Intelligent Dividend Investor (new)

To the potential Intelligent Dividend Investor subscriber:

Benjamin Graham said, “Investing is most intelligent when it is most business like.”

As a value investor, Benjamin Graham has shaped the ground that I stand on.

At The Dividend Kings, we pride ourselves on our ability to stay rational and use traditional value investing principles to identify attractive investment opportunities. And furthermore, with specific regard to the dividend growth space, this idea that stock selection and portfolio management should be business like is paramount to our success.

Over the years, as I’ve evolved as a portfolio manager, I’ve devoured much of what Graham and his famous protégé, Warren Buffett, have written about investing in the equity space. Yet, with regard to the idea of running a dividend growth portfolio like a business, I have to give credit where credit is due. David Van Knapp’s application of Graham and Buffett’s proven principles inspired my own embarkment down the path of dividend growth investing.

That was roughly a decade ago now. A lot has changed since then, though the initial principals that ignited my passion for dividend growth investing in the first place have not.

The idea of building something that is durable and long-lasting remains appealing.

I have no desire to gamble in the markets. That’s what business like investing is all about.

Short-term traders oftentimes view the companies that they’re buying and selling as green and red ticker symbols on their brokerage screens. However, when purchasing shares of a company I view it as if I am claiming ownership of a small part of it.

I consider myself to be a partner with management. I focus on companies with trusted, proven leadership. I want to own companies with cultures of excellence and success. In short, I look to associate myself with only the highest quality people, teams, and businesses.

By prioritizing leadership and track records, I lean towards companies that offer:

illustrious histories of generous shareholder returns
predictable and reliable cash flows that ultimately support a growing dividend over time

It’s this partnership oriented mindset that allows me to maintain a long-term outlook throughout short-term volatility (which, is oftentimes irrational and best off ignored in the first place).

Predictable fundamentals and a reliably increasing passive income stream allow me to sleep well at night with overweight exposure to the equity space.

At The Dividend Kings, this is our goal for all subscribers.

Wall Street doesn’t have to be a stress inducing casino.

Wall Street is simply a place where people from Main Street can form relationships with some of the most successful companies and organizations in the world and share in their future success.

These ideas are echoed in the works of Buffett, Graham, as well as any number of other portfolio managers that could be considered for the Mt. Rushmore of value investing. And, we hope to do our part here at The Dividend Kings to further that legacy

I suspect that there is more knowledge available in Graham’s work, The Intelligent Investor, which can be purchased for a relative nominal fee at Amazon.com, and in the collection of annual letters to shareholders that Warren Buffett has penned over the years which are available freely on Berkshire Hathaway’s website, than any reasonable student could hope to garner in a lofty MBA program.

Admittedly, as someone who studied the humanities and the arts as an undergraduate, I may be biased in this regard.

In his 2013 letter to shareholders, Mr. Buffett wrote, “I can’t remember what I paid for that first copy of The Intelligent Investor. Whatever the cost, it would underscore the truth of Ben’s adage: Price is what you pay, value is what you get. Of all the investments I ever made, buying Ben’s book was the best (except for my purchase of two marriage licenses).”

With regard to The Intelligent Investor and Mr. Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders, I can say, with complete and utter certainty, that there is no better value in the financial industry than the combination of these two resources.

I understand that by saying this, I’m competing against myself here a bit. But, I’ll always be a straight shooter; I take pride in that. I’ll also always be highly competitive. And, with that in mind, I think that the suite of products and services that we’re building here at The Dividend Kings offers tremendous value for income oriented-investors.

Our goal is to become the go-to resource for investors seeking dividend income.

Regardless of where he or she may lie along the spectrum between the earliest stages of accumulation and eventual distribution I believe that the Intelligent Dividend Investor newsletter is going to significantly increase the value of the services that we offer and I couldn’t be more proud and honored to be taking the reins of this product moving forward.

Subscribers to the Intelligent Dividend Investor will receive access to a monthly newsletter, an actively managed portfolio, and weekly commentary. This service is meant to be our entry level product in terms of price point.

