Keeping Your Eye On The Prize

Before last year I never really had a budget.  Starting in 2014 I started using YNAB.

I won't go so far as to say it changed my life but establishing an amount of money to spend each month for a category and then watching that allocation get adjusted multiple times per month has really helped me.  I really don't like seeing when I spend over my allocation (because I manually enter all my transactions) and the YNAB method puts it squarely in your face so you can be really aware that you went over.

Couple this with Loyal3 where I get to send any money for the month I didn't use there to buy more stock == double win.  This year I've been able to see and track my net worth grow and even though everyone's portfolios took massive hits this month, my net worth increased. It's really a good feeling.

Net worth tracking since May 14 via YNAB

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.

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.

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

My Thoughts on Loyal3

With the IRA contributions maxed out for 2015 I had some additional capital I wanted to start deploying into a taxable account.

Looks like four options you have are:

1. A regular broker -- Numerous
2. Sharebuilder -- https://www.sharebuilder.com/
3. Loyal3  -- https://www.loyal3.com/
4. Motif -- https://www.motifinvesting.com/


Things to consider

Variety -- 1,2,4 have full variety.  Loyal3 have limited stocks to choose from.

Cost -- Obviously brokers cost various prices. My current broker is one of the more expensive for stock trades (I stick with them for platform and options prices). Sharebuilder is 6.95 per trade or 3.95 for automatic/reoccurring investments, Motif is 9.95 for up to 30 stock motif and 4.95 to make an additional trade or 9.95 to rebalance the whole portfolio.  Loyal3 no cost for trades.


Partial shares -- Sharebuilder and Loyal3 offer the ability to buy partial shares. Edit 3/22 Motif also allows you to buy partial shares inside of your motif.


From the title you can see that I went with Loyal3, mostly due to cost and the ability to buy partial shares. Variety is lacking but there are enough dividend stock to purchase to keep my capital busy for awhile.


Things I don't like about about Loyal3.

1.  It focuses solely on the companies and their logos/tickers.  Nowhere on the site can you see company fundamentals or charts to conduct technical analysis.

2. When they say its going to take a few days to make the trade. They are telling you the truth. It takes multiple days to officially buy the stock and multiple days when you want to sell one. It took about a week to sell a position and put the money into another one.

3. Its not clear to see your cost basis as you add shares.

4. No control over the price you purchase the stock. You get what you get once the transaction takes place.  If you are dollar cost averaging then you don't care as much but still in the no fun zone.

5. No options, thus no ability to sell covered calls on stocks you own. Not an issue for now but will be later once larger positions have been accumulated.

6. No Dividend Reinvestment (DRIP) you get the cash and can do what you want with it.


 I updated the portfolio tracker with the Loyal3 stocks I purchased.