and Net Worth Update (March 2022)

Somehow despite a war, the pandemic, rising inflation and supply chain shortages, I finished in the BLACK (in the green) for the month of March. While I can’t predict the future, it seems as if we have more gloom and doom on the horizon.

Job Hopping 

I don’t consider myself a pessimist, but the writing is on the wall. I believe it’s time to settle down regarding employment.

Get a job. Keep the job. And build a financial fortress for yourself.  

Correcting and building your finances can take anywhere from one-to-three years (depending on your debt). According to the experts, this is when the country can expect the next recession to start. Even when jobs are plentiful, it can take anywhere from three weeks to six months to find and start a new job, which is predicated on your salary demands (the more you make the longer it takes). 

According to several job site polls, the No. 1 reason people leave their job is dissatisfaction with their salary. But did you know that 56% of employees say they’ve never requested a raise? And that 66% of those who have asked for a raise received one! Even more concerning is that more than 72% of new hires don’t even like the new job that they’ve hopped to. 

Here’s my take on the situation: If you don’t ask, you don’t receive (a closed mouth doesn’t get fed, as the saying goes). If you’ve worked in one crappy office you’ve worked in them all, some just have sleeping pods and smoothie bars. And lastly, you won’t be able to job hop your way out of poor financial habits. If you are currently in the habit of spending more than you earn and not saving anything, those habits will follow you to the next the job. Not even a new six-figure salary will be enough to help you. 

However, if you are serious about building wealth, you will need to master what I like to call the “5 Laws of Financial Independence”:

1. Spend less than you earn.
2. Build an emergency fund.
3. Pay off all high-interest debt.
4. Save and invest (until you earn enough from investments to cover your cost of living). 
5. Maximize your earning potential.

“Wealth is reserved for those who know its laws and abide by them.” — The Richest Man in Babylon

Okay, time for the March net worth and dividend update:

My net worth increased by $5,006.00 in March! Perhaps this will be the quarter that I reach the $250K milestone. It wasn’t long ago that I would have expected to hit that number next month. But the volatility has already trained me to think in quarters. 

Now onto the only, truly passive income: dividends!

March is the last month of the first quarter and that makes it a big dividend-paying month. I had 13 companies pay me a total of $359.76 (a new all-time dividend high). This month is really making that $3,000 year-end dividend goal look possible. 

March Dividends

·      I haven’t purchased any additional Bank of America (BAC) shares in a couple of years. What you see is the result of dividend reinvestment and dividend increases. Feels good knowing that Bank of America will pay me more than $48 this year with no effort from me.

·      PEG is a core holding and one of the first individual stock purchases I made. They have raised the dividend every year that I’ve owned it and I continue to buy it quarterly

·      Realty Income (O) is a monthly paying REIT that I started buying back in 2020 at a bargain. The price has spiked over the last couple of months and the plan is to continue buying.

·      3M (MMM) has finally dropped in price and I plan to take advantage of this opportunity.

·      DOW is a new position that I should have acted on immediately. It was trading at $59 when I first bought it and quickly shot up to $69 after its latest earnings report. 

Dividend paying stocks have been my choice from the start. And to my surprise, even the “experts” now have come around to suggesting high-quality, dividend-paying stocks to hedge against all that’s wrong in the world. 

Remember, it is a fight to build wealth no matter where you are in the process. Everything around us conspires to take money out of our hands. But you must fight the good fight. Continue to save, invest, and grow your net worth even when it seems impossible. Save your pennies (copper) until they become dollars (cotton).