Monthly Update: November 2014

Another solid month...

Portfolio Acitivities

Bought 7.6861 BLV @ $91.60

Bought 13.1062 JNK @ $40.14

Bought 34.4178 PCY @ $28.94
Bought 6.129 IBM @ $162.52
Bought 17.7930 RKT @ $55.98
Sold WHZ @ $11.59Sold ROST @ $89.10

$500 Deposited into Investing Account
$250 Deposited into Lending Club

Portfolio Income
Dividends ($28.24)
     BLV: $2.61
     JNK: 4.56
     PEMT: $3.51
     RKT: $7.50     
     PCY: $5.84     
     Interest from Cash: $2.21
Lending Club     
     Interest: $49.74
Rental Income     Townhouse 1: $950

Lots of Activity: As I mentioned last month, I needed to deploy my cash. I had been sitting on the sidelines thinking that the recent dip in equities was going to be more. It wasn't and with the Christmas rally underway seasonally, its time to go shopping. I initiated no new positions. Just added to existing ones. 

I sold WHZ before it collapsed. I had expected as much because everything else dealing with oil had dropped and it had not at that point.
I sold ROST for a very nice gain. I am mostly a dividend investor but I do take capital gain trades when they look to have sufficient value built beneath their share price. ROST has a 0.88% yield I sure didn't buy it for income.

Income a lot lower: My monthly average income has dropped due to my selling spree. The vast majority of my sales were for capital gains profit or correctly avoiding big losses. However that does leave me with a 40% cash position which is not contributing income. That is a temporary setback that I will gladly take as I gained or avoided the loss of about 4 years of my current portfolios monthly dividends.

Lending Club finally pulling its weight: I purchase LC notes on the secondary market. My strategy is to wait 10 months after a loan has been issued and if they are never late, have a rising credit score, and have 20% or less of their income going to servicing their debt then I buy the note. Because it is a secondary market most sellers will have a mark up fee to make a little profit. Usually this turns out to be 3 months worth of interest. My big deposits over the spring and summer have been in my portfolio long enough that I'm getting profit now. About 1% a month. 

Ideally I want my LC position big enough that it will give my entire portfolio +0.33% to +0.5% just in interest. That will give my an annualized. 4%-6% gain before my company dividends and capital gains. 

Sharpe Trade Launches: This month the Sharpe Trade website launched. Its been something I and some others have been working on. Currently we have two content contributors. Myself and Dan Shy from NoNonsense Trading. With their help I should be able to reach more people and offer more features with my content than I would be able to do on my own.

It has been one of the main reasons for the slow activity here on my blog. My main writing will shift to Sharpe Trade but I will continue this blog and its portfolio's journey. A good portion of Sharpe Trade's content that I will be creating will be free so all will be able to continue following me.



Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: October 2014

I'm continuing to get myself caught up from my absence...

Portfolio Acitivities
Sold CPA @ $99.24
Sold AAPL @ $97.76
Sold ARCP @ $11.70
$750 deposit into Investing.

Portfolio Income
Dividends ($22.48)
     AFSI: $4.64     
     ARCP: $6.35
     BLV: $2.55
     JNK: 4.64
     PCY: $1.90
     Interest from Cash: $1.91
Lending Club
     Interest: $49.74
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $950

Market pullback: October showed a market pullback. Was it going to be a dip, pullback, downturn, correction, crash? You can never tell going into them and I was in a very defensive mindset. I placed several stops and AAPL, and CPA got triggered for sales. ROST and PETM had stops but were not hit and I am still long those two.

Painfully low dividends: I haven't had this low of a month income wise in a long time. Not only was it the smallest one traditionally of the quarter but I had several sales and am sitting on 45% cash right now while I was waiting out the market downturn.

Low deposits: Real life events prevented me from contributing as much as I would have liked. I'm ok with that because of how I run my accounts. I put some into savings, I pay my bills, then the rest goes into my various accounts. By its nature it will be variable. I prefer this to a static deposit rate which I think is unrealistic. Life itself isn't static. 

Sold ARCP: I sold ARCP early on in the month. It was when I was inactive and because it was for a great price compared to now I want to post a screen capture of the sale least I be accused of revisionist history. Your trust is very important to me...

I have quite a bit to say on ARCP. Why I sold and why I think it collapsed in price. It had become a popular investment in the dividend community and it warrants discussion. I saw a lot of people buying it in October and I made a few comments on a few blogs but I am kicking myself for not saying anything more. The loss imo was complete avoidable but more on that in the next day or two...

Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: September 2014

A September portfolio update in November? Gadzooks am I that far behind? Apparently so but there is no time like the present to get back on track...


