I Buy One Share of Visa (V) Every Month

For the last 5 or 6 months I have been buying one share of the credit card company Visa (V) every month. I don’t think about whether the stock is undervalued or too expensive, I just buy it and forget about it until next month. It’s a habit I want to keep going until I reach at least $20,000 worth of Visa.

I mentioned my Visa story here in a recent post and someone said it was a great idea so I thought I would share more about it in a full post.

It all started back when I was cockroach and didn’t understand how money works or how essential it is to being a free human being. I had more than $20,000 worth of credit card debt and the debt collectors were chasing me. The income from my online business was dropping every month and I couldn’t pay my bills AND eat. I had to choose one or the other.

I felt like a criminal. I was forced to block all incoming numbers that were not in my address book on my mobile phone as the debt collectors were relentless, calling everyday at all hours.

I’m thankful to them for making me feel so bad though as it was exactly what I needed at the time. It broke me on multiple levels. I wasn’t coming out of this experience as the same person that went into it. A full rebuild was necessary.

I knew I had to master money and I was tired of the slave life. Feeling like a criminal was bad but thinking back over my life I have gone down so many paths that I didn’t want to simply because I didn’t have the money to go down the path that I would have preferred.

It got me thinking, how radically different would my life be if I always had a basic living income coming in each month? I’m not talking about a Lamborghini income, just a food, rent and bills income that allowed me to live where I want, do what I want, when I want.

I can’t even begin to imagine how different my life would have been and where I would be now.

I’m not one to wallow in self pity for too long though, so after a few hours of “poor me” thoughts I pulled myself together and came up with a plan.

$50,000 in Passive Income (The Plan)

I didn’t know how I was going to achieve it but I decided that I was going to create a passive income that covered all of my living expenses and allowed me to live my life, my way. I no longer wished to be a slave to the system.

An income of $50,000 per year sounded nice and it would allow me to live almost wherever I wanted on this wonderful little planet of ours.

The problem was that I didn’t know how to go about it and I didn’t know anyone who knew the first thing about being rich and free. I know a lot of hard working people who slave all day everyday and some of them even look rich as they have nice new cars and nice homes, but I didn’t know a single person who chose to live their best life and wasn’t dependent on a slave wage.

5 Books Every Month (The Knowledge)

I may not have known any free people but I did like learning and I’ve always loved reading books. So for at least the first 12 months I read everything I could find on money, investing, passive income, stocks, economics, billionaires and real estate.

I averaged about 5 books per month and some of those were written by dry, boring economists and financial experts. I’m naturally a creative, fluid type of person so I definitely struggled with a few books. I pushed through though as the goal was freedom and I wasn’t accepting any alternatives.

$500 Per Month In Dividend Paying Stocks (The Action)

After ten or so books on dividend paying stocks I was convinced that this was my ticket to freedom. Even though I still had the $20,000 debt hanging over my head and the collection agencies still chasing me, I decided to start investing in stocks immediately.

Nothing else mattered and I figured how much worse could it get if I missed a bill payment as I’m already being hounded by the dogs.

So I decided that I was going to buy a minimum of $500 worth of dividend paying stocks every month. It would be the first thing I purchase every month, before rent, before food, and before credit card bills.

And fortunately for me I didn’t have to miss anymore credit card payments as I always seemed to find a way to at least make the minimum payment. As the months passed I was paying more and more debt down while always making my stock purchases the priority.

As my stocks increased my debt quickly vanished and then all of that money I was previously spending on my debt was redirected towards my investments.

Snowball (The Freedom)

With all of my credit card debt paid off and the debt collectors off of my back I was free to focus all of my attention on investing in income producing stocks that are growing their earnings and dividends each year.

I was living frugally and adding as much as I could each month. After a few short years the dividends that were coming in each month were contributing as much or more to my portfolio than I was.

The reinvested dividends, my new contributions and the unrealized capital gains on my stocks all combined to create a snowball effect that increased dramatically every year.

I’m still not making $50,000 per year in dividends but I’m close enough to frugally live where I want, and do what I want, when I want. And I would say that money can’t buy this kind of freedom but it can. About one million dollars can buy this kind of freedom if you’re receiving five percent returns.

One (V) Share Every Month (The Victory)

Which brings us back to the Visa shares! Congratulations if you made it this far as I’ve obviously mistaken this blog post for a book.

Last year I was looking into purchasing either Visa or Mastercard as they’re both compounding growth machines. Neither pay much of a dividend but they both grow a whole lot every year, year in, year out.

The thing that made me decide to go with Visa over Mastercard was the share price. Normally the share price would mean nothing to me but I decided I would buy one share every month and think of it like my credit card bill. Visa was trading at about $250USD and Mastercard was trading at about $400USD so I simply went with the smaller monthly bill (share price).

I started in September of last year (2023) and I plan to buy one Visa share every month until I reach at least $20,000 worth of them. Then I’ll decide whether or not to continue buying but the first goal is the $20k as that’s how much credit card debt I once had.

Every month I’m reminded of where I came from and at the same time I am becoming a little bit richer. It’s a reminder to never revert to cockroach mode, always build wealth and focus on freedom.

It’s a monthly bill that I don’t mind increasing as my wealth will increase along with it! I’m actually looking forward to it being so high that I decide I can only pay it every 6 months!

Oh and I cut up my credit cards when I paid them off too. I now only have a Mastercard debit card to make online purchases.

Moral of the story: Burn your credit cards and buy Visa or Mastercard stocks.