Watch List: Archer Daniels Midland Co.

ADM is in the major diversified food industry. It provides transport, storage, and production of agricultural items in the United States and a portion internationally. In addition to the creation of vegetable oils, partially refined oils, and other nutrition products, ADM also operates fertilizer facilities and has a stake in the production of bio products with their corn processing segment. The company also dabbles in crop insurance and brokerage services.

Mind Over Mr. Market

Mr. Market, the alter ego of the stock market that decides that some days he wants to move in a thoughtful and meaningful way and on other days crash, burn, and send hell raging through your portfolio. Regardless of what Mr. Market decides to do, it appears to control a certain part of many people's psyche in the wrong direction when he decides to go on his rampage. Due to this control, we need to learn to master our own minds so that we end up running the show rather than him controlling the scene.

What really drives our brains when Mr. Market shows up? There are a multitude of factors. The most important is that we're trained from a very young age that if something works, do more of it to make sure it still feels good. If on the other hand, you place your hand on a hot stove and it hurts, you immediately remember not to put your hand on the hot stove. It only takes once to remember to not place your hand on a

Dividend Income: February

Where or where did the month of February go? It seems like just yesterday that I was posting the ending results for January but here we are at the annual post for February dividend income already. Without further delay, let's get started.

February 2016 Dividends:

YUM - YUM Brands - $3.22

Total dividend income for February: $3.22
Total dividend income for 2016: $36.52


Stock purchases for the month of February:

2/3/2016 - EMR - Emerson Electric - 16 shares at $45.65/share


All in all, February was a slow month for dividend income but at least it came with the acquisition of a great company, EMR. This means that even though the portfolio is still not at the stage where it necessarily brings in a giant snow ball of wealth, as long as I continue to add to it, the snow ball inevitably becomes bigger and then yields more returns in the following years. This should be and always will be the most important thing to dividend investors such as myself. The short term is something that we cannot be too concerned about. We should instead keep our eyes on the long haul and focus on creating a small piece of a giant masterpiece that is yet to come. Every journey starts with the first step and these are some of my first steps.

Moving forward I want to continue investing in companies that meet the exact criteria of my past analysis on the stocks I already own. The process has worked so far and if it works, why reinvent the wheel? This should ensure continued success in companies that are not short term bets but instead are meant to be seen in the portfolio for many years to come. In the short term, I would like to set my eyes on adding an auto stock or a bank stock to the portfolio. These sectors appear to be down right now given the awkward movement of oil prices and that means that they come at a well deserved discount.

Thanks for reading,
Dividend Monster

Watch List: Kinder Morgan

If you’re like a large handful of investors right now, you’re probably asking yourself if it’s a good idea to load some of your cash into Kinder Morgan. The stock that was only recently trading for more than double its current value finds itself at an impasse as it has now plummeted to a measly $17.71/share over a few short months. This presents a chance for dividend growth investors because even though they slashed the high dividend payment to only 2.88% now, it is now trading at a huge discount. Also, the big man Mr. Buffett decided to load his eggs into their basket at the discount price. You’d almost think that the stock was being sold at Walmart on rollback!

Dividend Increase: WMT

Oh what a wonderful year it has been for the Cookie Jar so far and this month is no different. Although the market has recently seen some volatility, WMT again decided for the 43rd consecutive year to raise its dividends and guess who owns a nice little piece of WMT? We do! This means that without us lifting even the smallest amount of our fingers, we’ve effectively seen a raise from a great company that still shows support for its investors. Although the company itself has seem some slowing over the most recent years, they still show that they are a dividend paying contender.

Aim for a Catalyst Stock

I believe that one of the most important things to do when looking for stock to invest in is to specifically try to eye the market for a catalyst stock. By this I mean to say that I watch and listen to the news and whenever I hear or read that a company that was once known and loved has suddenly come under fire for some reason or another, that's enough reason to start looking into the company as a potential investment. The human brain wants to lead you to believe otherwise and the media just eats it up. After all, at the core of everyone is a little beast that loves to start or watch drama unfold.

Watch List: Darden Restaurants

Have you ever been to Red Lobster? Does your mouth salivate at the very thought of those delicious cheddar biscuits? How about Olive Garden's bread sticks? Do you like those? Do you crave them? If the answer is yes and you also possibly enjoy Long Horn Steakhouse or Bahama Breeze, then maybe DRI is your next acquisition. Darden Restaurants owns and operates nearly 1,900 of these locations in the US and Canada and it is the next stock on our watch list to be reviewed.