Shareholder Letter
To my dear wife and kids,
We ended 2024 with a 72.41% dividend-expense-coverage ratio according to the generally accepted projected annual dividend income principles (PADI). This is an increase of 15.5% compared to last year, but still below last years record-beating progress of 28.8%. The reasons for why this is will be discussed further down this report.
However, in simple terms it means that we are able to pay the following bills from 2024 onwards into eternity:
Expense Type | % Of Total Monthly Expenses |
---|---|
Groceries / Lunch Meals | 20% |
Mortgage Interest Expense | 25% |
Gas & Electricity | 13% |
Transport Costs (i.e. Fuel) | 9% |
It may not seem like much, but we’re really getting there. In addition to our own hard work at home and in our jobs, we have literally millions of people working every day to help us add items to the “expenses-covered” list. Think about the clothes we wear or the budget we set aside for vacations and future maintenance costs.
All of this is on the horizon, and most likely, some of it will appear in the table above next year. It’s all within reach because we have only less than 30% left, and the power of compounding usually makes the last 30% come faster than the first.
For example, the first 30% took us just over six years to achieve, while the next 30% took just under three years. With this projected annual dividend income growth rate, we may be able to cover all our expenses by the end of 2026 – or even earlier. Yes, you read that right, that’s only two years!
In other words, it’s slowly getting time to get prepared for this new reality. Some big decisions will come on our path in the next two years, for instance:
- Do we both want to continue working, or not?
- Do we want to have a margin of safety?
- If so, should we pay down our entire mortgage to eliminate 25% of our expenses?
- If we stop working, what will we do with this newfound freedom of time?
- How can we avoid the common pitfall of feeling a loss of purpose?
I could easily add a few more, and the answer to some of these may even require us to stay in the workforce for another year or two. We’ve discussed this multiple times, but now it’s becoming real. So, it’s really about what we want to do with this new reality and what level of comfort we’re aiming for.
That said, reaching this stage already feels incredibly rewarding. The psychological freedom we’ve gained is truly priceless. This year, we’ve been able to enjoy so many fulfilling experiences that bring us happiness – like our multiple vacations, adding a four-legged friend to our family, and the many small moments of joy that we could afford without the stress of worrying about how to pay for them. In my opinion, this is as close as it gets to what financial freedom is truly all about.
At the same time, we know that maintaining and building on this freedom requires more than just enjoying the moment. It’s the result of years of discipline and consistency, which are the cornerstones of many successful wealth-building strategies. Moving forward, these principles will probably continue to be guiding us, just in a different financial reality. Let’s therefore dive into why discipline and consistency are so essential for our long-term success.
Discipline & Consistency – Key Factors for Wealth-Building Success
It’s no secret that discipline and consistency are essential on the journey to financial independence, especially through a dividend growth investing strategy. I am a living example of this principle. Ten years into our investing journey, I can confidently say that discipline and consistency have kept us, but especially me as the caretaker of our finances, on track to achieve the “holy grail” of the dividend – expense coverage – a portfolio capable of generating enough income to meet our financial needs.

This success wasn’t the result of hitting it big with one lucky stock pick. Instead, it came from discipline & consistency of setting aside as much as we could each month to invest in the stock market, all while maintaining a quality of life we’re comfortable with. Simple as it may sound, ten years is a long time, and sticking to a plan over that period comes with strong challenges.
The Challenge of Staying the Course
During these years, it was tempting to abandon our strategy due to the fear of missing out. Bitcoin skyrocketed, Nvidia became one of the largest companies in the world, and there were plenty of opportunities to chase the next “100-bagger.” Yet, I reminded myself that timing the market or switching strategies is incredibly difficult.
The truth is, every strategy has its moment, but knowing when that moment will come – or how long it will last – is almost impossible. At least for me.
Clearly, the first decade of the 2000’s was a golden age for dividend growth investors, because that’s where most of the returns were coming from for many of the stocks.
Today, it may feel like growth stocks dominate, but market dynamics can shift quickly. History has shown us that periods of high expectations, like the internet bubble of the late ’90s, often lead to corrections that can last for a very long time. Just take inspiration from Cisco’s price chart:
At present, with the S&P 500 trading at a price-to-earnings multiple above 20, we might be in a similarly situation as the late 90’s.
Don’t get me wrong, Im not predicting a crash – far from it. This time, companies like the MAG 7 are backed by real earnings. But I do wonder how much further multiples can expand. If that slows down, could it be the beginning of a new golden age for dividend growth investing?
