Well the mortgage got paid (and overpaid!) this week. But I still have some transfers left to do. Those will be done next week to allow enough time to clear the bank accounts.
All of the Pages have been updated to reflect balances as of yesterday. Sadly, all the investments have been taking a bit of a battering lately. Think long-term Pru!
I have also added 2 new Pages: Dividends & Capital Gains and Actual Savings & Investments.
I'd like to focus a bit on getting dividends - more for the idea of what they could represent in the future - actual income to pay my expenses. (I don't want to get too crazy because as I've been reading in the paper, in bad times dividends get cut or eliminated.) I have a money market settlement fund (need this for a brokerage account), and the cash in there generally is used up quickly by stock purchases. While I do not expect to earn much on this account, I'm still counting it! I earned $0.05 (5 whole cents!) in January.
Yesterday I also received $4 from Starbucks (I have 20 shares). Honestly I didn't realize they paid in February. (Most of the dividends received are in the calendar quarters so next month there will be lots of activity.) I have all the stock/ETF/mutual fund dividends set to reinvest automatically since I don't need the income now. But tracking it is fun (and important).
That $4.05 would definitely buy me a large cup of plain coffee or tea. Not a fancy cup of coffee but possibly a small cappuccino. Or it would get me a bag of rice that would last for easily 10-15 meals.
What would it buy you?
Now a bit about my investing strategy. Since on a monthly basis I'm investing small sums (well compared to some folks), I want to make sure that I feel somewhat "accomplished" with this investing. And I want to be smart about the $7 fee I'm charged each time I make a stock trade.
Decision has been made to buy in larger chunks to build up my current portfolio of stocks. In 2016, I'd like to focus on building up my shares of Intel (INTC), Unilever (UL) and my dividend ETF (VYM). Goal is to have 100 shares of INTC, 75 shares of UL and 50 shares of VYM by the end of the year.
This of course means that my portfolio will be heavily weighted towards those three but I'm OK with that since it should be a short-term issue. In 2017, I'll build up the other stocks and that will help with the diversification.
Also, I am planning on making a speculative trade within the next month (probably). I saw something that was trading very low ($3-5/share range). I expect that it will remain low for some time because it's energy focused but it could significantly increase over the next 5-10 years. I'd like to buy 100 shares for fun. Yup fun - I know this money could be lost. Stay tuned...
Pru
What an excellent question, Pru: what would $4 buy for me? It reminds us that while $4 doesn't seem like much it is $4 you didn't have before, and $4 that you didn't labour to earn (although you worked for the money to invest, which earned it). I like the thought that the $4 profit would provide you with 10-15 meals. That's a big deal if times get hard. To answer the question for my situation, $4 can buy me 4 different packets of seed which would also provide many meals for my family. It's a great way to look at small gains!
ReplyDeleteWell you know from the other blog that I am really trying to change my mindset. Reframing how I look at money is so important. And money earned (from dividends) as well as money saved should really be thought about in terms of what we could do with it. So like reducing a weekly grocery shop by $25 is utterly amazing when you think how that money can be applied elsewhere (provided you don't buy tat!). It'll take time but I'll get there :-)
DeleteOh and you gardeners! You have got it good (provided Mother Nature cooperates). I need to get some gardening friends so that I can benefit too :-)
Delete