tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48315975947348978742024-03-06T01:00:17.585-05:00Desi Guy FinanceDividends.Points.Deals.Miles.Cashback & Personal Finance.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-31906929487815130082018-01-11T12:24:00.002-05:002018-01-11T12:24:41.018-05:00Latest Buy - Dominion Energy (D) Again.Like i mentioned in this post <a href="https://desiguyfinance.blogspot.com/2018/01/latest-buy-dominion-energy-inc-d.html" target="_blank">when i initiated a position in Dominion Energy recently</a>, i was hoping for D to fall to the mid to upper 70's, so that i could buy some more in order to decrease my cost basis.<div>
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Guess what - within a few days, dominion announced that they were planning to buy out the south Carolina based utility SCANA (SCG). Scana has been struggling a bit lately because of their failed nuclear plant, their stock has been lagging the overall market and has been down while the rest of the market is red hot.</div>
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The powers that be did not like this piece of news and punished Dominion's stock. Yes, this will put some pressure on dominion's cash flow for dividends, but they have put out statements confirming their commitment toward maintaining and increasing their dividends. </div>
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The fundamentals haven't changed, moreover if they execute this correctly - this might be a good thing for the company in the long run.</div>
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With these things in mind, i doubled my initial small position in Dominion Energy at <b>$76.7</b> a share. At the current dividend payout, the yield on cost is <b>4.01%, </b>but since they have already established a 2018 dividend of <b>$3.34</b>/share - the forward yield on cost on this purchase is <b>4.35%.</b></div>
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Brings my overall cost basis down and the overall yield on cost to <b>4.18%. </b>I will take that from a well run stable utility.</div>
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I will keep an eye out for D, and am open to making another small purchase if the stock falls another 5% from here.</div>
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Have you been buying anything in the relatively soft utility and REIT sector lately ?</div>
Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-74258345036482343002018-01-08T10:01:00.000-05:002018-01-11T12:25:12.401-05:00Commission free trades for over 10 years? Sign me up please...I have been investing in individual stocks on and off for over a decade now, and my primary and only taxable investing account has been at <b>Scottrade </b>all along.<br />
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I really had no complaints with scottrade, they have a very basic platform with good research tools. Also a <b>$7 commission</b> worked for me because i usually invested in multiples of $700 (usually $1400) to keep the trade to commission ratio down to about 0.5%-1.0%.<br />
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Every now and then, sending them a message about how other trading platforms were either providing cheaper commissions on trades , or giving out x number of free trades for new customers would also get me a few free trades. The only issue being that these free trades would expire in a month or so.<br />
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I had to keep track of when they expired and sometimes i found myself looking to buy stock which was a bit outside my buy range just because a free trade was about to expire. Silly. Pay more for a stock just to save $7? doesn't make a lot of sense - but that is how the human mind works sometimes.<br />
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Recently i found out that another brokerage - <b>Charles Schwab</b> had an interesting offer going on-<br />
Enroll and bring your assets over from scottrade and earn -<br />
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<li><b>Commission-free online equity trades for the number of years you were a Scottrade client</b></li>
<li>$4.95 online equity commissions for the remainder of the time you maintain your enrolled account at Schwab</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHhCdGTUO7_jHYip7NCeZZb6po-DytttoEnLoJvfWGFVhDdQgtwFisxa41pXs3czUDAY0Bwr8HDEpIDaiLCDjaJr5Kw-bREEIGrbN7xdSIY3eEdA0glac7Apx14k6jN5o0Fumgz6GYaIY/s1600/charles-scottrade.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="969" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHhCdGTUO7_jHYip7NCeZZb6po-DytttoEnLoJvfWGFVhDdQgtwFisxa41pXs3czUDAY0Bwr8HDEpIDaiLCDjaJr5Kw-bREEIGrbN7xdSIY3eEdA0glac7Apx14k6jN5o0Fumgz6GYaIY/s640/charles-scottrade.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Now i have been with scottrade for over a decade, $7 commission is not bad, $4.95 is great - but no commissions on trades for <b>over 10 years</b> ? I liked the sound of that.</div>
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I decided to move over my assets to charles schwab, it did take me a few weeks to actually get to it, but once i started the process it was fairly seamless and straight forward.</div>
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Once i created an account, all i had to do was request an account transfer over from scottrade. After that i had to scan and upload the account transfer form along with my latest scottrade statement (i could have dropped it off at any charles schwab branch instead). After they verified it (in a day or so), it took <u>exactly a week </u>for the account (stock plus any cash) to be transferred over to the new brokerage.</div>
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During this time, i avoided doing any trades. A representative from charles mentioned that they will keep sweeping my scottrade account for <i>6 months</i> to make sure all dividends etc that might go the old account will be automatically transferred over. It has been a few weeks and the transfer has been seamless, with no missed dividend payment.</div>
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Scottrade did charge me a <b>$75 fee</b> for moving my account over in its entirety. I had called schwab before initiating the move and they said they would reimburse me that one time fee as well. Which they did. Sweet.</div>