Portfolio Activities
$1,000 deposited into the Investing Account
Bought 7.9481 CPA @ $125.32
Bought 4 AAPL @ $99.11
Bought 5 IBM @ $192.65
$250 deposited into Lending Club
$1,500 extra paid to Townhouse 1

Portfolio Income
Dividends ($79.72)
     AFL: $5.97
     IBM: $6.04
     ROST: $2.99    
     ARCP: $6.35
     PSEC: $12.06
     PSEC: $11.94
     TCPC: $22.42
     NDRO: $1.17
     BLV: $2.43
     JNK: 4.51
     PCY: $1.93
     Interest from Cash: $1.91
Lending Club
     Interest: $46.90
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $950

Planning to refinance: My main focus this month was paying down the mortgage on my rental. I am very close to not being underwater anymore which means I am eligible for refinancing. I must have talked to half a dozen lenders and the first thing they asked was whats the home worth and whats left on the mortgage. Nobody would talk to me
As I bought the unit before the housing crisis I have over a 6% mortgage and reducing that would free up some cash flow.

Several purchases: The beginning of the month was quite active with purchases in a new company. Copa Holdings (CPA) is a Panamanian airliner. Never let it be said that I stick to conventional U.S. blue chip companies. I also added to Apple (AAPL) and IBM (IBM)


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: August 2014

Portfolio Acitivities
$750 deposited into the Investing Account
Sold PSEC @ $10.44
$750 deposited into Lending Club

Portfolio Income
Dividends ($103.05)
     APPL: $3.29
     PETM: $3.51
     POT: $10.84
     RKT: $7.00
     STX: $8.31
     ARCP: $6.35
     PSEC: $11.93
     NDRO: $3.23
     WHZ: $37.67
     BLV: $2.64
     JNK: 4.68
     PCY: $1.97
     Interest from Cash: $1.38
Lending Club
     Interest: $41.90
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $950

New monthly income record: $144.95 was generated this month giving me an all time high. Lending Club, WHZ, and CIG have given me huge gains the past several months and my quarterly average has been high. 

Sold PSEC: I discussed in my previous entry, I sold PSEC. Their lack of dividend coverage is getting worse and I feel we'll see a dividend cut before the end of the year. I'll have an entry out shortly on that as I expect the drop to be significant but I'll be back in afterwards.

Focusing on C grade Lending Club loans: I'm finding the D, E, and F quality loans are starting to get higher markups in the secondary market. 4%-5% is about as low as I can find. C level I can get regularly for 2% or less. This lowers my lag time of when I start seeing a profit. At 4% I am needing 3 or so months of interest to recoup my losses through the markup fee. That has caused me to have an overall portfolio loss so far. I expect the next month or two to change that though as the majority of my loans will be 3 months old and I should hit profitability here on out.

Heavy cash position: Currently I am sitting at 38% cash. I'm definitely itchy to deploy that unused money. Cash doesn't have a yield nor capital gains. However it does give opportunity benefits. I have to be careful not to buy something just for the sake of buying it. Luckily its a new month and I'll be screening for a new investment today.

Close to no net loss on my rental: I am getting very close to no longer being underwater with my rental which means I should be able to refinance soon. I'm sitting at 6.12% and would really like to get that down. Nobody would talk to me though while I had a net loss. I might make that my priority this month and get it down further.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: July 2014

Portfolio Acitivities
$1,500 deposited into the Investing Account
Sold MDT @ $63.45
Sold COP @ $84.20
Sold POT @ $36.11
Sold KO @ $39.50
Bought 14.9726 shares of ROST @ $66.52
Bought 10 shares of RKT @ $103.10
$450 deposited into Lending Club

Portfolio Income
Dividends ($105.52)
     AFSI: $2.31
     CIG: $66.55
     KO: $3.69
     MDT: $1.63
     ARCP: $6.35
     PSEC: $11.93
     NDRO: $2.35
     BLV: $2.69
     JNK: 4.65
     PCY: $1.99
     Interest from Cash: $1.38
Lending Club
     Interest: $31.35
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $950

Switching to a Total Return Strategy: I know this is sacrilegious in the dividend growth investing community but I am focusing on total returns these days. Lending Club is giving enough income to allow me to move into some positions that have lower yield but higher returns. So far this year it is working very well for me as I have 8.17% return vs S&P is at 5.01%
This is with a 5.01% forward yield on the portfolio with 28.5% cash.
Due to the massive deposits I am doing this year I am not posting or trumpeting my horn with the total return numbers as its a bit skewed with deposits.
At the end of the day though I am still an income guy. The capital gains are intended to buy more income producing assets.

Lots of activity: Lot of selling occurred this month as many of my stops were hit. Is this the beginning of the correction in equities everyone has been expecting? Who knows. All I did was look at what was overvalued and put stops on them. 
I don't like to be this cash heavy but with whats going on in Ukraine and Iraq I'm not exactly eager to deploy capital. Even with this cash heavy a position I am on pace to hitting my income goal for 2014.

