. And also 13,445. Currently, it's at 14271. Recently, there's been a flight to quality. Let me take a step back. There's a lot of uncertainty right now. I think a lot of investors are concerned about these quote unquote hyperscalers and the huge capex that's going behind the AI trade. They're wondering if it's sustainable or not. Money, it seems investors are rotating back to a flight to quality and stocks like McDonald's, Pepsico. Look, we all need to eat. They're not going anywhere. These are comfort foods as well during times of turbulence, political just kind of uncertainty. what's happening in politics right now. A lot is changing very quickly and the market doesn't like a lot of change. People don't like a lot of change. There's a flight to quality. And so stocks like McDonald's and PepsiCo have been rallying. And again, this is why I like to buy these types of stocks when they are on sale because I know sooner or later there's going to be some drama in our world and there's always going to be a flight to quality. But as you can see on the screen in front of you right now with PepsiCo on my recent purchase, the best one at $128.34, I was able to capture a forward PE on 2026 earnings of 15.24. Now the current forward PE at the current price of 14271 is a 16.95. I might add some more PepsiCo here. I see more value there than at McDonald's, but I also see a little less quality than at McDonald's. Now, what I also want to share with all of you are the dividend yields. Now, on my lowest tunch, lowest share price tunch I just bought of 12834, the starting dividend yield is a staggering 4.6%. I never thought I'd see the day that PepsiCo would offer a starting yield of 4.6%. Now, on the current share price of 14271, the starting yield is 4.1%, which is still higher than I thought I'd see for PepsiCo. My first trunch simple yield on cost for PepsiCo because I've held it a very long time, not even including the reinvested dividends is 9.3%. Just a little lower than my McDonald's which was at 10.5%. Now what I would say the big lesson is with PepsiCo is that quality can go on sale. Same lesson with McDonald's. But also what I would say is the market can change its mind about what is quality. It can repric a stock if it thinks it went from quality to ancillary. And that's what I think happened with PepsiCo. It's been repriced a bit. I don't think the market is putting as much quality on it in the pricing as it was before. But I still see a ton of quality at PepsiCo. It's on sale. I think the market's confused. I'm all over it because let's face it, with stocks like PepsiCo right now, they are strained a little bit over worries about GLP1s. But I think things will come full circle. There's always going to be a mean reversion in my opinion where people will come back to these foods over time in my humble opinion. And I'm not sure GLP1s are going to be as sticky as everyone thinks, but only time will tell. I still think PepsiCo is a great stock. I want to keep going for my personal opinion of course. Now, worth noting in the video today, today's video is not investment advice. I'm not a licensed investment advisor. I'm just sharing my journey for fun and entertainment. It's possible to lose money in the stock market. Now, also worth noting in the description below, as always, I have all my disclosures and disclaimers as well. Let's keep going. Stock number three, as you can see on the screen in front of you right now, the next one that I want to cover that just had an earnings release is ABV. Oh my goodness, one of my favorite investments of all time. No one liked it. Now everyone likes it. So, I'm not buying ABV right now, but it is a long-term hold for me. The big thing you see in front of you right now is the Q3 results and they were able to grow net revenues by 10.3% and adjusted diluted EPS was over 100% growth. That's right, over 100% growth. Also, they recently announced a 5.3% dividend increase. How many of you remember those ABV videos from back in the day? Put in the comments below. Thank you for being here all these years. I'm still holding Abby strong. I'm never gonna sell the thing and I'm excited to own it. Now, I want to share with all of you some takeaways I have from my experience investing in Abby. As you can see on the screen in front of you right now, what I want to share is that my first trunch simple dividend yield on cost has surpassed 10%. It's now 10 and a half%. Amazing. That's really the magic number for me. I'm always targeting a simple dividend yield on cost of 10% or more when I make these investments. And it's fun to see that come to fruition after all of these years. I would say with Abby, this is a classical case example of deep value contrarian investing. Turnarounds can work. They don't always work, but they can work. And Abby is a perfect case of that. I bought it when it was on deep discount. I bought it before the Allergan merger, and I had a suspicion that it was undervalued. But let's face it, let's look at reality. All these years later, it has far exceeded my expectations as an investor. I'm so excited