Bank Of America Has Failed Shareholders [View article]
just to clarify, it's just the income/dividend investor part of you that's disappointed, right? does the capital appreciation/growth investor side of you still believe that there is still upside and it is worth investing in BAC? (as per your articles in Jan/Feb--which I wholeheartedly agreed with) I am long JPM, BAC, WFC, but primarily for the capital appreciation and not for the dividends (or lack thereof in the case of BAC). I believe that BAC has the potential to go to $14-$16 this year.
Bank Of America Has Failed Shareholders [View article]
RS--I have no issue with your opinion on BAC. But I will say this--as a newbie (and buy and hold/monitor) investor, I get confused by your sometimes frequent change of opinion. You were long BAC, then you sold it--that made sense to me at the time. Then you wrote 2 articles on 2/3 and 2/14 which basically said hey, I was wrong--financial stocks (including BAC) are actually a great buy. I appreciated your candor, and willingness to admit you made a mistake. But now a month later, you're saying BAC isn't a great buy.
Certainly the fundamentals behind a stock can change (although I'm not sure this is the case here), and you are totally entitled to change your opinion from month to month. All I'm saying is that sometimes it leaves me, and perhaps others, a tad confused. Does that make sense?
Retirement Strategy: Dialing Up Team Alpha's Dividends [View article]
bought some LNCO the day after it IPO'd. yippee! for once I'm ahead of the curve.
I know I'm always suggesting more articles for you to write, so to continue with that trend, I'd also be interested in more "sell" articles--where you devote an article to why you're selling a position in the Team Alpha portfolio. that's exactly what you did with NLY and AGNC, and I found it to be incredibly invaluable. I noticed a couple of comments from others asking why or if you'd sold 3M and DD (and now BAC) from the portfolio--and I think that advice on how and when to sell is just as important, if not more. Since MMM and DD pay dividends, I bet some people may wonder why you chose to sell them at that moment in time.
Anyway, thanks for being so prolific. I'm long BAC and now trying to decide whether to hold, buy more, or sell. :-)
Rebalancing My Dividend Growth Portfolio For Diversification And More Yield [View article]
For me, I see rebalancing as a multi-year process. In my taxable account, I have overweighted positions in stocks like IBM (bought when it was $11) and TXN (bought at $1) that I'd eventually like to pare down in line with my other positions, but to do it one year would cause an enormous tax bill. I will try to whittle away at them little by little each year, and make most of my new investments in a sector other than technology.
How My Family And I Overcame Obstacles To Be Better Off Than 4 Years Ago [View article]
mike--great story, and kudos to you for keeping your head above the fray. I may be alone in saying this, but I feel lucky to live in a country like the United States. most of us here have roofs over their heads, enough food to survive, the right to vote for a President, and access to a safety net so we're not living on the street should we lose our jobs. it's easy to forget that many people in the world have to fight for daily survival. being President is a hard, thankless job, and I'm just glad that someone wants to do it! now excuse me while I grab some Doritos and watch the debate.
Confessions Of A 'DGI Lite' Investor - Part 2: Creating The DGI Lite Portfolio [View article]
hot dawg--congrats on the editor's pick! thanks for pointing out the red dates on mr. fish's list. since i just open and print in black and white, I never noticed that before. my whole world is in color now!
do you also take into consideration this year's negative (red) growth on the fundamental data pages? for example, I see that AFL, MO, J&J, KO, T, KMB, and other bellwethers are all in the red. Mr. Fish--perhaps you can chime in too, if that should be an area of concern. thanks!
The Wisdom Of Not Reinvesting Dividends [View article]
I've noticed others comment that DRIPPING is better for smaller investors, but I think of DRIPPING as good for any investor who is in the process of building up positions--no matter how much money they have to invest. I guess I'd call myself an "active DRIPPER," meaning that I don't just automatically turn on dividend reinvestment; I pick and choose when to turn it on and off, depending on the individual stock and how much of it I own.
I also think in some ways DRIPPING serves as a hedge against the more emotional aspect of investing--that part of us that can't stand buying a stock for more than we originally paid for it, or that part of us that's too scared to buy a stock that drops right after we buy it. For example, when I bought AFL at $39 last year, it quickly shot up to $46 shortly thereafter. I was darned if I was going to buy a stock for $46/share if I'd just spent $39/share on it--even if I knew it was still undervalued. I had other stocks on my shopping list that hadn't leapt up in price. So DRIPPING allowed me to still invest a bit more in AFL, and now $46 looks like a steal--even if I didn't know it then. I'll eventually turn off my AFL drip when it becomes more fully valued, but for now I'm happy to keep it on.
