What I Learned Living on Dividends for 6 Years!

What's up everybody? GenX dividend investor here. In this episode, I'll share lessons I've learned as someone whose dividends have covered all his family's expenses for the last 6 years, allowing me to retire while I was still in my 40s. I'll start by showing you my actual portfolio in Fidelity, which just hit a milestone new all-time high. Then, right after we walk through that in my custom dividend tracking spreadsheet, I'll dive straight into the heart of the video where I share the biggest lessons I've learned from living entirely on dividends. And finally, I'll wrap things up by sharing some nasty comments from folks who think I'm totally biased, don't trust a word I say, or think I make terrible financial moves, so stay tuned for that if you want to hear from some of my biggest trolls. Now, this is a longer video, so like always, I've included timestamps down below. Feel free to jump ahead if you want, but I really encourage you to watch the whole thing because there's a ton of great stuff in here that I think you'll get a lot of value out of. Okay, let's start with a screenshot I took of my Fidelity account after market close on Tuesday, August 18th. And it was pretty neat to see that I ended the session going above the $4 million mark. Compare that to 6 years ago when my portfolio was at 1.459 million. And all along the way, my viewers have seen when I did big buys and sells and rebalances and all that jazz. By the way, drop a comment down below with what year you started your dividend journey and what major milestone you're aiming for next. I read through all the comments and I love seeing where everyone in the community is at. My longtime viewers know that when I first started on YouTube, I was at E Trade, and then I moved to Fidelity a little over 5 years ago. Anyway, here you see that my portfolio is spread across three accounts with 1.77 million in my IRA, 1.96 million in my taxable, and 272K in my wife's rollover retirement IRA that I manage. You can also see that Fidelity estimates that about 93% of my portfolios in US stocks with pretty much the rest of it in foreign ones. And here's a screenshot of my Fidelity account activity in the last few days, which shows dividends I've gotten in cash I've moved around. So like on August 17th, in my taxable account, I got a $338 dividend from Proctor and Gamble. I also got a $499 dividend from Proctor and Gamble in my IRA that day. On August 14th, I got a real income dividend in my wife's rollover account for 201 bucks. Below that is an appe dividend in the rollover account for 465 bucks. And below that is a $34 O dividend in my taxable. and I've primarily focused my realy income dividends in my retirement accounts, though I took a small position in my taxable for a variety of reasons. Then is a $719 dividend from AMY in my taxable. Then below that is a $2,678 Enterprise Products Partners distribution in my taxable and that's an MLP. I love my EPD payouts because they're basically taxfree to me for like eight more years even though it's in my taxable. Then below that is a $792 O dividend in my IRA and below that is a $427 AVY dividend in my IRA. And finally, at the bottom is a small $62 dividend from Apple, which is one of my growth focus tickers. So, yeah, I love how thousands of dollars of dividends just keep flowing into my accounts, and I no longer have to do anything for it to show up. It literally is like an ATM machine that just keeps filling up with cash, and then I get to keep withdrawing. Yes, it is coming from companies that I'm an owner in, and they're sending me part of their profits. And yes, I know how it impacts their stock price and all of that, but I also can tell you that after being retired on dividends for 6 years, I just keep valuing them more and more. And here are my last 5-year annualized returns, which shows I've been averaging 12.16% per year, slightly underneath the SP500 at 12.85%, but above the Dow's 11.73%. That's pretty cool given most of the returns the SP500 have come from a few tech stocks, most of which I don't directly own. So, I guess even conservative dividend stocks can hold their own. Okay, now I'll jump into a video I took of my Fidelity account after I took those screenshots. This is what Fidelity calls the dividend view, and it lists all my tickers in alphabetical order. And if you see multiple rows of the same ticker, it's just because I own it in multiple accounts. I'll go over each ticker in my spreadsheet tool instead of here. But I wanted to show this for anyone interested. My spreadsheet tool will default to an aggregated view showing the total shares across all my accounts, but you can select to see things at an account level if you prefer not seeing everything rolled up together. So, this lists the ticker, the number of shares in the account, some share price info, the X date and amount of dividends being paid per share per payout, where that's either a quarterly amount or a monthly amount. Then, it lists distribution rate. That's basically the ticker's projected annual cash flow based strictly on the single latest payout rather than a backward-looking 12-month average yield. Then, it has SEC yield, which measures an ETF's net income after expenses over the last 30 days, which is why it only applies to funds like ETFs or money markets, and shows up blank for individual stocks. Next to that is the current value of each ticker in its account. Then the percentage of the account it represents, then the account it's in, and I've covered up my account numbers in red, but you could still see the letter names of each account if you're curious. And finally, on the far right hand side is Fidelity's estimated view of my annual dividend income. And you can see the total portfolio value on the bottom here is at 4 million. And Fidelity estimates my dividend distribution income to be about 172 grand per year. My spreadsheet tool actually estimates a bit less annual income. So now let's take a look at that. Okay, I've got this sorted by largest positions up top, which in my case is currently SCHD, and this is page one of three. If I pull up a Seeking Alpha momentum total return chart for SCD, and note I'm an affiliate for Seeking Alpha because I like their tool, we can see that this year has over doubled the SP500's total return with about a 26% return as compared to about 13%. And I think that's because the script has kind of flipped from pure growth to more value. I mean, for years it seemed like most people only cared about the magnificent 7 tech stocks, but this year the market broadened out in a huge way. Basically, some tech took a breather, but then value sectors like energy, industrials, and healthcare caught some boost. And since fundamentally a value ETF focused on strong balance sheets, high return on equity, and growing payouts, it caught that entire wave. It's a great reminder that dividend investing isn't just about collecting income and that when the market rotates into cash flowing businesses, the capital appreciation can surprise a lot of people. Anyway, you can see that I have over 8,000 shares of SCHD across all my accounts and it represents 7% of my portfolio, which is about 280K worth. SCHD pays me about 2100 bucks a quarter or 8,500 bucks a year. It's currently at a 3.04% dividend yield and has a 3-year dividend CG growth of 7.53%. My number two ticker right now is J&J. And if we look at its year-to- date total return, we see it's done even better at a ridiculous 32%. That's pretty cool to see because J&J has always been a classic dividend king. But some folks understandably got worried when it went through years of underperformance, which I mostly blame on that massive talk litigation. But between raising their fullear guidance on strong drug growth and investors rotating into defensive value and Wall Street finally seeing what might be light at the end of the tunnel with the proposed tax settlement, J&J has seemingly had their dark cloud lifted and is firing on all cylinders this year. I've got about 262K of it and it yields me almost 5200 bucks a year. Then I've got another one that's done well lately and that's Altria. Its total return is at 17% this year, still above the SP500. Basically, my stocks that have done better have moved up in my portfolio list. As you'd expect, I've got almost 250k of MO and it yields a monstrous 16,18 bucks a year. Then I've got AVY at 241K worth and it yields me almost 6,500 bucks a year. Then is another classic dividend stock in realy income and I have 236 grand of it and it