I pick up any coins I come across. In a parking lot. On the sidewalk. At a park. The floor of the grocery checkout. My eye has become accustomed to searching for coins or other interesting items on my path. I search out these opportunities.
One of my hobbies is metal detecting, and besides trash (which I carry to the trash can) I mainly find coins. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters – even a Sacagawea dollar coin once – but mainly lots and lots of pennies. You guys in Europe or the UK have it good with your large denomination coins, not to mention centuries of history to dig up. But I digress, it is not about the physical coins it is about what this money represents.
There is a story about how Warren Buffett, the best investor of the 20th century, was riding an elevator up to his office and on the floor was a penny. He was not alone, there were several executives in the lift as well, but none took notice of the shiny penny. When the doors of the elevator opened, Buffett leaned over and picked up the penny to the shock of the executives. As he left, without turning around he held the penny up over his shoulder and said “The beginning of the next billion.”
The world’s most successful investor saw the potential value of the FUTURE of that money. He understands what that money could become. The same goes for spending money, how much future wealth are you giving up for the thing you buy today? That’s pretty much 20 cents a month, less than a penny a day. Some people would think “What’s the point of that?” Let me tell you another Warren Buffett story. Years ago in an interview he stated that Coca-Cola (which his company owns very many shares of) sell about 1.8 billion units per day. If they could get just one more penny per unit it would equal $18 million dollars a day. Over a year that comes out to $6,570,000,000!
From just one penny more.
You know what OHI has been doing for the last 6 years, they have increased the dividend by a penny per quarter and occasionally two cents. It means that the dividend per quarter has increased from 36 cents in 2010 to the 61 cents of last quarter. Next time they schedule the dividend they will probably pay out 62 cents/share. A 1.6% raise!
Do you get a 1.6% raise every three months at your job? I don't. Would you like that? I would!
Still, 61 cents every three months will not change your life. Luckily, you can acquire multiple shares and combine those pennies.
Currently, for a little over $3000 you can own 100 shares of OHI and that, if the trend continues, should bring you $254 in dividends next year, $270 in 2018, and $286 in 2019. Money you didn’t have to work for at all!
For huge wealth in the future, re-invest those dividends into more shares to obtain even more in 3 months.
Those few pennies here and there are sure adding up, aren’t they?
And that $254 from OHI ends up equaling about 1% of my annual expenditures. In other words, I bought 1% of my financial freedom for $3,000! While the dividend increases could slow down in the future, they should at least keep pace with inflation ensuring that my buying power remains.
It is not pennies that are hitting my account, they are tiny freedom drops. Each buys me a little more time.
This is the same for all my other dividend paying stocks. I don’t see the pennies, I see the future they will provide where I have the income to pursue what really matters to me instead of having to spend hours of my life working for someone else. The pennies are the bricks in the wall to keep any troubles of life at bay.
Pennies are powerful and will make you rich. You just have to see them for what they really are.
So keep your eyes open for them, and grab any that you can. Plus, one time I found a gold ring in the parking lot. That was nice.