Thursday, April 30, 2015

April EOM Update

Total dividend income for April was: $109.68.

It is pretty fun to watch these grow since Jan's income was 35.79 (mostly because i had missed the ex-dividend date on most of the purchases when i rolled over the old 401k).

Excel skillz chart:


This month I took refund money and added money to my two Motif's see:
http://hackyourfinances.blogspot.com/2015/04/march-update-2.html

The majority of the cash went to the one that is performing well vs my "bets" one but I'll continue to add to that one until it reaches my max position/bet size. I'm still bullish on 3D printing long term.  I may also rebalance to add in some solar stocks, still thinking about it.

I also made contributions in my Loyal3 portfolio to:

DIS
UL
KO

For the most part Loyal3 doesn't dividend reinvest, but did for KRFT. I just take any dividends and add it to the next purchase i make.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.

Monday, April 27, 2015

Things I wish I knew when I started getting a paycheck

Things I wish I knew when I started getting a paycheck

1. I wish I knew retirement accounts existed and the power of compounding && time doing its magic

My first entrance into any sort of investing was in my military days with First Command (http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/First-Command-Reviews-E37701.htm). In retrospect it was better than nothing but if you do some Googling it wasn't a great service. They put you in high load mutual funds and sell whole life insurance (which i really didnt need with Army Life insurance). I got half the message that they were less than optimal advisors but decided "it was too hard" or "I didn't have time" to learn a better way to invest my money. I ended up purchasing a S&P 500 Roth IRA  but not putting nearly enough  in (aka the max every year).

What I plan to do about for my kids:
I've already started trying to educate my oldest on investing with her Motif. I also **plan** to initially fund her IRA once she starts working as well as do more education on the power of compounding. I should have some good ammo by that point with my own retirement accounts plus this blog. Hurray for fancy graphs and mad excel skillz.


2. I wish I knew that even saving $100 a month or per paycheck would have probably made me a millionaire now.

I started working at 14, so over the course of my life so far there were tons of opportunity to bank cash into an IRA for the future but I didn't.  I have little to show for it except for maybe some hazy  memories of nights out on the town.   There are many many resources on compounding both in IRA and with dividend growth investing. Here is one that is a decent example:  http://www.businessinsider.com/amazing-power-of-compound-interest-2014-7 and another http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/04/02/the-extraordinary-power-of-compound-interest/


What i plan to do about for my kids:
See above

3. I wish I knew/understood that buying stuff is really a waste of money.  Most of my life I spent every dollar I made mostly on stuff i didn't need instead of stashing it away.  This is mostly a result of upbringing and my parents views on money.

What I plan to do about for my kids:
Education when we are shopping, reminding grandparents to not equal love with **stuff**, tell stories about my shitty finance habits once they are old enough to understand better.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

March Update #2

Total dividend income for march was: $131.06 :-)

I mentioned in the previous post I started a few Motif's. The first was a Dividend Motif based on services people use and Asset Management companies I think will do OK in the future.


 


The second was a bet on the future, mostly with 3d Stocks and NVDA. NVDA because they are working to become the NFLX for gaming and a few of the various 3D printing stocks because i think the service will become more important/profitable in the future as the technology progresses.

I'm prepared to lose all the cash I put into the bet on the future Motif.


 


I also continue to buy stocks with Loyal3.  This month I added to positions in:

Intel
Target
Unilever
Disney
Mattel
Kellogs
Kraft
Coca Cola
Dr. Pepper/Snapple

This is more than usual as I ended up with some additional capital to use.

Kraft I'm sure was a happy surprise for anyone that owned it with the Heinz/Kraft merger.  Not sure if I'll continue to add to the Mattel position.  High yield but the company isn't doing to great right now and frankly I'm unsure of its future prospects. If anyone has an opinion I'd be happy to read it.