Dividends and Updates

Happy New Year!

 

So the US did not end up over the Fiscal Cliff (we came close though).  I was not surprised that a deal would be made but was surprised with the amount of time it took for them to do something.  Anyway, we're currently not in financial Armageddon and the Stock Market moved on.

 

So here are some updates:

 

The Social Security Tax holiday ended on January 1, 2013 which resulted in smaller take home pay.  I still have to see how much impact this new development will have in my (our) investing capabilities.  I highly doubt it would affect us much but as I always say, if a 2-5% tax increase would hurt you, you're doing it wrong.  Luckily, we kept expenses are low and we built a huge emergency fund so as much as it hurt, I think we'll be fine financially speaking. 

 

To offset the loss of a few hundred dollars, I'm happy to report that our portfolio got paid some dividends.

 

On 01/14/2013, Mondelez paid $1.53 in dividends.  It was reinvested and bought 0.0558 shares of MDLZ at $27.42/share.  On the same day, Kraft also paid dividends.  We got $1.96.  It was reinvested and bought 0.0423 shares of KRFT at $46.34/share.

 

Also, on 01/10/2013, Altria paid $4.71 in dividends.  It was reinvested and bought 0.1476 shares of MO at $31.91. 

 

Granted these dividends are small peanuts compared to the "lost" take home pay but over time, these reinvested dividends would compound and make us more money in the long term.  Besides, it's better than nothing.

 

By the way, I'm not concerned with Apple's over 200 point drop.  As long as Apple manages to use or save  the over $150 Billion dollars in cash in the bank, I am confident they will find a way to release more exciting products either by in-house development or through acquisitions.  But we'll have too see with their earnings call next week.  I have a feeling that even if Apple bottoms out at $400, it would just be a perfect buying opportunity to get more shares and we'll have to have on as it goes back up to around $600.  Besides, the stock is still cheap compared to it's competitors.

 

Meanwhile, I'll keep investing in other sectors that would hedge the current hatred with Tech Stocks.

 

More to follow!

 

New Stock Purchases... And It's NOT Groupon (GRPN)

I got some spare change around $300.  So I decided to put it in our Investment fund.  I'm almost done with my ROTH $5,000 limit so now, it's time to double down on our stocks.

Here are my picks for next Tuesday's trading day (via Automatic Investment Plan - lower fees): prices as of 11/042011 at 9:48 am

GLD = $200 - $4 (fee) = $196.00/$170.53 = 1.1494 shares
WM = $100 - $4 (fee) = $96.00/$31.31     = 3.0661 shares.

The Market in general has been a roller coaster these past few weeks.  Europe still has the Greek debt issues while the US Unemployment rate went down a bit. So you can imagine how some days the market is down and some day it's up.  Here's my view, whatever short term news/events that affect the markets in the near future should not affect how I view my investments (unless, these events are specifically about my portfolio positions).  In fact, the more the Markets put fear into the masses, the more I should invest (after due diligence of course).

So why GLD and WM?  Well GLD is easy.  It is a Gold ETF that would serve as my hedge against inflation and government catastrophes that can weaken the dollar or the US's credit rating.  I want more share of GLD to help shore up my portfolio.  WM on the other hand is a waste disposal play that I believe would be busy in the upcoming holiday season.  It would haul millions of pounds of trash and perhaps even clean up after snow storms and other weather-related events.  Plus, they just paid their dividend in Sept 2011 so I expect the next dividend date to be in December.  So I'm putting in more shares to get that juicy dividend.

All in all, I'm just balancing my portfolio and building up my positions so that I can eventually sell shares to recoup my initial investment and play with the house's money (pure profit play).

First Automatic Investment Plan

My recurring deposit on April 11 will be available on April 12.
The automatic investment plan will be executed on April 12.

Here's what I put in: $300

$150 for (GLD) SPDR GOLD TRUST ETF
- My gold hedge.  I plan to have 10% of my portfolio in gold.  Since I cannot afford to stock the actual gold, the ETF would do.

$80 (WM) Waste Management
- Another dividend play. With a 3.60% dividend yield, this Industrial/Waste Management stock is very attractive to me.  Add to the fact that they have multiple streams of income (Collection/Recycling/Transfer/Disposal of waste, Recycling Materials (aluminum,etc) Brokerage, Rental of Port-o-Lets to municipalities and commercial customers, Self-storage, Street Sweeping and Land Fill contracts).  Only hindrances are Government regulations, Competitive market and fuel costs.

$40 (XLNX) Xilinx Inc
- Building up my position before the next earnings date 04/27/11.

Total Investments = $270
Total Fees: $12 ($4 each trade)