Record Income: For the second month in a row I have hit a new record for income thanks mostly to CIG paying their annual dividend. I still would have done better then previous quarter but the January/April/July/October months are always my lowest.

Market seems to be aged: Its not like I am purposefully avoiding the standard dividend income positions. Its that they seem overvalued. Lots of them have hit high valuations over their own historic P/E ratios.
I don't know about anyone else but I am finding it hard to find many undervalued positions to deploy cash to. 

Anyone else out there finding it hard to deploy cash or is your style more finding whatever is cheapest on your watch list and deploying it asap?

Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Goals H1 review of 2014 Goals

With the first half of 2014 down, I want to take a look at how my goals for 2014 are shaping up. I made some very lofty goals in doubling my portfolio numbers in 1 year what it too me 3 years previous to do. I started the year thinking I set them too high...

Total Portfolio size of $30,000: On Track
Start of 2014: $13,512
Q1: $18,327
Q2: $23,070
I'm adding almost $1,000 - $1,500 a month with capital gains, dividends, and deposits, $4-$5k a quarter.
I wasn't so sure at the end of Q1 but this is looking like it will succeed.


Total Dividends received of $1,000: On Track
Q1: $181.54
Q2: $430.27 ($248.73 for the quarter).
To hit $1,000 I'd obviously need $250 average a quarter. I knew Q1 would be short of that average and the question stood: Would the second half of the year with its extra deposits make up for a light first half? Dividends have a big drag time on them in that you purchase them and may not get any income from them for a couple months. With Q2 essentially at the average I only need $570 for the rest of the year... $95 a month average. If I can hit my average monthly dividend amount I can hit this one.


Average monthly dividends income of $100: COMPLETED
Start of 2014: $55.88
Q1: $80.49
Q2: $101.51
I started the year focused on just dividends and didn't know if Lending Club would have a place in my portfolio. It does and has added quite a bit of income. I had felt this would be the easiest to hit because this stat is forward looking with each purchase even though I may not hit a dividend payment for a position for up to a quarter after a purchase.


Revisit Lending Club: COMPLETED
I wanted to revisit Lending Club and see if they improved enough for me to come back. I knocked this one out early and have made it an active part of my portfolio.


Continuing Education: On Track
Q1: FAILED Improving my skills and knowledge in finance was an important goal I set for myself and this goal I feel I am failing at. I started strong with my Warren Wednesday series of looking at Warren Buffett's past letters and pick up several finance books. Things at work deteriorated and derailed me.

Q2: SUCCEEDED Work is back under control. Where once I was on a team of 5 of us we are now 10 and I am the manager. The team is coming along and my stress levels have dropped allowing me energy and focus to get back to not only college but my financial education.
I've also picked up Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty. The blogosphere of professional investors can't stop talking about this one so I felt it deserved a read. Its pretty good so far but only about half way done.

One final thought and comment. My portfolio stands at about 20% cash. I have hit my goals and am on target with a very large cash position and essentially one arm tied behind my back.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: June 2014

Half of the year has gone and we come to another monthly update. Things are coming along quite well and I have been shifting my equities to capital gains positions while Lending Club is working its magic with income.


Portfolio Acitivities
$500 deposited into the Investing Account
Sold WMT @ $74.93 (+34.65%)
Sold CIG @ $8.10 (+47.38%)
Sold MCD @ $99.90 (+12.57%)
Bought 10.3121 AFL @ $62.65
$200 deposited into Lending Club

Portfolio Income
Dividends ($83.64)
     AFL: $2.15
     IBM: $6.04
     MCD: $2.23
     WMT: $2.15     
     ARCP: $6.35
     VTR: $12.03
     PSEC: $11.93
     TCPC: $25.53
     COP: $2.51
     NDRO: $2.56
     WHZ: $30.49     
     BLV: $2.75
     JNK: $4.65
     PCY: $1.98
     Interest from Cash: $0.78
Lending Club
     Interest: $24.15
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $621.41


New Record: I hit a new record of non rental income. $107.79. Lending Club is really doing well for me.

Taking Profits: I sold off CIG for profit taking, WMT to free up cash for a purchase coming this week, and  MCD was sold on a stop loss order. 

Small Deposit month: I relaxed a bit this month and vacationed a little bit with the family. As I cut my budget really tight with portfolio deposits, that was the only real place I had to pay for it from my budget. Next month however my company will buy back its vacation time and I should be able to sell 40+ hours. I plan to make up for my June's deposit at that time.
Additionally, I have a deposit landing July 1st which technically is next month. I'll have a 3 paycheck month in July though so it should work out.