pays me 1,028 bucks each month or a little over 12 grand a year. Then I've got EPD, then Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and my first income ETF in DVO. Okay, now let's go on to my next page of tickers. Here we have another income ETF in GPIQ, and I have about 172 grand worth, and it generates about 1,400 bucks a month, or about 17 grand a year. Income ETFs have their own risks and issues to be aware of, and I limit my portfolio in retirement to be under 20% of them. Which reminds me, leave me a comment and tell me if you prefer sticking strictly to classic dividend growth stocks or do you have any income ETFs to boost your monthly cash flow like I do? And if you use them, do you have a cap in your portfolio in terms of how much you can own? And what's your absolute favorite one? Okay, moving on. Next up, I've got BTI, a foreign ticker, thus it's an ADR, and it's actually paying out for me tomorrow. And my spreadsheet estimates it'll send me about 2340 bucks. Then I've got another classic in Coca-Cola ticker KO where I have about 148 grand of it and it pays me at a little over 3500 bucks a year spread across four quarters. Then another income ETF in QDVO, then Duke Energy, Philip Morris, Exxon Mobile, and Proctor and Gamble. Moving on to my final page of tickers and we see I have McDonald's at about 109 grand worth and it pays me 762 bucks a quarter or a little over 3K a year. Then Caterpillar, which has also been doing great. Then Pepsi, Southern Company, Chevron, Apple, Travelers, then an international income ETF in IDPO. Then Home Depot, and finally Starbucks, which is my smallest position at 33K worth. In total, you can see I have about 49,000 shares of tickers worth about 4 million bucks. And my spreadsheet estimates I make about 169 grand a year, a bit less than Fidelity's 172K estimate. My portfolio's average weighted yield is 4.23%. And my portfolio's average weighted 3-year dividend keer is 5.46%. Moving on, here are a couple charts I grab from my spreadsheet and the top is my portfolio value by sector and on the bottom is my annual passive income by sector. If I have an ETF that is loaded in one sector, then I'll designate my ticker as that sector. Whereas if the ETF holds tickers from a bunch of sectors, then I'll call it an ETF. So up here you can see that I have 16% ETFs, then 14.7% in tech stocks, 13.3% in sin stocks, 12.6% in healthcare, 9.3% in energy, 9.2% 2% in consumer staples etc. We can also see that almost 22% of my income comes from tech 20% from broader ETFs, 17% from sin, 9.5% from energy, etc. And then this is my dividend income I've received since I started this spreadsheet back in January of 2020. You can see how my income has trended up and my longtime viewers know that that trend came from dividend hikes, some investments, and some changes and rebalances. We're currently about halfway through the month. And by the time we get to September, then this bar here for August, should be slightly over the black trend line as my spreadsheet estimates I'll bring in about 14,500 bucks for August. And you can see that here in this calendar view of my income. So, the current month, August, is highlighted in green. And at the bottom, you can see that I should get about 14,459 bucks. Looking back in February of this year, I got about 13,400. Then in March, I got paid about 15,300. then 11,800 in April, 14.1K in May, 16.4K in June, then 12.3K in July. Going forward, I should get around 16.4K in September, 11.9K in October, 14K in November, 16.1K in December, and 12.2K in January of 2027. Now, I bet I'll actually get more than that because I take 20% of my ETF payouts to buy more of themselves, slowly shifting me more into ETFs. So, that's CHD and my income ETFs. Now, of course, if we have a big market crash and then go sideways for a long time, then my payouts for my income ETFs should materially drop, at least that's what I anticipate will happen. This view is kind of fun to see how payouts trend. And I have this info going back years in time in another part of my spreadsheet. Moving on is this view, which uses my historical dividend growth rates to estimate what my future income growth would look like. The top row is my drips are off, aka if I'm spending 100% of my dividends, which I'm basically doing, and the bottom row up top is if my drip was 100% on. So, like right now I make about 170K a year and by year 10 this says that if I keep spending all my dividends my income could grow to 288K a year but if I had my reinvestment plans on that entire time I'd be making 416K a year. So you can really see how much compounding accelerates if you reinvest. Those 10ear estimates are also shown in the chart with blue and red rectangles where blue is no drip and the red or drips on. Then next to it is a 35-year forward income estimate where the blue line is if I'm spending my dividends versus the red if I was stripping. And this chart really makes it obvious how compounding works. And then another fun chart I put together is right here in the middle showing that on average I bring in about 14,100 bucks a month. That breaks down roughly to 3,255 bucks a week or about 463 bucks every single day. If you compare that to a typical career where you work around 34 hours a week with paid time off in 6 days, that equals an effective wage of about 108 bucks an hour. But if we calculate it literally around the clock, 24/7 while I'm sleeping and such, then my portfolio is earning roughly 19 bucks.32 every single hour of the year. And seeing my portfolio earn 24x7 like that is cool to track on a spreadsheet. But the real payoff isn't math. It's what that math allows you to do with your life. I mean, living retired on true passive income for these last 6 years has honestly been so much better than I ever imagined it could be. I was one of those guys who didn't really love his jobs. And even though I had times when they were totally fine and I met some awesome people who became great friends, I just knew that the 95 grand was something I couldn't wait to get out of. And that means for 6 years, the passive income generated by my investments has covered all my family's expenses, which has allowed me to stay happily retired after leaving the workforce while I was still in my 40s. And I've got to tell you, when I first started doing these annual updates, I wondered whether I would eventually run out of things to say because really, how much could someone say about dividend payments dropping into your account year after year? But the funny thing is, with every year that passes, my perspective shifts just a bit. And after 6 years of this, I think I actually appreciate dividend investing even more than I did when I first called it quits, even if some of the reasons why have evolved over time. So, if you're someone who dreams about becoming financially independent someday, or maybe you don't care about retiring early and you just love for your investments to eventually pay your bills, then I hope you get something useful and motivating from my experiences. And as always, don't take anything I say as financial advice because I'm just some random dude on the internet who loves investing. Now, if you're new to my channel, the TLDDR on my background is that I've been investing in the stock market for over 30 years, starting once I graduated college in the 1990s and got my first salary job working as a programmer at a small company. I've never inherited any money, never won the lottery, and never had anything material handed to me. In fact, I started with a negative net worth due to student loans when I got married to my wife. Feel free to check out some of my previous videos where I shared my salary and such history over time. So, you can see that most of my portfolio came from compounding and disciplined investing over multiple decades, not from working at places like Google or Amazon. Over the years, I lived within a reasonable budget, prioritized investing, did things like forming investment clubs with friends, and most importantly, I never quit. even when I lost big in the markets. Then when I retired, I started making YouTube videos and doing social media as a fun way to document how I invest for my kids once they're old enough to care. And learning video production and such has become a really awesome hobby for me in retirement. But doing the social media stuff has also exposed me to a lot of people who have been scammed. So my two cents is to avoid trading and focus on long-term investing. Run away from anyone claiming they can double your money or 10x your account