We’ve decided to price the service at $79.99/year-

$79 / year

Monthly Newsletter Subscription

This balances out to $6.67/month.

In other words, for less than the price that you’d pay for an expensive cup of coffee or a sandwich at your local deli, we plan to offer investors access to our esteemed panel of investors and analysts, which we believe is a steal.

Subscribers to The Intelligent Dividend Investor will gain access to our monthly newsletter, which will include:

A header article

Including macro analysis of the market and our forward looking sentiment
One deep dive into a high conviction stock pick

A stock pick that offers relatively safe and reliable dividend income
One sector focus

From one of our industry experts
A Q&A Section

This is your chance to ask the experts your questions and get them answered
Regular Portfolio Updates

So you get to see changes as they happen
Plus 3 recurring monthly columns

Focus pieces that centre on Valuations, Retirement and Dividend Champions

PLUS

Chuck Carnevale will be providing his timeless guidance via the Mr. Valuation column that will be available in The Intelligent Dividend Investor.

Justin Law will be providing monthly updates and relevant data from his famed Dividend Champions List.

And, I will be starting a monthly column focused on retirement and the pursuit of financial freedom using dividend income and dividend growth stocks to meet long-term goals.

Furthermore, I will be providing weekly portfolio updates, as well as an up-to-date top-picks list that includes 10 of our highest conviction ideas in the dividend growth space for subscribers to The Intelligent Dividend Investor. These resources will be available exclusively on our website.

When thinking about putting together the IDI portfolio, I had several priorities in mind.

First and foremost, I wanted to create a portfolio that provided safe dividend income.

Oftentimes I say that a dividend yield is only as good as its safety and dividend safety was the foundation upon which this portfolio was built upon.

Taking that idea a step forward, I wanted to mimic the number of priority of my personal portfolio, which is to generate reliably increasing income.

In other words, I expect the income generated by these holdings to increase, at a high single-digit/low double-digit clip, year in and year out. It’s this reliable growth that fuels the compounding process that dividend growth investors rely upon.

Also, being that this was an entry level service, I wanted to make sure that this model portfolio would make sense for a wide variety of subscribers to potentially own.

At The Dividend Kings, we manage portfolios that are meant to meet a variety of specific needs, though access to that data is only available to subscribers to our premium service. However, my goal with the IDI portfolio was to take the best of what each of our other portfolios had to offer, and combined with the expert insight and opinions provided by our team, create a collection of companies that could ultimately serve as a strong foundation for a myriad of different investors coming from a myriad of different financial situations who’re hoping to achieve a myriad of different end-goals.

The IDI portfolio will provide well balanced exposure to high quality companies from a variety of different sectors and industries. It will also include yield diversity with exposure to high growth companies, mature core-type holdings, high yielders, as well as contrarian, deep value plays. –

$79 / year

Monthly Newsletter Subscription

Without knowing every subscriber’s exact financial situation, it would be impossible for a portfolio such as this to be tailor-made to perfectly meet every investor’s needs. Nonetheless, we believe that this portfolio, the corresponding newsletter, and the additional exclusive content that IDI subscribers will gain access to offer intriguing value to investors looking for inspiration and guidance.

We’ve made great strides in cultivating a community of like-minded, income-oriented investors here at The Dividend Kings. Our members come from many backgrounds, have many different levels of investing experience and stock market aptitude, yet all of them share a common goal, which is ultimately, financial freedom.

We hope that the IDI suite of products allows you to join that community as well. Personally, I would like to warmly welcome you and I look forward to serving you moving forward.

Best wishes,

Nicholas Ward

Editor-in-Chief & Portfolio Manager

$79 / year

Monthly Newsletter Subscription

To the potential Intelligent Dividend Investor subscriber:

The idea of building something that is durable and long-lasting remains appealing.

Wall Street doesn’t have to be a stress inducing casino.

Our goal is to become the go-to resource for investors seeking dividend income.