Still a partial rent month: Had a few finalized fees associated with getting a new renter (general repairs and paying utilities for the couple month's vacancies. Next month should be a regular full month.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: May 2014

Portfolio Acitivities
$1,000 deposited into the Investing Account
Bought 18 shares PETM @ $55.85
Bought 40 shares PSEC @ $10.18
Bought 11.5494 shares AFSI @ $42.95
$350 deposited into Lending Club

Portfolio Income
Dividends
     AAPL: $3.29
     POT: $10.85
     RKT: $3.50
     STX: $8.31     
     ARCP: $6.35
     PSEC: $7.51
     NDRO: $1.01
     WHZ: $30.49     
     BLV: $2.61
     JNK: $4.76
     PCY: $2.01
     Interest from Cash: $0.89
Lending Club
     Interest: $16.67
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $233


Lease signed: I have a renter who signed up this month. Pro-rated amount was $233. Next month I should be receiving $925 a month and I have a year lease. The husband is a dentist on a military base and the wife is no longer in the military. I shouldn't have any more deployments that move me renter away. That has happened twice now. They asked for a two year lease which is encouraging. I only went one year to start but I'd consider it next time.

1st Lending Club safety level hit: I am now estimating a forward monthly interest amount of $20. This is important because that's the size of 1 loan at the 10 month mark which is what my screen looks for. I can now have 1 default a month and not have it set back the entire account. The interest will pay for it. 
It also means that every month I will be having my profit buy me 1 additional note. Which is nicely timed because it looks like I am gonna get my first default.

Need to focus on rebalancing equities: As my current position size is $1,000 and I make my new purchases at that level, I look back and see my first couple investments are lagging. MDT, MCD, WMT are all $400. I'll be looking to add into those at a good valuation. 

Overall it was a great month and I'm happy with its activities. $98 in income (non rental as that goes entirely to pay for itself and isn't profit I don't count it).

Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: April 2014

Just as I thought things at work were getting better, the last veteran on my team is transferred to another department. So that means where we had 5 employees its me, 1 new hire of 1 month, another new hire who cannot start for 2 months due to national reserve commitments. That's it.
On top of me doing the work of 4 people I am in charge of managing a separate team of 7 others.
Now I bring this up not to vent but as a point of discussion on how bad do you want your goals? I could quit and try to find another job and probably kiss my dream of retiring at the age of 50 goodbye. My stress would be reduced greatly in my life but would I be shifting the stress to my future self in being 65 and working somewhere? Think about what you would and wouldn't do on your own path to financial freedom...


Portfolio Acitivities
$1,100 deposited into the Investing Account
$500 deposited into Lending Club
No purchases or sales this month.


Portfolio Income
Dividends
     KO: $3.69
     MDT: $1.49
     WMT: $2.15
     ARCP: $6.35
     PSEC: $7.51
     NDRO: $2.20
     BLV: $2.84
     JNK: $4.77
     PCY: $2.01
     Interest from Cash: $0.70
Lending Club
     Interest: $8.98
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $0


Vacancy: I got a new tenant and have a year long leased signed. They are moving in this week. The end result is half a payment for March due to costs associated with finding another renter and no payment for April. I'll only get a prorated check of about half for May that more then likely I won't get until next month. Thats fine with me. I am just happy the vacancy was only 1.5 months total.

Lending Club: As I reported in a recent post, the reporting problems on the statements was due to a change in the way they display them.
I made a larger then normal deposit with them this month. I am wanting to run it up to my target number then wait and see how it goes.

Overall it was a quiet month. Work is hectic but its quieting down each day a little bit more.



Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: March 2014

My work situation is getting better and improving with my stress level dropping and my time and energy to focus on my portfolio is returning. Management finally realized how they blew it and hurt the team. They are hiring a third new person which short term means more work in training but will obviously pay off later. I was approved for overtime and have been putting in a lot of extra hours which was stressful but will give me extra money to work with.
I am looking forward to a more frequent posting schedule...

Portfolio Activities
$1,000 deposits into Investing account
$50 deposits into Lending Club
Bought 16.9211 shares of JNK @ $41.14


Portfolio Income
Dividends
Total: $96.33
     AFL: $2.15
     IBM: $1.90
     MCD: $2.23
     ARCP: $6.35
     VTR: $12.06
     PSEC: $7.51
     TCPC: $22.42
     COP: $2.51
     NDRO: $3.13
     WHZ: $29.61
     BLV: $2.47
     JNK: $1.45
     PCY: $1.95
     Interest from Cash: $0.59
Lending Club
     Interest: $7.02
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $855

Vacancy: My tenant received orders that they are being sent to another military post, they are a military family, and had to move. When this occurs, my property manager keeps $300 of the last month's rent for costs. Mostly for advertising, listing costs, and cleaning. If they don't use it all then I get the left over sent to me. Its looking like I will have a vacancy for the month of April which will be rough. That's $855 less income I am getting yet my bills do not drop. Still have to pay the mortgage on it. With the overtime I am getting at work I don't think I'll see a drop in April's deposits. Hopefully it won't be vacant for two months.

