06-01-2018, 08:43 AM
Welcome to the forum. Now that my portfolio is established, the only time I spend on it each month is updating my spreadsheets for the dividends received from the prior month. The most time you will spend will be researching the stocks that you want to buy. And it depends on what you're buying on how much time you need to spend on researching it after you purchase it. I own JNJ as one of my stocks. They don't need constant monitoring by me. I will skim their annual report (probably should do more than skim, but I'm busy with work and kids) and if any big news about them comes out, I will look into it. Other than that, I will check once a quarter on them to see if their dividend hits my account. If you're buying a bunch of small cap stocks, then you will need to monitor them more closely than what I do with JNJ. I own about 50 different stocks. I put in very little time on them. At the end of the week, I will look to see who is paying dividends for the next week. Purchasing a stock is the most amount of time that I will put into my portfolio. And that will vary. If I'm buying more stock in a position that I already own, less time will be done researching than if I was buying a new position. And then the amount of time researching a new position will vary on the type of stock I'm purchasing. I recently bought GIS. I spent less time researching it than I did when I purchased a small cap stock AMNF.
Now buying an index fund will be less time consuming upfront, but you still need to research the fund and if it overvalued, undervalued, or fairly priced. Also, the expenses are much lower going the DGI method than the index fund method. With a stock you just have the cost to purchase (under $10) and no other expenses until you decide to sell it. With an index fund, you have the cost to purchase along with an annual fee to hold it that you have to pay every year. This can be around 0.5% or higher in some cases. That cost adds up over 20+ years.
Hopefully this helps you make a more informed decision on which way to go. Welcome to the DGI club if you decide to go this route.
Now buying an index fund will be less time consuming upfront, but you still need to research the fund and if it overvalued, undervalued, or fairly priced. Also, the expenses are much lower going the DGI method than the index fund method. With a stock you just have the cost to purchase (under $10) and no other expenses until you decide to sell it. With an index fund, you have the cost to purchase along with an annual fee to hold it that you have to pay every year. This can be around 0.5% or higher in some cases. That cost adds up over 20+ years.
Hopefully this helps you make a more informed decision on which way to go. Welcome to the DGI club if you decide to go this route.