BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

Depot

So, one of the dividend income stocks I own increased its quarterly dividend.  Previously it was 89 cents a share, the new dividend increase is 1.03 cents a share.

That's a pretty nice raise.  What stock is that?  Home Depot.

A lot of my holdings are doing that same thing.  Why is this important?

Well, so, basically the bottom line is, I want a creative career.  I want to make music for a living, I want to write books, I want to get into acting, and basically anything and everything Hollywood and NYC and LA...

Why don't I just do that?

Let's face it, it's a HARD industry to break into.  For every 1000 people who go to follow their dreams, 1 makes it.  The other 999 end up waiting tables.  Waiting tables is a suck job.

Plus, if I'm waiting tables, I can't work on creative things.

Get it?

Right now, I work a 9-5 job... It's got benefits, income, and it does allow me enough time in the day to work on my music and books and such.

So, instead of actually following my dreams and trying to get someone to give me a paycheck for that.  I'm building a dividend salary on the side.

Right now, I pay my bills with my 9-5 salary.  Which is fine, it's a short term solution.

As my dividend salary builds and is able to cover all my expenses.... I'll just simply transition over to using that, and then transition over to being creative full time.

I don't ever have to "make it".  I don't ever have to get published, I don't ever have to get signed to a label, or get an acting gig.

I can just join a comedy improv group and do comedy improv 7 days a week if I want.

The thing is... This world is an exclusive place.  By nature, it's full of rejection.

Why build a life around trying to get THROUGH the rejection, when you can just avoid any and all rejection all together.

That's the deal with working, and any business or industry.  You create a resume, you submit it, and you probably don't get the job because the person just doesn't like you, or you just aren't qualified enough, or there's just a MILLION other people who are better than you.

Stock dividends don't work like that.

I can buy any damn stock I please.  I don't need a process or application or resume, I don't need someone to tell me I'm good enough.

I buy, it's mine, I get income.

End of story.

It's so, fucking, amazing.

Everyone does the work, and I get paid.

It's beautiful.

And it's money I don't have to spend time doing work, to get paid.  It's passive.  Which mean I can then spend my time working on books and music and other creative things.

Again... It's the most amazing system ever invented in the history of human kind.

Now, currently as of my last tally, I'm making 292 dollars a month... That was before this Home Depot dividend increase.

Here's another deal, I just got a dividend payout increase from my investment portfolio... If I don't get a raise this year at my regular 9-5 day job, and I didn't receive one last year... This will bring my paycheck from dividends closer to a 1:1 ratio as compared to my day job salary.

The deal is this, my job can do what they want.  If they don't want to increase my salary, I mean, hey, that's their decision.

They know I own shares in dividend companies that increase their dividends on an annual basis.  And they know, that the day my dividend salary surpassed my work salary... I'll be leaving the IT work world forever to pursue my dreams.

So, if they want to keep me there, they just have to stay above my dividends.  Plain and simple.  I'm not going to sugarcoat it.  That goes for any job I might have though.  I mean, I show up to my job, they pay me.... If they don't want me anymore, I'll just go work somewhere else...

But the working time in exchange for money thing is dependent on what my investments do.

I got a more than 10 percent raise this year from my Home Depot shares... And that's just my Home Depot shares.

I don't plan to increase my personal spending by 10 percent, if anything I am identifying ways to decrease my spending.  That's my goal, I don't travel, I don't like to waste money on anything that isn't music or writing related.

I do go out to various festivals and events and things like Science After Hours, but, the reason for that, is that it inspires me.  It's directly related to creating more art.

So, basically, between my investments and my creative projects, I'm creating a feedback loop that just continues to bring in more money.  I am actually making money from my music streaming sales pretty constantly.

Here's the thing though the beauty of my system is that it doesn't rely on earned income from my creative projects, such as streaming music sales... Which means any money I make from creative ventures will go into share purchases instead.... And if I am able to buy even more shares, my dividend income will go up.

I plan to do this as well, with my work salary.  See, here's the deal...

Once I get to the point where I have dividend coverage for all of my expenses... That means any money I make, doesn't get spent, instead, it goes into share purchases.

So, if I do continue working for a little while, my entire paycheck coming in from my salary each month, instead of paying for groceries and bills and what have you, buys more shares, and thus gives me a raise in the way of increasing my already increasing dividends.  Which makes it so I make even more money outside of work, regardless of a raise, even faster.

It's an exponential income feedback loop.  The more I make, the more I make.

Income outside of investments > Buy more shares > Income from shares goes up as more shares are purchased >Shares pay dividends > Dividends pay bills and expenses > Unused income from investments goes back to buy more shares

I'll never live a life of excess.  I drive a small eco car.  I skimp and save money here and there.  I'll live in a small house.

It's just how I do.  What I do.  Income that comes in at an exponential rate can be used as cashflow income to create new projects I want.

Because why would you want to have to try and convince someone else that you're good enough for them to let you in, when you can just create your own organization and be on the other side and decide who YOU want to work for you.

The beauty of it all is there's not a thing anyone can do about it.  That's why I love being a shareholder.  And once I buy shares, I pretty much intend to hold them forever.

The same will work for me once I decide to expand into rental income too.  I plan to buy houses to rent out to people.... Again, I'm not one of those people who if I had a million dollars would buy a million dollar house.

That's just a waste... Buy a 250k house, and buy 3 other 250k houses and rent them all out.

And then use the income coming off those three other houses you rent, to pay for a surfboard and go surfing.

Surf's up!

Or, you can work all day.  I guess... If you like that kind of thing.  I'd rather spend my mornings surfing and then come back and work on music and books.

That's my life plan anyway and Home Depot has helped me inch a little closer towards that dream.

As for my current job, they can do what they want, I'll keep working until my system ramps up to the point where it overtakes my current salary.  If they want to give me  raise, great, if they don't... Oh well... That's their decision.  Meanwhile, it seems, Home Depot is making my work look bad and showing them up on the giving raises game.

If one train leaves the train station traveling at x amount of dollars a month in income and no changes are made to the monthly income, and the other leaves the train depot traveling at x amount of dollars a month income but every month the income goes up... Who's going to arrive at their destination first?