Broke $100 income barrier: I had a great month income wise and broke the $100 level for the first time. Now technically I do have my rent of $855 coming in and I do record that. However, mentally I do not count it because my mortgage and other costs are greater then the rent I receive. Dividends and Lending Club interest though are a different matter. Its been a long road since I first started my blog back in April 2011 and I have a long ways to go, but its good to see the progress I've made. Its something I take pride in as most people are stuck in the "Yeah I really gotta get around to working on my finances someday." mentality.

Lending Club is going well: While I am annoyed at them taking so long to get their monthly statements to me, the fact that that is my only problem is pretty good. I'm currently have a 21% average yield. That won't last forever as sooner or later I will have a default. Until then, I'll enjoy it.

Cemig (CIG) woke up: CIG has risen 30% since March 14th. Nothing really changed but its a great example of what buying a deeply undervalued company gets you. It had dropped to a P/E of 3.5. Three point five. There is a lot of fear out there over the economy of Brazil but they aren't a luxury item or discretionary goods company. They are one of the biggest electrical companies in Brazil. People aren't going to stop using electricity. I should be getting news of the first dividend this month.



Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: February 2014

In this day and age where Amazon is working on flying robots to deliver your packages and Google is working on self driving cars, how in the world can Lending Club be so slow? It took over a week to get their monthly statement to me, hence the delay in my monthly update. For a guy who is used to running his monthly numbers the night of the last day of the month, waiting a week felt excruciating. #firstworldproblems to be sure and it is better then #eatingketchupsandwichestillpayday.

Portfolio Activities
     $900 deposits into Investing account
     $100 deposits into Lending Club account     
     Sold SPLS, +8.3% gain
     Bought 3.4936 shares of IBM @ $179.19
     Bought 42 shares of ARCP @ $14.17

Portfolio Income
Dividends

Total: $49.16
     POT: $10.85

     BLV: $2.78

     JNK: $1.43

     AAPL: $3.05

     ARCO: $5.62

     NDRO: $3.66

     PSEC: $7.51

     RKT: $3.10

     STX: 8.31

     PCY: $1.93

     Interest from cash: $0.52

Lending Club
     Interest: $4.86
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $855

Lending Club:  I'm also not pleased that they sit on my deposits for one week before releasing it to me to invest. I understand that they want to get some interest and have it in their accounts but come on.

Their fees are much lower then when I was with them in 2009 probably due to then I was buying and selling notes and they take extra money from the sale. I am open to the fact that I could well be wrong on the reasons for those 2009 fees but I'm not worried enough about it to look into it as that's in the past. I'm focusing on the now.
The now includes some great interest rates so I don't have too much to complain about. I'm pretty excited to see how LC turns out for me over the course of the year.

Low deposits: Had lower deposits than I had wanted this month. A positive life event happened that I wanted to take advantage of that needed money. I keep my deposits at a high % of my income so there is little wiggle room in my budget but that means that when something has to give it's my investing money. I know that some people want consistency and to keep it the same with their portfolios so make wiggle room for events. I'd rather plow as much as I can into the portfolio.

Sold SPLS: The problem with investing in a turn around story where a company that has fallen out of favor rises up to its former greatness is... when it doesn't. I wasn't comfortable at all with SPLS progress last year. They were supposed to be expanding in Europe, spending a ton on revamping their online website and expanding into more products. The money was spent but the new business has failed to come.
I had set a mental line in the sand that I cannot take a loss with this position. It got to about my entry level and the dividends were the profit. I wasn't planning on this being a trade but I also hadn't planned on losing money after nearly a year invested with them.

Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: January 2014

Portfolio Activities
     $1,700 deposits into Investing account
     $325 deposits into Lending Club account
     Sold HAS +43% gain
     Sold OHI +0% break even
     Bought 174 shares of CIG @ $5.78
     Bought 16.63 shares of VTR @ $60.12

Portfolio Income
Dividends
     MDT: $1.49
     SPLS: $2.43
     WMT: $2.10
     ARCP: $2.67
     PSEC: $7.50
     NDRO: $4.16
     JNK: $1.42
     PCY: $1.94
     Interest from cash: $0.46
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $855

A big fat $2,025 was made in deposits this month. The extra money came from selling unused vacation time back to my company. Several coworkers have mentioned that I need to go travel some. I do enjoy weekend trips but a week long trip somewhere for 5 days of hotel plus meals, airfare and activities for 2? When I also add in 5 days of extra pay (vacation sellback + working it normally)? I just look at them and say "Do you know what I could do with $1,500?"