to see it. And so, I hit the 10% yield on cost milestone there. I can't wait to see 20%. I'll get to one of those later in the video, by the way. Now, the next stock is so interesting. This one is CocaCola. Check it out on the screen. Let's talk about CocaCola. This one just seems like it's been hitting new all-time highs almost every day. Now, if you're over on X, please follow me. I'm talking about Coca-Cola there all the time. And this one is fun to celebrate. The Q3 results were great. Net revenues grew 7%. Comparable EPS non-GAAP grew 11% year-over-year. Who would have thought? And what's so fun about this again, flight to quality, and also let's not put aside these old quality companies, oldw world companies. Look, they make sodas, they make beverages, but they can still grow their business. And so I think in this world where everyone is so focused on AI, on this hyperscalers, on this compute, all of this jargon, let's not forget that there are old school companies like Coca-Cola that can continue to provide investors great returns, stability, and growth and dividend growth. Now, as you can see on the screen in front of you right now, let's talk about this. So with CocaCola, my first trunch simple yield on cost, it's not at 10% yet. It's not even at 9% like PepsiCo. I have a ways to go, but it's at 6.8%. So I'll take it. That's pretty good. The big lesson here is this thing peaked in 1998. And it really took all the way until 2015 to reach that same peak again. And so everyone right now is celebrating Coca-Cola. And they're acting as if of course Coca-Cola was always better than Pepsi. But there have been times when Pepsi has outpaced Coca-Cola. There are times like now where Coca-Cola's outpacing Pepsi. I think they're both great companies. They're both different companies. Coca-Cola is pure play beverages. PepsiCo is a conglomerate of salty snack foods and different foods um and beverages. But anyway, patience. Look, it went nowhere for a long time. But imagine the investor that accumulated shares all those years now to see it reaching new all-time highs almost every day. I think it's really important today, especially those of you watching this video right now, especially if you're newer to investing, to exercise patience. We're at a time right now where stocks are expensive. Look, some of them on this list I'm sharing were cheap, like McDonald's and Pepsi. They're not as cheap anymore. and I'm still adding to them, but I'm going to get to this in a minute. I'm not quite as exciting adding to them now as I was. Now is a time to be patient. Stocks are expensive. We're in a world right now, too, where there are a lot of unknowns. And there could be a decade where, hey, some stocks could go nowhere like Coca-Cola did all those years. But the important point is that's not to be looked down upon. That's an exciting time. That's the best time to invest. I'm still accumulating shares. I need a lot more shares across my portfolio to reach my passive income goals. I'd rather buy when share prices are cheap. I always celebrate new all-time highs, new 52- week highs because it's fun, but I don't want to forget I like to accumulate when the shares are stagnating in price. And so, let's keep going. I got more stocks to cover today. If you're enjoying the video today so far, please don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I'm not doing new videos as much as I used to, but when I do publish videos, I am trying to make them a lot longer, more thorough than ever before. And I appreciate all of you so much who have been here all these years. But let's keep going. Check it out on the screen right now. So, the next stock that I want to cover in the video today is a REIT. It's Realy Income. And so, you can see their earnings on the screen. And Realy Income is really special. This is my favorite REIT. and I work I'm a real estate professional. I work in the real estate space and what I'm seeing at Realy Income at their scale is special based on my experience as a professional in the industry. They grew their AFO by 3.7% year-over-year in an environment right now that's quite frankly not that friendly to real estate. It's a tough environment to be a real estate investor because of interest rates. But one thing that I saw at Realy Income is they're securing really good rates because of their scale and they have 98.8% portfolio occupancy. Let me repeat that. This is a number worth repeating. 