because if anyone could reliably 10x money on demand, they would be trillionaires by now. And it's hard to make money, but easy to spend it. I've personally wasted plenty of money over the years trying to invest in startups and private businesses. And I personally concluded that it's way better to focus on high-quality bluechip companies instead. I mean, while any stock can lose value, your odds seem to be way better owning the largest cash flowing businesses in the world rather than gambling on a startup. So, I've made a ton of mistakes in the 30 plus years I've been investing. But throughout all of that, I kept investing. And eventually, the little stream of income coming from my investments became a bigger stream than a river and ultimately became enough to pay all of our bills. That's one of the first things I really want someone earlier in their journey to understand. Because when you see somebody with a large portfolio, it's incredibly easy to look at where they are today and forget that they too once stood at the starting line. I remember when the dividends I got barely meant anything, at least financially speaking, where maybe I'd get a few bucks here and there, and it was nice, but retiring off them seemed far, far away. The whole thing happened very slowly. And for a long time, it felt so slow that it was hard to imagine all those little deposits would someday add up to anything life-changing. But eventually, compounding starts becoming more noticeable. Your contributions hopefully get larger as your career progresses. Your companies hopefully grow their profits and raise their dividends. And your reinvested dividends buy more shares, which generate even more dividends. Then this little financial snowball you've been pushing starts getting heavy enough that gravity begins doing more of the work for you. And someday you can reach a point where money you invested decades ago is now doing some of the things you used to have to work for, which is one of the coolest financial transitions I've ever experienced. So, after being retired on dividends for almost 6 years, I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned is something that might sound kind of strange, which is that the most incredible part about living on dividends is eventually how normal the whole thing starts to feel. I mean, when I first turned off most of my dividend reinvestments and started using that cash to pay our bills, every dividend felt like this crazy event where I'd see money hit the account and think, "Wow, I did absolutely nothing." And the money just comes rolling in. Sure, I put in the effort over the years, but now I literally am sitting back and letting my investments work for me. And it's even more amazing to get that cash when we were on vacation. Like I mentioned once how cool it was when I was on vacation in Switzerland traveling with my family and getting notifications of cash being deposited into our accounts faster than when we were spending it. And that whole experience really blew my mind. So, I still think it's awesome and I still love seeing the dividends flow in, but it's really just a normal part of my life now. And weirdly enough, I think that might be one of the greatest compliments I can give dividend investing. I mean, the system I spent decades building is now just doing what I hoped it would do without requiring me to constantly think about it. I don't wake up every morning wondering whether somebody's going to fire me today. I don't need to check with a boss before I take a vacation. And I don't worry about whether some executive is going to announce a reorganization where suddenly my job disappears. I've dealt with all that crap throughout my career. And I love the fact that I no longer have that Sunday night feeling where part of your brain starts reminding you that the weekend is ending and tomorrow morning you're back at it. Instead, the companies I own are out there selling burgers and medicine and electricity and drinks and software and whatever else. And when those businesses generate profits, they share some of the profits with me as one of their owners. That process doesn't care whether I'm sleeping, playing a video game, traveling with my family, or doing absolutely nothing productive on a random Tuesday afternoon. And perhaps most importantly for me personally, it doesn't care whether I'm having health problems. That matters enormously to me because longtime viewers know that I've had some serious health issues over the years, including heart surgeries, strokes, some vision loss, and recurring memory issues that can temporarily put me out of commission. Fortunately, I'm very healthy right now, and if you met me, you'd never know anything had ever gone wrong with me. So, when I call dividend income passive income, I mean really passive because there are times when I might not be capable of managing anything complicated financially, yet the cash can still flow into my accounts. I've configured things so that dividends from my taxable account automatically move into my checking account, meaning the entire process can basically happen without me touching anything. And after 6 years of living this way, simplicity has become more important to me than I ever expected. I mean, some people think you have to push harder to make it grow. That's what she said. like you have to trade constantly, jump into options, or chase whatever stock is shooting straight up. And sure, you can do that if you really want to, but you honestly don't have to. As time has gone on and I've dealt with my own health realities, I've moved more and more toward asking a completely different question, which is, "What happens if I can't manage this tomorrow?" That's an important question for everybody to consider, regardless of your health. Because maybe you're good with managing money, but maybe your spouse isn't. Maybe you manage all your investments, pay all the bills, know everything about your accounts, know every password, and understand the taxes, and know exactly how everything works. But what happens if you're suddenly not there? Does your family inherit a financial machine they can easily understand? Or do they inherit a second job trying to figure out what the heck you built? So, I think there's a lot of value in building a portfolio that isn't just financially sustainable, but also operationally sustainable, meaning it should still work if for some reason you can't. That's part of why I've created documentation for my wife and kids explaining where things are, how money flows around, how to access accounts, and what they need to do if I'm not around to help them. My wife is a wonderful person, but stocks and numbers aren't her thing. And I don't want her needing to suddenly become Warren Buffett if I happen to kick the bucket. So, I really want my system to keep working and dividends fit beautifully into that reality because she doesn't have to figure out which stock should be sold this month, whether the market is overvalued, whether she should wait for a rally or whether she needs to sell Apple before McDonald's or McDonald's before something else. No, our dividend cash comes in, bills get paid, and life hopefully keeps moving forward without requiring a bunch of financial decisions at exactly the moment when somebody may be least prepared to make them. That peace of mind has become more valuable to me with every year that passes. It also highlights something else I've learned, which is that financial independence doesn't eliminate all uncertainty from your life. It just eliminates or reduces a particular category of uncertainty. Like, I can still have a health issue tomorrow. Someone I love can have a problem. The markets can crash. A company I own can make a stupid decision. My house can need an expensive repair. Or life can throw some completely random thing at us that none of us saw coming. Money doesn't solve every problem. And I think anybody who's had serious health problems or lost someone they love understands that pretty quickly. But man, money sure can make a bunch of problems easier to deal with. If my air conditioner blows up, I don't also need the financial stress of wondering which credit card can absorb the repair. If I need to take an Uber somewhere because I can't drive, which I can't because of my strokes, then I can do it without having to think too hard about the cost. Or when I need to order groceries because getting to a store isn't convenient, I can do that, too. And if a relative needs some financial help and I want to provide it, then I can