Friday, January 9, 2015

MDP turns 1



I can't believe a few days ago this blog had a birthday.  It is amazing how fast time flies and it is even more amazing to me that I am still making weekly entries. I will continue to do this as it has become very enjoyable for me.

For someone that has never kept any type of journal or diary, I must say that I never knew what I was missing. This has been a pretty cool experience and more importantly my interest in investing, passive income, and financial independence has only increased during the past year.

The public record of my investing ideas and monthly results has certainly increased my focus on accountability, but more important following along the journeys of many other like-minded individuals has reassured me that my FI plans are not unrealistic or INSANE!

While I may not have ever kept a journal per se, I have tracked my monthly net worth for over ten years now. This act alone, much like writing and setting goals, dramatically reinforced my commitment to making sound financial decisions (paying off debt, saving, keeping expenses low, etc).


Casting pearls before swine

As I have mentioned before, I have a pretty f*cked up work/life balance so I literally spend more time with my "work friends" than I do with my family and friends. While there is a relatively high overall turnover rate at work, there are about six people that I have worked with for over fifteen years and around another ten or so that I have worked with over ten years. I have been trying to get them to see the benefits of long term wealth management for years with no results.

Many of these individuals make a lot of money ($150k+) and yet have little or no net worth. Boom and Bust cycles are just a normal part of life to them and nothing ever changes. The funny thing is many of them come to me looking for investing advice, but what they really are looking for is a Lotto Ticket. When I try to explain to them how real wealth is created, they typically lose interest and go back to searching for deals on the internet. A few days later I see them looking for an advance on their commissions. It can be crazy sometimes.

Here is an just one example of my frustration. In May of 2009 I hired a young college grad who wanted to start a career in sales. Obviously things were slow and I explained to him that I really didn't need any extra help, but he practically begged me for the job, so I thought "What the hell...why not give him a shot."

For the first six months he constantly screwed up simple tasks, pissed off customers, and was on the chopping block every month. He reminded me of  Tommy Boy trying to make sales. I kept thinking I cannot believe a college grad is this incompetent and is working essentially for minimum wage. Finally I told him that he needed to get his shit together and to start competing with the other salespeople otherwise he could take his sorry ass and his resume to Taco Bell. I know that is a bit harsh, but I needed for the kid to get better for his sake and mine. I really do hate wasted potential.

Anyway, he took the conversation to heart and took drastic action. This meant outworking others, using his "spare time" developing his skills, making sacrifices that many refuse to make even during the hardest of times. Little by little he started improving and evenually he became one of my top salespeople. In 2011, 2012, and 2013 he finished number two in the company in total sales. This year he was Salesmen of the Year. I couldn't be more proud of his professional development and he will no doubt have a bright future.................BUT

I said this was just one example of my frustration. In early 2012 after he had made $80k....again in 2009 he was making just above minimum wage. Since I personally took an interest in this kid and felt responsible for his continued development I thought I would give him the advice I ignored when I was his age. He was 25 at the time.

I took the time to create an Excel spreadsheet which showed him how investing 3k a month for around 5 years could make him financially independent by the time he hit his mid 40s. He paid me lip service and proceeded to buy a $35k Cadillac. I asked him about the Excel spreadsheet that I had given him earlier in the month. He mumbled something about the Cadillac being the nicest car his family had ever seen. He will learn that life's lessons can be hard.

I congratulated him on a fine looking car and then explained to him the same $35k invested conservatively would become $70k in ten years. The Cadillac's value, on the other hand, mostly likely would dimish to $3k. Then I explained that if he makes too many other "investments" like the Caddy he will have a very difficult time trying to recover later on.

He then proceeded to explain to me that he wouldn't keep the car that long and besides he didn't pay $35k cash, he kept his money and financed it. I raised the white flag of surrender at this point and decided I would not let the impulsive, foolish decisions of others ruin my mood anymore. I also decided that some my plans for the future would remain in stealth mode.

After a while my passion for investing and FI only increased, only I really didn't have anyone to share my ideas with since I was on an island so to speak. Around 2013 I started doing some investment research on the internet and eventually stumbled upon many FI and investing blogs that were amazing. I never dreamed people blogged about this stuff. The stories I was reading were so amazing and different than anything else out there.

Yahoo and MSN broadcasted 10% saving rates and work extra years so you can get the higher SS rates when you retire. I was already living in a paid off house and saving 60% of my take home pay and thought the "expert advice" was more suitable for the working zombies.

Anyway as I started reading more and more blogs, I thought "These are my People!!!"

I can't remember whose blog it was that I was reading, but the author encouraged his readers to do something bold and start your own blog. My original thought was "Well that is some of the stupidest shit I have ever read. What kind of loser would do something like that?"