I made some portfolio changes. I sold HAS for profit taking and it was looking really toppy. It had broken below its 50 day SMA (simple moving average) and other companies were talking about the struggles they had over the Christmas holiday.  I wanted to be sure I kept that +43% gain and looking at today's price action, it was the right call.

I sold OHI and bought VTR. OHI is a fine REIT and it was a tough decision to sell this one. However when I compared the two fundamental wise VTR seemed like the better deal.

I gave up 1.5% in yield but VTR is more diversified having retirement homes, assisted living homes, and medical office buildings (MOBs). Think of MOBs as the little business parks and buildings that your dentist and chiropractor is in. I have no idea what impact the Affordable Care Act will end up being but seeing as how OHI was only assisted living homes funded by Medicare I think VTR is going to have diversification.
The pullback in its historic price range gives a lot of upside whereas OHI is the most overvalued its ever been. That's not to say its actually overvalued but time and the market will tell.
Additionally, with concerns about rising interest rates, REITs got hammered in 2013 except for OHI. They may or may not have a pullback but VTR already had theirs so I'll play it safe.

I also bought CIG which is a Brazilian hydroelectric power company. That one is odd, interesting, and hard to evaluate. Last year it had a 20% cash dividend plus a 10% stock dividend. The stock dividend needs some explaining. In the U.S. we would call it a stock split and its no net gain as the stock price changes to reflect the new shares. CIG created more shares and gave them out. However in talking with CIG investors that qualified for the split, they received 30% more shares. I bought on the day of the split to take advantage of the drop in share price but the price only dropped by 20%, a 10% net gain for existing shareholders. As I mentioned in my review of CIG, U.S. financial services and websites have a very tough time tracking CIG. So for a 30% net yield between cash and stock, I'm willing to put in the extra time.
As with most foreign companies, they pay a semi-annual dividend. April and December, so you have plenty of time to research this one and I will definitely be reporting their activity on my blog.

January was a real busy month as I also returned to Lending Club. I originally tested them in 2009 and 2010 but I didn't like the search and sorting software on the trading platform so I left with the intent of returning when they improved. They have and I did. I haven't discussed it yet because of Q4 earning season taking my blogging time. IBM, CIG, MCD down and AAPL, STX, RKT, POT, SPLS already reported and I have yet to review them. I have lots of thoughts and ideas about Lending Club that I will share with in February.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial adviser, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: December 2013

Portfolio Activities
     $1300 deposits into investing account
     Bought 10 shares of RKT @ $98
     Bought 31 shares of TCPC @ $15.94
     Bought 23 shares of POT @ $32.96
     DRIP 0.0856 shares of KO

Portfolio Income
Dividends
     AFL: $2.15
     IBM: $1.90
     KO: $3.26 (DRIPed)
     MCD:  $2.23
     ARCP: $2.67
     PSEC: $7.50
     TCPC: $12.82
     COP: $2.51
     NDRO: $4.73
     BLV: $5.62
     JNK: $1.45
     PCY: $1.93
     Interest on Cash: $0.71
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1 $855

For the month I received $49.48. For the year I received $405.04 in payments which is by far my best year with this portfolio. I finished of 2013 with a lot of deposits. I kicked it up and this amount will be around my new standard for 2014. I am not sure if I can contribute that much in 2015 but I will keep at it as long as I can. For me to hit my $1,000 in dividends in one year goal I will need to more then double this year but I think I can do it.

January should be a great month for me. I got a slight raise at work and my company buys back vacation. They let us keep some but too much and they offer to buy it back at our normal wage. I plan to put that all into my investing.

I received my KO dividend as extra shares. This was purely by accident as Sharebuilder by default has DRIP turned on and I had forgotten to turn it off in time. I generally do not like to DRIP my dividends because your overvalued companies will be buying high vs just saving the dividends for whatever cheap undervalued stock you buy in the future.
I'm now reporting the interest from the cash position. Sharebuilder allows for you to choose savings account rates or money market rates. Its only getting me 1% or so but it is something.

My current renter's lease is up in February. It will be critical that they sign up if I'm to hit my 2014 goals. Each month I am vacant will lower $855 of income I have and a large part of my investing deposit counts on this. Without it I'll have to pay the mortgage out of pocket.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: November 2013

Today is December 5th and I already feel behind. Everyone else is knocking out their monthly numbers. You people move fast!

Portfolio Activities
     $750 deposits into investing account
     $250 extra paid towards rental mortgage
     Bought 5.9647 shares of BLV @ $83.16

Portfolio Income
Dividends
     POT: $2.87
     BLV: $0.87
     JNK: $1.42
     AAPL: $3.05
     ARCP: $2.59
     NDRO: $4.70
     HAS: $2.72
     OHI: $3.91
     PSEC: $7.50
     STX: $8.31
     PCY: $1.90
     WHZ: $40.37
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $855

Portfolio Review
I had a record month for dividends: $80.14. Over half came from WHZ which is to be expected. Its my front end loaded land trust that I'll only be keeping for a few years and its a large position. Its large payment will help buy the dividend growth companies and in the long run they will pay more over time.