step in. Ultimately, if my health goes sideways for a while, I don't have to simultaneously wonder whether my employer is going to decide that I'm too unreliable to keep around. That's one of the reasons I've increasingly come to see financial independence less as being rich and more as having resilience. Money can give you shock absorbers where life hits a pothole and instead of the whole car falling apart, you hopefully bounce around a little and keep going. Dividends have become my biggest financial shock absorber. And the important part is that you don't need enough dividends to retire in order to get that benefit. I mean, some people treat financial independence like it's a light switch where you're either financially independent or you're not. But I think it's much more of a dimmer switch where every additional amount of income or liquid ownership can give you a little more control. Maybe your dividends pay your cell phone bill and maybe later they also cover your electric bill. Then perhaps eventually they pay for groceries. And if you keep building long enough, maybe one day they cover your mortgage or every expense you have. Each little step gives you some additional resilience, and I promise you it's possible. I've met tons of people online who are also retired on dividends, some fully, and some just using them to supplement their retirement. Leave me a comment if you'd like me to do an entire video on some folks I've met online who are retired fully on their dividends. Anyway, my point is that if you're bringing in, let's say, 100 bucks a month from your investments, then that's 1,200 bucks a year. That doesn't have to come from your labor. And then once you eventually get to 500 bucks a month, that's 6,000 bucks a year. and maybe that pays a meaningful chunk of your groceries, utilities, insurance, or whatever else applies in your life. Then perhaps you get to a,000 bucks a month and suddenly you've built an income stream that could cover a major expense and from there their snowball can just keep growing. The point isn't the specific number because everybody's expenses and goals are different, but rather that freedom comes in increments and every increment is worth something. You don't normally wake up one morning after decades of having zero financial freedom and suddenly have 100% freedom because you build it one little brick at a time. And I think that realization can make investing far more motivating for someone who's looking at a portfolio like mine and thinking there's no way they'll ever get there. Forget my portfolio for a second and think about what your next thousand bucks can do. Then think about what the next one can do and then think about the next one. There's a great story about Warren Buffett picking up a drop penny in an elevator and saying that's the beginning of my next million. Or maybe he said billions. But the point of the story is that it illustrates his mindset that massive fortunes grow from respecting small amounts of money. though he famously advises regular investors like you and I to avoid speculative penny stocks and instead use lowcost index funds for long-term growth. So, can you get your annual dividend income from 20 bucks to 50 bucks, then from 50 bucks to 100 bucks, and maybe eventually from 100 to 500? I know you can. I just hope you realize it, too. And then celebrate those milestones because those little numbers are evidence that you've built something that's now working on your behalf and that something can continue growing if you give it enough time. We all know what it's like to work for your money, give someone an hour of your life, and get some cash in return. Then, if you invest some of that money, you're basically transforming a little portion of your labor into an asset. If that asset produces income, suddenly an hour you worked 10 or 20 or 30 years ago can still be paying you today. So, think about how crazy that is. I mean, you worked once, but part of the economic value created by your work can continue generating additional value for the rest of your life and maybe for literal generations to come. That's why I sometimes think of investing as storing a portion of your labor for your future because you're effectively telling your present self that you're going to consume a little bit less today so your future self has more options. And after 6 years of living on dividends, I can tell you that my younger self made sacrifices that my older self benefits from almost every day. I wish I could go back and thank that younger guy. Although, I'd probably also tell him to stop wasting so much money on some of the stupid stuff he bought over the years. I'd tell him those small 401k contributions he barely thought about were going to matter a heck of a lot more than he realized. I'd also tell him that some of the boring investments would eventually become some of the most exciting things he owned. And I'd definitely tell him not to get discouraged when the dot crash destroyed a giant percentage of his portfolio. I'd warn him that some of his friends were going to quit investing after that crash and that he absolutely shouldn't follow them because one of the biggest reasons I'm sitting here today doing this video isn't that I somehow predicted every great company or avoided every mistake. I clearly didn't. It's that I stayed in the game and kept investing through all market conditions. Even when the future looked pretty uncertain and grim. When the markets got ugly, I kept investing. When I made mistakes, I kept investing. When I wanted to quit, I kept investing. Yes, there were times when I stopped buying when money wasn't flowing in. And there were times when I had to sell stocks to get some cash. That's life, or at least it was mine. I tried to keep investing when job situations were tough, when health problems knocked me around. And regardless, I just tried to keep pushing forward. If some stock I own sucked, I tried to learn from it rather than decide the entire market was a scam. And over enough decades, that persistence ended up mattering more than a lot of individual buy or sell decisions. I actually think persistence is wildly underrated when people talk about building wealth. I mean, we love obsessing over what stock is going to double, finding that one awesome high yielding income ETF, or guessing what some billionaire or congress person bought last quarter. And sure, all that might be interesting to look at, but none of it matters if you only invest for a few years, get frustrated, and ultimately quit. Meanwhile, someone with a totally boring portfolio who consistently invests for 30 years can end up in amazing place simply because they gave compounding enough time to work. That lesson goes far beyond investing cuz a lot of the things I'm most proud of in life came from continuing when quitting would have been so much easier. Like my health recovery is one of the clearest examples. I've had times when things I used to take completely for granted suddenly disappeared, including my ability to walk normally after my strokes and I had to work my way back step by step. I remember the feeling when eventually I could jog again and something as ordinary as jogging became this incredible accomplishment because I knew what it felt like when I couldn't do it. I had to go through rehab learning how to walk, go up and down stairs and blah blah blah before jogging. Those experiences change how I view a lot of things because when something comes easily to you, it's incredibly easy to undervalue it. I mean, if you can walk, you probably don't spend your day celebrating that fact. If you can see normally, you probably don't wake up every morning thinking about how amazing eyesight is. And if you have people who love you, maybe you don't stop enough to appreciate how fortunate that makes you. In the same way, if you have an income stream coming from your labor, it can be easy to assume that income will always be there. Maybe your work even says things like, "We're all family here." But then suddenly you get laid off, get really sick, or something changes in your industry, and then you realize how dependent your lifestyle was on that one income source. That's a huge reason why I want people to invest. And I don't care if you choose dividend stocks, broad index funds, real estate, commodities, or whatever that ultimately makes sense for your goals and risk tolerance. What I do want is for you to build assets that can grow in value and hopefully can generate income without requiring another hour of your labor every single time you