Updated Enhanced Income Strategy For Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold [View article]
Mark, I really appreciate the time that you took to respond. This is a whole new side of investing for me and I am grateful for your series of articles. I'm going to follow your advice and test out options by playing with some paper trades. My biggest hang-up was grasping that there was someone on the other side of the transaction. It may sound silly, but that alone (along with the "buy to close") clarified things a lot. By the way, there is nothing wrong with being ignorant. That just means a person hasn't learned about something yet. I'm ignorant of a lot of things. Stupid, on the other hand, is not ignorance. Stupid I'm not!. Thanks again for your help. John
Increase Yield From Procter & Gamble By Systematically Reducing Your Cost Basis [View article]
Sometimes readers don't get responses from EITHER of you. I asked a question (the first question, I might add) about your recent article Updated Enhanced Income Strategy For Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold and was ignored. Was it because I acknowledged my ignorance? I just hate trying to pretend be more sophisticated than I really am.
Updated Enhanced Income Strategy For Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold [View article]
Oh Mark, I am trying to follow your articles and after spending 42 years in the banking industry, learning everything I could, I'm having trouble understanding these simple transactions. Since you started your articles, I found the "options" tab at Yahoo finance, woo, woo....so I'm really making progress! Until today's article! Now are you buying back your original put options or are you just replacing them? Is this really like buying stocks or does the original put option purchase magically get matched with the put option sold? I'm sorry for being so ignorant but my head is starting to ache. Other than that, I love all of your articles! John PS I wouldn't blame you if you didn't answer me!!! I'm just pathetic. Can you believe I once arranged, underwrote and obtained approval for multi-million dollar loans?
Why American Capital Agency Should Be A Core Holding In Your Retirement Portfolio (Part 2) [View article]
Wow! That's $259,512 for 8800 shares. Some would call that a "gutsy" move. Personally, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Right about now I'd be converting the paper profit into a real one. I used to own AGNC but am now only long NLY.
What You Need In Order To Retire Before Age 65 [View article]
Mostserene1, I think you are a little confused about SS "excess funds". Since the Social Security program began, the contributions have exceeded the monthly payouts. Of course they did, because there were more people paying into the fund than who were receiving the benefits. In theory, all of those funds should be sitting in a huge multi-Trillion dollar Trust fund.
But the "trust fund" was raided and spent by the government. Sure they gave us Treasury notes in exchange. Would you like to collect on that? Good luck, because it is part of the $15.5 Trillion National Debt. To make matters worse, it appears the only way out of this mess is for the taxpayer to be taxed again for the SS taxes that were 'borrowed'.
Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme that has ever been perpetuated on our citizens. You may believe there are surplus monies in the Social Security program, but I don't.
What You Need In Order To Retire Before Age 65 [View article]
I've checked the facts: "(CBS News) The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama's three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency. The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office." Worse yet, there is no relief in sight and the national debt is expected to hit $16.3 trillion during 2012.
I do like your retirement portfolio suggestion though........
What You Need In Order To Retire Before Age 65 [View article]
That's true if you believe the mainstream media, which has been distorting the "benefits" of Obamacare. But recently the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office calculated that Obamacare costs will exceed $2 trillion over the next 10 years (not the $900 Billion the administration had claimed). There's no such thing as a free lunch. Medical costs will continue to increase. BTW, current law allows a retiring employee to purchase COBRA for the 36 months prior to their 65th birthday.
Bond Market Update: Canaries In The Coal Mine [View article]
Good question Wayneseek. I hope someone provides a response, because I have some High Yield Corporate bond holdings (VWEAX) and I'm not sure how this is going to play out. I'm hoping that if I stay with it for the long term (2 plus years) that I'll be okay.
Check out Vanguard. They are an industry leader in keeping your costs down. Not only are their expense ratios incredibly low (average is 0.21%) but you can buy and sell through a brokerage fund at very low rates. I don't work for them.....I just think they are great! Also, you will learn a lot by reading the articles AND the comments on the Seeking Alpha site. Good luck to you.
