Research & monitoring: where do you find the time?

[Robert_NL]

(07-06-2014, 12:26 PM)earthtodan Wrote: Hi Robert,
It sounds like you have pretty good time management skills simply because you can say how many hours per day you spend on DGI research. For me, I have no idea. I've spent far too much time learning about it over the last year as sort of a ramp-up period, and it distracted me quite a bit from my job. Now things are heating up at work and I'll probably be working more than 40 hours for the rest of the year; however, I'm ramping down into a "maintenance period" where I can put DGI research on a trickle. Here are my tips for that:

- At least half the articles on Seeking Alpha are from authors who are not worth your time. They are easy to recognize because they are prolific, and the content is thinly researched and formulaic. Learn to ignore them.

- Identify blue chips that truly make you SWAN and turn off notifications for them if you use the SA app, plus those that generate new articles every hour. For example I consider most news flashes related to JNJ and GE to be ignorable, they aren't going to change my opinion on these companies. Also consider not paying attention to the earnings numbers from these companies.

- When researching new companies, use Finviz.com as your quick screener, and learn which numbers to look for in their big matrix. Use dividata.com for graphs of dividend history. I've filtered out new ideas in less than 1 minute using these tools.

Personally I must have close to a hundred tickers on my watch list, but I've learned to filter out most of the noise.

Dan

I learned in my student time that I have to set clear amounts of time to specific tasks otherwise I won't be doing them. So I force myself to take at least one hour to study (dividend) growth investing by reading blog posts, reading books (so far I have read The Intelligent Investor, The single best investment, Rich dad poor dad, Shareholder letters of Warren Buffett, Ultimate Dividend Playbook and some more) and screening for stocks. I regularly exceed the one hour because I really like to invest and learn about business and companies.

- Good tip on disabling notifications on the Seeking Alpha app because it sometimes does distract me! I always wondered if I really need those notifications, but I just needed the push from someone to turn them off .

- I will now focus more on the blue-chips because I got somewhat distracted by low yield high growth companies as Starbucks and Mastercard, but I need more stability and more reliable dividend growers.

- I already use Finviz.com as my main screener and I really like it!

Thanks for your answer.

(07-06-2014, 12:36 PM)cannew Wrote: Robert:

Since you are just beginning your DG portfolio (three years is not a lot of time), I'd suggest you concentrate on about 10 to 12 solid dividend growth companies. Selecting those should be fairly easy and you may already hold many of them. I'd much rather hold 12 great stocks than add 20 or more so-so stocks just to diversify into various sectors.

Once you've got a sizable position in the 10 or 12 and have more time, experience and money, then you may wish to expand your list. You won't go wrong by just buying great DG stocks, adding to them and holding.

As Dan says don't get caught up in what the so-called experts have to say.

I was really thinking about cutting back on the companies I currently own and go back to about 12 companies diversified over different industries because it makes researching and monitoring easier. I just find it very hard to sell some of my positions because they have treated me right . Will think twice about it now though...

(07-06-2014, 01:41 PM)Kerim Wrote: Great advice in this thread so far. I'd just add to be patient with all of it, Robert. Many of us are in a similar boat. Between my job and family, I'm surprised I find time for it at all. But it is truly cumulative, so as your knowledge and experience base grows, it gets easier and easier to just add incrementally. Eventually, you'll get comfortable enough with the tracking and monitoring system that you settle on that it will not be burdensome.

I monitor about 30 stocks at the moment. Each one takes quite a bit of time to get launched, but once that work is done, updating it every now and again isn't that hard or time-consuming. And of course some I monitor much more frequently / closely than others. I've got all the JNJ I'm going to have for a good long time (except for reinvestment). So I spend very little time on it.

All that said, I'm sure that I've missed some good opportunities because I haven't had the time to spend researching or developing a strategy. But, such is life.

I've said several times that if I didn't have the responsibilities of a family or job, I might be a pure value investor instead of a dividend growth guy. But I think DG is a forgiving strategy that doesn't require nearly the effort or knowledge that some other strategies do.

Anyway, hang in there and take it a bit at a time. With an hour a day, you can manage more than you'd think.

I have no family at this moment nor a relation (I'm just 23 years), so that doesn't need time from me yet . How do you monitor your positions? What do you check for on the 30 you own?