Seek Limited Paid its Dividend on Friday – (SEK.AX)

On Friday a range of companies paid there dividend. Seek was the first of my share portfolio to pay its dividend on Friday.

Seek is currently yielding 2.77% which isn't as high as the major banks dividend yields but for a stock which I consider a growth stock the yield is average or even above average.

I received $73.10 in total and with Seek continuing to grow it's dividends every year Seek is starting to become a growth stock as well as a dividend stock as well.

Seek's share performance over the last 12 months has been terrible as was trading as high as $18.99 and as low as $11.40 so is a large trading range. I purchased Seek recently at $12.31 after the large drop and with Seek currently trading at $13.01 feel that it could be great long term investment.

This will depend on how successful Seek's international expansion is as if they can replicate the Australian model overseas I see the share price soaring.

Carsales.com Ltd Pays it Dividend Today – (CAR.AX)

With dividend season starting to come to an end for my portfolio, Car Sales today paid its dividend of 19.1c a share.

Car Sales is a growing company with exposure to a range of international markets (Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Brazil and Indonesia) through its investment in iCar Asia Ltd (ICQ).

As I only purchased some of my Car Sales shares recently before the ex-dividend date (Cut-off date to be included in the dividend payment) I only received a payment of $58.63 instead of a dividend payment of $100.

Shares in Car Sales are currently yielding 3.43% which isn’t a bad return for a company with large growth prospects. Although the company’s share price has traded in a tight range over the last 12 months I’m happy to continue holding onto my investment and also to reinvest my dividends in the company.

As I’m looking for the long term growth and if Car Sales can achieve anywhere near the success they have had in Australia in one of there overseas markets I expect the share price to increase quickly.

Woolworths Limited Pays it Dividend Today – (WOW.AX)

Today Australian’s most valuable brand paid its dividend of 72c a share.

I have been a long time Woolworths shareholder as purchased over a 120 of these many years ago when they traded at a $11.93 a share.

Today Woolworths closed at $26.73 so have made a very nice profit over these years which doesn’t include the dividends. Woolworths is currently yielding 5.26% so is a very good income investment as since 2001 they were paying a total of $0.27 a share in dividends and in 2015 paid a total of $1.39 a share.

Recently Woolworths share price has seen a major drop as were trading at $36.00 a share during the last 12 months and recently touched a low of $26.43 a share. Unlike many individuals which are negative on Woolworths due to the struggling Masters hardware stores, the renewed competition from Coles and the ongoing growth of Aldi and other foreign companies like Costco I believe in the long run Woolowrths still has many good years ahead of it and they are still the largest grocery store in Australia for a reason.

I expect Woolworths could have a few tough years as it navigates the changing landscape, its growing pains and its investment in the hardware industry. Although Woolworths shares might drop further I believe much of the negativity has already been priced in, due to this I recently invested a further $10,000 into WOW and plan to continue watching the share price for further buying opportunities.

Top Stock of the Day - Beach Energy (BPT.AX)

Beach Energy was the best performing stock on the S&P/ASX200 today with a surge of 15.094%.

Normally I would be excited with such a jump in a single day but unfortunately Beach Energy has traded as high as $1.442 over the last 12 months and after today’s surge it is still only trading at $0.61. As you can see the stock could jump several times like today and still be trading massively below its 12 month high.

I do think in the long term the price of oil will slowly trend higher as the world’s growth continues. But in the mean time we might see further swings like today in oil based shares as the price of oil trends up and down. At this stage I'm more then happy to continue holding BPT shares and although not purchasing any more at this stage will be watching the share price closely.

Transpacific Industries Dividend Payment - (TPI.AX)

Today Transpacific Industries (TPI.AX) pays it final dividend for the year.

Unfortunately the dividend payment per share is very small at 0.8c a share and is down from the payment this time last year at 1.5c a share.

As I only hold a very seem parcel of TPI shares (470) the total dividend payment was $3.76.