98.8% occupancy right now where things are not always easy in the real estate space. This is a company that has figured it out. They've got the scale. They've got the great cost of capital. They have the great deal sourcing. They have the great deals. I love realy income and it's performed so well for me. They are and they trademarked this the monthly dividend company. I rely on their monthly dividends. But check it out in front of you right now. Just a few things to note with realy income. My first trunch yield on cost simple not counting reinvested dividends is 7.6%. So it's below my 10% but it's getting there. It's exciting to see it grow over time. And a lesson here, even in a high interest rate environment, the best operations in the real estate industry can thrive. And so I like REITs here overall. I'm going to talk about this later. Well, I'll just talk about it now. Vichy, it's a new stock that I own. And this one's a little bit more controversial. I'll link to it in the pin comment below. I did a video about it um recently live from Las Vegas when I was there. I bought Vichi. I'll probably buy some more in December. Um, I hope I plan on it. But I love that one. And I like REITs in general now because a lot of REITs of high quality are under pressure. And when good quality companies that I believe can stand the test of time or under pressure, that's when I like to buy. Not when they're hitting new all-time highs, but I like to celebrate the all-time highs. Let's keep going. This is perhaps my favorite investment. One of them at least. Maybe Starbucks is my favorite, just cuz I love Starbucks. Check out. I got the barista and the Christmas tree uh glass um cup today. Thanks to my wife who went to Starbucks for me on my behalf and brought home all of these goodies. It's so fun this time of year at Starbucks. But anyway, we'll get to that later. First, check it out. Thug life. Altria. All right, so Altria, I'm not adding now, but I'm holding strong. This one just keeps growing in my portfolio. I always try to derisk my portfolio by diversification, but the sin stocks just keep doing so well that um the percentage of my portfolio that they comprise is holding strong, if not growing. Net revenues grew 1% year-over-year, but 3.6% net of excise taxes. Adjusted diluted EPS grew 4.8% year-over-year. So, those are some really good metrics from their recent earnings report, and that underscores how the business is doing fine. The business is doing great. Times of uncertainty, people need simple comforts in life. They need comforts like Starbucks. They need comforts like Altria. They need comforts like McDonald's and the products PepsiCo makes as well. Don't count these out during turbulent times. In fact, I like to embrace these brands because of how they do during turbulent times because I think turbulent times are here to stay. Check it out on the screen in front of you right now. Let's talk about Altria. So, my first trunch simple yield on cost is almost hard to believe. It's now 27.8%. That's right. I started buying this thing at $15.99, not even counting reinvested dividends. I'm yielding almost 30%, 27.8. It's going to reach 30% sometime in the next few years, I think. And um that's amazing. But many of you remember, and I'll link to this in the pin comment below, I made a huge trade in 2023. I believe it was late in the year Altria was on sale. Everyone thought it would go under. Well, my yield on cost on that more recent tunch, which was very big, is already 11%. The lesson here is so important. Just because people may not like a company, does not mean that it's over for the company. Let me repeat that. In 2023, there was the buying opportunity of a lifetime in my opinion in Altria. And so many people missed it because they believed that this company ought to go out of business. They just don't like it. They don't think it deserves to be around for whatever reason. Obviously, I believe the company deserves to be around. And I believe in responsible adult consumers making choices on behalf of themselves and having the luxury of partaking and enjoying the products that Altria sells if they so choose. But just because people out there have something bad to say about a company, one, they may be completely wrong. And two, the company may be fine. I think Altria is a case study, if you will, of just that situation. But let's keep going. I've got more news, more stocks to cover. Check it out on the screen in front of you right now. So, the next one that I want to cover is Starbucks, of course. And I'm not adding here. It's kind of expensive, but I'm holding strong. So fiscal Q4 results you can see in front of you right now. The back to Starbucks plan has worked. Uh Brian Nickel is a management genius I guess. Um and his team of course worked so hard. All the partners deserve credit. Global Q4 comparable coffee house sales were up 7.2% year-over-year. Q4 non-GAAP EPS grew 54%. Let me repeat that. Q4 non-GAAP EPS growth of 54%. I want to repeat this again because this is just like Altria and these things get me a little fired up. There are so many people out there that for whatever reason they don't like Starbucks. They don't like it because they say the coffee is too expensive. This that and the other. Well, the numbers don't lie and the numbers show that America and the world has embraced this company and it is growing just fine. Just like Altria because they provide a simple everyday comfort that consumers like myself love. I make Starbucks coffee at home now most days of the week. I buy their Pike Place roast. It's my favorite. But also, I go to the cafes all the time. And yes, the coffee can be a little bit pricey. But what isn't pricey these days? We have faced inflation