Building A Capital Preservation And Income Portfolio Part 5 [View article]
WMT will go ex dividend on March 9th and the option expires on March 16th. If you deliver the 100 shares of stock to your option buyer, won't you lose $36.50 in dividends? I'm confused about the timing of the delivery of the stock to the buyer.
I really enjoy your articles and appreciate your efforts in helping guys like me understand how stock options work and your general philosophy about investing. I'm a retired banker and am pretty cautious with my retirement funds.
Refinance Program Bust: Stay With mREITs [View article]
Home loans are all recourse loans, aren't they? A non-recourse loan would mean the banks would not have recourse to the borrower in the event of default. I think you have this backwards.
Updated Enhanced Income Strategy For Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold [View article]
I really appreciate the time that you took to respond. This is a whole new side of investing for me and I am grateful for your series of articles.
I'm going to follow your advice and test out options by playing with some paper trades. My biggest hang-up was grasping that there was someone on the other side of the transaction. It may sound silly, but that alone (along with the "buy to close") clarified things a lot.
By the way, there is nothing wrong with being ignorant. That just means a person hasn't learned about something yet. I'm ignorant of a lot of things. Stupid, on the other hand, is not ignorance. Stupid I'm not!.
Thanks again for your help.
John
Increase Yield From Procter & Gamble By Systematically Reducing Your Cost Basis [View article]
Updated Enhanced Income Strategy For Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold [View article]
I am trying to follow your articles and after spending 42 years in the banking industry, learning everything I could, I'm having trouble understanding these simple transactions.
Since you started your articles, I found the "options" tab at Yahoo finance, woo, woo....so I'm really making progress! Until today's article! Now are you buying back your original put options or are you just replacing them? Is this really like buying stocks or does the original put option purchase magically get matched with the put option sold? I'm sorry for being so ignorant but my head is starting to ache.
Other than that, I love all of your articles!
John
PS I wouldn't blame you if you didn't answer me!!! I'm just pathetic. Can you believe I once arranged, underwrote and obtained approval for multi-million dollar loans?
Why American Capital Agency Should Be A Core Holding In Your Retirement Portfolio (Part 2) [View article]
I used to own AGNC but am now only long NLY.
Annaly: Buy This High-Yielder After The Next Capital Raise [View article]
What You Need In Order To Retire Before Age 65 [View article]
But the "trust fund" was raided and spent by the government. Sure they gave us Treasury notes in exchange. Would you like to collect on that? Good luck, because it is part of the $15.5 Trillion National Debt. To make matters worse, it appears the only way out of this mess is for the taxpayer to be taxed again for the SS taxes that were 'borrowed'.
Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme that has ever been perpetuated on our citizens. You may believe there are surplus monies in the Social Security program, but I don't.
What You Need In Order To Retire Before Age 65 [View article]
I hope I didn't start anything!
John
What You Need In Order To Retire Before Age 65 [View article]
"(CBS News) The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama's three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency.
The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office."
Worse yet, there is no relief in sight and the national debt is expected to hit $16.3 trillion during 2012.
I do like your retirement portfolio suggestion though........
John
What You Need In Order To Retire Before Age 65 [View article]
BTW, current law allows a retiring employee to purchase COBRA for the 36 months prior to their 65th birthday.
Johnson & Johnson: Strong Dividend Play [View article]
Bond Market Update: Canaries In The Coal Mine [View article]
MLPs For Yield Seeking Investors [View article]
Also, you will learn a lot by reading the articles AND the comments on the Seeking Alpha site. Good luck to you.
Building A Capital Preservation And Income Portfolio Part 5 [View article]
John
Building A Capital Preservation And Income Portfolio Part 5 [View article]
I really enjoy your articles and appreciate your efforts in helping guys like me understand how stock options work and your general philosophy about investing. I'm a retired banker and am pretty cautious with my retirement funds.
Refinance Program Bust: Stay With mREITs [View article]