I was able to pay extra from the rental account towards my mortgage. I end up having an extra $100 or so a month from what my property manager sends me after taking their fees. I pay the HOA fees out of my regular paycheck account so even though my rental gives me a net loss for the month, I have excess cash. Going forward I should be able to put $100-$150 extra a month to getting it paid off quicker.

Last month I mentioned that NDRO had a secondary public offering for 20% more shares. I was wrong. The owner of the land Enduro LLC sold their shares to the open market. There was no increase in share count. When a trust is created the owner of the land gets all the shares then they sell them off to the market where we can buy them. The way the news releases where phrased made it sound like this was extra shares. I think the price dropped for the wrong reason. However, NDRO was at to above its fair value so I do not expect it to rise much.

I have been stalking Realty Income Corp (O) for several months now. I have been holding out for a 6% yield and its almost there. Long time readers may recall I owned it before. I had sold it back at the beginning of March @ $45.40 believing it was overvalued on a P/FFO bases. O is a wonderful company with one of the best management teams I have seen for a REIT and I always planned to return to it when things settled down. There was a time when everyone seemed to be buying O because it was going up. Classic Mr Market jumping on the bandwagon in April and May of 2013.

I have already begun looking at my 2014 goals and I have set the bar quite high. To do so I will need to increase my funding and make cutbacks elsewhere in my life and budget. Nothing drastic but it comes down to a choice. Do I want to cut back on lifestyle now for a better one in the future or live a better one now and cut back later? Right now I am fit and able to work. Who knows what the future will bring. Incidentally that is also why I am a fan of Roth IRAs over Traditional IRAs. I can take on the tax burden now. No need to push that expense on Future Pully when I want to relax with life and minimize my concerns.

Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: October 2013

I was talking with some other investors and started a joke list of "You know you are a finance geek when..." Its just a list of the ways one can geek out on finance as much as comic books, movies, video games, card games, etc

You know you are a finance geek when you get excited that its the end of the month because you get to update your numbers and dividends!

Portfolio Activities
     Bought 12 shares of KO @ $37.20
     $500 deposits into investing

Portfolio Income
Monthly Dividends
     BLV: $0.88
     JNK: $1.45
     NDRO: $3.95
     ARCP: $2.59
     PSEC: $7.50
     PCY: $1.74
Quarterly Dividends
     SPLS: $2.43
     MDT: $1.49
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $855

Portfolio Review
Only $500 made it into the account deposit wise. While that is my minimum... I'm not going to hit my goals by doing the minimum work and minimum contribution. I'll have to refocus my effort on reducing my expenses in November.

I received only $22.03 in dividends where as I should be averaging $46.43. That seemed too low so I ran an average of the past three months. It turned out that was $41.46 so fairly close. I made some purchases in the past three months so my forward yield should be higher.
Why look at a three month time frame? Quarterly dividends. Over three months all of my positions will have paid me. What i find is that I have one bad month of $20, an ok month of $40 and a great month of $60. Its just a matter of when the quarterly dividends get paid.

NDRO had a secondary offering and sold 20% more share. They are a royalty land trust so they cannot expand and buy more land or get more oil reserves. The owner of the land needed the money to pay down their debt. They are a separate company so this does not improve NDRO's numbers. So lets call this what it is... I got screwed.
Unit price went down by 20%. I thought the S-1 form they file when creating the land trust states how many total shares and I didn't even know this was possible.
I'm considering selling it for this fact. I run the risk the owners will just keep selling more units. On the other hand this land trust has a very rare quality I want. It has no expiration date on total production or time frame. The trust expires when the wells run dry. That's hard to find in land trusts and the wells are set to go for at least 20 years. November's dividend has been announced. Its has staid the same / unit so there is no drop in my payment. I will have to find out why and look at their next quarterly. Production might have increased.
Right now my yield on cost is 9.19% If the wells run for 20 years x 9.19% annual yield.... you can see now why I bought them in the first place. I have a margin of safety to counteract the drop in unit price that all land trusts suffer from.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: September 2013

Month #2 has passed for my progress blog and time to see how things went...

Portfolio Activities
     No purchases or sales this month
     $750 deposits into investing
     $250 deposits into savings (still to be opened).

Portfolio Income
Monthly Dividends
     BLV: $0.87
     JNK: $1.48
     NDRO: $5.04
     ARCP: $2.59
     PSEC: $7.50
     PCY: $1.92
Quarterly Dividends
     AFL: $2.04
     COP: $2.51
     WMT: $2.01
     MCD: $2.12
     TCPC: $11.26
Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $855.00

Portfolio Review
September was a quiet month for activity as I made no purchases or sales. I wanted to rebuild up my cash position as in previous recent months I purchased IBM, AAPL, and POT. My cash is back up over 20% and I will be looking to deploy that soon.

