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Official Rules

The Balanced Builder Challenge — Season 1 · Official Rules

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A purchase or payment will not improve your chances of winning. This is a skill-based contest. Void where prohibited. These Official Rules were last updated on October 5, 2026 and govern The Balanced Builder Challenge, Season 1 (the “Contest”).

By entering, you agree to be bound by these Official Rules and by the Contest Entry Terms & Conditions, and you accept the decisions of the Sponsor and judges as final and binding on all matters relating to the Contest.

1. Sponsor

The Contest is sponsored, administered, and judged solely by Dividend Wealth LLC (the “Sponsor”), which is solely responsible for running the Contest, selecting winners, and awarding prizes. Dividendology participates only as the Contest host — it announces and promotes the Contest and presents the winners on video. Dividendology does not judge entries, select winners, or provide investment advice, and is not the sponsor of record or responsible for administration or prize fulfillment.

2. Eligibility

The Contest is open only to individuals who, at the time of entry:

  • are at least eighteen (18) years of age;
  • are legal residents of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia;
  • hold a free (or paid) Dividend Wealth account in good standing; and
  • are not the Sponsor's or host's employees, contractors, judges, or their immediate family or household members.

One entry per person. Entries made through multiple, automated, or fraudulent accounts will be disqualified. The Contest is void outside the eligible area and wherever restricted or prohibited by law. Entrants are responsible for complying with any rules of their employer that may apply to participation.

3. Contest Period & Key Dates

The Contest is not a live-trading event and has no timed market window. Entry is rolling and closes at a fixed cutoff, after which judging occurs.

  • Entry opens: October 12, 2026 (9:00 a.m. ET)
  • Submission cutoff: December 15, 2026 (11:59 p.m. ET)
  • Judging window: Dec 16 – Dec 30, 2026
  • Winner announced: on or about January 6, 2027

The Sponsor's computer or platform clock is the official timekeeper. The Sponsor may extend, shorten, or otherwise modify these dates and will post any change on the Contest pages.

4. How to Enter

To enter, an eligible entrant must, before the submission cutoff:

  • build a hypothetical (“paper”) $100,000 portfolio inside Dividend Wealth that satisfies the Portfolio Requirements in Section 5, by entering ticker symbols and target weights (or dollar allocations) only;
  • submit a short written thesis (up to 750 characters) explaining why the holdings are high-quality picks and how the portfolio meets the mandate described in Section 5; and
  • publish the entry to the Community, where it will appear by account handle.

Entries are paper portfolios only. Entrants must not submit real brokerage account numbers, screenshots, statements, credentials, or any personal financial information. Entrants may edit an entry at any time until the submission cutoff; the version on record at the cutoff is the version judged. Entries that are incomplete, non-compliant, or that violate these Rules or the Entry Terms may be rejected.

5. The Challenge & Portfolio Requirements

Season 1's mandate, “The Balanced Builder,” asks entrants to assemble a $100,000 model portfolio they would be comfortable holding for roughly the next five years: high-quality companies with a meaningful income component — a blend of dividend quality and value — rather than a portfolio built around the highest headline yields. This is a general model-portfolio brief, not advice tailored to any person; entrants do not submit, and will not be asked for, their own financial circumstances.

Quality is the point. Entrants should favor durable, profitable businesses with strong balance sheets and sustainable payouts. Not every holding must pay a dividend — the portfolio as a whole must meet the income floor below while leaving room for a few high-conviction quality picks that may pay little or nothing.

The income floor is the only portfolio requirement. Every entry can be published, whatever its yield; an entry below the floor when entries close is not eligible to win.

The requirements:

  • Income floor — a blended dividend yield of at least 3.0% across the whole portfolio, meaning each holding's trailing dividend yield weighted by its share of the $100,000, with uninvested cash counted at zero. It is measured on the version of the entry on record when entries close. Individual holdings do not need to pay a dividend;
  • $100,000 in virtual capital, priced at the previous trading day's close; any amount not invested is held as cash;
  • U.S.-listed common stocks, including REITs, business development companies (BDCs), and master limited partnerships (MLPs); ETFs, mutual funds, and other pooled funds are not eligible.

The following are guidance, not requirements. Entries outside them can still be submitted, and how well a portfolio is constructed is weighed in judging under Section 6:

  • 10 to 20 holdings;
  • no single position greater than 20% ($20,000) of the portfolio;
  • at least four (4) GICS sectors represented;
  • Quality — established, profitable businesses; speculative, unprofitable, or recently dividend-cut names score lower in judging.

6. How Winners Are Chosen

The Contest is judged on skill, not on returns. Portfolio performance is not a factor and does not determine any prize. Winners are chosen in three stages:

  • Automated quality ranking. The platform scores every eligible entry on objective, computable quality measures (financial health, dividend safety, diversification, valuation, and adherence to the mandate) to produce a shortlist of finalists. This is a filter for fairness and scale — it does not by itself pick the winner, and it is not published as a score.
  • Judges' selection. Dividend Wealth LLC reviews the shortlisted entries and selects the winner, weighing the quality of the businesses, the balance of income and growth, the five-year investment case, the portfolio construction and position weighting, and the strength of the written thesis. The Sponsor's decision is final and binding.
  • Announcement. The winner is announced with a written rationale after entries close. Individual scores are not published during the Contest.