Not only this Transpacific shares have been one of my worst investments as they are down over 80% from the purchase price I paid. Some shareholders are doing even worse as the stock was trading over $10 a share at the height of the market before the GFC. At one point TPI was the hottest stock and was being recommended by all the major brokers as a strong buy.

Transpacific is currently trading at 0.685c a share and looking through their recent annual report the financial performance of the company doesn’t really seem to be improving. Due to the very low value of my Transpacific investment I haven’t sold my shares and plan just to leave them sit in the hope over a long time the company will succeed with its turnaround strategy.

Luckily the bad investment in Transpacific has taught me to be far more risk adverse and to ignore the hottest stocks and what all the brokers are recommending and instead to purchase quality companies that have sound financials.

Bank of Queensland Surges Over 7% - (BOQ.AX)

Today Bank of Queensland Shares (BOQ.AX) surged over 7% with BOQ announcing a record profit of $318 million which is an increase of 22% from the previous year.

Also margins improved slightly by 15 basis point to 1.97% which is a good result due to the fierce competition that is currently occurring in the home loan market throughout Australia.

Also the low interest rate environment is helping maintain record low levels of loan impairments. As this reduced by 14% to $74 million.

Also more good news for BOQ shareholders like myself is that they are increasing the dividend per share from 34c a share this time last year to 38c this year.

Bank of Queensland also expects to grow its lending by 7% which is a very good growth rate when combined with this dividend yield of over 6%.

I'm more than happy to continue to hold my investment in Bank of Queensland for many years to come.

My Portfolio - 6th October 2015

Have just added a new feature to the blog which shows MyPortfolio so you can see exactly what shares I own and the total value of my portfolio and also the percentage of my portfolio that each share holding occupies.

Will try to update this from month to month so you can see how this grows over time.

Coca Cola Amatil Limited (CCL.AX) Pays its Dividend Today

Hot on the heels of all the other recent dividend payments Coca Cola Amatil paid its dividend today.

As I hold over 1500 Coca Cola shares I received a total dividend payment of $317.60

A nice little payment that helps move me closer to retirement.

Coca Cola currently yields 4.5% with part franking of 75% and pays a dividend of 42c a share.

It has been a very tough 2 years for CCL as the share price was trading at a high of $14.47 and paid a dividend of 62c a share in 2013.

Today the shares are trading at $9.22 and have gone as low as $8.16

Luckily I had made several purchases of CCL shares which average out to just under today's share price.

I believe in the short term CCL will continue to come under pressure due to the shopping centre price wars and also the changing health habits of Australian consumers. I'm still a long term believer in Coca Cola as Australia will continue to grow as a country and this will help but the major long term benefit is that CCL has the rights to the Indonesian market which has a population nearly 10 times bigger then Australia and is growing more rapidly. 

Why I Love Dividends

I really do love dividends as what is there not to love as you wake up one morning and an email or letter arrives telling you that …. company has just paid you. Really is passive income that everyone talks about.

Also you can choose if this is a cash payment or if they have a dividend reinvestment plan to simply purchase more shares on your behalf without having to pay any extra fees.

Many of the top blue chip companies on the Australia stock exchange offer dividend yields around 5% and are franked so a 30% company tax has already been paid which gives you a tax credit for the dividends you receive.

So is a lot better return then the 2-3% you will get from a term deposit or savings account with the major banks.

It is expected that over the next 5-10 years that dividend payments will make up half of the investment return.

Maybe it is an Australian thing as the average company listed on the ASX pays out 75% of profit as a dividend. This is much higher than some other countries such as UK based companies only paying out 49% of profit as a dividend.

The other reason why I love dividends so much is that it fits in very well with my goal of financial freedom. I’m looking to slowly increase my annual dividend payments over time to the point where I can simply live off my dividends alone without having to work.