need more cash because you don't know what life is going to throw at you. And I certainly didn't when I was younger. I was the guy that was eating right and working out his entire life. But even with the right decisions, you'll find that life is a funny way of changing your plans without asking permission. Fortunately, financial assets often give you options when that happens. And options are incredibly valuable. Maybe your option is retiring early, or perhaps it's working part-time. Maybe it lets one spouse stay home with the kids, or maybe it lets you leave a toxic boss without freaking out about the next paycheck. Perhaps it allows you to take a few months off after getting laid off so you can figure out what you actually want to do rather than accepting the first terrible job that comes along. Or maybe nothing dramatic ever happens and your investments simply allow you to have a much more comfortable retirement. All of those outcomes are wins. And that brings me to another realization I've had after doing this for 6 years, which is that I care less and less about whether somebody thinks my investing strategy is a good one. There will always be somebody on the internet who tells you that the only thing you should care about is total return. And yes, total return absolutely matters. I don't want a portfolio that generates a bunch of income while destroying my principal over time because that would obviously be stupid, but I've learned that investing is also behavioral, emotional, and personal. The theoretically perfect portfolio that terrifies you during every market crash and causes you to sell at the bottom isn't actually the perfect portfolio for you. Heck, a strategy that requires you to make decisions you hate making might not be the ideal strategy for you. I happen to love owning companies that send me cash, and I love knowing that I can live my life without needing to sell shares as my primary source of income. Plus, could I sell shares if I needed to? Of course, I could, and that's one of my backup plans. But I like having selling as an option rather than a requirement. And that distinction has turned out to be psychologically more valuable than I understood before retiring. And sure, if the market falls 50%, I'm probably going to be annoyed when I look at my portfolio value because I'm human and I'd rather see a big green number than a big red one. But I fortunately don't need to sit there thinking now I have to sell a bunch of stuff while it's down so I can pay the mortgage. If my companies are still operating well and sending me the income I need, I can give the market time to figure itself out. That helps me sleep at night. And after everything I've been through, sleeping well at night is one of my favorite investing metrics. I don't think enough people ask themselves whether their investment strategy actually lets them sleep. Because it's easy to talk about risk tolerance when markets are going up and everything looks great. But can you handle a 50% decline when it actually happens? what would you really do or feel? Like I said, I've been through that. And during the com crash, I was heavily invested in tech and my portfolio got absolutely crushed. But that crash was also one of the experiences that moved me toward quality dividend companies because I watched boring divvy businesses keep doing boring things while a bunch of exciting speculative companies were blowing up. That experience taught me that boring can be beautiful, especially when you're talking about investments that you'd like to own for a very long time. I think investors sometimes make the mistake of believing excitement and return are related. But the company doesn't need a CEO who's on media every week. It doesn't need to be the hottest thing on social media and it doesn't need to have some revolutionary story everybody is talking about. Sometimes I just want a business selling products people have been buying for decades, generating a lot of cash, maintaining a reasonable balance sheet, and sharing some of the profits with me. That doesn't mean those companies are risk- free because dividends can absolutely be cut, companies can fail, industries can change, and management can screw things up. And a stock having paid a dividend for 50 plus years doesn't create some magical force field around it. You still need diversification. You still need to understand what you're buying. And you don't want to confuse a high dividend yield with a high-quality investment. It might be one or it might not. But I'm human and even after 6 years of living on dividends, I still feel the tug of interest when I see those high yield income ETFs. So again, you've always got to look what's behind the yield. And if I can choose between an income stream that looks enormous today but has a decent chance of collapsing versus a more reasonable income stream backed by businesses that can hopefully keep growing over the next couple decades, I'm going to favor durability. The fact is, I don't think going for the highest possible income right now is best aligned to my long-term goals. Otherwise, I'd move everything into only 10% plus yielding tickers and materally increase my income. But no, I want income that has a great chance of being there next year and the year after that and hopefully growing along the way. That's a very different goal than some have. And I think the further you get into retirement, the more important that distinction becomes because if you retire relatively young, it might be a 40 or 50 plus year problem. So I don't want to optimize my portfolio around squeezing every possible dollar out of it today. I want it to endure. I want it diversified. I want some dividend growth. I want some capital appreciation. And I want enough current income to comfortably cover my family's needs while still having some margin for when life inevitably goes off the rails. And that idea of having a margin is another thing living on dividends has reinforced for me. I mean, when you're working, you probably don't want every penny of your paycheck already committed before the money even arrives. And the same principle applies from living from investments. Expenses change, inflation happens, insurance changes, homes need repairs, people need help, travel costs money, and health expenses can appear out of nowhere. Basically, crap happens. And I know I'm preaching to the choir on this one, but if someone is planning to retire the moment their expected dividend income equals their expected expenses down to the dollar, I'd personally want more room than that. I'd rather have some cushion, keep emergency savings, and maintain spending flexibility because one of the easiest ways to improve your financial independence is simply to need less money. I've talked before about how I used to own a fancier house and eventually realized I was happier in a simpler one. And I've owned sporty cars and also realized that they weren't making my life any better. That doesn't mean you should live like a monk because I definitely don't. I like traveling, technology, video games, eating out, and doing fun stuff with my family. Yes, money exists to improve your life, but I think there's an enormous difference between spending money on something because it generally makes your life better, and spending money because you're trying to look successful to somebody else. A giant house you don't really want can delay financial freedom and increase your risk exposure. Or a bigger car payment can delay financial freedom, and high interest credit card debt can absolutely murder financial freedom. Every recurring expense you permanently remove from your life means your investments need to generate that much less income for you to become independent. And that relationship between what you spend and what you need to invest is incredibly powerful. Like if someone needs 120 grand a year to be happy, they have a much taller mountain to climb than somebody who's generally happy spending 60 grand. And neither person is necessarily wrong. You should create whatever lifestyle works for you, but understand that your desired spending and your financial independence date are tied together whether you like it or not. I think financial independence is ultimately about designing a life rather than a simply accumulating the most money because when I was younger, I thought retiring early would mean I'd reach some finish line. These days, I don't really think there's a finish line because I still research investments, learn new things, make videos, talk to people online, and