* Weekly Links: January 31, 2010

Each Sunday I highlight the Carnivals I participated in over the past week, along with any notable articles that I came across. For those readers not familiar with carnivals, it's where personal finance bloggers submit their best articles of the week with one blog serving as the host. The entries are separated into various categories such as Investing, Credit, Debt, Budgeting, Frugality, Wealth Building, Money Management, Financial Planning, Insurance, Taxes, The Economy, Real Estate, et. al.

* 10 Dividend Stocks Increasing Yield On Cost

Most casual income investors focus on current yield, which is important. However, if your objective is to build a portfolio of securities with increasing income, then Yield on Cost is an excellent metric to measure your progress. Yield on Cost is simply the annual dividend rate times number of shares owned divided by what you paid for the investment (basis). As companies increase their dividend, your yield on cost goes up.

* 10 Stocks With 100+ Years of Dividend Payments

Over the last couple of years we have seen companies fail to raise their dividend, cut their dividend and some even decided to stop paying their dividend. In some cases their financials did not warrant the change. One way to weed these out is to look for companies with a dividend culture. Below are 10 companies that have paid a dividend for over 100 years and have increased their dividend for at least 20 years. They are presented here in descending rank of how long they have paid a dividend:

* Raven Industries Inc. (RAVN) Dividend Stock Analysis

This article originally appeared on The DIV-Net January 18, 2010.

Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of Raven Industries Inc. (RAVN). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis:

Company Description: Raven Industries Inc. manufacturer provides electronic precision-agriculture products, reinforced plastic sheeting, electronics manufacturing services, specialty aeronautics, and sewn products.

* Weekly Links: January 24, 2010

Each Sunday I highlight the Carnivals I participated in over the past week, along with any notable articles that I came across. For those readers not familiar with carnivals, it's where personal finance bloggers submit their best articles of the week with one blog serving as the host. The entries are separated into various categories such as Investing, Credit, Debt, Budgeting, Frugality, Wealth Building, Money Management, Financial Planning, Insurance, Taxes, The Economy, Real Estate, et. al.

* 2009-Q4 Progress Review

After each quarter-end I review my asset allocation and year-to-date total returns by category. The attached PDF contains my actual asset allocation as of 2009-Q4. Below is a high-level summary of the information contained in the PDF:

* 13 Dividend Stocks With A Great Attribute

I couldn’t begin to estimate how many different stocks are traded around the world on the various exchanges. Like everything else, there are many participants, but few players. Though the population of stocks may be large, there are only a precious few that are worthy dividend stocks. Increasing dividends is one attribute that separates the good dividend stocks from the rest.

* 10 Dividend Stocks With Above Target Returns

Last week I noted that most dividend stocks are now trading in excess of their calculated fair value. However, capital appreciation is not the primary reason for investing in dividend stocks. Dividend fundamentals are what drive my purchase decision, and if I could only look at one metric it would be the Net Present Value of the Money Market Differential (NPV MMA Diff.)

* Introducing D4L-Data

I am pleased to announce the addition of D4L-Data as the latest feature available to subscribers of the D4L-Premium Services.

D4L-Data is an Open Office spreadsheet containing a significant amount of data on each of the dividend stocks that I track. The data is sortable and has built-in buttons and macros to make it easy to use. This spreadsheet requires Open Office, which is available for multiple platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, etc.) and in multiple languages. Click here to download a FREE copy of Open Office.

* AT&T Inc. (T) Dividend Stock Analysis

This article originally appeared on The DIV-Net January 11, 2010.

Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of AT&T Inc. (T). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis:

Company Description: AT&T Inc. (formerly SBC Communications) provides telephone and broadband service, and the company holds full ownership of AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular Wireless).

* Weekly Links: January 17, 2010

Each Sunday I highlight the Carnivals I participated in over the past week, along with any notable articles that I came across. For those readers not familiar with carnivals, it's where personal finance bloggers submit their best articles of the week with one blog serving as the host. The entries are separated into various categories such as Investing, Credit, Debt, Budgeting, Frugality, Wealth Building, Money Management, Financial Planning, Insurance, Taxes, The Economy, Real Estate, et. al.