The judging criteria and their weight, out of 100 points:

  • Business Quality (25) — Are these genuinely high-quality companies? Durable competitive advantages, strong balance sheets, consistent profitability, and a dependable dividend track record — not just the highest headline yields.
  • Dividend Safety & Growth (25) — The dividend itself: payout ratios and earnings/FFO coverage, the track record of raises, and the runway to keep growing it. Yield traps and shaky payouts are penalized.
  • Valuation & Future Earnings (20) — Are the picks bought at sensible valuations with a credible path for earnings and dividends to compound? Margin of safety over overpaying — for either yield or hype.
  • Portfolio Construction & Balance (15) — Diversification, position sizing, and a real balance of income today versus growth for tomorrow. A portfolio, not a watchlist.
  • Thesis & Reasoning (15) — The written case: clarity, originality, and whether the analysis actually supports the picks.

The automated ranking measures the first four; the Sponsor scores the thesis on the shortlist. The points guide the judges' selection and are not published as a score for any entry.

Community hearts, follows, and comments are engagement features only. Hearts rank a public community leaderboard while entries are open and may earn a non-prize “Community Favorite” badge. None of them affect the selection of winners.

7. Fair Play, Conduct & Disqualification

The Sponsor may disqualify any entrant who, in its sole discretion:

  • submits an entry that is not the entrant's own original work, or that infringes another's rights;
  • uses bots, scripts, multiple or fake accounts, or manipulates community engagement (including heart manipulation);
  • attempts to game the rubric through misrepresentation of holdings, weights, or data;
  • uses the Contest, comments, or community features to tout a security, coordinate promotion, or solicit or provide individualized investment advice; or
  • violates these Rules, the Entry Terms, or the Dividend Wealth Terms of Service.

The use of AI tools to help research or draft an entry is permitted, provided the entry is the entrant's own and the entrant can stand behind its reasoning.

8. Prize

One (1) grand prize: US $1,000, paid by the Sponsor via PayPal. Total approximate retail value of all prizes: US $1,000. The prize is awarded to the eligible entry the Sponsor selects as the winner under Section 6. The top three entries may additionally be featured in educational video content presented by the host; such features are not a prize and have no cash value.

The prize is non-transferable and no substitution is permitted, except that the Sponsor may substitute a prize of equal or greater value if the advertised prize becomes unavailable. The winner is solely responsible for all applicable federal, state, and local taxes. Because the prize is under the 2026 IRS reporting threshold of $2,000, the Sponsor does not expect to issue a Form 1099-MISC for it; however, the Sponsor may require a completed Form W-9 and may issue tax forms if required by law, and the winner remains responsible for reporting income as required.

9. Winner Notification

The potential winner will be notified through their Dividend Wealth account and/or the email associated with it, and may be required to verify eligibility and sign an affidavit of eligibility, a liability release, and (where lawful) a publicity release, and to provide PayPal payment details, within ten (10) days. If a potential winner cannot be contacted, is ineligible, fails to respond, or declines the prize, the prize may be forfeited and awarded to an alternate eligible entry selected by the Sponsor under Section 6.

10. Publicity & Likeness

Except where prohibited, entry constitutes consent for the Sponsor and host to use the entrant's account handle, entry, portfolio, thesis, and — for winners and featured entrants — likeness and statements, in any media, worldwide, for Contest administration, editorial, and promotional purposes, without further notice, compensation, or approval. Entrants are identified by handle; real names are not required to enter.

11. Ownership & License to Entries

Entrants retain ownership of their entry content. By entering, each entrant grants the Sponsor a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to host, display, reproduce, and archive the entry (including the portfolio and thesis, by handle) on Dividend Wealth, including in the Community and a Contest archive that may remain published after the Contest ends. The Contest format, rubric, mandate, and aggregated entry data are and remain the property of the Sponsor.

12. Privacy

The Sponsor collects only the information needed to run the Contest — your account identity/handle, your paper portfolio (tickers and weights), and your thesis. The Sponsor does not collect entrants' personal financial circumstances (such as income, net worth, goals, or risk tolerance), brokerage credentials, or account numbers. Information is handled under the Dividend Wealth Privacy Policy. California residents and others may request deletion of their personal information as described there; deleting an entry may remove it from the Contest.

13. Not Investment Advice; Disclaimers

The Contest is an educational competition. All entries are hypothetical paper portfolios and do not represent real trades. Nothing in the Contest — including entries, theses, community discussion, judge commentary, leaderboards, or any featured video breakdown — is investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security, and nothing is personalized to any individual's circumstances. Information is provided “as is” without warranty of accuracy or completeness and should not be relied upon for any investment decision. Entrants and viewers are solely responsible for their own decisions and should consult their own licensed advisers.

14. Release & Limitation of Liability

By entering, each entrant releases the Sponsor, the host, and their respective officers, employees, and agents from any liability for any loss, harm, or damage arising out of participation in the Contest or acceptance, use, or misuse of any prize, to the fullest extent permitted by law. The Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, misdirected, or failed entries, or for technical failures of any kind.

15. General Conditions

The Sponsor may modify, suspend, or terminate the Contest if fraud, technical failure, or any factor beyond its reasonable control impairs the integrity of the Contest. The Sponsor's failure to enforce any term is not a waiver. If any provision is held invalid, the remaining provisions remain in effect. These Rules are governed by the laws of the State in which the Sponsor is organized, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, and any dispute will be resolved there, consistent with the dispute-resolution terms of the Dividend Wealth Terms of Service.

16. Winners List & Contact

The winner will be announced on the Contest pages. For questions about these Rules, contact the Sponsor through the Dividend Wealth Help page.

Draft for review. These Official Rules are a strong starting point but should be reviewed by qualified counsel (securities and promotions/sweepstakes) before the Contest launches.