Jan 4, 2014.....Blog entry #1

After creating my blogger account, I was ready to go. As I have mentioned on a few occasion, my IT skills suck so I decided to keep things simple....I mean Really simple.

I am always telling my sales staff to constantly be filling their pipelines with prospects to ensure success, so that is where I came up with the name "My Dividend Pipeline"

Next I found the most desolate looking, Mad Max, post apocalyptic, landscape I could find and then Voila we have ourselves a blog!

After a couple of weeks I noticed many other blogs had their posts enclosed with a pretty border. I watched numerous Youtube videos and made several google searches in order to enclose my posts. For some reason the first code created squared borders that would turn red whenever I hovered over  the posts with a mouse. This looked ridiculous and besides I wanted rounded borders like many of you have.

A few days later I randomly found another string of code that created rounded borders and didn't change colors like a Christmas tree. This worked very well until a month ago.

Eventually I decided to enable the Adsense feature. That was back on December 20 and after a painful amount of tinkering, I actually got it working. Most days I earn between $.40 and $.60, but I also have earned as little as $.02 and as much as $3.00 in one day. That was so cool.

I must apologize for the ads being weird shapes and sizes and in some cases not fitting properly. I will not make any more adjustments simply because it is working and I don't want to screw it up.

Successfully activating Adsense gave me new found confidence that unfortunately would fade quickly.

Next, I decided to add a "Continue Reading" to my posts and somehow managed to wipe out all of my borders. On top of that, I still do not have a "Continue Reading" command. After hours of trying to restore my borders, my blog remains borderless. I can't begin to explain how frustrating this sort of stuff continues to be.

While I stated that one of my 2015 goals is to improve my blog, the HTML button is not my friend and never will be. In fact I hate that f*cking button. I feel like a 7 year old who is sitting inside the cockpit of a 747 trying to land smoothly. It is never going to happen, and I have accepted it.

Now that I have manage to successfully drift all over the place with this post, I feel better now and should stop while I am behind . This has been a great experience and I have no regrets. I really am looking for to Year #2 and beyond!

MDP

27 comments:

  1. Thoroughly enjoyed that post, MDP. It takes a lot for someone who is unfamiliar with blogging to get started. Even I, being a software designer, was nervous about starting a blog. I wasnt sure how much of my time it would take up...but once I started, it was a breeze.
    Kudos to you for finding yoru people :) and I am happy to be part of the audience and a fellow traveler on your journey to financial independence. Every single post you share, connects us in the moment - and hey, thats what life is all about, isnt it?

    Once again, congrats on your one year anniversary. You are a huge inspiration to every reader. Keep up the great work!

    Best wishes
    R2R

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    Replies
    1. R2R,

      Thanks for the encouraging words and continued support. I am having a blast! This is going to be a fantastic year.

      MDP

      Delete
  2. I really enjoyed reading this post. By the way if you need help improving the look I would be happy to help and give some advice.
    MrStockFox

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    Replies
    1. MrStockFox,

      Thanks you so much. I have resigned myself to a very and I mean VERY basic blog format. If I need anything I will gladly ask for your advice!

      MDP

      Delete
  3. Way to ring in the anniversary. Arguably one of your best posts (probably #2 behind your story one from the end of last year). As someone with a financial background, I know nothing about coding or whatnot, so I can relate to the frustrations of wanting to make some changes to a site but feeling completely inadequate in understanding how to do so. Oh well, such is life. I'll figure it out eventually. Best of luck in year two!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. W2R,

      Like I mentioned above, I will probably stay pretty close to the current format since I seem to be regressing in my blog editing skills. As always, I appreciate the support!

      MDP

      Delete
  4. MDP, Funny post and congrats on year 1! Being a sales guy myself, I can relate to allot to what you wrote. Sounds like we are both good at sales and terrible at blog IT.

    Look forward to your year 2.

    cheers, AA

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    Replies
    1. AA,

      I hear you buddy. Obviously in my case sales skills and blogging skills are mutually exclusive. I would mind toying around with the blog except whenever I screw something up (like my borders) the effects appear to be irreversible. I am hesitant to try anything that I can't undo.

      MDP

      Delete
  5. Hey man, congratulations on your blogoversary! I'm pleased you're still feelin the love after a year of keeping this regular look into the FI journey.

    Your story reminded me a lot of one found on the Finance Zombie's blogspot. I have encountered the same kind of stuff with an old uni friend of mine too - she just refused to listen that not buying a Starbucks every day on her very low wage would actually start adding up really fast into some serious savings! Oh well, some people will only learn the hard way, sadly.

    Keep up the good work for 2015 my man

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TV,

      Thanks for the visit. You can lead a horse to water as the saying goes. I now find myself more reserved when someone asks me for investing advice. I stick with the basics like pay off your debt and save aggressively...after those things are accomplished then we can talk.