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In the few weeks i have been with charles schwab, i have noticed that their platform is much better than what scottrade had to offer. The research tools are good, and the overall interface is much more modern and pleasant to work with.</div>
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It now also gives me the flexibility to add stocks in smaller batches if i so like, since i don't try to account for the trade commission either while buying or selling (if i have to, <a href="https://desiguyfinance.blogspot.com/2017/11/latest-sell-kinder-morgan.html" target="_blank">like i recently did</a>)</div>
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One rather big positive that i miss from scottrade is the time taken to transfer money from an external bank account to the brokerage. With scottrade the money would show up <b>instantaneously </b>after setting up the transfer and you could execute a trade within a <u>couple of minutes</u> if you had to take advantage of good value in the market on a certain day. Here - the money is transferred the<b> next day</b>. It might not be a big deal for most, but i have to compensate for that by keeping some dry powder in the brokerage account for such scenarios.</div>
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<b><i>I have not been compensated or asked to write this post by any company, this is just my personal experience and opinions</i></b>. If you are interested, here is the<a href="https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/nn/tradeoffer.html" target="_blank"> link to that promotion</a>. This works right now , but i am not sure if they have a time limit on this offer, nothing on that page mentions it. I would recommend calling them and confirming this in case you are curious and want to switch as YMMV.</div>
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<br />Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-69195939740688943062018-01-02T19:48:00.000-05:002018-01-11T12:25:30.616-05:00Latest Buy - Dominion Energy Inc (D)The utility sector has been lagging the overall market lately. One of the reasons might be the assumption that the recently passed tax reform will not help the utility sector as much as they would the other sectors.<br />
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While that might or might not be true, some of the utilities have given up some gains and as a result are off their recent lofty highs.<br />
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I took advantage of this weakness and opened a small position in <b>Dominion Energy Inc (D)</b> at <b>$83.00</b> a share. The current dividend payout is <b>$0.77</b> cent a quarter or <b>$3.08 </b>a year per share, giving me a starting yield on cost of about <b>3.71%.</b><br />
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It gets better though, just recently they established a 2018 dividend of <b>$3.34</b>/share. Since my first dividend will start with the new increased dividend rate, the yield on cost automatically goes up to <b>4.02%</b>. Not too shabby.<br />
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Now, the stock price has since gone down some. I expect/hope for it to go down a bit more and intend to add more in the <u>upper 70's</u> if it gets there.<br />
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What do you think of this buy ? Are you looking at any utilities or any other stocks that present value right now?Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-85189063036400515812017-12-26T17:30:00.000-05:002018-01-02T19:48:42.499-05:00Supplementing Passive Income - Cashback Portals (Ebates)I mentioned before when i spoke <a href="http://desiguyfinance.blogspot.com/2017/03/credit-card-rewards-are-for-real.html" target="_blank">about the money saved/earned by leveraging credit card rewards</a>, i like to supplement passive income received by buying high quality dividend paying stocks by looking for other avenues as well.<br />
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The one i will talk about today is using my favorite shopping portal - <a href="https://www.ebates.com/r/LEGARC3?eeid=28187" target="_blank">Ebates</a>.<br />
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A lot of bloggers have already spoken about this, about how you can earn extra cashback for shopping (that you would be doing online anyway) by simply going to the merchant website via the Ebates portal. They earn a cut of what you spend with the merchant and in turn pass on a percentage back to you. It is a win-win.<br />
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Moreover, every now and then - very often, they have increased cashback events where you earn an even bigger percentage, like around Christmas or during black-friday or the cyber monday week.<br />
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I have earned cashback on everything from massages via groupon, to travel via expedia, to buying appliances at home depot, buying electronics at best buy or amazon, walmart, target to buying clothes and shoes at a variety or merchants online.<br />
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The list is endless.<br />
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Another great thing about Ebates in particular is, things happen and sometimes the merchant either does not report your purchase back to them at all, or does that very late. I have had numerous such occasions, but all it takes is a simple online request with your order details and they credit you the cash back - no questions asked.<br />
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This is not something other cashback sites can boast of.<br />
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The way the cashback works is, based on your spending every quarter they send you a check via mail. Cashback accumulates during the quarter and is sent out once.<br />
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But as they say - <i><b>the proof lies in the pudding</b></i>. I joined ebates about 5 years ago. I try to use them as often as i can (though sometimes i end up using others when the cashback percentage is much higher). During this time i have earned a not-so-bad <b>$770 in cashback</b>. Not bad at all for simply logging into their website and redirecting to the actual merchant that i want to shop at.<br />
