Recent Buy: Verizon

I've added another great company to the Dividend Scythe! This time around, I've chosen to add Verizon to the portfolio. What attracted me to this company was the seemingly overzealous and breeding type of business that Verizon runs. One has to respect a company that thrives to be the best, even if it means having to charge customers a premium to do so. In addition, I can't over look how many people I know who have the service and have no other complaints that aren't related to the price that is attached to their service. That's saying a lot in the world we live in today. It's a fine product that they market - both telephony and internet services.

Although Verizon has been going through some changes inside their enterprise, functionally they are still the same great company that has taken off through the years. This should therefore solidify them into the future and make it another great company to hold in the portfolio. It was basically as no-brainer to add Verizon alongside the already well performing, AT&T inside the Dividend Scythe. Now let's look at the final compilation of the purchase.

Purchased: 25 shares of VZ @ $49.07/share

Total purchase: $1,236.74

Annual dividend added to the Scythe: $57.75

New Projected Annual Dividend Income: $505.37

And with that, the Scythe has officially passed the $500 mark for annual income. All I have to do is keep the train rolling. Thanks for reading, everyone.

Recent Buy: Wells Fargo

After what seems like forever, I've finally added a new position to the Dividend Scythe portfolio. Today's new position is in none other than Wells Fargo Corp. (WFC). I've had my eye on this gem since what seems like the very beginning. All it took was the perfect entry thanks to all the Brexit hooplah.

Wells Fargo Corp. (WFC) is a great company. They have a huge moat, they take care of their customers, manage their debt, and most importantly they still make money. These are all the qualities I look for in companies that I want to add to the ultimate legacy portfolio that I'm piecing together.

As pictured above (myself and some guy dressed as "pedo-bear"), I have simply been watching and waiting for this moment. Sometimes that's all it takes. There's a good metaphor in there but I can't quite grasp it right now. I'll simply put it this way, if you wait long enough, what you want will eventually find its way to you. Let's sum up the purchase then:

Purchased 22 shares of WFC on 6/28/2016 @  $45.47/share

+$9.99 trade fee

Total investment cost: $1,010.33

Total annual dividend added to the Dividend Scythe: $33.44

I know this purchase isn't exactly what I had planned. I had been keeping my eye on Boeing (BA) for a time there as well but I didn't have enough capital to bring in a solid position into Boeing (BA) like I wanted so I opted for Wells Fargo Corp. (WFC) instead. Also, with the Brexit news I highly anticipate that Wells Fargo Corp. (WFC) will see a sizable bump in the future. I take this as a sign of a rate hike and I hope that I'm right as they generally play very well for those who own banks in their portfolios.

Volume as a Buy Indicator

Many different investors use many different types of data to qualify a stock for purchase. If you’ve read my investing essentials series, you know a lot of the figures that I myself use. One figure however that was not listed is one that I use to determine whether or not I may be buying in at the right (or best) price. This figure that is relied on is more on the technical analysis side of analysis. What I’m referring to is one of the market itself. It’s a number so valuable that it can be seen as one of the largest indicators of what the market truly values at stock at. I’m talking about volume.

Recent Buy: L Brands

Back to back buys! Yeah baby! Very groovy! I love Mondays because they bring together quite the great storm of great stocks that offer themselves up for purchase. This morning I have finalized my purchase of now two different stores that I feel have gone on discount and will very likely continue to be on discount for at least a little while. The first was Game Stop Corp Com (GME) and the second is my purchase of L Brands (LB).

I've already spoken about Game Stop Corp Com (GME) in my last post that was centered around the purchase of their company so I want to use this post to exclusively talk about L Brands (LB) and why the buy signal has flashed in my head. The reasoning for the purchase of L Brands (LB) centered around the psychology of the current dip in price. Where only a short few months ago the brand was trading for over $100/share, a change in management and direction has left a lot of investors running for the hills. I would argue however that a shift in management in this case is hardly reason to worry.

L Brands (LB) holds so much attractiveness that I believe it's hard for anyone to really put a price tag on it. I imagine going up to my wife and telling her that she will no longer be able to buy anything from Victoria's Secret. I feel like I would sooner have something chucked at my head than be successful in telling her to avoid the store. Women (and men for good reason!) have a great view of the store because it has such a great history of providing wear that makes women feel sexy. For women (largely due to society being a douche and training them to be this way), feeling sexy is of great importance. Since Victoria's Secret does such a great job at it, seldom would their sales drop unless they were to completely turn away from the styles that they have been so successful with in the many years they have been in business.

Granted, this is only half the business - there is the Bath and Body Works side to the business as well. I don't know about you but I work in an office building. I would be lying if I said there were ever a single day that I've walked about the office and not smelled at least a handful of their products floating around the office. That side of the business is alive and well.

This was an easy buy. Their brand has an incredible name for recognition and a simple change in management and styles of advertising will hardly impact what they take in on the bottom line. I simply have to wait for the next earnings release to confirm this. Q2 has historically been very good for L Brands (LB) and then a small drop in Q3 before a HUGE jump in Q4 thanks to a certain holiday that would be a lot less amazing without Victoria's Secret. The final summary is below:

Purchase of L Brands (LB) - 8 shares @ 66.943 points - total price: $545.534

Recent Buy: GameStop Corp Com

There are going to be a lot of folks who ask me immediately after posting this as to why I finally cracked and grabbed up a piece of Game Stop Corp Com (GME). Quite simply put, I could no longer continue wasting time continuously doubting myself as to whether or not the company was a good use of my money. Where the core business I feel is moving out the door a little (selling used games), I feel that the board is moving the business in other directions that so far have proven to be excellent for income.