on all fronts. Bad inflation. And during times of bad inflation, people just want an escape. They just want something nice. And the coffee, I believe, when I enjoy it, is so delicious at Starbucks. And I'm excited to share that they're doing great. Brian Nickel, all the partners, amazing work. As you can see on the screen in front of you right now, check it out. With Starbucks, my first trunch yield on cost isn't that high. I've got a long way to go. It's 4.28%. But that's not bad. I'll take it. Um, the lesson here is patience and that turnarounds can happen. And patience in particular. I want to talk about patience here because I need more patience with Starbucks. Originally, my vision for this investment is that I thought it could have the scale of McDonald's over time. And I still believe that. I think it's just going to take more time. Let's give it another 10 years. check back with me then. Now, I want to keep going. These are kind of my bigger updates that I just did, seven stocks that I own, but I also want to go through some other news with all of you today. And so, check it out. I got some other news I want to share. The first one I want to share is SCD. It just keeps reaching new all-time highs. I want to um give a shout out to Craig. Craig is my friend over on X. He's also on Instagram and he has an ex account all about SCHD and shares so many helpful insights and updates on SCHD over there. And he's kind of a a great um resource for SCHD information. But let's just talk about this ETF. A few years ago it was on sale. Many of you remember I was buying aggressively. Now it's one of the largest positions in my portfolio. not only because I put a lot of money into it, but because it's flourished and done well. And if you look back in time, there were a lot of haters back then. They thought it was over. But now the the chatter out there about SCHD, it's generally pretty positive. I don't see much hate about it anymore. And it just goes to show around sentiment and how when the sentiment is bad, especially for a quality asset, that can be a good time to buy the asset if it's a high quality asset. But I'm so excited about SCHD. But on the other hand, I'm not because I want to buy more, but I'm not adding at these levels. Although, I am picking up some SCHY still, which is the international version of SCHD that appears right now to have higher dividend growth. At least it does year-over-year. Let's see if it's sustainable. That I don't know. Now, I have more insights, more news I want to share with you. Just check it out on the screen. So, a lot of you have probably been wondering, Ian, what are you doing with Honeywell Aerospace? What you see in front of you right now is their press release. They announced a dividend and the dividend came through. It's only about 1% uh yield on the current share price and I believe that the dividend will continue to grow over time, but right now the starting yield is low. So I had been thinking in my mind, hey, in the Q3 earnings, if Honeywell Aerospace did not announce a dividend, I'm going to sell the thing and put the money in McDonald's. That was basically my plan. But because they initiated a dividend, I'm going to stay the course. I'm holding it. Honeywell, Honeywell Aerospace, Solstice, letting it be. I'm going to let it be from here. But unfortunately, what happened out of that whole split up so far is the dividends were reduced because Honeywell, Honeywell Aerospace, Solstice, they all pay lower dividends than the conglomerate did when they were all combined. And so I am really looking to them to grow these dividends over time. I need exposure to industrials and that's why I'm staying strong. I think aerospace is a huge area of growth for the future. And I think that the baby boomer generation which has about $90 trillion of assets, they want to spend their money and they want to enjoy it for themselves. And what they're going to do is spend it on experiences like travel. And so I think aerospace and um air travel is going to continue to be strong. And I think Honeywell as a result, Honeywell Aerospace will do just fine. And I want exposure to that theme through Honeywell Aerospace because I don't have a lot of it in my portfolio um at a high level. And so let's go through some other news. Check it out on the screen in front of you right now. What I want to share next is what I uh did with some low performers in the portfolio. I had two stocks, Dutch Bros and Magnum Ice Cream Company. I sold both of them because I realized there's no room in the portfolio for non-productive assets in terms of cash flow. I took the money, I reinvested it. I believe it was into SCHY where I reinvested it and so I sold those. Um, also I like treasury bonds here. I like emergency fund savings here because I can earn a good interest rate. Now, now my dividend stocks have been rallying quite a bit the last few weeks. until they go on sale again. I may just be parking cash, being more cautious, being a little slower. That's just where I am right now. If I filmed this video, say 3 weeks ago, I would have a