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Just this quarter (it being the holiday quarter), i am already at <b>~$48</b>. Expecting the check to be mailed in Feb.<br />
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I highly recommend checking them out and using them regularly if you don't already do it.<br />
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Here is a link to get you started, if you join using the link you will get a <b>$10 GC</b> and so will i -<br />
<a href="https://www.ebates.com/r/LEGARC3?eeid=28187" target="_blank">Ebates Link</a><br />
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This is just another way i like to earn additional side income for doing things i would do otherwise anyway.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-17676221629860421792017-12-21T10:34:00.000-05:002017-12-26T17:31:18.929-05:00Latest Buy - Microsoft (MSFT)Just recently, i wrote about how i have <a href="http://desiguyfinance.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-one-that-got-away-microsoft.html" target="_blank">missed out by not investing in Microsoft</a>.<br />
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Even though i have exposure to the stock via index funds that i hold in non-taxable accounts, i always missed out on purchasing MSFT as an individual stock.<br />
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I recently opened a small starter position in Microsoft at <b>$82.75</b> a share, for a yield on cost of about <b>2.03%</b><br />
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The stock price does look a bit over valued here, but so is the rest of the market and i know i can do much worse than invest in MSFT for the long term.<br />
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Microsoft has been firing on all cylinders, and one of the brighter spots - Azure web services (which is ranked no. 2 only behind AWS) is growing at a much faster pace than AWS.<br />
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The tax reform just passed both the house and senate , paving the way for a 21% corporate tax rate. This will surely benefit the likes of Microsoft and Apple, encouraging them to pass it on to investors.<br />
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At last count (around September 2017) Microsoft had a cash balance of about <b>$138 billion</b>. Most of it overseas. With the tax reform once they repatriate a big chunk of this back - it is more than likely going to be spent on stock buybacks and dividend payments - which should in theory help the stock price.<br />
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With these factors in mind, i think the stock has some more room to run. If it falls below $80, rest assured i will be buying more.<br />
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What do you think of this purchase, are you buying anything in this red hot market ?<br />
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<br />Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-66314920533647401502017-12-18T16:40:00.000-05:002017-12-21T10:33:37.309-05:00The one that got away - Microsoft.I have been investing in individual stocks on and off since 2004. I still remember back then when i first transferred money from the bank account to the brokerage account, i contemplated hard between <b>Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and Google</b>. I was fairly confident that investing in any of those 4 will result in capital appreciation over a few years.<br />
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I was looking to hold long term but did not necessarily look at dividends and the whole dividend growth investing style back then. I obviously ended up picking the worst of the 4 and purchased Yahoo. I mean, make no mistake i sold those shares back after over a year and still made over<b> 20%</b> - so don't get me wrong - it wasn't a bad choice, it just wasn't the best one, or the second best or the third :)<br />
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This brings me to <b>Microsoft</b>, which was trading in the lower to mid 20's back then, it did not have a long dividend history and was pretty range bound. I passed on it then, and ended up passing on it a few more times over the next 3 or 4 years. Cut to 2009 when the whole market was on a fire sale, looking back at that time now - it is so easy to say '<i>buying anything would have been better than buying nothing'</i> - but for those of you who did not live through those months from October 2008 to March 2009 (and a few more months after) as an investor with skin in the game - it was scary as hell. It took a lot of courage to actually put more money in the market specially after seeing your portfolio go down every day, day after day.<br />
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In the back of my mind, i knew microsoft was going no where, the stock price could linger around but eventually make me money. I remember one day in Jan 2009, i added 100 shares of MSFT at around <b>$18</b> a piece and went back and forth between the order update screen and the MSFT research screen on my brokerage website. While i knew it was not a bad investment, i also thought i could get a better price if i waited. After spending a couple of hours (back and forth) struggling with it , staring at the screen and playing different scenarios in my mind. I eventually ended up not buying.<br />
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I was right , it was a good call - in that MSFT went down another 12% from then and hit around $16 a share sometime in march that year (off course i did not act then either).<br />
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The next couple or so years it lingered in the lower to mid 20's, i was looking elsewhere and continued to find other opportunities in the market. In early 2013 after it got into the 30's was when i realized that it could break out , so i waited for it to get back to the upper 20's again to buy those 100 shares that i missed out on. My reasoning was that the market was just hot, a correction was due and 20's was the 'fair value' range at that point.<br />