It’s hard to say, but one thing is certain: sticking to your plan – regardless of your strategy – is one of the hardest parts of investing. That’s why discipline and consistency are essential to nearly every investment approach.
The Role of Discipline and Consistency in My Journey
For me, discipline wasn’t something I was born with. As a kid, I enjoyed watching telly and procrastinated on almost everything important to me—except playing football, of course. I wasn’t disciplined about school, and saving money wasn’t my thing either. Any money I got went straight to candy or other things I didn’t need.
Hence, it wasn’t something inherently in my DNA, or however you want to put it. Neither of my parents really instilled this in me, but knowing myself, it was probably very difficult for them to convince me to focus on things they knew were important. Maybe they did try, but I was simply a lost cause.
I mention this because I think it’s important to recognise that discipline isn’t natural for everyone, and that’s what makes it so hard. But it can be developed. I believe it’s more about habits than anything else. It takes about 30 days to build a habit, but those 30 days can feel like climbing Mount Everest for most of us. No wonder most New Year’s resolutions fail within the first two weeks.
So what changed for me that allowed me to stick to this plan for the last 10 years? Paying myself first every month and dollar-cost-averaging into dividend growth stocks without giving up somewhere down the road?
Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—it all started when I was a young teenager. My parents divorced, and my mother suddenly became a single, jobless parent with several children. This situation immediately placed us in the Dutch social welfare system (bijstand), which provided us with a roof over our heads and some money for basic necessities—think food and cheap clothing. We were living at or near the poverty line at that time, but to make matters worse, we also inherited significant debt from the marriage, which put us on a strict debt repayment plan.
In practice, this meant we had just 25 gulden per week for food (roughly 12 euros). I can tell you, that wasn’t much, neither adjusted for inflation. As a result, we were mostly buying the cheapest pasta from the bottom shelf, some tomato puree, and discounted meatloaf to prep our meals and to make ends meet.
As a teenager, I probably complained about our situation quite a bit. At the same time, though, I was proud that we were managing as a family, and I was determined to change our circumstances. By the time I was about 15 years old, I started working during every school vacation to earn some money. This allowed us to occasionally afford things we otherwise couldn’t, like Nintendo games, which we often ended up buying.
Now, you might be wondering: why Nintendo games? Were they really a necessity?
I’ll leave that for you, the reader, to decide. For me, it was something I deeply wanted, and it motivated me to put in the effort to work during every school break.
A year later, I was able to buy a moped (a Puch), and it was a real game-changer for us. Suddenly, I could take on jobs farther from home, where the pay was better. The moped wasn’t just for me, though – my mother also started using it to reach places that were otherwise inaccessible due to the lack of public transport.
That said, I’m not intending to write my entire autobiography here 😉 – but as you can imagine, this period had a deep influence on shaping who I am today: disciplined in what I do and consistent in how I approach life.
I’ve come to realize that if I truly want something, achieving it requires strong willpower and the discipline to carry out the steps with consistency. While others may see this as a sacrifice, to me, it feels like just another part of the process.
Lessons Learned Along the Way
There’s one more thing that has influenced me about this situation: I’m very debt-averse.
For that reason, we’ve never owned any debt other than mortgage debt. We never bought a car with debt, we never went into debt for travel, and I personally never borrowed money for my education – unless you consider the overdraft on my current account as debt. I graduated after four years of study with around 500 euros in the red on my account.
However, on this point, I’ve been having some second thoughts. Yes, all of this has led me to the position I’m in today, but it has also prevented me from thinking like an investor. There have been opportunities throughout my career where I could’ve started or co-founded a business, but just the thought of going to a bank and asking for a loan is something I simply couldn’t do.
In my opinion, this is not necessarily a good thing, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from studying hundreds of companies, it’s that there’s good debt and bad debt. Good debt is the kind taken to invest in the core of the business with at least double-digit rates of return.
This is something I’ve thought about a lot, but it hasn’t yet changed my relationship with money.
However, it does raise a fundamental question: is my talent best suited for the corporate world, or could it be more impactful elsewhere?
Right now, our main focus is to continue what we’ve been doing over the last 10 years: trying to achieve financial independence. Once we’ve gained such psychological and financial freedom, I’ll be in a better position to reconsider how I want to contribute to society and the economy moving forward.
Therefore, the answer to this question will remain open-ended for now, but it’s definitely something I plan to develop further in 2025.
For now, I’m very proud to channel my talent and energy into my daily job, where I work with amazing people, and I’m grateful for the support I receive both in my career and at home from you, my wonderful wife 🥰.