completely different outlook. I would be all about McDonald's. But right now, things are expensive, but thankfully we have some alternatives with bonds, notes, bills, and um savings, just um interest rates as well. I like Vichi here as a small ancillary position. Um, I'll probably add some of that in December. So, this was the first segment of my video today, everyone. I appreciate you. If you haven't done so already, please click that like button on the video today. It means the world to me. I want to see maybe I can get to 500 likes on this video. We'll see. That's a challenge these days, but I got to try. So, I'm going to go into the next segment of the video next, and then I'll close it out in the third segment later. It's going to be kind of a multi-segment video because I know you've been waiting for a while to hear from me. I've missed all of you. I can't wait to see you in the comments below and I'll see you right now in the next segment. Hey friends. So here on PPCE and you hear me covering dividend stocks all the time. I talk about my journey as a dividend investor and my cash flow needs. But one element of my personal financial picture that I don't discuss that much is saving for the future. Not just my future, but our kids. And so my wife and I, we have two wonderful kids. And I'm always thinking about how I can save for their future because think about it. Right now inflation is very high. Right now there is a lot of uncertainty. We don't know what's going to happen with AI and what the job landscape is going to look like in the future. And so I think the kids these days they're going to need all the help that they can get towards their retirement and towards building income for their future. And so sometimes or I should say oftentimes politics it can really get aggravating to watch politics in the modern era because it's so volatile. It's so unpredictable. But I want to share one thing with all of you that came out of politics that I am so excited about and that is the Trump accounts. And so I was having a PPC and meetup in the Bay Area with my friends Sam, Mike, and Andy. And we were talking about Trump accounts. And I went home, I did my research. I ended up opening Trump accounts for both of our kids. And so I want to talk about Trump accounts today. What I learned along the way going through the process of setting them up, what they are, what they're not, and why I like them is part of my overall financial picture when I look towards the future for my kids. So check it out on the screen in front of you right now. This is just a really quick overview of Trump accounts. This is all the information that I learned about Trump accounts. And worth noting, they are eligible to be funded with up to $5,000 per year per child. And that $5,000 limit, it includes all money going in, which also includes the free money that some kids may get from the federal government and or from Michael and Susan Dell's generous contribution, but it's $5,000 per year per child. Now, the money can be invested and uh contributed to the account from parents, grandparents, caregivers, really anyone, but it's subject to gift tax limits. And so, keep that in mind if you're giving a lot of money to your kids each year or your grandparents are giving a lot of money to the kids. Now, in terms of investing, it autoinvests into the S&P 500. This is something that I wanted to discuss right away on this slide. I think it's so exciting. When I look at my financial picture, Ian PPC Ian, I don't really invest in the S&P 500 for a few reasons. One reason is it just doesn't pay a large dividend. It's not going to get me anywhere in terms of my cash flow goals. The second reason is it's way too risky for me. It is topheavy with highly volatile tech stocks. It's just too volatile for me. I can't stomach the draw down. I can't do it. Now, the third thing is my investment time horizon is just not long enough to take on that kind of risk of investing in the S&P 500. I use my dividends right now and I'm getting closer and closer to using more dividends and so I can't invest in it. What I love about this though for my kids, they have such a longterm time horizon that the S&P 500 may be a wonderful vehicle for them. And so when we invest in the Trump accounts for the kids, that money right now at least the way it's set up with the app right now, it just goes into the S&P 500 index. I love this as a dividend investor because it gives for the overall family's financial picture a new avenue of exposure to long-term compounding in these highly volatile tech stocks that are in the S&P 500. that may not make as much sense for me and my risk tolerance, but could make all the sense in the world for my kids. And so, that's really exciting and worth mentioning here. Check it out on the screen. Let's keep going. So, I've got a few more things I want to share. Just in terms of logistics, this app right now is managed by Robin Hood. So, if you go on the app store, you download the app, you get started. It is actually an app that is a government related app for Trump accounts, but