Autumn is approaching fast, but luckily we have some beautiful weather ahead of us this week.

It was a crazy week, especially on the stock market, because Tech stocks seem to get some beatings this week. Rightly so in my opinion and I do hope that some index selling will also provide some good opportunities to accumulate some dividend growth stocks.

Besides that we’ve also published episode #13 of the Dividend Talk podcast. Definitely give it a go if you haven’t listened to it. This week we’re discussing the importance of your savings rate and we’re answering multiple listeners questions.

Having said that and without further ado, enjoy this week’s 5-Bullet Sunday 🌞

5-Bullet Sunday is a weekly blog post with 5 topics that were on my mind this week related to Financial Independence and Dividend Growth Investing or something that just fed my curiosity. An overview of earlier posts can be found here

Dividend Payments

This week was a special week for my dividend income. I currently own 32 companies in my portfolio and 5 of them were showering me with dividends this week. It is a good feeling, but it’s also something which should become my new normal in 7 or 8 years from now.

Having said that, the week started on Tuesday with Johnson & Johnson. The company paid me $28.33 (after 15% div tax), because I currently own 33 shares in the company.

One day later I received 57.56 Euro from Unilever (after 15% div tax). I own 165 shares in the company, but split over 2 brokerage accounts. I aim to sell them on deGiro and repurchase them via Binck so that I get to auto-reinvest them next time. The current dividend pay-out should allow me to quarterly add 1 share to my position without the need for paying large commissions.

Thursday was the big payday though. I received $23.03 in dividends from Chevron, because I own 21 shares in the company. I also received $110.92 in dividends from ExxonMobil, because I own 150 shares in the company. Exxon’s dividend feels tricky for me. They current yield is a bit too large for me and usually it means that the stock market is signaling a dividend cut. We’ll see what happens, for now I’m holding on to it.

Lastly also Microsoft paid me some dividends. The company paid me $26.01 in dividends, because I own 60 of their shares. This week is interesting in the context of Microsoft, because usually they announce a dividend hike around the 15th of September. I’m expecting at least a double digit growth rate, so that it stays in lock-step with their earnings and free cash flow growth.

All in all I received ~217 Euro in dividends this week. All of that will be redeployed with my next monthly purchase to keep the compounding effect going.

EU’s problem in a single picture

See below the EU’s economic forecast which was published back in July. I just stumbled on this picture this week and to me it explains the problems that we have in the EU.

Northern countries don’t understand why Southern countries don’t get their act together regarding their budgets and the Southern countries don’t see any fairness in the Northern economics’ enrichment over the back of the Southern countries.

Who’s right? I have no clue.

The EU’s sweet spot: Switzerland 😉

The European Tech Sector

This week the headline “the Amsterdam tech sector is now worth 73 billion Euro” caught my attention. The article explains that it’s largely due to two companies, Adyen and Takeaway.com. Together they are currently valued at 54 Bilion Euro (Adyen 41 Bln, Takeway 13.8 Bln).

Just like dividend growth companies, also European Tech companies are undercovered in our community. Just look at the following list of companies that I’m aware of which are currently disrupting their respective industries:

• Spotify
• Revolut
• UIPath
• TransferWise
• Adyen
• TakeAway
• Trivago
• Zalando

Off course, it’s far from the size and impact of the US tech sector. But might there be some interesting growth stocks in between here which could be purchased at healthier valuations?

I’d love to here your suggestions!

Recommended Reads

The EV industry is getting a bit shaken up right now. Hindenburg Research published a devastating report about Nikola ($NKLA) on Thursday. Effectively it’s calling the whole company a scam and their giving quite some stunning arguments for it. ioCharts has summarized the report in a nice Twitter thread and it reads like a thriller 👇. Is Nikola the next WireCard?

Engineer My Freedom published an analysis about Royal Dutch Shell. It’s very interesting, because it got dead quiet in the community regarding Shell. I still own a lot of shares and I decided to keep them, because I still believe in the company. We often talk about buying companies when “there’s blood in the street” and I’m wondering who’s been buying Shell after their dividend cut? In my opinion they had the perfect kitchen-sink quarter.

One Frugal Girl wrote an excellent piece about paying off your mortgage. This is always a hot topic in the community. You’re either in the camp of “piece of mind” or in the camp of “opportunity costs” (dividends returning more than the mortgage interest expense). I’m more leaning towards the opportunity costs camp, but any excess in cash flow above my monthly contribution is going towards an additional mortgage payment. All the little bits help, right?

Recommended Video

This week I stumbled on a four year old talk from Mr Money Mustach during the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon. His story is timeless and at the same time very simple.

I enjoyed his speech very much and he was one of the guys whom inspired me in the early days of my Dividend Growth Investment journey.

That’s it for the week. I hope that you enjoyed this week’s 5-Bullet Sunday 👌

As always, have a lovely week ahead!

PS: don’t forget that every comment = 1 Euro to Kiva

Yours Truly,

European Dividend Growth Investor

Disclaimer

I’m not a certified financial planner/advisor nor a certified financial analyst nor an economist nor a CPA nor an accountant nor a lawyer. I’m not a finance professional through formal education. I’m a person who believes and takes pride in a sense of freedom, satisfaction, fulfillment and empowerment that I get from being financially competent and being conscious managing my personal money. The contents on this blog are for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. I can’t promise that the information shared on my blog is appropriate for you or anyone else. By reading this blog, you agree to hold me harmless from any ramifications, financial or otherwise, that occur to you as a result of acting on information provided on this blog.