At the same time, I will continue channeling a lot of passion and energy into the Dividend Talk podcast and our Dividend Talk Premium newsletter. It goes without saying that much of this credit is due to the amazing partnership and friendship with my co-host and co-founder, Derek English 🙏
The family jewels
As you remember, our family jewels are the minority stakes we own in our subsidiaries, which are all listed on the European and US stock markets (check out our Freedom Fund for the entire list).
I must say, for most of them, 2024 has been an excellent year, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy one. Consumer sentiment has been shifting, commodity prices, like cacao, have been volatile, and geopolitical tensions, especially between China and the Western world, have added uncertainty.
Despite these challenges, the stewards of these wonderful companies have successfully navigated the environment, leading to continued improvements in bottom-line earnings and cash flow.
Good examples continue to include Shell Plc (SHELL.AS), ASR Nederland (ASRNL.AS), Microsoft (MSFT), Ahold Delhaize (AD.AS), and AbbVie (ABBV). Each of these has made a solid contribution to our dividend income, with Shell standing out the most.
At the moment, Shell is our top dividend payer and a true compounder in our portfolio. This is thanks to a powerful combination of significant dividend hikes, driven largely by an annual share reduction of ~8%, as well as the consistent reinvestment of dividend income into new shares. Over time, this approach has allowed us to accumulate a substantial number of shares, with approximately 20% of all our Shell shares now originating from dividend reinvestments.
AbbVie also deserves special mention. I am really impressed by how its management has successfully navigated the Humira patent cliff. The revenue replacement achieved through Skyrizi and Rinvoq has been nothing short of masterful. Add to that the strategic acquisition of Allergan, and the company continues to reward us with generous dividends, which we can reinvest into other attractive dividend growth stocks.
Now, let’s welcome some of the newest additions to our carefully curated portfolio:
- LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (LVMH.PA)
- Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC)
- Nike (NKE)
- Paychex Inc (PAYX)
- HORNBACH Holding AG & Co. KGaA (HBH.DE)
I’m particularly proud of our initial position in Louis Vuitton, though it’s still small. I’m optimistic that 2025 will present opportunities to build a stronger position at the right price.
Unfortunately, not all our holdings have performed well, primarily due to poor management. The following subsidiaries have faced significant challenges:
- 3M (MMM)
- Bayer (BAYN.DE)
- Enagas (ENG.MC)
- Intel (INTC)
That said, I’m not overly concerned about this list because I’ve already applied key lessons from the past. For instance, I now prioritise dividend safety, which led me to proactively reduce our position in 3M before its dividend cut. Similarly, I sold Enagas almost immediately, avoiding further potential downside.
Here’s a fun fact: these decisions paid off. I reinvested the proceeds primarily into NN Group and ASR Nederland, nicel y improving our dividend yield. Both companies have since delivered strong dividend growth and capital appreciation.
As for Bayer, it’s a story in itself. We decided to exit most of our position as part of our December tax-loss harvesting strategy, using the realised losses to offset income from writing covered put and call options.
This brings us to another important step I plan to implement in 2025: there will no longer be a place in our portfolio for companies with unsafe or questionable dividends, nor will we invest in turnarounds again. I’ve come to realise that turnarounds have caused more harm than good in our portfolio. While there are a few exceptions, they’ve mostly resulted in capital losses, and I’ve learned that navigating turnarounds is simply not within my circle of competence. Instead, I’ll embrace the concept of the joy of missing out when it comes to these situations.
In practice, this means that certain companies in our portfolio are now under review and may be trimmed. This decision has an added benefit: keeping the portfolio more manageable, as we currently hold 55 positions.
- Viatris (VTRS)
- Red Electrica (RED.MC)
- Medtronics (MDT)
- Intel (INTC)
Additionally, I’m introducing a sub-category to our dividend growth portfolio called “high-income”. The exact criteria are yet to be defined, but it will likely follow the principles of the income factory concept. A few stocks in our portfolio that currently fit this category include Cibus Nordic Real Estate (CIBUS.STO), Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI), BHP (BHP), and Rio Tinto (RIO.L).
These holdings were never chosen for their dividend growth potential but rather for their high dividend yield. We’ve always appreciated the strong commitment of their management teams to maintain high dividend payouts, even though some may fluctuate with economic cycles.
Lastly, one of the more challenging decisions ahead is whether to retain our position in Apple (AAPL). The company has performed exceptionally well for us over the past decade, delivering a sevenfold return on average. However, much of this growth has come from multiple expansion, with its P/E ratio increasing from 13 to 41 today. Frankly, the fact that Apple’s EPS has been relatively flat over the last four years makes me question whether such a valuation is justified.