* Pocket Change Portfolio - December 2009

Each month I update the Pocket Change Portfolio (PCP). The table below reconciles the PCP from beginning of period to end of period for December 2009, Year-To-Date (2009) and Life-To-Date. The Portfolio Returns line provides the calculated return for the three displayed periods.

* 6 Dividend Stocks Increasing Their Yield

Just as picking fruit from a mango tree does not harm it, living off dividends does not damage the investment’s ability to produce future results. A mango tree’s life will easily span an entire generation. Similarly, well-chosen dividend investments will not only provide income in retirement, but can be passed to your children who can continue to reap the benefits.

* 5 Dividend Stocks Trading Below Fair Value

This time last year it was not a problem to find a good dividend stock trading below its fair value. The question then was, 'which of these do I buy?' Unfortunately, now the questions is often, 'am I willing to pay this much for that stock?'. If we look close enough, there are still a few dividend stocks trading below fair value.

* SYSCO Corporation (SYY) Dividend Stock Analysis

This article originally appeared on The DIV-Net January 4, 2010.

Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of SYSCO Corporation (SYY). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis:

Company Description: SYSCO Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the marketing and distribution of a range of food and related products primarily for food service industry in the United States and Canada.

* Weekly Links: January 10, 2010

Each Sunday I highlight the Carnivals I participated in over the past week, along with any notable articles that I came across. For those readers not familiar with carnivals, it's where personal finance bloggers submit their best articles of the week with one blog serving as the host. The entries are separated into various categories such as Investing, Credit, Debt, Budgeting, Frugality, Wealth Building, Money Management, Financial Planning, Insurance, Taxes, The Economy, Real Estate, et. al.

* Progress Update - December 2009

Once again it is time for a goals/progress update. I am pleased to report that annualized dividend income rose in December, extending the streak to 10 months after February 2009's decline. Since I began publicly tracking annualized dividend income in November 2007, it has increased in 24 of the last 25 months.

My goals were defined in this December 1, 2007 Investing Goals post and updated in my 2009 Investing Goals post. Below is an updated version of the table found in the original post.

* 4 Dividend Stocks in the "Good" Category

Virtually everything in this world can be placed into a few basic categories. This is especially true for Dividend Stocks when looking at their historic performance and expectations for the future. Consider these three broad categories: The Good: As you might guess, these are the dividend stocks that are doing exactly what they should do – consistently raising their dividends each year in spite of troubled economic times. The Bad: Companies that held their dividends flat. The Ugly: Companies that cut their dividends.

* 8 Dividend Stocks Covering Their Dividend

As we discussed last week, when selecting a dividend growth stock there is really only one factor that is important – sustainability. As dividend growth investors we are looking for stocks can continue to raise their dividends indefinitely into the future. One metric that provides an indication of a dividend's sustainability is its payout ratio.

* Harleysville Group Inc. (HGIC) Dividend Stock Analysis

This article originally appeared on The DIV-Net December 28, 2009.

Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of Harleysville Group Inc. (HGIC). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis:

Company Description: Harleysville Group Inc. is a regional holding company for property and casualty insurance companies that operates in 32 states, primarily in the eastern half of the U.S.

* Weekly Links: January 3, 2010

Each Sunday I highlight the Carnivals I participated in over the past week, along with any notable articles that I came across. For those readers not familiar with carnivals, it's where personal finance bloggers submit their best articles of the week with one blog serving as the host. The entries are separated into various categories such as Investing, Credit, Debt, Budgeting, Frugality, Wealth Building, Money Management, Financial Planning, Insurance, Taxes, The Economy, Real Estate, et. al.

* Happy 2010!

Happy New Year!

Dividend4Life

While I spend today adding a new year and rolling my spreadsheets over, you may want to look back at the 5 most viewed articles in 2009: