June 26

Blogger Interview 3 – DivHut

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This content was saved from the old investmenthunting.com website, in case anyone was still looking for it (with the help of archive.org)

Welcome to the third post of my blogger interview series. I asked 20 questions of Keith at DivHut. The first blogger interviewed was Roadmap 2 Retire, followed by Amber Tree Leaves.

DivHut is one of my top 5 sites. I visit DivHut daily to learn and to follow Keith’s investing strategy. I consider Keith a conservative dividend investor. Keith “removes the noise” and makes investing decisions based on metrics and performance. Keith has a fantastic portfolio, one that is an inspiration to me. I hope you enjoy learning more about Keith and DivHut.

20 Questions with DivHut

Where do you live?
Arizona

What are your hobbies?
Love flying model R.C. planes, Tae Kwon Do and distance bicycle rides.

Which countries or major cities have you lived in or traveled to?
I have lived in Tel Aviv for one year along with Atlanta and Los Angeles. Travel is one of my favorite things to do and it’s the only experience I’d freely spend on. To date my country visit list is: USA (Arizona, California, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Maryland, D.C., Hawaii), Canada, Mexico, Belize, Panama, Dominican Republic, Aruba, Grenada, Barbados, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Fiji, Korea, China, Japan, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Iceland, Israel, Finland, Corfu (Greece), Ibiza (Spain).

Which sports or teams are your favorites?
Lakers, Packers

What’s the best vacation you’ve ever taken?
First trip I took with my girlfriend at the time to Belize. It was then that I realized she would one day become my wife.

When you are a child, what profession did you want to be?
After seeing the movie Car Wash (1976) I thought that it was the coolest job to have.

What is your career today?
Internet entrepreneur would be the best classification of what I do. While still in college I started an online business back in 1998. It’s been my bread and butter ever since. While working for yourself is definitely exciting and motivational it does come with it’s share of headaches but after reading the horror stories of working traditional jobs I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

What is your primary motivation to reach financial independence and retire early?
I don’t see myself “retiring” in the traditional sense. I feel I’ll always be working on something that generates a passive income stream. My primary motivation for total FI is to have complete control over my time. I live in an apartment, drive a 2009 Civic, don’t care about fancy labels on my clothes, etc. and that ‘simpler’ lifestyle has afforded me the ability stay home with my baby and not need daycare or a nanny, it has allowed me to travel all over the world as I’d rather spend my money on experiences rather than on things. I think most would agree that the number one motivation for “retirement” or FI is complete control over time.

At what age are you planning on retiring?
I never set an arbitrary number for retirement. If I can continue indefinitely the way I have been living the last 20 years I’d be happy. Running my own business, creating a passive income stream via dividends, continue to travel all over the world, watch my baby grow, etc. I wold be content.

What’s the first thing you’ll do when you retire?
I’m doing it already. I don’t have a traditional schedule so I can travel when I want to I can stay home with my baby, work from home or go into my “office” (friend’s garage). For me “retirement” = control over time.

If money were no object, but you had to have a job what would you do for a living?
I’d be a tour guide in various locations abroad.

If you could go back in time, what investment advice would you give to your past self?
I’d be a dividend growth investor from day one. To be fair, when I first started investing the world was a different place. Interest rates on CDs were between 8% and 9%, regular checking accounts at banks were paying interest on your deposits, so the need to invest for yield in the stock market was not as appealing. Why buy KO or PG yielding 3% or less when you can get a guaranteed, secured return of over 8%? Of course, the concept of dividend growth and yield on cost was lost on me at the time and had I simply bought a KO or PG back when I first started investing I’d have a serious dividend income machine churning out a crazy yield on cost from my original investment.

If you could only use one metric to evaluate a stock, which one would you choose?
Dividend payout ratio. My primary concern is making sure a dividend continues to be paid with room for future growth.

How do you stay the course when markets are down?
Very simply, I tune out. No financial talking heads, no blogs, no news, no world is coming to an end chatter. I am diversified enough and feel confident with all my holdings. In fact, I always tell my wife that I’d be happy to blast off to Mars for the next 10 years without any access to my portfolio and I’d be perfectly at ease. My dividend growth “career” included the 2008/09 meltdown and if history is any indication about my future course of action should the market fall off a cliff again it’s that I’ll continue to hold my stock and continue to make monthly buys as always.

What’s your favorite aspect of blogging?
Reading the comments left by my readers. Comments somehow validate what you have written and can offer great insight into how others perceive investing, debt, income and lifestyle.

Why should people read your blog?
I think reading any financial blog is valuable that educates with various financial topics but the one unique aspect of DivHut and any other financial blog out there is the personal touch each one shares. DivHut, of course, chronicles my real world portfolio, with new buys and dividends received on an ongoing basis. This is a unique aspect that DivHut alone can provide. My portfolio, buys, stock allocations, etc. are 100% unique to me and my blog.

Which 5 blogs do you visit the most?

Captain Dividend
Dividend Diplomats
Passive Income Pursuit
Income Surfer
Investment Hunting – Thanks Keith ���

What’s your best source of traffic to your blog?
Referral traffic from other blogs are my primary source of visits according to my Analytics with social media traffic from Blogger and Twitter following.

Why do you blog?
Blogging is a great way to share your personal journey with others and receive insight and comments about your actions. It also really forces you to become more intimate with your content which in my case is my real world stock portfolio. Prior to blogging regularly I checked on my dividend stocks about once a month. These days, I check my own portfolio at least 5 times a week.

What’s the name and URL of your blog or blogs?
My blog is DivHut – http://divhut.com

Additional Info

As I mentioned in the introduction, Keith is a conservative dividend investor. By this I mean, he doesn’t chase yield. Keith invest in solid companies with future dividend income potential. Keith is the blogger who introduced me to Canadian banks as investments. When I compare my portfolio to Keith’s, I always look at what I own that he doesn’t. Then I evaluate if those stocks fit in my portfolio. I have much respect for this man’s investing approach. Keith can also be found on social networks.

DivHut is the first site I visit while doing my blogging rounds. If you haven’t visited Divhut, I highly recommend it.


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