I attended my first ever "paid financial workshop" today - The Dividend Machine by the Fifth Person.
I
have never believed in attending these paid seminars and events. To me,
they are at best mediocre materials that you can easily Google/self
learn, or at worst scams meant to brainwash people in giving them their
money. I struggled for a very long time before finally deciding to give
it a chance.
There are various reasons:
1) I have been reading the Fifth Person blog for sometime, and felt that their articles are really beneficial and insightful.
2) They priced it relatively reasonably compared to courses that costs up to thousands.
3)
I am a more income investor than a growth investor, and I am just
starting out in my investing journey. I want to affirm what I have
learn, and develop a solid methodology in picking stocks.
And finally, the tipping factor:
4)
It received a personal recommendation from AK (1 of my most idolized
blogger) in addition to positive reviews by other bloggers.
---
Who Is AK?
For
those who don't know AK - he's one of the most famous investment
bloggers in Singapore, and this guy makes more than my annual salary in
passive income.
Yes you read that right. He earns more than me by DOING NOTHING. WTF?
And
take note, he wasn't someone born with a silver spoon. He is an
ordinary 'peasant' like most of us earning an ordinary income.
He
works hard, spends prudently, invests wisely and capitalize on
opportunities for many years to enjoy what he has today (he's just into
his 40s and already semi-retired). I have benefited immensely from his
writings for the past year, and finally decided to attend this course
after his stamp of approval.
P.S: Will share more about him and his investing methodology next time.
---
Anyway, review for the course:
It covers 2 key topics - Selecting Income Stocks and REITs.
Content
wise, I think you can find 80% of what is taught for free online. They
key thing question is can you truly understand, digest and APPLY it to
real businesses.
This course organize all these pieces
of information and compiled them into an easily understood, step by step
evaluation criteria you can use in identifying good income stocks. They
also added their "patented criterias", back-testing it to famous
companies like Enron and Eratat.
It is a very "down to
earth", structured course. No over promises of overnight riches and
things like that. (I would have walked out if that's the case)
Everything is solid information on picking good stocks that you can hold
for the long term. After learning the theory, you get to plow through
financial statements of several companies yourself to apply what you
have learned.
Overall, I would say it was money
well-spent. I think the cost of picking the wrong companies would far
outweigh what I have paid for the course.
---
A cow for her milk,
A hen for her eggs,
And a stock, by heck,
For her dividends.
An orchard for fruit,
Bees for their honey,
And stocks, besides,
For their dividends
John Burr Williams