blah blah blah. Basically, I retired from having to work, but I didn't retire from doing things. And that's another lesson I'd really encourage people to think about before retiring. You really want to retire to something rather than just away from crappy work. You can spend 30 years dreaming about escaping the grind and then finally escape without having any idea what you actually want to do with the freedom you created. But freedom is just empty space until you decide how you want to fill it. And for me, this channel became one of those things. It's been one of the unexpected gifts of retirement where financial freedom gave me time, but having a purpose gave that time more direction. And to me, purpose doesn't have to mean starting a YouTube channel or trying to change the world. Maybe you want to spend more time with your grandkids. Maybe you want to travel, volunteer, become good at golf, read every book you didn't have time to read while working, or do whatever makes your life more interesting. I just think humans generally do better when there's something ahead of us that we're excited about. And that leads into something else I think more about these days, which is the fact that financial independence gives you something much more precious than money. It gives you time. You can make more money, but you can't make more yesterday. And as I've gotten older and dealt with more health crap, I've become acutely aware of the value of time because nobody knows how much they have. So, you can have the perfect financial plan for retirement. But you might not ever make it there. That doesn't mean don't plan for your future because you absolutely should. But don't become so obsessed with maximizing your future that you forget you're currently living your present because I think there's a balance that people sometimes lose. I mean, when I was younger, I sometimes worked ridiculous hours because I felt like I needed to keep pushing my career forward. Then, I ended up in a hospital after having some unexpected health issues. And I remember actually feeling relieved because nobody from work was bothering me. Think about how messed up that is. Like, I remember sitting in the hospital after experiencing a traumatic event and feeling blissful that I didn't have to look at my phone. Now, when I first got in there, I was actually still answering emails until a good boss I had actually told me he'd revoke my email if I did any more work. Again, this was all from my hospital bed, mind you. That experience changed me. So, yes, invest aggressively in your future if that makes sense for you, but don't sacrifice everything about the present while you're doing it. Go on the trip if you can responsibly afford it. Spend time with your kids, call your parents, hang out with your friends, take care of your body, get some sleep, and simultaneously keep putting part of your income into assets that can make your future easier. That balance is the goal from where I sit because the purpose of investing isn't to die with the largest possible brokerage account. At least it isn't for me. The portfolio is a tool. The income is a tool. My friends tell me sometimes I'm a tool. And of course, money is a tool. And the end goal is a life that you actually value. At the same time, I do love the legacy aspect of investing because I know that whatever my wife and I don't consume can eventually benefit our kids and the kids I hope they have along with other relatives, charities, or whomever we decide to help. I can't tell you how mentally satisfying it is feeling that my dividends will keep showing up long after I'm gone. Almost like my spirit will continue providing for my family and future generations. And that's another way financial assets can outlive the hours of labor that originally created them. Imagine somebody working a job decades ago and using part of their paycheck to buy shares of a good company. Those shares generate profits. Maybe the dividends get reinvested for decades and eventually the owner retires and starts spending part of those dividends. Then one day the owner passes away and some of those shares go to a child and now the income produced from an hour of labor decades earlier is helping another generation. I think that's pretty amazing when you really stop and think about it. People sometimes talk about generational wealth like it's something reserved for families with names everyone's heard of, but it can also come from you if you decide to be the first person to make it happen. I never had anyone sit me down and explain dividends or index funds or even compound interest. And my dad actually thought stocks were basically gambling. Fortunately, a co-orker at my first job told me to start contributing to my 401k. And that seemingly little conversation helped change the entire direction of my financial life. So, you might be that person for your family and maybe your portfolio never gets anywhere close to mine, but who cares? Maybe you can leave your kids 20 grand and more importantly teach them how to invest it and then maybe they build that into 100 grand and perhaps their kids grow it even further. Financial legacy isn't only the money you leave behind, but it's also the knowledge, the habits, and the way you teach people to think about money and investing. It's teaching your kids not to panic when markets fall, explaining that a credit card isn't free money, helping them understand what a 401k match is, and showing them that wealth often comes from what you consistently keep rather than what you visibly spend. And the fact is, your knowledge can compound as well. So, when I look back over my 30 plus years of investing, I realize that the compounding of behavior might be even more important than the compounding of money. I mean, you can become the person who invests. Then when you get a raise, you should invest a little more. And when the market crashes, instead of seeing only disaster, hopefully part of you starts wondering what's become cheaper for you to buy. And when a company raises its dividend, you begin thinking about what that means 10 years from now, rather than only what it means this quarter. And that mindset shift is important. You stop thinking of investing as something you're trying for a while and start thinking of it as part of your lifestyle. I think that transition is huge because if investing feels like some temporary project where you're expecting instant results, you're probably going to get disappointed. Markets go sideways, stocks fall, dividends get cut, bad years happen, great companies sometimes have terrible stock performance, and sometimes mediocre companies mysteriously go to the moon while you sit there annoyed that you missed the boat. But that's investing. If you think of it as something you'll do for life, then individual years become less important because a crash becomes one chapter, a bad stock becomes one lesson, and a dividend cut becomes something you evaluate rather than something that destroys your entire plan. That longerterm perspective makes the journey easier. And it also makes patience easier, which is important because I think patience has probably made me more money than intelligence ever did. I'm not saying intelligence doesn't matter because obviously educate yourself, learn how taxes work, learn the differences between account types, understand diversification, know what you own, and understand valuation if you're buying individual companies. And I think a lot of the reason I've done decently over the years is because I followed Buffett's guideline of investing when something is cheap or reasonably priced. And my favorite way to determine that these days is to use Fast Graphs, which I have a paid relationship with, but I'll only ever pitch something that I personally use in value. So, let's take a look at what J&J looks like today given how it's done recently. Well, if I pull up on fast graphs, I see this. The jagged black line is the stock price over time. The blue line represents the normal PE ratio, which is basically the historical valuation multiple the market has typically applied to the stock over the time frame we're looking at. So, think of it as a quick way to see how the market has historically priced the stock. If the black price line is below the blue line, that usually means the stock is trading cheaper than its own historical normal valuation. If it's above the blue line, which it is here, that usually means it's trading more expensively than its own historical normal valuation. So, based on this quick check, it tells me