Robin Hood is the platform that powers that app right now. Now, when someone is contributing money to these Trump accounts, what happens is you connect your bank account to the Trump accounts platform via a software called Plaid, which is an integration software to connect financial accounts. Now, worth mentioning just the app, it can manage if you have multiple kids like we do, um you can manage all of the accounts for your children via one login on the Trump accounts. Now what I want to share with all of you I think is really important. So there's this concept of giving money. It can come from the parents. It can come from the grandparents. It can come from a caregiver. Now for those who are contributing to their kids via trump accounts and other vehicles a lot of money each year. Those types of people can run up against these gift tax limits. And for that reason, what I like to do with Trump accounts, for example, if the grandparents were going to contribute, is link it directly to their checking via Plaid. So, anyone who's contributing to the Trump accounts, the parents, the grandparents, the caregiver, I personally, not investment advice, not tax advice, but I like it to be clean. I like a clean record of who gave the money because you could do it this way as well. Hey, the grandparents write the parents a check, then the parents put the money in the Trump accounts. Maybe that's fine if someone's nowhere near gift tax limits. But as people get closer to the gift tax limits, I think it's really important just to be very clear on who is gifting the money, who is giving the money. And the way that that can be done is that the person contributing the money into the Trump account should have a direct connection with Plaid, whether it's the grandparents, the parents, or even someone else. So, something I just wanted to point out, worth mentioning. Now, check it out on the screen in front of you right now. I want to keep going. And so, worth noting, Trump accounts have been created for all children in the United States who are citizens with a social security number whose parents filled out a form 4547 on the 2025 tax return. So, if you're wondering if you have Trump accounts for your kids or not, go back to your tax return and see if form 45547 was filled out. I believe if that form was not filled out, there still may be opportunities to fill that form out after the fact. And so, that will create the Trump accounts. Now, the Trump accounts, they're just kind of sitting in the background and they're not really activated. You don't really have access to manage them until you sign up through the official app. But filing that paper with the tax return is a very important first step. Now, let's keep going. As you can see on the screen in front of you right now, I want to keep going. There is some free money. Now, I think this is the greatest act of charity I've ever witnessed in my lifetime. Michael and Susan Dell gave $6.25 billion to Trump accounts. $250 per account. Now, it really depends on the zip code, when the account was opened, who was the first adopter, and it won't go to all kids. 6.25 billion is a lot of money, but it won't cover everyone. But my goodness, what an act of charity. Michael and Susan Dell, that is incredible. And what I like about this is sometimes with charity, it feels like, hey, is the middleman taking a cut? When you give it to a charitable organization, you wonder what is their overhead of operations? How much are the board of directors taking home? How much are people getting paid along the way? What I like about what Michael and Susan Dell did is they gave the charity directly to the kids. There's no middleman, per se. There's nothing taken out of the middle. It just goes to the kids. And so, this is an incredible thing that just happened. One other thing I want to mention though, as you can see on the screen, is if you're watching and you have a child who is born between January 1st of 2025 and the present day and all the way up in the future to December 31st of 2028, the government will seed the account with $1,000 per child born. And so that's pretty exciting. That's free money right there. Um, personally, um, I still see advantages of these accounts even without the free money. Now, I want to go on to taxation, though. So, you're wondering, hey, how is this stuff taxed other than the free money, money that goes in is post tax dollars. It's not pre-tax. It's post tax. And so, when the money is eventually pulled out, principal pulled out, generally speaking, if it's principal you put in, not the free money, it's going to be taxfree because it is post tax dollars. Now, the gains are going to be subject to ordinary income tax, and money that was free money is going to be subject to taxes when it's taken out. What happens with these Trump accounts? And so, basically, at a high level, if you have kids right now that are under 18, you can contribute up to $5,000 per kid. Now, this happens all the way up till they're 18 years old. When they're 18 years old, the Trump account converts into a traditional IR and it