Latest Buy - Roth IRA edition

Like i have mentioned earlier, the markets seem frothy and i still remain on the side lines. But there are deadlines to invest money in IRA accounts.
For the year 2016, the deadline to invest in a Roth IRA account was april 18th. I try to keep my roth holdings simple, equities are held in a target date blended fund, and money i want to keep on the sidelines is held in a money market fund.

I purchased $5,500 worth of VMMXX (Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund). The idea is to lock it into the Roth account and later re balance based on how the markets are doing.

VMMXX currently yields 0.93%, with the yield going up along with the overall interest rate environment. This adds about $52 to my yearly passive income, and best of all - it is tax-free.

Earning over 12% cashback on amazon this quarter.

Yes, that is right - i am earning over 12% back via a combination of points that can be eventually used as cash.

Let me explain. I have both, the Chase Freedom Card as well as the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (this one has a $95 annual fee, but it is totally worth it as can be seen here). The Freedom card gives out 5% cashback - as chase ultimate reward (UR) points on rotating categories every quarter up to $1500 spent, this quarter the categories are grocery and drugstores. These UR points can then be converted to cash, used for booking travel directly on the chase website, or if you have the sapphire preferred card - transferred to an airline partner by converting to miles.

Passive Income Update - March 2017

The last month of the quarter tends to be more lucrative for my overall portfolio in terms of divdends received, because the index funds in the 401k account tend to payout quarterly. These dividends are also used right away to purchase more stock of the same index fund.

Here is my passive income update for the month of March 2017 -

Taxable Account -

SO               $14.00
TGT             $12.00
EMR            $9.60
CVX             $10.80
MCD           $9.40
BP               $12.49
RDS.B         $14.10
BBL             $8.80

Total           $91.19

Tax Deferred Account -

VFIAX       $156.28
JMYAX      $108.33

Total           $264.61

Roth IRA - $13.20

Other* -       $67.00

Total Passive Income for the month - $ 436.00

* The Other category includes items like interest income from Savings Accounts/CD's.

How was your march and first quarter of 2017 ?

The curious case of Target

In the current environment, Target (TGT) is one of the equities in my portfolio that i am really concerned about, it is also one stock that keeps tempting me to add more to. It is an interesting dilemma.

The market overall is really over valued. This past quarter was one of the best quarters for Nasdaq in the last 3 to 4 years, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones are both near all time highs. In this kind of environment, semi-long term investors like me keep looking for good dividend stocks on sale. Target with its nearly 50 year strong dividend history, almost 4.5% dividend yield and its ubiquitous presence throughout the US, is a stock showing up near the top of almost all stock screeners.