My Retirement Income Quarterly Review - The Final Wrap Up [View article]
Bob--always great to read your portfolio updates! Thanks so much for sharing your progress and rules.
Regarding O, I've always been interested in purchasing it, but felt it was overvalued after consulting Fast Graphs. I ultimately purchased OHI instead. Did you find any research that made you feel it was under or fairly valued?
Also, do you set up goals in terms of how much your dividend income increases per year? I'm trying to set up reasonable goals for how much dividend income I'll receive in 2013, 2014, and beyond--but I don't know if I should calculate these goals based off a percentage of 2012's income or if I should use some other formula.
As far as analyzing capital gains, I tend to compare my portfolio on a monthly basis against the monthly S&P 500 returns. I also like to use Morningstar's total return function to compare batches of several stocks at a time--it includes both capital appreciation and dividends reinvested, and allows me to track the laggards more closely. http://bit.ly/X6GHRt
Toddling Toward The Goal: These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things [View article]
I owe my grandparents an enormous amount of gratitude. Though I didn't know them very well before they passed away, they had the foresight, wisdom, and generosity to invest several thousand dollars in IBM, TXN, JPM, MSFT 30-40 years ago (before I was even born). I still have all of those stocks today, and that portfolio has enabled me to pursue many of my dreams. Hopefully I'll pass along those very same stocks to the next generation someday!
Avoiding Tunnel Vision In Your Dividend Growth Investing [View article]
according to http://bit.ly/W0dPQs Kodak's dividend stagnated in the early 90s at .50 a share, and then was reduced in 1994. if your rule had been to avoid dividend cuts or freezes, you would've sold well before the peak price in 1997, but would've avoided far more pain later on.
Avoiding Tunnel Vision In Your Dividend Growth Investing [View article]
Eddie--Wonderful article. You really provided some food for thought, and I enjoyed your Microsoft/Kodak comparison. One thing that would be very helpful for us investors honing our "scientific" side--can you add Eastman Kodak's historical Morningstar chart to this article or as an addendum? I think it would really complete the comparison, as you got me really curious---was there a year where Kodak's earnings markedly trended down? Could an average investor have taken a look at their free cash flow in a particular year, and realized there was a major problem afoot? I'm curious if this occurred before 1997 too.
My Q4 Portfolio Review - 2012 Wrap Up [View article]
I used to believe that mutual funds were set-it-and-forget-it investments too, but now I've come to believe that they're actually riskier investments than DG stocks--you have no control over their holdings, what price those stocks are purchased at, how much stock turnover there is, and there is very little transparency with how fees are generated.
when I was in college (back in 2000), my dad put my money in a couple of Fidelity mutual funds--which I promptly ignored for the next 10 years. his theory was that neither of us had the time or inclination to research individual stocks, so well-known, low risk, low-cost index funds (including FUSEX, a Fidelity Index fund and FPURX, Fidelity Puritan) were the way to go. about a year ago, I took a peek at them, and was surprised to see how poorly they performed after a decade--even after factoring in their 2% yield. and the performance of those mutual funds paled in comparison to most of the common DG stocks (KO, MCD, etc).
looking back, there's no way my dad could've conned me into a long discussion about stocks or investments. but I do wish he had said, here's a shopping list of 10 stocks: KO, JNJ, PG, T, MCD, etc. Pick two of them, pick a price below the 52 week high, then put in a limit order online. Even though this isn't a "perfect" method, I think that most anyone can wrap their heads around it.
Retirement Strategy: Difficult Markets Will Come Back, Do Not Panic Sell! [View article]
I find the idea of puts/calls to be quite intriguing, but I confess I still don't understand them. Is there an even more beginner's article out there? there seem to be so many moving parts between time frames, expirations, choosing a price--it hurts my poor old head!
Bank Of America Has Failed Shareholders [View article]
Bank Of America Has Failed Shareholders [View article]
Certainly the fundamentals behind a stock can change (although I'm not sure this is the case here), and you are totally entitled to change your opinion from month to month. All I'm saying is that sometimes it leaves me, and perhaps others, a tad confused. Does that make sense?