So below is the passive income I have made from dividends over the last few years:

End of 2009 financial year: $2136

End of 2010 financial year: $2830

End of 2011 financial year: $6463

End of 2012 financial year: $7353

End of 2013 financial year: $6868

End of 2014 financial year: $12,527

End of 2015 financial year: $12,847

*Above is from dividend payments including franking credits and the interest earnt from a very small amount of cash kept in savings accounts (Normally used before purchasing my next lot of shares)

At the end of this financial year I’m targeting to achieve over $15,000 in passive income.

More Dividends from Last Week – QBE (QBE.AX), Cochlear (COH.AX) and ASX (ASX.AX)

More companies have been paying there dividends to me over the last week.

Received small dividend payments from QBE, Cochlear and the ASX.

Received $16.40 from QBE

Received $29.00 from Cochlear

Received $78.93 from ASX

None of the above companies offer dividend reinvestment programs so the money either gets reinvested with my next share purchase or used to pay down my investment loan.

As you can see the above aren't large dividends payments and some of the companies like QBE dividend payments have been drastically cut due to the companies poor performance.

As the above companies I feel are companies that are going to be around for a very long period of time I'm happy to just sit and wait from them to slowly recover and collect there dividend payments ever 6 months.

Dividend Season Continues - Fortescue Metals Group (FMG.AX)

Always a great time of year as dividend season continues.

Today Fortescue Metals Group (FMG.AX) paid a dividend of 2c a share.

The dividend payment is hugely down compared with what was paid this time last year as the dividend was 10c a share.

So this time last year would have received $236 as the dividend but was down to $47.20

So you wouldn't want to be relying on Fortescue for its income ability as you can see what a huge drop that has occurred.

My Most Recent Share Purchase - Ramsay Health Care (RHC.AX)

With the Australian share market appearing to be in correction mode I have taken the opportunity to purchase another lot of shares.

As my portfolio has mainly been focussed on the financial industry. Mostly in Commonwealth Bank (CBA.AX) and Macquarie Bank (MQG.AX) and a mix of large and small mining, gas and oil stocks I have been looking for some divarication. Due to this I have been looking at the growing health care sector as believe as the Australia population ages the spending will only continue to increase and believe this will also occur throughout other countries with an aging population.

So due to this have purchased 86 shares of Ramsay Health Care shares at $58.79 AUD each.

Trading on P/E ratio of just over 30 most people would look at Ramsay Health Care and believe it is overvalued as most stocks on the ASX200 are trading in the 14-15 P/E ratio but the health care sector has a higher average of 21.

As Ramsay Health Care has recently been expanding throughout the world in France, Canada and China as well as continual growth at home I feel conformable paying a premier for the company.

Also believe in time this stock will slowly increase its dividend payout amount (Currently only yields 1.74) as it has increased its payout amount from 52c a share in 2011 to $1.01 a share in 2015. 

The Markets Trading Range over the last 12 and 60 months

What a difference a year can make on the share market as the ASX200 closed today at 5021. While the market had been as high as 5,997 points during the year and was looking like getting to 6000 we now seem a world away from it at the 5000 points mark. Looking at the performance of the market this year it is only down 5% from the very start of the year so isn’t as bad as the media seems to be portraying as needed a correction from the run up that was occurring. What is actually more concerning is the fact that the market is only trading slightly higher than it was 5 years ago (ASX200 was at 4582 as of September 2010)

So now seems like a great time to go on a buying spree for shares as the market is looking oversold in my opinion as is taking a very negative view considering we are still not in a recession. Due to the belief the market has been oversold I have been buying up big.

Stay tuned for my next post about what my most recent stock purchase was.

A day to forget on the ASX as it finish down 4%

Not a great day today on the ASX as the ASX200 it has finished down 4%.

I have seen over $12,000 wiped from my portfolios value today which is painful to watch when trying to work towards retirement.