that J&J is quite expensive right now, and I personally wouldn't be buying at these levels, even though I know expensive stuff can keep shooting higher. I've just found that on average, it's been best for me to do my big buys when things are cheap. Of course, that doesn't automatically mean it's undervalued or overvalued, because the blue line is more of a historical market reference point than a true fair value calculation. But the orange line is more of a formuladriven fair value reference line. That orange line is based on a specific valuation multiple that fast graphs applies based on the company's growth rate over the time frame you're using formulas tied to Ben Graham or Peter Lynch's style valuation logic. So with fast graphs, you can quickly see how the black stock price line has moved compared to the orange fair value line and also compared to the blue line which shows how the market has typically valued the company in the past. The lower the black line is relative to those valuation reference lines, the cheaper the stock tends to be. So when the stock is under both the blue and orange lines, that gets me more interested, at least from that perspective, because it suggests the stock may be cheap both compared to its own historical valuation and compared to Fastgrass's formuladriven fair value reference. And of course, that's just a starting point. I mean, you should still look at the business, the balance sheet trends, dividend trends, growth trends, and all the other details before buying or selling. But Fast Graphs is a really fast visual way to get a sense of whether a company looks cheap or expensive without having to build your own intrinsic value model or discounted cash flow from scratch. And there's a ton of other cool functionality in Fast Graphs that I rely on constantly, which is why I use it all the time and why you hear me pitch it in my videos. Of course, it can also work out great to just dollar cost average into something over time. And everything has its own pros and cons. I've tried to only buy when things are cheap or reasonably priced, but that's just me. And for the love of everything good in the world, please don't buy something just because some dude on YouTube owns it, including me. And once you've built a reasonable investing strategy, then you probably want to give it some time to run because you usually don't need to constantly touch it. And sometimes the best investing action is no action at all. That's another thing living on dividends is reinforced for me because the portfolio is there to serve my life and my life isn't there to serve the portfolio. I mean, I don't want to spend retirement watching every ticker every moment, constantly rearranging everything because somebody on YouTube or TV said something scary. I want to own quality assets that mostly do their own thing while I do mine. And to me, that's a much better version of freedom. And look, I know a lot of folks have massive concerns about what's going on in the world right now and wonder if it's even smart to invest today. We see constant conflict in the Middle East, and nobody knows where that will all lead. We hear talk about the US dollar potentially losing its global dominance and cascading implications of that. We hear about countries dumping US treasuries like China shifting away from the dollar or Japan selling treasuries to support the yen. At the same time, our government continues spending far more than it collects, borrowing record amounts to bridge the gap. And when foreign central banks pull back, American institutions have to absorb that debt, pushing bond yields even higher. Higher yields tend to mean borrowing costs climb across the entire economy, driving up mortgages, business loans, and the interest bill on our national debt. On top of that, I just heard hedge funds recently built a record net short position in NASDAQ 100 futures with total short exposure estimated between 16 and 20 billion. That could be a massive bet that the AI trade is overdone and the bubble could burst. Although some of that positioning may also be hedging or part of other trading strategies. The point is there's always something scary happening in the world. But throughout history, whenever things fall over, resilient businesses rebuild and adapt. So, the real question is, what kinds of businesses can make it through the good times and the bad? I personally think that durable cash flowing blue chips I own like Microsoft, J&J, Proctor and Gamble, and similar dividend heavyweights will navigate whatever market craziness gets thrown at them. And decades from now, I expect they'll still be operating, adapting, and paying dividends to me or my heirs. Now, I obviously can't guarantee every single company I own will survive because even giant companies can go out of business if they are mismanaged. But over a diversified portfolio, owning highquality businesses probably gives you good odds of enduring whatever the world looks like 10, 20, or even 50 years down the road. Moving on, another lesson that's become increasingly clear to me over these last 6 years is how important dividend growth can be once you're actually spending the income. Like when you're accumulating, a dividend hike is nice because you can reinvest the extra money and compound a little faster. But when you're living on the income, those raises hit differently. The nature of inflation is that utilities are raising prices, grocery prices are rising, insurance is getting more expensive, and pretty much everything you use seems to be getting more expensive. So having companies that can also grow their payouts becomes incredibly valuable because your expenses are trying to compound against you. And ideally, you want some of your income compounding for you. That's why I care about more than starting yield. Because if something yields a giant amount today, but the income never grows, then that means inflation is slowly eating away at what that income can actually buy. On the other hand, a company with a reasonable yield that can grow earnings and raise its dividend over time can gradually improve your buying power. Of course, none of that is guaranteed because companies can stop growing. Dividend growth can slow and inflation can spike. But over a retirement that could last decades, I at least want part of my income designed to grow. That's one of the things I love when looking back through my historical dividend payments because you can take a company where I own the same number of shares for years and literally watch the cash payment step higher as the company raises its payout. And after 6 years of retirement, I've learned that the absolute best part of financial independence is waking up and realizing that your time actually belongs to you. It's being able to sit down, sip your morning coffee, and not having a single thought about some pointless work meeting you're dreading to attend. And speaking of coffee, I have to mention that I make mine every morning using my Ninjalux Cafe 3in-1 espresso machine, which has honestly been my favorite Christmas present of all time. I love that thing so much, and I think you will, too. So, I set up an Amazon affiliate link for it in the description below if you're looking for an awesome coffee setup. I love how you can grind beans and make froth milk lattes, and it's so simple and fast to use. My absolute favorite coffee beans are these Lava Super Creamy Ones, which I've purchased over 20 times, as you can see here. And this is what it's all about. Enjoying your coffee, going for a walk with your wife in the middle of a weekday, and being available when your kids need something. It's taking care of your health without needing to squeeze everything between work obligations, being able to help somebody you care about, and making a video because you find it fun rather than because somebody assigned it to you. Those are the returns that really matter the most. So, 6 years in, am I still happy I chose dividend investing as a major part of my path to financial independence? Absolutely. I'm far more appreciative of it today than when I started. Not because dividends are perfect, because they're not. And not because dividend stocks can't fail, because they absolutely can. Every dividend isn't guaranteed. And somebody who invests differently from me isn't automatically doing anything wrong because there are tons of good ways to build wealth. I love dividends because they fit my life, my personality, my desire for passive cash flow, my health realities, and the needs of my family. They give me an