The Dividend Machine

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.

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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.

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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.

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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