My worst performing stock of the day was Beach Energy Limited (BPT.AX) which was down 8.738% to 0.47c a share. A year ago it was trading as high as $1.40 a share so has been a terrible investment.

All my stocks seemed to be down today as all sectors have been effected

Consumer Discretionary down -2.55% 

Consumer Staples down -3.12% 

Energy down -7.15% 

Financials down-3.71%  

Health Care down -3.61% 

Industrials down-3.34% 

Information Technology down -2.13% 

Materials down -5.29% 

Telecommunication Services down -4.69% 

Utilities down -2.99% 

But all this negative news isn't making me sell out of the market and instead over the last 6 weeks I have been buying and buying.

It will be interesting to see if the market continues to fall tomorrow or if this is a buying opportunity for the traders on the side lines. I'm sure we will see a lead from the European and US markets overnight.

BHP BILLITON LIMITED (BHP.AX) Pays its Dividend Today

Dividend season is a great time of year. I always think it is Christmas for adults.

Today BHP pays its dividend which at today’s share price is yielding a huge 7.28% and according to the BHP website they still plan to maintenance or increase their dividend.

“BHP Billiton has a progressive dividend policy. The aim of the policy is to steadily increase or at least maintain the dividend per share in US dollar terms at each financial half year.”

I personally have my doubts due to the ongoing commodity price slide that is going on in Australia and throughout the world. The only saviour may be the failing Australian dollar which might help maintenance the dividend pay out amount due to BHP paying in US dollars. So as the Australian dollar falls against the US dollar the dividend will appear larger when it is converted.

So today BHP will pay 62c USD a share franked at 30%. In Australian dollar this is 87.781c a share.

I personally expect to receive a payment of $85.70 today which isn’t bad considering I only own a small number of BHP shares (100).

As BHP doesn’t provide a dividend reinvestment plan I will be using the payment to help reduce my margin lending account balance.

Time will tell if BHP can maintenance its progressive dividend policy but I would personally not be buying more BHP shares for the dividend yield alone.

The Market Today – 29th September 2015

I expect after the large falls on all the overseas markets last night we will have the same kind of day here on the Australian market.

As the DOW lost 1.92% and the major European markets lost 2-2.5%.

The Australian dollar is trading down across the board at 0.6972 US dollars, 0.6209 to the Euro, 0.4598 to the pound in the UK and the kiwi dollar is worth 0.9044 to the Australian dollar.

Brent crude is down a little to $47.21 USD a barrel.

My First Share Purchase - Qantas (QAN.AX)

Your first ……….. In life are really major experiences that stay with you for your entire life. Your first best friend, first love, first car etc.

One of my main first experiences that I remember was my first share purchase like it was yesterday.

It was 1998 and I was 12 years old and at the time I had been saving money for what felt like forever as didn't have a lot of income sources being 12 years old.

Luckily my parents saw the importance of what I was wanting to achieve and offered to match every dollar I saved and planned to invest in the stock market. So I set myself a goal of saving $150 dollar so with the matching money I would have $300 to invest.

Being 12 I knew only the real basics of how the stock market worked. You buy a share at x price and then hoped over time it went up and then you would sell it for a profit and then buy another share and would continue this until I was rich.

So being a kid I wanted to purchase a company/brand that I knew and saw everyday as thought this would be a better company to purchase. This thought process still stands today as the most successful investor in history (Warren Buffett) believes in investing in industries you know and understand.

So I purchased a hundred Qantas (QAN) shares for $2.642 each.

Luckily over a very short period of time (Only about 5 months later) I decided to sell my shares for $4.30 a share

I thought making a profit of over $100 at my age without having to do anything was fantastic.

Looking back now I can see how this shaped my early interest in the stock market and why I can see it as a path to retirement and to becoming a millionaire.