Where there is excellent income, there is seldom much reason for worry. There are few of life's troubles that cannot be purchased by good old fashioned cash. As you all know, I like to aim for companies that have very little debt or at least enough capital to pay off that debt if the worst were to come. GME is not unlike these past picks. Their current debt is 350.40M and they have a working cash flow of 450.40M - more than enough to cover if they needed to use it.

A lot of their new income comes from their telephonic branch off. Where GME game stores have taken a hit as of late and slowed sales, their telephonic business is booming. This should help to buffer their game stores while they move those to a more merchandise based model. With this being said, I will summarize my purchase below:

Purchased GameStop Corp Com - 20 shares @ 28.81 points - total investment: $586.19

Investment Essentials: Starting Your Portfolio

Now that you've gotten 90% done with the essentials, it's time to start thinking about starting your own portfolio. In order to start a portfolio, you will have to open a brokerage account with one of the many brokers that are available to you either at your bank, online, or at trading manager offices. The most popular however is the online brokerage because they are the least likely (in my opinion) to charge you various fees. They can also be best used through online management so you don't need to pay someone else to do any of your investing for you.

Recent Buys: ABBV, STAG

I've said it before and I'll say it again; I love the smell of purchases in the morning. This morning I woke up and after finalizing my budget for March I was able to move a good amount into the investing account. This allowed me to quickly grab a few stocks that I've been looking at for some time now. These two stocks were ABBV and STAG. The purchases are as follows:

New Purchases:

ABBV - 10 shares - $586.90 - 3.90% annual dividend

STAG - 15 shares - $300.90 - 7.02% annual dividend

With both of these being added to the portfolio, the portfolio gains an additional (potential) $43.60 in annual dividend income. This gives it a huge boost in payouts for the year as I race towards crushing last years dividend payouts. As this is very important to keep my eyes on, I've also gone back and compiled the monthly payouts for 2015 so that I can better understand not just the YOY growth of the totals throughout the year but also through the month. That is as follows:

As you can see, I've already crushed January, February, and March's last year payouts. I hope that this trend can continue into the rest of 2016. The only threat to that would be if a cut was presented that would severely limit a payout for any of the next few months. As I don't see that sort of thing coming and I doubt that most people can, I won't bother thinking about it too much. I will simply plan to keep my eyes forward towards the future and hope that these picks further bolster a well run portfolio of dividend paying stocks.

Thanks for following and if you have any feedback, please leave your comments below. I would love to hear from any of my readers, most importantly on such updates as new acquisitions.

Recent Buy: American Railcar Inds Inc.

Look at all the deals on the market this morning, right?! I was happy to see when I woke up this morning that a lot of stocks had gone on discount (as they typically do on Mondays). With a coffee in one hand and my other hand on my TD application, I grabbed up a stake in ARII. If you don't know or aren't as familiar as you'd want to be of American Railcar, I urge you to read my previous post that contained a full review on the company.

With this purchase I was able to grab 17 shares at $41.77/share. I'll admit that it's not the best price of the day because I jumped at it right when the price started dropped instead of raising but I still feel very comfortable with the purchase. Like a kid running down the stairs to see that Santa had brought me a brand new choo choo train, I leaped on it like a spider monkey.

The total purchase was as follows:

17 shares of ARII at $41.77/share, total purchase price: $720.08

**Commission fee of $9.99

This means that with this acquisition, I have added $1.60/share per year in dividend payouts or 3.83% dividend yield. This totals an added $27.20/year in dividends to my dividend harvest and I'll be able to capitalize on it immediately as the ex-dividend date hits this week. All in all, not bad for a days work.

Let me know what you think. Do you currently hold ARII? Why or why not?

Watch List: Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems - the tech company that would love to sell you your next piece of network equipment. If you've ever dealt with the task of obtaining your own router/modem or other tech piece, you've probably heard of their company. They design, manufacture, and of course sell equipment for our networking needs. The company was founded in 84' out of San Jose, California and they operate for in segments for home and business.

Watch List: Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo is the owner of a large series of multinational banks. They also offer multitudes of financial services to bring in other income. Their services cover basic banking, loans, retirement, and investment options. As one of the big four banks in the USA, they hold a strong national recognition and they will likely withstand the test of time that many banks topple over when faced with adversity.

Watch List: Darden Restaurants

Have you ever been to Red Lobster? Does your mouth salivate at the very thought of those delicious cheddar biscuits? How about Olive Garden's bread sticks? Do you like those? Do you crave them? If the answer is yes and you also possibly enjoy Long Horn Steakhouse or Bahama Breeze, then maybe DRI is your next acquisition. Darden Restaurants owns and operates nearly 1,900 of these locations in the US and Canada and it is the next stock on our watch list to be reviewed.

Watch List: PepsiCo

Readers,

It may feel like I’m posting a little too much lately… so let’s keep that trend going! Today I’d like to review a company that we all know and I think most of us love. That’s right ladies and gentlemen. I’m talking about PepsiCo. Let’s dig in!