I suspect this high multiple is largely due to its inclusion in the “Magnificent 7,” but as we all know, the market can remain irrational for a very long time. As a result, I’m seriously considering selling at least half of our position and reallocating the cash to other opportunities. With a dividend yield of just 0.4%, Apple contributes minimally to our overall dividend income, which also makes this decision easier to justify.
That said, the vast majority of the companies in our portfolio have been performing well, guided by strong management teams who are true captains of their industries. However, a few have delivered questionable results, requiring us to take decisive action. Selling has always been a challenge for me, but ultimately, we only invest for one client: us. Therefore, we must be brutally honest with ourselves and make the right – albeit sometimes difficult – decisions.
In conclusion
2024 was another exceptional year for us, driven by the discipline and consistency we applied throughout. As a result, our dividend income grew significantly, and the time for making important decisions is now just around the corner.
Most importantly, our greatest achievement has been staying healthy and sharing many happy moments together. All in all, life is good.
Yours Truly,
January 4th, 2025
European Dividend Growth Investor
Executive Director of our Freedom Fund
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Dividend Portfolio Performance Overview
2024 was another solid year for us – perhaps not our best, but certainly a strong one. To keep things in perspective, our investment plan is based on some straightforward math we applied at the start of our journey, using the dividend reinvestment calculator template.
The three key goals we measure ourselves against are:
- Maintaining a savings rate of 50% or more.
- Achieving organic dividend growth of 6%.
- Securing an average Yield on Cost of 3.25% when purchasing shares.
If we consistently meet these targets, we should be able to retire early within 15 to 17 years. So far, we appear to be ahead of schedule, as we’re now 10.5 years into our journey. This progress is largely thanks to a higher savings rate in recent years, driven by strong income growth from work.
This growth has accelerated our flywheel much faster than we initially anticipated, even accounting for the significant inflation spike two years ago.

That said, let’s have a look at how we performed against those goals!
Note: we don’t benchmark ourselves against an index, because there’s no index available that follows the same strategy we aim to achieve. It has the additional benefit of turning off all the noise and limiting the fear of missing out.
Savings Rate
The savings rate has consistently been one of the most impactful factors contributing to our portfolio’s growth. You might be thinking, “Ah, of course, he’s just throwing a lot of money at it – no wonder there’s growth.”
And you’d be absolutely right. It really comes down to simple math. Many investors are familiar with charts illustrating the impact of a high savings rate, particularly during the accumulation phase. However, there comes a point when organic compounding gradually takes over.
I feel like we’re already in that stage right now.

That said, our savings rate came with a catch this year due to the purchase of a new car, which exceeded the amount we had set aside over the years. Our car was 12 years old, and while it still had plenty of life left, we decided it was time for an upgrade. Not because we had to, but because we wanted to. After all these years, we felt we deserved something more comfortable and durable, especially since we aim to buy a new car only once a decade.
If we include the car payment and treat it as an investment, our savings rate for 2024 stands at 51.6%. However, since this annual report focuses on our liquid assets – the stocks in our Freedom Fund – our actual savings rate was 35.5%, falling short of the goal we set for the year. Going forward, we may introduce an adjusted savings rate for better comparability. 😉
Looking closer at the savings rate, it’s actually quite similar to what we achieved in 2022 and 2023. This is interesting, especially since our income from work grew faster than inflation last year. One key factor impacting this was our spending on vacations.
In 2024, we spent 40% more on vacations compared to the previous year, a conscious choice. Our kids are currently in what we consider a golden age, and we want to create as many memories as possible. As a result, we went on three family vacations and enrolled the kids in multiple camps, both winter and summer. It’s hard to complain about this decision – it brought us a lot of joy.
Absolute Dividend Growth
I always like to look at this number first before analysing our organic dividend growth. In the end, what we really gained in projected annual dividend income matters most for the bottom line. It continues to be a function of:
- Investing the money originating from my savings rate
- Reinvesting dividends back into the portfolio
- Organic dividend growth from our subsidiaries
- Option income collected from selling mostly put options
While I have significant control over elements like the savings rate and income from options, the same cannot be said for reinvesting dividends and organic dividend growth. These aspects largely depend on the managers of our subsidiaries and the prices at which those subsidiaries trade when dividends are reinvested. In my view, these two factors are the true drivers behind the magic of compound interest.
All things considered, let’s have a look at our net received dividend income in 2024.

Amazingly, the net dividends deposited into our account grew by another 27% year-over-year! This represents cold, hard cash that could be used for paying our monthly bills – if we weren’t still in the accumulation phase.