Retirement Strategy: Dialing Up Team Alpha's Dividends [View article]
I know I'm always suggesting more articles for you to write, so to continue with that trend, I'd also be interested in more "sell" articles--where you devote an article to why you're selling a position in the Team Alpha portfolio. that's exactly what you did with NLY and AGNC, and I found it to be incredibly invaluable. I noticed a couple of comments from others asking why or if you'd sold 3M and DD (and now BAC) from the portfolio--and I think that advice on how and when to sell is just as important, if not more. Since MMM and DD pay dividends, I bet some people may wonder why you chose to sell them at that moment in time.
Anyway, thanks for being so prolific. I'm long BAC and now trying to decide whether to hold, buy more, or sell. :-)
Rebalancing My Dividend Growth Portfolio For Diversification And More Yield [View article]
How My Family And I Overcame Obstacles To Be Better Off Than 4 Years Ago [View article]
Confessions Of A 'DGI Lite' Investor - Part 2: Creating The DGI Lite Portfolio [View article]
do you also take into consideration this year's negative (red) growth on the fundamental data pages? for example, I see that AFL, MO, J&J, KO, T, KMB, and other bellwethers are all in the red. Mr. Fish--perhaps you can chime in too, if that should be an area of concern. thanks!
The Wisdom Of Not Reinvesting Dividends [View article]
I also think in some ways DRIPPING serves as a hedge against the more emotional aspect of investing--that part of us that can't stand buying a stock for more than we originally paid for it, or that part of us that's too scared to buy a stock that drops right after we buy it. For example, when I bought AFL at $39 last year, it quickly shot up to $46 shortly thereafter. I was darned if I was going to buy a stock for $46/share if I'd just spent $39/share on it--even if I knew it was still undervalued. I had other stocks on my shopping list that hadn't leapt up in price. So DRIPPING allowed me to still invest a bit more in AFL, and now $46 looks like a steal--even if I didn't know it then. I'll eventually turn off my AFL drip when it becomes more fully valued, but for now I'm happy to keep it on.
My Retirement Income Quarterly Review - The Final Wrap Up [View article]
Regarding O, I've always been interested in purchasing it, but felt it was overvalued after consulting Fast Graphs. I ultimately purchased OHI instead. Did you find any research that made you feel it was under or fairly valued?
Also, do you set up goals in terms of how much your dividend income increases per year? I'm trying to set up reasonable goals for how much dividend income I'll receive in 2013, 2014, and beyond--but I don't know if I should calculate these goals based off a percentage of 2012's income or if I should use some other formula.
As far as analyzing capital gains, I tend to compare my portfolio on a monthly basis against the monthly S&P 500 returns. I also like to use Morningstar's total return function to compare batches of several stocks at a time--it includes both capital appreciation and dividends reinvested, and allows me to track the laggards more closely.
http://bit.ly/X6GHRt
Toddling Toward The Goal: These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things [View article]
A Dividend Growth Investor Looks At Earning Season [View article]
Avoiding Tunnel Vision In Your Dividend Growth Investing [View article]
Kodak's dividend stagnated in the early 90s at .50 a share, and then was reduced in 1994. if your rule had been to avoid dividend cuts or freezes, you would've sold well before the peak price in 1997, but would've avoided far more pain later on.
Avoiding Tunnel Vision In Your Dividend Growth Investing [View article]
thanks!
My Q4 Portfolio Review - 2012 Wrap Up [View article]
when I was in college (back in 2000), my dad put my money in a couple of Fidelity mutual funds--which I promptly ignored for the next 10 years. his theory was that neither of us had the time or inclination to research individual stocks, so well-known, low risk, low-cost index funds (including FUSEX, a Fidelity Index fund and FPURX, Fidelity Puritan) were the way to go. about a year ago, I took a peek at them, and was surprised to see how poorly they performed after a decade--even after factoring in their 2% yield. and the performance of those mutual funds paled in comparison to most of the common DG stocks (KO, MCD, etc).
looking back, there's no way my dad could've conned me into a long discussion about stocks or investments. but I do wish he had said, here's a shopping list of 10 stocks: KO, JNJ, PG, T, MCD, etc. Pick two of them, pick a price below the 52 week high, then put in a limit order online. Even though this isn't a "perfect" method, I think that most anyone can wrap their heads around it.
Retirement Strategy: Difficult Markets Will Come Back, Do Not Panic Sell! [View article]
5 Low-Beta Dividend Stocks For Retirees To Consider Post-Election (Part 1) [View article]