I have been waiting since that time - twiddling my thumbs, just recently it hit an all time high of about <b>$86</b> a share. I am still waiting, but have obviously moved the bar on my expectation of a good entry point.<br />
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If i had pulled the trigger that day, the $1,800 investment would be about $8,500 today for a capital appreciation of <b>$6,700</b>. A <b>372%</b> gain. What's more the current $1.68/share dividend would translate to a nice <b>9.3%</b> <i>yield on cost</i>. Talk about a lost opportunity.<br />
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One of these days i hopefully will end up being a Microsoft share holder. *<br />
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This is just one of the many stocks that got away while i waited for a better entry point, and kept doing that over and over again. What about you? Any stocks that got away from you which still hurt ?<br />
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*<i> Note that i technically am a MSFT shareholder since i actively invest in index funds via retirement accounts, so all is not lost.</i><br />
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<br />Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-27039746075943325102017-12-15T17:29:00.001-05:002017-12-15T17:29:48.151-05:00Dividend Increase - AT&T (T)AT&T (<b>T</b>) declared a $0.50/share quarterly dividend. It is a <b>2%</b> increase from the prior dividend of $0.49.<br />
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This is payable Feb 1 for shareholders on record Jan 10 (ex-dividend date Jan 9)<br />
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AT&T keeps its tradition of increasing the annual dividend by 4 cents a share (1 cent a quarter) every December. Even though the increase is small in terms of percentage, the good part is that the base this is being increased upon is well above a 5% yield.<br />
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The market meanwhile continues to go up everyday in anticipation of the tax deal. Value investors like me are both happy because existing positions are doing well, but not so happy because fair value is harder to find with every passing day in this red hot market.<br />
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Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-74603498603390207522017-12-06T17:24:00.000-05:002017-12-06T17:24:38.346-05:00Dividend Increase - W.P. CareyW.P. Carey (<b>WPC</b>) declared a $1.01/share quarterly dividend.<br />
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Even though it is just a <i>0.5%</i> increase from the prior quarterly dividend of $1.005, it is not bad because they have increased their dividend every quarter for a while. Forward dividend yield is at <b>5.77%</b><br />
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<br />Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-8430185694977632012017-12-03T14:45:00.001-05:002017-12-03T14:45:41.022-05:0010% off Target Gift cards.For today <b>(12/3)</b> only, <a href="https://www.target.com/" target="_blank">target </a>is offering <b>10%</b> off Gift cards purchased online or in store. This is up to $300 per order. It is a great way to either stock up on Target GC's to effectively get 10% off every target purchase for the next year or a great way to buy GC's for friends and family at a discount.<br />
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If you have a discover cashback card, this deal can be paired with it to get an <b>additional 5%</b> cashback on target purchases for this quarter for an effective <b>~15% off </b>(10% discount + 5 % cashback) on future target purchases.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-2937870247844244392017-11-27T13:18:00.000-05:002017-11-27T13:18:59.034-05:00Watchlist - November 2017 Edition.Finding a stock bargain is getting tougher by the day. That said, here are a few stocks on my current watch list.<br />
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<b>Verizon </b>| VZ | <b>44</b> | Will lock in a nice 5.35% yield on a solid telecom stock.<br />
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<b>Cardinal Health</b> | CAH | <b>54</b> | If the selling is overdone, this might be a great value play with potentially a nice upside.<br />
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<b>CVS</b> | CVS | <b>66</b> | At that price a 3% initial yield while we wait to see how the amazon story plays out.<br />
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<b>Microsoft </b>| MSFT |<b> 77</b> | It is potentially a $100+ stock, even more valuable once they repatriate funds back.<br />
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<b>General Mills</b> | GS | <b>49</b> | At that price a 4% initial yield, it almost got there earlier in the month, but found resistance around the $50 mark.<br />
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Do you like any of these? Any others you think might be a good value right now ?<br />
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Let's hope we get some opportunities to buy in the coming weeks.<br />
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<br />Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-84411198082095862102017-11-24T23:25:00.000-05:002017-11-24T23:29:24.190-05:00Jeff Bezos is now worth 12 figures - $100 billionWow, just thinking about it boggles my mind. Today after amazon stock gained another 2%, founder Jeff Bezos is apparently worth <i>100 billion dollars</i>. Again that is <b>$100,000,000,000</b>. The only person in the world in the 4 comma club.<br />
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As amazon continues its march toward taking over every industry, jeff bezos continues to enjoy unprecedented success and continues to increase his net worth.<br />
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Bill Gates was the first person to reach this milestone briefly back in 1999. He has been giving aggressively to charity and still is no.2 on the list of richest people in the world. Can't help but wonder what he would be worth if all his charitable giving is added to his current net worth.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-61192150023249504072017-11-21T13:45:00.000-05:002017-11-24T23:26:39.900-05:00Latest Buy - GE and QualcommWhat a great leveler the stock market is. This is a delayed buy update on two stock purchases i made over the last 3 months.<br />