income stream without forcing me to sell assets as my primary strategy. And they've given me what I really value these days, which is control over my time. So honestly, after everything I've been through, I'm really grateful that I'm sitting here 6 years into having companies I own pay my bills. So wherever you are in your journey, I hope you start or keep going because your portfolio doesn't need to be huge today. It just needs to exist and have the opportunity to grow. Give yourself that opportunity. Keep learning, keep investing, keep taking care of your health. Appreciate the people around you. Enjoy some of the money you work hard for. And make sure a portion of it keeps working hard for the person you're going to become. And now I want to shift gears and share some nasty comments from folks who think I'm totally biased, don't trust a word I say, or think I make terrible financial moves, amongst other things. I'll start with this guy who left me a comment saying, "I've been a dividend investor for 40 years. You're an idiot and I'm doing really well." So, he was responding to a video of mine where I shared all the arguments I knew of against dividend investing because I feel it's important to know all the pros and cons and not just sit in an echo chamber. Had he watched the video, then he'd know that I still love dividend stocks and a dividend investing strategy and that basically 100% of my tickers pay dividends. But he wasn't the only one who left a comment that I don't think watched the video. Like one guy said, "I was stupid to hate on dividends because they provided most of the stock market returns over its existence." Or here's a comment I got from someone who doesn't trust what I say. He goes, "Bro talks with a 26-year-old voice, talks about playing games with friends, and says he's 50." So, yes, I am in my 50s now, and I retired when I was in my 40s once my dividend income was more than my family's expenses. Two of my big passions in life were video games and working out. And I got into video games when a relative of mine showed me his Apple 2 computer in the 1970s. And since then, I got hooked. I eventually got a Commodore 64 in middle school and later got an Apple 2. And I spent countless hours on them gaming and learning how to program. It was around those years that I was also playing online textbased games using my 300B modem. So things like BBS games and mods for your old school gamers. And it was because of my passion for computers that I went to college for computer science. And after I got my CS degree, I started working as a programmer. And I continued to game. I really loved online games. So I had stints on CompuServe and Sierra Online. and I played games like Meridian 59, Ultima Online, EverQuest, and World of Warcraft to name just a few. These days, my hobbies include video games, working out, and screwing around on social media. And of course, I love my dividends, though I'm not sure I'd call investing a hobby. That being said, I continue to play online games with my friends almost every night, so I don't know what to say if someone thinks it's weird that I sound like I'm 26, but I still game in my 50s. The fact is, a lot of us Gen Xers love gaming and are pretty immature, especially when we're hanging out with our longtime friends. And I bet a lot of you younger folks out there will find yourself doing similar things when you're older. Moving on, here's a comment from someone who isn't a hater and is actually just sharing advice that is usually correct for people who aren't retired. Specifically, he said, "Why would you remove money from your retirement account? That's a terrible idea." So, yes, it is usually a bad idea to take money out of your retirement account if you could afford not to because you want compounding to do its thing. But as I explained in that video, I'm retired and was able to retire once my dividend income post taxes was greater than my family's expenses. Sure, I could keep working and not retire. And yes, my portfolio would have grown even more, but I figured out that I could retire early if I was willing to withdraw my dividends from my retirement accounts. I don't recommend that for anyone else because I don't know your personal situation and risk tolerances, but for me, it was probably the best decision I ever made. And so, I'm grateful I was able to do that. Moving on, here's a comment from someone who says, "So, you have a $4 million account and you post here about it. Why? I suggest you go away." So, I share all this because I feel that real examples matter. My goal has never been to show off big numbers. It's to provide real, transparent proof of what consistent dividend investing can actually achieve so others can learn how to build their own financial freedom. If that doesn't resonate with you, I get it. And fortunately, there are tons of financial channels out there that I'm sure you'd like. Or how about this comment from a guy who said, "Dividends are irrelevant." And when I said I disagreed and I included some content as to why, he responded that he's not watching my garbage content. And he advises real clients and I'm wrong and I should stop confusing the public. And I've had folks who said my content was boring. Anyway, here's another comment I got from someone who wasn't happy with me where he said my bias against high yield options income ETFs came through loud and clear. Specifically, some jokes I made in the video showed my bias against them. Now, there is some truth to that as I'm not someone who goes all in on income ETFs, and whatever I say obviously has my own bias, but in that video, I also said that a percentage of my portfolio is in income ETFs, so I clearly don't hate them. Basically, I said that high yield dividend ETFs can offer attractive income opportunities, but that cash flow comes with trade-offs. Bottom line, I do have my biases, and that's why I routinely recommend people don't copy me and instead just listen and then continue to research on your own and do what makes sense to you. So, all those troll comments are just what often happens when you put yourself on social media. Fortunately, most of you are awesome, and I appreciate every single one of you who tunes in, supports my channel, and shares this journey with me. So, keep investing intelligently, stay focused on your long-term goals, and please do me a favor by hitting that thumbs up button, subscribing if you haven't yet, and clicking that bell notification. Now, before I shout out some of my followers, I want to do a call out to Financial Modeling Prep, aka FMP, the company I'm using to get accurate near real-time stock data into my dividend spreadsheet tool. FMP has historical prices, fundamental data, insider transactions, and much more, all of which goes 30 years back in history. They have one of the most generous API rate limits out there with various option plans depending on your needs. They have some niche data packages like earnings call transcripts and 13F institutional ownership that other providers I looked at didn't seem to have. I've included my affiliate link in the description of this video in case you're looking to get great market data into your software, and my link should get you a discount off their prices. Moving on. Next, I'd like to show my gratitude to subscribers who left me kind comments. So, I'm going to shout out 10 who've done just that. So, thanks go out to Ex Pork Ring, Marchello 994, Super Insurance Man, who apparently is writing a book, Mad Spinner, Joe from Somewhere, Jason Milan, Wo Lolu, Dean Roaring, Gerald Wilson, and Torren Val404. Thanks, folks. I really appreciate it. Next, I'd like to pitch my Seeking Alpha affiliate link, which often has benefits when new people sign up. I'd also like to pitch my FastGrafts affiliate link along with my coupon code in the description of this video, is using both will allow new subscribers to get 25% off their first payment even if they sign up for a full year. Also, check out my Patreon page and or consider joining my channel membership as both have some cool perks you might like. Finally, I'll close this off by recommending that everyone join my free dividend Discord chat server, which has over 11,000 dividend investors on it from 88 countries around the world. Thanks for watching. Stay positive and I'll talk to you again real soon. Remember, I'm not a financial adviser and my videos are for entertainment and inspirational purposes only. Investing of any kind involves risk. I'm only sharing my opinions with no guarantee of gains or loss on investments.