I took out the weighting reviews. Those aren't going to be changing monthly by very much. Better I think to keep them for half year reviews.

Earning season starts next week and with it comes the flood of financial results from companies.

The Real Est Savings account has been recapitalized. I had spent over $5,000 for a new furnace and air conditioner. It was a needed repair and upgrade that I had prepared for but it did mean I had to put my rental income towards rebuilding it. This account is for emergencies for my rental property and won't be touched until something major happens.

The Real Est Cash account has $1,630 in it which is right where I want it. I get $855 net management expenses in rent usually paid around the 10th of each month. Problem is my mortgage is due before that each month so I have to carry a large balance. The mortgage is around $750. I can now return to using the rental income towards improving making me money vs recapitalizing its savings. $855 extra a month for more dividend stock or paying off the mortgage early is going to be great. I've had to put that on hold for about 6 months for the upgrades and psychologically I've noticed I've been antsy with that lower funding level.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Monthly Update: August 2013

I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't looking forward to this post. No more fake demo accounts for people who'd rather watch silver porn and be miserable about their status in life. This is about sharing ideas and progress with fellow investors.
It's with pleasure that I now get to join the other progress blogs in giving an update on how the past month went.

The spreadsheet is available for totals so I won't be reposting them here. Instead I will discuss the activities and any actions. I'm sure that my format will change over the next few months as I get a feel for how I want to report my updates. I might even shamelessly steal reporting ideas from fellow progress blogs lol...

Portfolio Results
Purchases and Sales
     Bought 1 AAPL @ $560.95
     Bought 2 IBM @ $188.83
     Sold 4.32 SBUX @ $72.41 (+27.16%)

Income
     Monthly Dividends
     BLV: $0.89
     JNK: $1.42
     NDRO: $4.16
     ARCP: $2.59
     PSEC: $7.49
     PCY: $1.91
     Quarterly Dividends
     HAS: $2.72
     STX: $7.34
     SBUX: $0.91
     WHZ: $33.60
     Rental Income
     Townhouse 1: $555

Portfolio Weighting
     Income Weighting by Asset Class
     Stock: 20.53%
     BDC: 25.74%
     REIT: 8.85%
     Energy: 33.57%
     Gold: 0%
     Bonds: 11.31%
     Total Value Weighting by Asset Class
     Stock: 40.52%
     BDC: 13.92%
     REIT: 7.47%
     Energy: 14.54%
     Gold: 0%
     Bonds: 11.02%
     Cash: 12.52%

Portfolio Review
August saw a new investing income record for this portfolio receiving $63.03. The bad news is that half of that came from one source, WHZ. That was to be expected as it was one of my two highest positions along with PSEC. Land trusts are front end loaded for their profit. Wells drop in pressure and thus production each year. As WHZ is new I want to get profit now and then sell later. WHZ is not behaving as most trusts do where share price remains stable or increases. It is dropping along with the payments and not recovering which I had considered possible. I have owned it for about a year now and funny enough the position drawdown is -21.73% yet the yield is 21.74%.

I sold SBUX for a nice gain especially considering I bought it for this portfolio in March. I love the product, company, and its future. However their valuation is way too high for me. Historically they have some room to run but I'll let Fastgraphs speak for me...

The blue line is their history P/E ratio. The orange line is their Ben Graham fair value price. The black line is their actual share price. I'll share my thoughts on IBM later but I replaced SBUX with it...

My REIT income and total value weighting is too low. I am wanting to increase that as new funds come in. However there are concerns on how a rising interest rate will hurt REITs. Much of that is getting priced in and I have seen my two REITs, ARCP and OHI, drop recently. For now I will be patient and add in later.

Precious Metals has no position right now and I don't see that changing. I want to wait for gold to get under $1,000 and silver to get under $10. Even with covered calls being generated off of GLDI and SLVO, their base underlying asset is a non income producing metal. I want a margin of safety.

I received only $555 from my property manager for my rental. Normally they are paid $950 from my renter, then they take their 10% fee and pass on to me $855. Last month however I had to pay for $300 of fence repair. Four posts had to be dug out and replaced and their four sections replaced. It was the original fence when the house was built in early 1980s and I was expecting it. This is exactly why I set aside 10% for repairs. It eases the impact of months like this. I have my Real Est Savings account to ease the burden if I was needing to live off my full amount.


Disclaimer: The investments and trades discussed are not recommendations for others. I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant, or tax adviser. The financial actions I talk about are for my own portfolio and money and only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another person's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.