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The market overall continues to be frothy, every time you think a correction is due - the market turns around and makes new highs. That is not to say that this won't change tomorrow or next week or next month, but to be honest i have been surprised at this bull run.<br />
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In September i purchased a small position in <b>Qualcomm Inc</b>. It has been going down while the whole market has been going in the opposite direction. Some of the reasons seem to be their never ending fight with Apple and their delayed acquisition of NXP. All these factors seemed to be temporary, but i was skeptical so i initialized a really small position at <b>$50</b> a share for a nice yield on cost of about <b>4.56%</b>. A few weeks ago, Broadcomm (AVGO) bid to buy out Qualcomm, and the share price shot up into the mid 60's and continues to be in that range. While i am happy about the price bump, i also regret not opening a larger position.<br />
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In early October, after seeing this big time industrial stock fall over 20% over a few months i finally opened an initial position in <b>General Electric</b> (GE) at what i thought was a definite bottom. While not a very large position, it was bigger (in dollar amount) than the one in QCOM. I purchased shares at <b>$23.47</b> a piece at a nice yield on cost of about <b>4.08%</b>. Not bad i thought, GE obviously announced a dividend cut and the stock has been in free fall to the upper teens, where it is sitting at currently. Not only was my yield on cost cut in <u>half </u>to <b>2.04%</b>, my loss on paper is about 24% in about 6 weeks and counting . Yikes.<br />
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So there you go, one stock i thought was undervalued but didn't have a great chance of capital appreciation shot up 25% while another industrial behemoth which seemed like a no brainer lost 25%. You can never tell or predict what happens in the market, it will always humble you :)<br />
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I intend to hold on to both of these, not selling QCOM on any merger news, and not selling GE unless they eliminate the dividend completely.<br />
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What have you been buying? Any bargains or winners out there ?Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-24881387518735110722017-11-13T10:40:00.000-05:002017-11-21T13:46:37.941-05:00Latest Buy - AT&TI added a few more shares of <b>T</b> to my existing position of over 100 shares. This should not come as a surprise, because most dividend growth investors have been thinking about AT&T for the last couple of weeks. A lot of factors, including the recent merger issues between T-Mobile and Sprint, and the very interesting DOJ investigation in the AT&T-TWC merger have pulled this stock down.<br />
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T has fallen almost 20% since the start of this year, while the broader S&P 500 index is up about 16%. Does it make sense, i don't know. Is AT&T suddenly less valuable than it was at the start of the year, i am sure it is not.<br />
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The share price was about $40 a piece as recently as April of this year. There are a lot of articles both for and against the case of T, some even say the dividend payout is not sustainable. 'Experts' are weighing in on how the merger with TWC is a great thing and if it doesn't happen it is all doom and gloom, while other experts argue the case that not going through with the merger is going to be A-ok.<br />
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I am trying to ignore the noise on this one, and last week went ahead and added more shares to my existing position in AT&T. I purchased <b>15</b> shares at <b>$33.31</b> each. At $1.96 a year, the yield on cost is about <b>5.88% </b>and adds <b>$29.40</b> to the yearly dividend income total. If they keep the existing plan of raising dividend by 0.04 a year, this purchase should yield a juicy 6% in 2018. Not too shabby. This also brings down my average cost basis.<br />
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That said - i am a bit weary. After this purchase, AT&T is the second largest position in dollar terms in my portfolio. It also is the largest dividend producer. Any change in the dividend policy affects my passive income, and big moves downward in the stock price will affect the portfolio value overall.<br />
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What have you been buying while the market continues to be at all time highs ?Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-23345983899786677372017-11-10T11:29:00.003-05:002017-11-10T11:30:49.179-05:00Latest Sell - Kinder Morgan I sold out of my small position shares in Kinder Morgan (KMI). I purchased this in 2 batches, once back in September 2013 for $35.9 per share, and then again in September 2015 where i averaged down by paying $23.45 per share.<br />
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Sold out at $18.02 per share this week. A loss of about 44% on the entire batch. I did receive dividends all this while, which was about 11.6% of the invested amount, for an actual loss of about <b>33%</b>. Ouch. It also reduces my yearly dividend income by about $26.<br />
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This does allow me to tax loss harvest and at least reduce the loss a bit more.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-35694060073377714482017-05-15T18:29:00.001-04:002017-05-15T18:29:36.977-04:001 share of amazon would be worth $11,500 today20 years ago, on this day, a small etailer went public. A little known book store with a few million in revenue, was listed at $18 a pop.<br />
If you had $18 lying around and purchased a stock on that day (ignore commission for a minute), it would be worth a whooping <b>$11,500</b> today.<br />
The stock split three separate times, so one share became two, became 6 and eventually 12.<br />