Medibank Private Limited (MPL.AX) First Dividend

Today is the day that Medibank Private pays its first dividend payment of 5.3c per share which is fully franked at 100%. Medibank has over 400,000 shareholders that will receive this dividend payment. Currently Medibank doesn’t offer a dividend reinvestment plan so instead of automatically reinvesting my dividends like I normally would I expect to receive a cash dividend payment of $165.625. Medibank expects to pay out $146 million dollars according to its annual report to shareholders so I would expect like myself that many other investors will be looking at topping up there current holdings or looking for a new company to invest in.

According to the ASX website Medibank is trading with a yield of only 2.23%. This figure doesn’t take into account the dividend payments that were paid to the Australian federal government for its share of the company before being sold. So I would expect the dividend yield of Medibank will raise over the next year due to all dividends now going to ordinary shareholders and the increasing profits at Medibank.

Although Medibank hasn’t been listed for a year yet (Around 11 months) it is currently sitting at a return of 21% before the dividend payment for shareholders that purchased at the float price of $2.00 a share. So with dividends included is returning around 23.23% in its first year which I would love for all my stocks to achieve every year. Along with other past government floats like Commonwealth Bank (CBA.AX) and CSL Limited (CSL) Medibank is looking like a great investment but only time will tell if it can achieve the kind of returns that Commonwealth and CSL have achieved over time.

My First Savings Account

Like many young Australian kids at the time my first experience with a bank account or savings account was at school through the Commonwealth Banks Dollar Mite Savings Account.

I can remember having fond memories of this as a kid as would be handed a gold coin or a few silver coins to bank that day in my dollar mite account. I think I just enjoyed having some money in my hand as it was a novelty as a kid. Can’t remember how often this would happen at school or for how many years this continued but this first experience with Commonwealth bank worked as they are still the main financial institute that I bank with.

Was curious to see if the bank still had a modern day dollar mite account and can see they do still offer it but looks like they have really stepped up there game as activities and games are now available.

https://www.commbank.com.au/personal/kids/school-banking/dollarmites.html

The Market Today – 28th September 2015

Looks like the market is set to open flat and maybe slightly higher this morning as it appear like some merger activity might be occurring between Vocus Communications Ltd (ASX: VOC) and M2 Group Ltd (ASX: MTU) to become a $3bn Telco.

Can read more about this here

On Friday after the Australian market closed we saw the a small gains in the USA of 0.70% on the Dow but loses on the S&P 500 of -0.05% and a fall of over 1% on the NASDAQ.

In Europe the markets were far more positive with the FTSE 100 up 2.47% and the German DAX up 2.77% and the French CAC 40 up just over 3%.

The Australian dollar is trading at 0.7017 US dollars, 0.6270 to the Euro, 0.4619 to the pound in the UK and the kiwi dollar is worth 0.9075 to the Australian dollar.

Brent crude is worth $48.29 USD a barrel and Iron Ore is trading at $56.57 USD a ton.

About Me

As the blog isn’t really about me and is instead about the journey to retirement I will not bore you with the details about myself but just to say I’m an average Australian guy in my early thirties living in a capital city on the east coast. Have always had an interest in making money and investing since my childhood when I use to sell my unwanted toys to my brother. Sometimes purchasing them back for a bargain price when he no longer wanted them.

I own a small business which is seen as the second most popular Australian dream after owning a home but it is yet to earn me a million dollars unfortunately so I’m still on the journey to retirement and the millionaire’s club.

I’m married but without kinds at this stage and have at least 30 years or more until the suggested retirement age.

So the above should give you an idea on my situation and explain my investment profile.

The Purpose

The purpose behind the journey to retirement is to inspire like-minded individuals on the journey we all take to retirement and the road to becoming a millionaire.

The journey to retirement blog details my experience from my first investments from my childhood to the current investments I now make. You can follow my journey to retirement and hopefully becoming a millionaire.

I’ll talk about all things related to finance and investing for the future and detail each investment I make for the future and explain the reason behind it. As I’m focussing on investing for retirement my focus will be on long term income and capital gains investments and not short term trading to make a quick profit.