      MDP

      Delete
  6. Congrats on your blogoversary! Keep up the good work and I enjoy reading and learning from your posts!

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    Replies
    1. Ron,

      Thanks for the comment. It has certainly been an interesting and exciting year!

      MDP

      Delete
  7. you can lead a horse to water... but a pencil must be lead HAHAHA

    ReplyDelete
  8. What an interesting story. I too have a difficult problem sharing FI ideas with others in real life. I guess FI world has to live on the internet for the time being :)

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    Replies
    1. YD,

      Yes... The internet is where all the smart logical people exist. :-)

      MDP

      Delete
  9. Congrats on the blog birthday. In terms of blog HTML you might want to look into moving to wordpress to give you more control. I haven't used Blogger for over 10 years so not sure how they've changed since but back then there's limited amount of tweaking you can do.

    It's interesting reading about your story on the young kid that you're trying to help. I suppose some people just don't get it. It sure is frustrating when that happens.

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    Replies
    1. Tawcan,

      I actually started to move to Wordpress, but I have gotten used to Blogger and I hate the idea of changing when I probably won't use any more features than I currently use. Plus the thought of trying to move everything over would create a whole new set of problems that would not be good me.

      I probably will just keep everything as it is until I have more free time (a few years from now) to really focus on the blog more.

      MDP

      Delete
  10. Writing consistently for a year is an incredible commitment. It's something to be proud of. And I wouldn't fear wordpress. It's pretty easy software to use. It's almost always better to have your content on your own site that you control.

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    Replies
    1. Adam,

      Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to look into it further.

      MDP

      Delete
  11. Congrats on reaching the 1 year mark...and I noticed you also completed exactly 100 posts just before this one, congrats on that also. Amen to the "HTML button", I've manage to wipe out an entire blog post once and re-arrange another a few times just trying to insert an add (ugh!). Glad to hear I'm not the only one but wishing the both of us better luck this coming year. Cheers to an even more successful 2015! AFFJ

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    Replies
    1. AFFJ,

      I glad I have company with my blogging frustrations. Maybe we'll learn a few things this year. If not, I won't lose any sleep over it as I am cool with my current layout. :-)

      MDP

      Delete
  12. MDP,

    Loved this post! You wander all over the place, but it's because you clearly had to get some stuff off your chest.

    The story about you helping the young graduate is heart warming and breaking at the same time. It's weird how some people don't pick up on good advice, even when it's right in front of them.

    Congrats on turning one and keep it up!
    NMW

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    Replies
    1. NMW,

      Yeah, sometimes he gets it, but more times than not, he then loses it. It is amazing the how clear headed your decisions are at your age. Most people, including myself, make many bad decisions during our twenties.

      Keep fighting the good fight!

      MDP

      Delete
  13. MDP,

    This is classic, bottomline. I felt the same back in 2010/2011 when I was reading individual's blogs about their pursuit to financial freedom via dividend stock investing. To me, it just always made sense, as I had my "Ah Ha" moment at age 20. I went, received my MBA in Finance and read more books in 2 years than I thought imaginable on personal investing, dividends, wealth creation, automatic millionaire, millionaire next door, you name it - I read it.

    Bottomline - we are a rare breed, it's true. I'm here saving between 50-65% of my income every month, while I see my colleagues, friends and family members who make similar amounts as me, with less monthly expenses as me - save FAR less than I do (talk 0-15% maybe). It's frustrating, but I have learned stealth mode is fun with our wealth creation. I had a co-worker talk about stocks with me last month and I told him my portfolio is pumping out a few grand a year in dividend income. He thought, whoa you must have about $100K invested. I said.. yeah, somewhere around there (it was over $130K and 30% off, in my eyes, is quite a large amount when you think about it).

    This community is fun and exciting, and pushes us because we are like minded, motivated and goal oriented individuals. Keep at it MDP, you are destroying this pursuit, keep writing as we all enjoy it.

    -Lanny

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    1. Lanny,

      I couldn't agree with you more. As I am typing this response I just ok'd a $1000 advance to my 3 time salesman of the year. He finished in 2nd place last year and still doesn't have a dime to his name. Even worse he is in his mid 50s and is not a very healthy person. I truly worry about his future, unfortunately he doesn't. Keep making excellent progress over there and you will have a bright future from a financial standpoint.

      MDP

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  14. Congrats on the 1 year anniversary! Sadly the story about the guy who bought the Cadillac reminds me of something I would do. Balance is everything though. Some people want to live today to the fullest and I sort of agree. Life is no fun if we just pump all our money into savings and investments to use when we're too old to enjoy things to the fullest.

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    1. DFD,

      Actually when I was younger I made many similar mistakes. New cars unfortunately were my Achilles heel and I glad those days are behind me.

      MDP

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