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If you were crazy enough to make a $2,000 bet on amazon 20 years ago, and never sold a single share - you would be an amazon millionaire. That $2,000 would be worth <b>$1,277,300</b> today. The interesting part is that the stock still has some more room to grow.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-29165051884950850452017-05-14T21:30:00.001-04:002017-05-14T21:30:41.975-04:00Free $10 amazon creditThis might be targeted, so check your amazon account if you are a amazon prime member and your default card is anything other than a discover card.<br />
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Just by setting your default card to discover, amazon will apply a <b>$10</b> credit to your account which can be used right away. You obviously don't have to use the discover card to pay for your orders, you can always chose another card at check out.<br />
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It is a free <b>$10</b> for a couple of clicks in my opinion. You can go back tomorrow and change your default credit card back to whatever you were using.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-52119283435217912822017-05-11T19:24:00.000-04:002017-05-11T19:26:32.713-04:00Passive Income Update - April 2017The first month of the quarter tends to be on the lower side for the overall portfolio in terms of dividends received. The markets continue to be frothy, so i haven't been investing the dividends back into stocks just yet.<br />
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Here is my passive income update for the month of April 2017 -<br />
<u><br /></u><u>Taxable Account</u> -<br />
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WMT <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$6.12<br />
KO<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $11.10<br />
MO<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $15.86<br />
PM<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $20.80<br />
GSK<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> $6.79<br />
WPC<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$15.92<br />
BNS<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$7.15<br />
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Total <b>$83.74</b><br />
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<u>Roth IRA</u> - <b>$15.83</b><br />
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<u>Other*</u> - <b>$77.00</b><br />
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<b>Total Passive Income for the month - $ 176.57</b><br />
<b><br /></b><b>*</b> The Other category includes items like interest income from Savings Accounts/CD's.<br />
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<i>How was your month of April ?</i>Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-35334137807065885712017-05-02T19:02:00.001-04:002017-05-04T09:42:39.150-04:00Apple increases dividend by 10.5 %Apple just released their quarterly numbers, and like clockwork increased their dividend. I was expecting a 20 cent per share raise, but they increased it by 24 cents. The yearly dividend is now <b>$2.52</b> per share.<br />
An over <b>10 %</b> dividend raise is great considering that this is not a value stock and the stock value it self has risen over <b>25%</b> just this year.<br />
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I am excited about the upcoming super cycle where they will be releasing the 10th anniversary iPhone.<br />
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Apple remains one of my best performing stock picks. Oh and did i mention they have over <b>quarter of a trillion dollars</b> in the bank? Their $250 billion + cash hoard is a fortune 100 company on its own. Mind boggling.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-20972289877144091552017-04-21T11:28:00.001-04:002017-04-21T11:28:45.512-04:00Latest Buy - Roth IRA editionLike 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.<br />
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.<br />
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I purchased $5,500 worth of <a href="https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0030&FundIntExt=INT" target="_blank">VMMXX</a> (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.<br />
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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.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-1997717366682787282017-04-08T07:00:00.000-04:002017-05-11T19:25:37.479-04:00Earning 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.<br />
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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 <a href="https://desiguyfinance.blogspot.com/2017/03/credit-card-rewards-are-for-real.html" target="_blank">here</a>). 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 <b>grocery</b> 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.<br />
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I usually transfer these UR points to a partner airline like United or Southwest and have traditionally managed to get a 2 cent per mile/UR point value on these, as can be seen in this <a href="https://desiguyfinance.blogspot.com/2017/03/credit-card-rewards-are-for-real.html" target="_blank">post</a>.<br />
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<b>Safeway</b> grocery stores carry all kinds of gift cards, from amazon to home depot, restaurants, movie theaters etc. For every GC purchase, you earn 2x safeway points, which can then be used as gas rewards.<br />
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<u><b>Here is an example -</b></u><br />
Buy a $100 amazon GC from safeway. Earn 500 UR points, worth upto 1000 cents (<b>$10</b>) when used with a partner airline. This also gets you 200 Safeway points, each set of 100 points can be used to get 10 cents off per gallon of gas, so this nets you <u>20 cents off per gallon</u>, saving about <b>$2.5</b> on an average tank fill up. You end up getting about <b>$12.5</b> in points/value for an expense you would incur anyway.<br />
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We shop at amazon a lot, so getting <u>$12.5 back on every $100</u> that we would spend there (and other places like our favorite restaurants) seems like a no-brainer and a great way to earn some passive income.<br />
