Weekly Dividend Investing Roundup - 2008 Financial Resolution Edition

This weeks edition of the Weekly Dividend Investing Roundup will follow on from a theme started by Cash Money Life about Financial Resolutions for 2008. I want to present my financial resolution for 2008 as it relates to dividend investing:

What is my financial resolution? To increase the value of my dividend portfolio by $12,000, ending up with a value of $72,000 by December 31, 2008.

Every month I add approximately $700 to my investment portfolio, which means I will need to make up the extra $3600 in investment returns. That means I will need to achieve a 6% return on my money in 2008, which I think is realistic and achievable given the market we are currently operating in. I will be adding a sidebar item to track my progress as I strive for this goal. Watch for that soon!

My SMART Goal:

Specific - I have laid it out in black and white - I want to have $72,000 in portfolio value.
Measurable - I have $59,500 right now and will need to see the value increase by $12,000 to hit my goal.
Actionable - There are specific steps I can take to get there, including continuing on with my monthly contributions and ensuring my asset allocation is in line with my financial plan.
Realistic - I believe this is a realistic goal - it could be difficult if the market turns really sour, but my monthly contributions will help.
Timely - I have until December 31, 2008 to achieve this goal.

Now on with the weekly roundup…

Carnivals for the Week:

Carnival of Personal Finance at Stock Trading to Go

Other Articles:

We need to put the recent market action into perspective and not let it sway our long term investing goals. genXfinance provided A Visual History of the Stock Market From 1996 - 2007.

One thing I talk a lot about on this blog is ensuring you do your research before you buy any investment. Cash Money Life provided this lesson within the context of losing $1000.

I don’t know too much about exchange traded notes but this article at CNN provides some information on them - essentially they hold in the dividends to help an investor shelter their gains from tax. Sounds too complicated for me!

Awhile back I spoke about a Canadian index that tracks Canadian Dividend Aristocrats. They have finally released more information about it and Average Joe at Dividends Matter provides all us Canadian dividend investors with the scoop. My take - there are a lot of income trusts in there which are not dividend stocks.

I also speak a lot about international diversification on this blog and there appears to be a new index fund that tracks global dividend payers. Sun at The Sun’s Financial Diary gives us some insight into the Dow Jones Global Select Dividend Index Fund.

There will always be a debate between passive and active investors. I use a bit of a hybrid, but if you are just starting out or do not trust your decisions, then passive investing is the best course of action. Everything Finance has a good description of what this is.

If you do participate in active investing, then you better understand how to value a stock - The Curious Investor has a good series of posts going the teaches you how to do just that.

The secret to wealth is hard work - I know I am putting in the work so the wealth better come soon! Check out Money Socket’s article on The Real Secret to Building Wealth for some justification for all this hard work you are doing.

Thanks to you all for the good articles and to all my readers - I appreciate your comments and input day in and day out!