By contrast, our PADI (Projected Annual Dividend Income) “only” grew by 15.5%. The reason for this difference lies in the investments we made during 2023, which included several high-yielding dividend stocks like NN Group (NN.AS) and ASR Nederland (ASRNL.AS). These dividends significantly contributed to the year-over-year increase in net dividend income, whereas our investments in 2024 were generally at lower yields (more on that later).
Speaking of our PADI, this is an overview of our subsidiaries and how much they contribute to our dividend income, percentage-wise.

It’s really nice to see how this has been developing over the years, because single-stock risk became much less of an exposure due to automatic balancing and diversification by adding new shares to either existing or entirely new positions. Although, a main exception is Shell, because management just continues hiking the dividend and we continue to automatically DRIP our shares back into the stock. How bad of them!
Having said that, the top 5 subsidiaries together account for 28.2% of our PADI and the top 10 is composed mostly of Oil & Gas, Insurance and Healthcare.

Sector-wise, we are well-diversified, which should help protect us from being overly exposed to any specific “blast zone” during a future stock market crash. That said, there seems to be room for more contributions to our PADI from REITs, Consumer Staples, and Utilities. In fact, we currently own small positions in Iberdrola (IBE.MC) and Red Electrica (RED.MC) as utilities, so I may need to put more effort into finding some more that fit my preferences. If any readers have suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments below!
Organic Dividend Growth
In a few years, our savings rate will fall away and all that matters at that moment in time is the organic dividend growth, assuming that we have no margin-of-safety and therefore can’t reinvest any dividends.
That’s why, this metric is probably the single-most important metric in this entire annual report, because it tells us if we would be growing our dividend income organically and, hopefully, above the rate of inflation.
Without further ado, in 2024 we achieved 4.5% organic dividend income growth, below our 6% dividend growth target and below last year’s result of 6.27%. However, still above the 3.7% inflation we experienced in Poland last year (based on CPI).
If I’m brutally honest, this is a bit disappointing and something I really wish to improve on. The reason for this is multi-layered, but the two biggest reasons are the following:
- Bayer AG’s dividend cut (resulting in a 1% impact on organic growth) left the cash unredeployed into an opportunity capable of replacing the lost dividend. This was due to the significant capital loss associated with the position.
- Several top contributors to our dividend income, such as Omega Healthcare, Realty Income, Unilever, and Danone, have also demonstrated slow or no dividend growth.
The first one I’m obviously very annoyed with, but I see it as a valuable lesson. When a company faces significant litigation that could potentially jeopardize its entire balance sheet, I’ve learned to act decisively and sell quickly, as I did with 3M. Additionally, I’ve decided to avoid turnarounds altogether; I’ve simply learned that those are on the too-hard pile for me.
Instead, I will rather focus purely on the dividend safety profile of a company as that seems to be one of the best indicators for future organic dividend growth.
Regarding the second point, I’m not overly concerned. These investments were made at a yield on cost above 3.25%, so to some extent, lower dividend growth was already expected. As such, it’s not just organic dividend growth that matters in these cases; it’s best evaluated in combination with the portfolio yield and the average yield on cost achieved for our Freedom Fund in 2024 (more about that soon).
Stock purchases and sales
This year was a record low, since 2019, in terms of net new investments into our portfolio. This is where we can really see the impact of our new car purchase which prevented us from doing any new investments during almost the entire summer.
On the other hand, it also meant that reinvesting our dividends did a lot of heavy lifting last year, a whopping 34% of all cash invested 💪 It was really nice to experience to still having the ability to invest into something during those months.