<br />Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-85081654169743360902017-04-04T11:48:00.002-04:002017-04-04T19:09:37.155-04:00Passive Income Update - March 2017The 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.<br />
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Here is my passive income update for the month of March 2017 -<br />
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<u>Taxable Account</u> -<br />
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SO $14.00<br />
TGT $12.00<br />
EMR $9.60<br />
CVX $10.80<br />
MCD $9.40<br />
BP $12.49<br />
RDS.B $14.10<br />
BBL $8.80<br />
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Total <b>$91.19</b><br />
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<u>Tax Deferred Account</u> -<br />
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VFIAX $156.28<br />
JMYAX $108.33<br />
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Total <b> $264.61</b><br />
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<u>Roth IRA</u> - <b>$13.20</b><br />
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<u>Other*</u> - <b>$67.00</b><br />
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<b>Total Passive Income for the month - $ 436.00</b><br />
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<b>*</b> The Other category includes items like interest income from Savings Accounts/CD's.<br />
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<i>How was your march and first quarter of 2017 ?</i><br />
<br />Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-51776996041380124652017-04-01T23:24:00.000-04:002017-05-11T19:27:11.413-04:00The curious case of TargetIn the current environment, Target (<b>TGT</b>) 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.<br />
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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<b> 50</b> year strong dividend history, almost <u>4.5% dividend yield</u> and its ubiquitous presence throughout the US, is a stock showing up near the top of almost all stock screeners.<br />
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I purchased the stock in the high 50 range a couple of years ago when the credit data breach and the botched Canadian expansion effort, affected public sentiment and gave us (what i thought back then at least) the opportunity of a lifetime to pick up a solid stock at a great sale price. It did seem that way for a few months, as the stock reached a high of about <b>$84</b>, and was at one point one of my best performing stocks. Yet, here we are today with the stock back in that original range, with the potential to slide further (the most recent earnings report was bad, and they also gave a mediocre guidance).<br />
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Even if we look past their execution issues, what really concerns me about them is their competition. <b>Amazon</b>, sells everything you can buy at target and in most cases is cheaper. More than the price difference, it is the convenience of ordering from home and getting the shipment at your door step, sometimes in a few hours on the same day is what gives amazon that extra edge every time. <b>Walmart</b>, which is probably a more traditional competitor has upped their game in recent times. Their stores seem less cluttered, they have invested in their grocery section and it shows, invested a lot in their online operations, now provide free 2 day shipping for orders over $35. For a lot of items, they still provide the best value and are cheaper than even amazon. They are serious about growth and staying relevant - which is evident from their purchase of Jet.com, and more recently two smaller but popular online stores - Shoebuy.com and Moosejaw.com. They are investing in technology, and also doubling down on their core strength - providing great value.<br />
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On the other hand, there are a few things still working for Target. Their stores are pleasant to go shop in, they have great year round deals on stuff like diapers. In addition, i think their own generic brand (up and up) is of really good quality, specially for diapers and wipes. They have in store mini restaurants like starbucks and pizza hut, and have a deal with cvs for in store pharmacies. All these can surely drive up foot traffic, but at the end of the day it really comes down to how competitive they will be specially when faced with intense competition from amazon, walmart and even Costco.<br />
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I don't think they are going away anytime soon, i am holding on to my investment and will keep collecting dividends, in fact i might nibble a bit more if the stock price is in the $50 range, but this might require close monitoring. If you told me 10 years ago that kmart and sears would be fighting for survival, stores like Macy's and JC Penny would be shutting down hundreds of stores to cut costs, i would not have believed you, similarly target being a long term solid bet is far from a given.<br />
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<i>What are your thoughts? Is target a good investment at these levels, will it continue to raise and send out solid dividends?</i><br />
<br />Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-85316244414776263962017-03-27T12:55:00.000-04:002017-03-27T12:58:35.399-04:00Latest BuyI have been pretty dormant in terms of my purchases in my taxable account. My opinion is that the market is really hot, and it makes sense to wait for it to cool down before making purchases. That said - there are always companies with some transient issues and they present buying opportunities, so i am still very open to those.<br />
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This is part of my automatic 401k (my contribution + employer 3% match) buys. On March 22, i purchased -<br />
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VFIAX - $112.50<br />
JMYAX - $309.38<br />
Stable Value Fund - $515.62 (this is more like a money market+bond blend fund)<br />
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Total - <b>$937.50</b><br />