goes from custodian of the parents to the property and the responsibility of the child who is now an adult who has turned 18. And so, as you can see on the screen in front of you right now, let's keep going. You can see I have something on there at the bottom about withdrawals. So, what happens like, hey, okay, your kid turns 18. What's happening with this money? Ideally, it would compound and be saved in that IRA until they turn 59 and a half or later and can basically take the money out um for their retirement. And again, the principal taken out as long as it wasn't the free money. It's just principal that the parents or caregivers grandparents put in. That's not subject to tax, but the gains will be subject to the ordinary income tax of the um retiree at that time. Now, if the money is taken out before 59 and a half, it's subject to regular income tax and a 10% penalty. There's some carveouts for higher education, job training fees, buying a first home, starting a small business. Overall, the reason I like these accounts, and look, I don't talk about account structure here much on PPCE, and I don't do it because I'm so focused on my shortterm goals of cash flow. But taking a step back, there's a lot happening in our world these days. And I think it's important for parents, grandparents, caregivers to be very cognizant that there are tools the government have provided us to be successful for our kids. And I don't think the kids, the future generations. They're not going to have it as easy any more as some of the prior generations because we see how the inflation is out of control. We see how things are changing very rapidly in our world. And so why not put a best foot forward for the kids? But I want to share some stuff. Check it out on the screen. Let's compare this now with other avenues. Of course, I'm not saying Trump accounts are the only way to save for your child's future. Certainly, there are other ways. One way that my wife and I have done it is we've also opened 529s for our kids. And what 529s are, these are these traditional kind of college savings plans. But there's some key differences I want to point out. 529s, unless it's a custodial 529 plan, it remains property of the owner and the owner is going to be the parent or whoever opened the 529 and the beneficiaries can be changed over time. The kids are the beneficiaries, but the property is with the parent. That's a key distinction. One thing I like about the Trump account is the property really is in the hands of the kids. And especially when they turn 18, it's their property. It's out of the parents estate, if you will. And so that's pretty awesome. Now, one thing I like about 529s worth mentioning is they can be rolled over into a Roth IRA with very specific requirements from the Secure 2.0 act. So, the account must be at least 15 years old. Funds rolled over must have been contributed at least 5 years prior. The child must have some earned income from a job or self-employment during the year and it's subject to the Roth IRA contribution limits which right now are about $7,500 per year. There's a lifetime cap as well of $35,000. And so this is another account structure that can greatly set up the kids for success. And one of the things I like the most about the 529s is that ability to get up to $35,000 of it into a WTH at a later date if the account has been around long enough. And so that's something really exciting. And I'm not saying Trump accounts are better than 529s or vice versa, but I think these are all great tools that parents should be considering given where we are right now in our world. But I want to keep going. Check it out on the screen. So, the last thing I want to say today just in this segment is my thoughts. I'm a dividend growth investor. I like Trump accounts. I like 529 accounts. I like custodial accounts. I like setting up the kids for success. I'm a dividend investor who needs cash flow right now. My time horizon is just not long enough to invest in this S&P 500. My risk tolerance is nowhere near high enough to invest in the S&P 500. I like, however, that my kids can get exposure to these higher risk, higher growth assets via Trump accounts. It's just easy. And I believe kids in general, as I've said so many times, they're going to need all the help they can get. No matter how smart, how brilliant, how motivated, how hard they work. Now is the time to start saving. And so, we tend to look at politics. It tends to divide us all. I think with the midterms that just happened, there's a lot of drama in social media. But if we take a step back, I mean, just look what's in our control. What has the government done for us? One thing I think the government's done for us is offer these accounts that we ought to all look into and see if they make sense for our personal situations. I just wanted to share my journey for my personal situation and shout out um to those guys who inspired me. Uh Sam, Mike, and Andy. Uh these guys, we were just talking about these accounts and these guys inspired me to look into this and they're my friends from the Bay