March Update #1

March Update #1

I'll cover passive income in another post as the month isn't over, but there were enough updates to break it into two pieces and I know most people don't read really long blog posts anymore.

First, I've created a Hack Your Finances Facebook page.  There is now a Facebook link in the menu list.  If interested, you can check it out here:
https://www.facebook.com/hackyourfinances

Go ahead and give it a like if you use Facebook.  I've decided to post most of the [Shared] things there instead of muddying up the blog with them.  So unless its really really good you'll see the shared links on the Facebook page from now on.  I'm also in the process of setting up a twitter account for Hack Your Finances. To tweet out blog updates and shared links.

Second, based on this post:
http://hackyourfinances.blogspot.com/2015/03/getting-kids-interested-in-investing.html

I've started giving Motif a try.  First with a portfolio to get my daughter interested in investing.  I've also created a few additional Motifs. I made an all REIT one for fun but thus far do not intend to fund it because I don't feel like messing with that taxes. But it was fun to build and tweak it for max return or max dividend and to see how it compares to the S&P.

 

I'll post on the other Motifs I plan to fund a bit later... or if you are super curious comment below and it will motivate me to post about them sooner.  Initial impressions are that I like it. This is mostly because it gives you fundamental details about the stocks (PE, yield, charts, etc). My main gripe with Loyal3 thus far is the complete lack of any fundamental or technical analysis you can do on the site as well as no ability to see your cost basis as you buy shares month to month. I did it manually for March purchases but I dislike manually doing things that can be and should be automated.  I'll do the Loyal3 purchases in part 2 along with Motif purchases.

Third,
March has been an interesting month. I've watched the portfolio value change from 4 figures green to almost 4 figured red then back to green.  Volatile to say the least.  No real point other than acknowledgement that  i'm pot committed to the long play on this.


Thats all for now, thanks for reading.
-CG

Getting Kids Interested In Investing With Motif

Eyes On The Dollar had a fabulous post on getting kids interested in investing. It is available here:

http://eyesonthedollar.com/get-kids-excited-about-investing/

The TLDR of it was have the kids pick companies they know and have heard of and buy a Motif (referral link) with the stocks.

I've been slowly introducing my oldest to stock trading. Not wanting to be too pushy with it but enough to teach her things like basic stock patterns and what trends are and other basics.  I have far to many computer friends that can do amazing things with computers and code but are scared to tackle investing.

Anyway, we spent a few days talking about companies, how to find their tickers, how to look and see if the companies were in an uptrend or downtrend, and if they pay a dividend or not.  I ended up taking the companies we talked about  and scrubbing the ones that didn't pay a dividend. The result is the following motif:

 

Link in case the fancy iframe isn't working:
https://www.motifinvesting.com/motifs/stuff-faith-likes-pays-dividend-Lsj7mn67


We funded it with a bit of her savings account money and I plan to check the progress with her periodically and hopefully can spark an interest for later in life.  It was also fun for me as it gave me a reason to check out Motif. I plan to make a motif with some of the my "stocks to throw the dice on" and now that I can essentially buy them all for the price of one commission it seems like a good time.

-CG

[Shared] To DRIP or Not to DRIP

Excellent post on Dividend Dreams on DRIP vs not DRIP.  Worth the read.

http://dividenddreams.com/to-drip-or-not-to-drip/

I think most people in the Dividend Growth world do have most of their stuff to auto DRIP.

Mine is set to auto DRIP in the IRA (I'm a long way off from reaching monthly/yearly goals or having full positions in stocks in the portfolio).  Once those goals are met I'll probably turn off DRIP for selected stock that I have full positions in and use that money to add to other positions or new positions.

Loyal3 doesn't do DRIP I plan to use any dividend income there to purchase additional shares manually.

End of February Update

Update for Feb:

Opened a Loyal 3 account and established 9 positions. There is some overlap with the IRA. The portfolio page was updated to reflect the new positions. I plan to add to these positions every month.

1 purchase of STWD (REIT)  10 shares @24.50

More background here: http://divgro.blogspot.com/2015/02/recent-buy-starwood-property-trust-inc.html   The 10 shares should generate $19.20 of annual dividend income.


Dividend income for the month was: $140.28  Everything in the IRA is DRIP so it was all reinvested back into the stock that generated it.  I'll add that it is pretty exciting to get paid to just hold onto stocks.

Purchased a logo on Fiverr for 5 bucks. Its OK and better than I would have come up with, so it stays for now.

Thanks for reading