Without further ado, these are the transactions we made in 2024 to further strengthen our freedom fund:
DATE | ORDER TYPE | SYMBOL | SUBSIDIARY | PRICE |
---|---|---|---|---|
12 Jan 2024 | Buy | AMS:AD | Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV | 26.56 |
22 Jan 2024 | Buy | EPA:MC | LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE | 662.00 |
2 Feb 2024 | Buy | ADC | Agree Realty Corp | 59.25 |
26 Feb 2024 | Buy | BME:IBE | Iberdrola SA | 10.55 |
4 Mar 2024 | Sell | BME:ENG | Enagas SA | 13.11 |
8 Mar 2024 | Buy | ADC | Agree Realty Corp | 57.74 |
12 Mar 2024 | Sell | META | Meta Platforms Inc | 500.00 |
14 Mar 2024 | Buy | WSE:AMB | Ambra SA | 27.50 |
21 Mar 2024 | Buy | LON:UKW | Greencoat UK Wind PLC | 138.40 |
28 Mar 2024 | Buy | AMS:ASRNL | ASR Nederland NV | 45.11 |
28 Mar 2024 | Buy (DRIP) | AMS:SHELL | Shell PLC | 31.05 |
5 Apr 2024 | Buy | SBUX | Starbucks Corp | 87.29 |
12 Apr 2024 | Buy | HSY | Hershey Co | 185 |
12 Apr 2024 | Buy | HSY | Hershey Co | 187.00 |
16 Apr 2024 | Buy | JNJ | Johnson & Johnson | 144.16 |
25 Apr 2024 | Buy | LON:LGEN | Legal & General Group Plc | 235.70 |
1 May 2024 | Buy | SBUX | Starbucks Corp | 74.78 |
24 May 2024 | Buy | SBUX | Starbucks Corp | 78.70 |
24 May 2024 | Buy | ADC | Agree Realty Corp | 59.24 |
25 Jun 2024 | Buy | STO:EVO | Evolution AB (publ) | 1087.50 |
25 Jun 2024 | Buy (DRIP) | AMS:SHELL | Shell PLC | 32.51 |
28 Jun 2024 | Buy | NKE | Nike Inc | 76.00 |
29 Jul 2024 | Buy | BME:IBE | Iberdrola SA | 12.17 |
26 Aug 2024 | Buy | ETR:HBH | HORNBACH Holding AG & Co. KGaA | 80.00 |
6 Sep 2024 | Buy (DRIP) | AMS:UNA | Unilever plc | 58.56 |
23 Sep 2024 | Buy (DRIP) | AMS:SHELL | Shell PLC | 30.70 |
27 Sep 2024 | Sell | ETR:BAS | BASF SE | 47.63 |
27 Sep 2024 | Buy | AMS:ASRNL | ASR Nederland NV | 44.42 |
27 Sep 2024 | Buy | PAYX | Paychex Inc | 132.91 |
27 Sep 2024 | Sell | ETR:BAS | BASF SE | 48.00 |
11 Oct 2024 | Buy | STO:EVO | Evolution AB (publ) | 965.40 |
23 Oct 2024 | Buy | BMY | Bristol-Myers Squibb Co | 52.91 |
6 Nov 2024 | Buy | BME:IBE | Iberdrola SA | 13.57 |
12 Nov 2024 | Buy | EPA:OR | L’Oreal SA | 330.00 |
15 Nov 2024 | Buy | HSY | Hershey Co | 172.00 |
15 Nov 2024 | Buy | ADC | Agree Realty Corp | 75.72 |
15 Nov 2024 | Buy | TGT | Target Corp | 122.00 |
11 Dec 2024 | Buy | JNJ | Johnson & Johnson | 147.90 |
11 Dec 2024 | Buy | TGT | Target Corp | 135.64 |
13 Dec 2024 | Sell (tax) | ETR:BAYN | Bayer AG | 20.00 |
17 Dec 2024 | Buy | HSY | Hershey Co | 177.84 |
19 Dec 2024 | Buy | JNJ | Johnson & Johnson | 144.28 |
19 Dec 2024 | Buy (DRIP) | AMS:SHELL | Shell PLC | 30.70 |
20 Dec 2024 | Buy | ETR:HBH | HORNBACH Holding AG & Co. KGaA | 71.00 |
23 Dec 2024 | Buy | STO:EVO | Evolution AB (publ) | 810.00 |
31 Dec 2024 | Sell (tax) | INTC | Intel Corp | 20.13 |
As you can see, not so many transactions this year compared to last year, but I feel that we really added to the quality part of our portfolio. Just look at the top 5 subsidiaries that received most of our investments during 2024:
- Hershey Co.
- Evolution AB
- Agree Realty
- Starbucks
- ASR Nederland
Together, nearly 50% of our deployable investment funds were allocated to these five dividend growers. This also serves as a strong example of how past learnings are influencing my future investment decisions. If you’ve been a long-time follower, you may recall my 2022 conclusion to focus more on quality stocks, so it’s great to see this becoming a reality in 2024.
All in all, it was a good year to invest in dividend growth stocks, even in this somewhat “expensive” stock market. However, credit where it’s due, the Magnificent 7 outshone nearly everything else.
Portfolio Yield on Cost
The third pillar of our dividend growth strategy is the yield on cost at the time of acquisition. With a target of around 3.25%, this year we achieved a 4.23% yield on cost on average. I’m really pleased with this result, as I consider most of the acquired stocks to be high-quality. This outcome wouldn’t have been possible without several of these companies being available at what could be considered a sale.