Area. Thank you guys for always meeting with me when I'm there. It's so much fun. And um anyway, that's it for this segment right here. And um I'll see you in the next segment. All right, everyone. So, here we are. Third segment of the video today. This one's going to be a little bit more short. It's more just kind of housekeeping and some fun updates. So, one thing, mark your calendars. I will be back live on TD Direct's Inside Investing podcast live stream. Now, as you can see on the screen, there's just the fun thumbnail for the event. It's going to be Thursday, November 12th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. It's going to be live. And so, I will include in the pinned comment below a link so that you can sign up and start submitting questions ahead of time. This is a real honor. I'm going to be back there with my friend Rob Moyes from TD Direct and we're going to talk about the topic of how to stop dividend cuts and yield traps from ruining your portfolio. This is going to be a fun topic. I actually experienced a dividend cut recently. It was in the Campbell company. I decided to hold my shares in that company, but I'm not immune from dividend cuts. They can happen from time to time. I've been investing in dividend stocks for a very long time and ETFs too. I want to share in that podcast live how I handle dividend cuts, how I look at them, how they can manifest themselves, how I like to avoid them by doing my due diligence. This is going to be a lot of fun. So again, check it out the pin comment below. and I want to extend my heartfelt thank you to Rob in advance for having me back on TD Direct's Inside Investing. Now, if you missed the live stream, stay tuned because there will be a repost of the event after the fact, but it's so much more fun live. And make sure everyone to submit your questions. Also, we're headed in right now in Q4 towards the holiday season. And I just want to share my heartfelt gratitude with all of you who have been here on PPCE and over the years. This year in 2026 has been very busy for me in my career. That's why I've been posting a little bit less frequently. Also, I would just say life in general has been busy. I've been spending more time with my family, with my wife and our two beautiful kids. We've been just spending time together doing fun family things. I think that's very important in life. And so, YouTube, I haven't had as much time, but I am still here. I am still posting videos. Please subscribe because the videos will come through. And when they do, they're just going to be a bit longer. And also check out my website. I'll link to this in the pin comment below. But if you ever want to meet me in person, I do meetups from time to time. I do them here in Idaho. Hey, shout out Andy. I hope you're watching. I have a patron, a corner patron, Andy. She's been on my corner Patreon now for a number of years, and I've met up with Andy now twice at Starbucks here in Idaho, and every time it's so much fun. One of the topics that Andy and I discussed were Trump accounts. That was one of many. We were there for a few hours having fun talking about dividend stocks while uh sipping that mocha at Starbucks. So, it was so much fun. But please go on my website and sign up for meetups. I have different lists for the Bay Area, for Sacramento, for different areas where I am for business from time to time. And I do plan on having more meetups and here in Idaho as well. So thankful to be here in Idaho. And uh Andy, again, that was a lot of fun. Now, as you head in to Q4 and the holidays, I just want to extend my best wishes to all of you, your families, your friends, your loved ones, and I hope you have an amazing, amazing season. It's going to be so much fun. Now, before I leave today, in terms of a full disclosure, I own the stocks and ETFs mentioned today. I am long, and this is going to be a long list, everyone. I am long McDonald's, ticker MCD. PepsiCo, ticker PEP. I'm also long Abby, ticker ABBV. Coca-Cola ticker KO. I'm also long Realy Income, ticker O. Altria, ticker M O. Starbucks, ticker SBUX. Also, I'm long the ETF CHD. The ETF SHY. I'm also long Honeywell, ticker H, Honeywell Aerospace, ticker HA, Solstice Advanced Materials, ticker SS. I'm long Vichy, ticker VIC. I am long the Campbell Company, ticker CPB. I'm long treasuries as well. I own all of those stocks, ETFs, assets in my personal dividend stock portfolio. Before I go today, as always, my friendly disclaimer, today's video is not investment advice. I'm not a licensed investment advisor. I'm just sharing my journey for fun and entertainment. If you're going to go out and invest in the stock market, please consult your licensed financial adviser first. As always, it's possible to lose money in the stock market, and I'm just sharing my journey for fun and entertainment. I have in the description below all of my disclosures and disclaimers as well. I appreciate all of you. I can't wait to see you all in the comments below and on social media. And I'll see you all in the next dividend stock investing video. [music] [music] >> [music]