Blogroll Renovations

Welcome to my 400^th blog post! 

I have an extensive blogroll at DivGro. Maintaining the blogroll is a challenge, as blogs come and go. I rely on new bloggers to tell me about their new blog. Rarely, though, does a blogger plan to stop blogging. It just kind-of happens. And because it just happens, there's no way for me to know when it happens...

It is quite eerie to read the final post on abandoned blogs. Did the blogger have even a little sense that the post would be their last? As I get older, I think back about the last time I did various things, like seeing school friends or even distant family. At the time, I had no inkling that that would be the last time I would see them!

Anyway, enough about nostalgia. The fact of the matter is that I have to revisit my blogroll frequently to fix things, otherwise the page would become less useful fast!

Blogroll Page Reorganized

Earlier this year, I updated my blogroll page by adding a section to identify Dormant Blogs. These are blogs that are no longer being updated because the blogger lost interest or decided to take a break from blogging.

That update was done in response to a reader who shared his frustration about blogrolls that contained links to inactive blogs, or worse, stale links that no longer link to blogs at all. While stale links should most definitely be removed, I don't think removing links to dormant blogs is a good idea.

A blog may become dormant due to unavoidable circumstances, or just because a blogger wants to take a break. Unless the blogger announces his or her intent to stop blogging, either temporarily or permanently, how would I know to remove the link from my blogroll or to move it to the dormant section?

Changes Are Coming!

As I mentioned in my Q3-2015 quarterly review, I have some big plans for the months ahead.

I'm selling stocks I no longer believe should be in my portfolio. Last week, I sold PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:PMT) because the company cut its dividend by 23%. I also sold Textainer Group Holdings Limited (NYSE:TGH) after the company cut its dividend by nearly 50%. Several additional stocks are in my crosshairs, but I'm waiting for one last dividend payment from these stocks before selling.

The other plan I alluded to concerns the holdings in my Scottrade portfolio, which used to be a mixture of speculative and dividend paying stocks. While the portfolio performed quite well for me, speculation requires much more time and attention than I can afford at this time. On the other hand, the long-term strategy of dividend growth investing requires upfront work to select candidates that trade at or below fair value, but less work afterwards.

Added Real Estate Sector To My Watch List

I maintain a dynamic watch list of dividend growth stocks and update it monthly when David Fish updates the CCC stocks. My watch list contains a subset of the CCC stocks, which I obtain by applying a series of filters to the CCC stocks. Included in the watch list are all my DivGro holdings, some of which are not in the CCC list.

My watch list is organized by sector based on the GICS sector names. GICS is a 4-tiered, hierarchical classification system. It consists of 10 sectors, 24 industry groups, 67 industries, and 156 sub-industries. Each company is assigned a single GICS classification at the sub-industry level according to its principal business activity.

Updated Blogroll Page

Last year, I did an extensive overhaul of my blogroll page. In addition to adding links to many new blogs, I created a section in which I highlighted active blogs that were at least one year old at the time, providing a short description to tell readers what each highlighted blog is about.

The blogs on my blogroll page focus on dividend growth investing (DGI) and other forms of passive income generation, and many are about pursuing financial independence. I find it fascinating to scan the many blogs out there from time-to-time to see what others think about these topics. Sometimes, someone else's unique way of thinking spawns new ideas in my mind...

Because I find blogs with public portfolios particularly useful, I include a separate link to public portfolios on my blogroll page, marked with a ¶.

Performance Page Updated

Earlier this year, I redesigned my Performance page and included a set of radial charts, which are reminiscent of a logo my dad designed many years ago. The logo has a circular core, with radial arms pointing out in different directions. It is still being used today!

Likewise, the radial charts on my Performance page have radial bars representing a data value for each of DivGro's holdings. The holdings are ordered clockwise by purchase date and start with my first buy, CVX, at the 12 o'clock position. I buy stocks for DivGro in chunks of about $2,500 at a time, except for master limited partnerships (MLPs), which I double-up on. Eventually, my goal is to have a weight-balanced portfolio.

New Blogroll Page

I've been working on an extensive blogroll focusing on dividend growth investing (DGI) and other forms of passive income generation. There is a surprising number of blogs out there and I find it fascinating to scan them from time-to-time to see what others think about these topics. Sometimes, someone else's unique way of thinking spawns new ideas in my mind...

There is a wealth of information in such a large collection of blogs. Of course, it requires work to combine and distill the information. In February, I did such an exercise and wrote my most popular post so far. I compiled a spreadsheet containing the combined holdings of 20 publicly available portfolios, counting the number of appearances of each ticker. The 4 most popular dividend growth stocks, based on this composite view, were MCD, CVX, JNJ and KO.