In any case, this has surely contributed to the portfolio’s yield, which ended the year at 3.77%, slightly lower than the 3.95% achieved at the end of 2023.
If we’d apply a similar logic as the chowder rule to this, then my ratio would come in at 8.27% (organic growth + portfolio yield), a full percent point below my desired 9.25% (3.25% yield + 6% growth) . In other words, let’s not speak about Bayer again! 😉
All in all, I’m still satisfied with this, because our dividend snowball improved once again this year. That’s why I continue to be fully committed to adding another leg of high-quality dividend growers to our portfolio at reasonable prices and attractive yields in 2025.
Portfolio Price Appreciation
This isn’t a metric I pay much attention to, but since it often comes up in questions, I’ve included it in this annual report.
To get straight to the point, our portfolio’s total value grew by 21% this year. The majority of this, 14%, came from organic price appreciation and reinvested dividends, reflecting the so-called total return. The remaining portion resulted from deploying net cash into the portfolio, which, as mentioned earlier, was notably lower than in previous years.
Given that our portfolio consists largely of defensive stocks rather than the Magnificent 7, I find this performance quite impressive. It underscores how steadily the portfolio continues to progress.
In years when growth stocks outperform, our portfolio tends to lag behind. However, in a year like 2021, while the S&P 500 dropped nearly 20%, our portfolio remained flat. This gives me more than enough confidence in how it’s developing and I don’t feel as though I’m missing out on anything.

As previously mentioned, benchmarking against an index like the S&P 500 doesn’t hold much relevance for us. The true measure of success lies in comparing our portfolio’s performance to our own dividend growth investment strategy. This strategy serves as our roadmap, and staying on course to achieve its objectives is what truly matters. Delivering on this plan remains our top priority.
Dividend Portfolio Performance Conclusion
2024 was a solid year in terms of performance, yet, I’m still annoyed with the impact of Bayer on our organic dividend growth. Let’s take this as a strong motivator to continue reducing the amount of mistakes going forward. A trend that started several years ago which has definitely improved the strength of our portfolio.
That said, let’s look at our score card:
✅ Adjusted Savings Rate (51%)
✅ Yield on Cost (4.2%)
⭕ Real Savings Rate (36%)
⭕ Organic Dividend Growth (4.5%)
Historical overview since the inception of our annual reports:
Year | Savings Rate | Organic Dividend Growth | Yield on Cost |
---|---|---|---|
Target | 50% | 6% | 3.25% |
2020 | 57% | – 12.17 | 3.69% |
2021 | 66% | 4.28% | 3.49% |
2022 | 51% | 4.38% | 4.53% |
2023 (no written report) | 51% | 6.27% | 6.35%* |
2024 | 36% | 4.50% | 4.23% |
Looking at this overview, perhaps I should consider recalibrating our organic dividend growth assumption downwards to 4.5%?
But no chance – I’m not lowering my goals! Instead, I’ll focus on continuously improving my approach. With persistence and dedication, I’m confident I’ll eventually achieve more or less consistently years like 2023.
* in 2023, there were many opportunities to invest in insurance companies, often yielding 9%+ on costs (NN Group, ASR NL), but also CIBUS Nordic Real Estate at a 10% YoC. This should be considered as an extra-ordinary year and an outlier. |
Nerd Statistics
This is one that’s more on the fun side, but nevertheless may inspire you.
eDGI Family Balance Sheet
We’ve been focusing a lot on our Freedom Fund, which is a cornerstone of our household’s net worth. However, there’s more to our financial picture, so let’s take a broader view of our entire net worth through the lens of an investor – perhaps like Warren Buffett.
As we know, Buffett is a big fan of equity, and our own shareholder equity grew by an impressive 11.37% this year. This reflects the power of compounding across multiple aspects of our net worth, not just in the stock market. I’ll happily take progress like this year after year!
Two years ago, our debt-to-equity ratio was 11.17%. Since then, it has improved significantly, now standing at just 6.44%. Frankly, there aren’t many “subsidiaries” I know of that demonstrate such a pristine balance sheet.
Finally, our interest coverage ratio (income from salary / mortgage interest) is currently 10.3, well exceeding typical household benchmarks – or so I like to think 😉.
FUN Portfolio Metrics
I’m far from being a stock market whale as our Swedish friend Allan, yet I still received a total of 210 dividend payments this year. I don’t know about you, but there’s truly nothing more rewarding than watching those dividends roll in. That said, if you’re working for one of our subsidiaries: thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your contributions this year 🙏.
That said, Thursday remains our favorite day of the week for receiving dividends in our bank account. I personally think it’s a great day, because it conveniently provides the funds for my grocery shopping on Saturday morning 😉.