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Approximate dividend yield on the index funds is about 2%, so this adds about <b>$8.50</b> to the annual dividends received in my tax deferred account.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-58786902737812866122017-03-16T19:37:00.000-04:002017-04-01T23:24:57.323-04:00Credit card rewards are for realI have been through different phases as a online blog consumer. Personal finance to credit card hacking to investing to dividend related investing. I can say that now i am in a place where i have a good balance of all of these.<br />
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In my credit card hack phase (i still do a fair amount, though not as active as before) i used to hit up over 10 credit card blogs regularly, including The Points Guy, Mommy Points among others and ended up selectively applying for credit cards and getting valuable points.<br />
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People who are into this full time earn and redeem a serious amount of points/miles/hotel points, even though i am no where close to that level, i can say that i have saved a few thousand dollars just doing this selectively part time for a short amount of time. Keep in mind, applying for and cancelling credit cards regularly can adversely affect your credit score, so this is not for everyone.<br />
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Here is a quick snapshot of points/miles i have redeemed so far –<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiixRGNo5lnFfxakB_C4MzGUBan6IF-vkUjLqRVPyc-VGzW9xZkhIKOqmS3xXbgzOKdu4Pdpp5cBUTt48PbyAaPsudYJt2Dw0PpUHCcIi1sM25YTJBDGyI6WHdCF9ZqqhXebWXZUxL6bHc/s1600/milesredeemed.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiixRGNo5lnFfxakB_C4MzGUBan6IF-vkUjLqRVPyc-VGzW9xZkhIKOqmS3xXbgzOKdu4Pdpp5cBUTt48PbyAaPsudYJt2Dw0PpUHCcIi1sM25YTJBDGyI6WHdCF9ZqqhXebWXZUxL6bHc/s400/milesredeemed.png" width="343" /></a></div>
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Add another <b>$1,050</b> redeemed as Home Depot gift cards for a washer/dryer redeemed by converting American Express membership rewards points, the total comes to about <b>$9,330</b><br />
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Now i have paid some fees, specially a $95 annual fee for the chase sapphire card that i use as my primary card to get chase ultimate rewards (which is what i have used for most of my redemption). These rewards can be transferred to airlines like united, southwest among others. Total fees paid so far – <b>$720</b><br />
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I have netted about <b>$8,600</b> so far by not really doing much more than putting our regular spending on credit cards. Not shabby at all.<br />
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I guess you will sense a theme here, like my interests – my blog is a mix of all of these things too. I don’t think or concentrate on one aspect and go all in. I like and pursue a little bit of all things in moderation.Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4831597594734897874.post-91312700886497738942017-03-13T12:38:00.001-04:002017-03-16T19:39:09.943-04:00Best CD interest rateToday is the 8 year anniversary of the stock market recovery since the infamous 2008-2009 crash. It has been an amazing and unpredictable recovery to say the least. Where the market goes from here is anybody’s guess, but i think it is prudent to either not invest aggressively at this stage or pull a little bit of money out of the market and lock in some gains.<br />
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Like most financial gurus will tell you, I too believe that time in the market is better than timing the market – but taking a pause and re evaluating every now and then is not a bad strategy either.<br />
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With that said – what do you do with whatever money you have on the sidelines, waiting for a 5%, 10% or even 20% correction from this point ?<br />
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Put it in an online savings account returning 1% interest a year, or put it in CDs. A great option at this point is <a href="https://www.andrewsfcu.org/personal/checking-and-savings/share-certificates.html" target="_blank">Andrews Federal Credit Union</a>. They currently offer a 7 year/84 month savings certificate (CD) which yields a 3% interest rate. I believe that is amazing, even more so considering that they have a 6 month early withdrawal penalty. How does that matter you ask. Let me explain with an example. Open the savings certificate with say $10,000. A years interest would be $300, and a six month penalty is a flat $150 no matter when you close your account.<br />
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Close after –<br />
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a year – 10,000 + 300 – 150 = $10,150 (effective rate – 1.5%)<br />
2 years – 10,000 + 600 – 150 = $10,450 (effective rate – 2.25%)<br />
3 years – 10,000 + 900 – 150 = $10,750 (effective rate – 2.50%)<br />
4 years – 10,000 + 1,200 – 150 = $11,050 (effective rate – 2.625%)<br />
5 years – 10,000 + 1,500 – 150 = $11,350 (effective rate – 2.70%)<br />
6 years – 10,000 + 1,800 – 150 = $11,650 (effective rate – 2.75%)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1CIEfUvCHMyuoZ3WzYiMp3Yr0qevgGsSAaeHPXPFt0vuU7Ibn6ycMiPyXmGlV18rjjuSodeVqdksYQxla277q5JKDModNBKPc9_Thi9-C0CEBbi_KaD1MeS5O5jSPxZwHkMma57DLWLQ/s1600/image.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1CIEfUvCHMyuoZ3WzYiMp3Yr0qevgGsSAaeHPXPFt0vuU7Ibn6ycMiPyXmGlV18rjjuSodeVqdksYQxla277q5JKDModNBKPc9_Thi9-C0CEBbi_KaD1MeS5O5jSPxZwHkMma57DLWLQ/s640/image.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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As you can see, almost every scenario above beats the current best rates for that category in the market. Like every other credit union, Andrews is federally insured by the NCUA for up to $250,000.</div>
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You can easily open an account with them by following a couple of steps. Jonathan from mymoneyblog has a pretty detailed post about this <a href="http://www.mymoneyblog.com/andrews-federal-credit-union-application-review.html" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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Desi Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11602730051939250630noreply@blogger.com0