Lastly, companies starting with the letter A make up the largest share of our portfolio. I’m not sure why that is, but I’ve noticed it quite often in the stock market. Could it be a positioning bias that naturally draws us to companies near the top of the list, as many are alphabetically sorted from A to Z?
Blog and Social Media Performance
It continues to amaze me how active and how committed the (European) Dividend Growth Investment community is. Just look at the growth of our Dividend Talk Facebook group. I don’t know what happened during the summer, but suddenly many new people were joining us which allowed it to grow to ~4.600 members.

Unfortunately, this also attracted quite a few spambots, so as a result, we’ve had to tighten up the access rules. That said, if you’d like to join us, please visit us here, but be sure to answer the 4 questions as we use them to filter out the spam bots.
Furthermore, the Dividend Talk podcast continues to be the number one related dividend investing podcast around the world. This is quite an achievement, and I’m sure that Derek’s and my discipline and consistency are key contributors to this. However, there are two things I’m particularly proud of. Firstly, the age group of listeners has started to diversify. We’ve gained many more listeners who are still under 35, which shows that dividend investing isn’t only appealing to those in the second phase of their lives. 😉

Secondly, and probably the most amazing statistic, is the 4.8-star rating we’ve received from nearly 300 Spotify users. How amazing is that! I can tell you, this really humbles both Derek and me, because this is something that truly came from all of you. 🙏
Social media-wise, everything continues to move along. While I’ve spent a bit less time on social media in 2024 compared to previous years, my X account still grew quite significantly and now has over 25,000 followers. Honestly, I will never get used to these kinds of numbers because I still remember very vividly writing my first blog post and sending my first tweet, just wondering if anyone would ever be interested in what I had to say.
Last, but definitely not least, I’m very proud of the establishment of our Dividend Talk Premium subscription service. Many of you asked for more access to the dashboards I was using and the deeper analysis I was doing. As this requires a significant commitment, both in terms of time and resources for Derek and myself, we decided that we needed some compensation for it.
Fast forward 1.5 years, and the newsletter has grown into a solid database with over 100 stocks we’ve analyzed, either through deep-dive articles or quick-takes captured in so-called dividend stock cards, with many subscribers indicating that they are very satisfied.
At the same time, managing this europeandgi website became very complex due to the many plugins, which I realize has impacted the overall user experience. That’s why I’m really excited that we will be launching a dedicated website in a matter of days, which will be the new home for the newsletter content moving forward.
Once launched, I’ll spend some time cleaning up this blog to make it much simpler, faster, and more accessible for those interested in the free and readily available content (like the Noble 30 index). I’ll also aim to add a few new articles and refresh some of the existing content in the upcoming months to continue supporting new investors and others simply exploring the site.
Having said all of this, the growth and engagement of this community would not have been possible without you. That’s why I want to thank you wholeheartedly, and I’m looking forward to our continued journey together in 2025.
Final Thoughts
Dear Reader, especially my wife and kids,
I’m so happy that I took the time to sit down again and do this thorough analysis of our portfolio performance. Last year, I made good progress, but unfortunately, momentum shifted, so I didn’t get a chance to write it down. It’s a pity, because I often come back to this report to remind myself of what I should really focus on. There are so many valuable lessons here, and I’ve learned over the years that noting them down, reflecting on them, and then taking action has really helped me improve as an investor. Over time, I’ve simply made fewer mistakes, which has allowed the majority of the portfolio to do the heavy lifting.
That said, I’ve been pretty annoyed with Bayer’s dividend cut, which, of course, we saw coming from miles away. Why didn’t I sell it when I lost my conviction? I honestly don’t know, because somehow, I’ve been much quicker to act on stocks I bought later, like Enagas or 3M. Anyway, that problem is now solved, and I know from experience that letting go of losers also frees you from an unwanted “roommate.” No mental energy needs to be spent on this anymore going forward.
However, I feel we’re closing out the so-called “boring middle” and entering a stage where we can really start planning what’s next. It’s an exciting time. Will we continue to work? Will we build a margin of safety before calling it a day? Let’s sit down and draft our plans. I have a feeling it may not be easy, because we’ve already improved our lives so much over the last few years and are quite happy with where we are. But as human beings, we probably always want to seek more.
To conclude, I would rate our 2024 performance as a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. Slightly less than 2022, but with plenty of room to improve.
As always, I wish each and every one of you good health, wealth, and memorable moments in 2025.
Yours Truly,
European Dividend Growth Investor
January 4th, 2024
Executive Director of our Freedom Fund