Let's get this party started
ok, now when is this going down?.... Both AMD and SIRI sell to consumers and consumer product stocks usually get hyped up as the christmas buying season approaches. So I want to hold off on both, since that's really only a month and a half away. This will give me time to finish reading, the investment book by Jim Cramer that I bought (yeah, that annoying MAd Money guy, but he makes sense, I like his strategies).
So at the end of the year, what am I going to be buying? Well, one thing that I've gotten now that I own JNJ, HMC, and WFMI is a thing called dividends. This is just like the interest rate you get on your savings account at a bank. It's usually in the range of 0.5-3.0% mostly in the 1.0-1.5% range. It's not a huge amount, but I can set up my stock portfolio to turn around each dividend into buying more stock right away, so it'll be compounding. On top of the compounding interest, stocks that usually pay dividends are usually very strong large companies. So they're really really safe stocks in that it's quite unlikely that they will lose value. They'll likely move up if anything, so I'll have that on top of any compounding interest I get from the dividends.
The stocks... right now I'm leaning towards companies like 3M (MMM) with a 2.6% dividend, BASF (BF) 2.9%, Citi Group (C) 4%, and Procter and Gamble (PG) 2%. I'm also considering IBM and General Electric, I like General Electric because it has a stong Healthcare component to it's business, I'm leaning way from IBM because they shafted my father back in the day when they were going through lay offs, so I don't want him to think I'm betraying him. 3M has recently pulled to the front of the pack since I read that they delayed the release of their new extra sticky Post-It solely on the fact that the solvents used to manufacture the adhesives are bad for the environment. There were no legal restrictions or extra cost associated with these chemicals, the CEO just refused to invest in something that was bad for the environment, the day is estimated to have cost in the tens of millions of dollars in lost revanue. I respect a company that puts it's own interety ahead of the bottom line. more
So that's my short term plan (6 months). What's my long term plan? I'm going to start squirreling away 20% of my poker playing profit each month. If I had been doing that since I started playing poker for real money last year, I'd have almost $200, which would be enough to start one new position. I'll use this money to buy speculative stocks. Small companies with a lot of growth potential, kind of like SIRI and XMSR were when I bought them. Do I have my eye on any companies? ... hrm, not really, I may buy back some of the Jet Blue I sold, I think it's a deal at $10, but I need to finish my investment book and use what I learned to study the company. I'm also saving clippings from the MotleyFool.com which has great advice. I've been thinking Yahoo! or maybe Chipotle, maybe something really small like Jone's Soda. I'm not really sure. I'm afraid Jone's is too much of a niche and doesn't have much realistic growth potential and that Chipolte has been hyped and is now over valued. I'm thinking of maybe trying to cash in on some hype over video games so my Electronic Arts or Game Stop...
I'm not sure... but I'll keep you guys in the loop.
So at the end of the year, what am I going to be buying? Well, one thing that I've gotten now that I own JNJ, HMC, and WFMI is a thing called dividends. This is just like the interest rate you get on your savings account at a bank. It's usually in the range of 0.5-3.0% mostly in the 1.0-1.5% range. It's not a huge amount, but I can set up my stock portfolio to turn around each dividend into buying more stock right away, so it'll be compounding. On top of the compounding interest, stocks that usually pay dividends are usually very strong large companies. So they're really really safe stocks in that it's quite unlikely that they will lose value. They'll likely move up if anything, so I'll have that on top of any compounding interest I get from the dividends.
The stocks... right now I'm leaning towards companies like 3M (MMM) with a 2.6% dividend, BASF (BF) 2.9%, Citi Group (C) 4%, and Procter and Gamble (PG) 2%. I'm also considering IBM and General Electric, I like General Electric because it has a stong Healthcare component to it's business, I'm leaning way from IBM because they shafted my father back in the day when they were going through lay offs, so I don't want him to think I'm betraying him. 3M has recently pulled to the front of the pack since I read that they delayed the release of their new extra sticky Post-It solely on the fact that the solvents used to manufacture the adhesives are bad for the environment. There were no legal restrictions or extra cost associated with these chemicals, the CEO just refused to invest in something that was bad for the environment, the day is estimated to have cost in the tens of millions of dollars in lost revanue. I respect a company that puts it's own interety ahead of the bottom line. more
So that's my short term plan (6 months). What's my long term plan? I'm going to start squirreling away 20% of my poker playing profit each month. If I had been doing that since I started playing poker for real money last year, I'd have almost $200, which would be enough to start one new position. I'll use this money to buy speculative stocks. Small companies with a lot of growth potential, kind of like SIRI and XMSR were when I bought them. Do I have my eye on any companies? ... hrm, not really, I may buy back some of the Jet Blue I sold, I think it's a deal at $10, but I need to finish my investment book and use what I learned to study the company. I'm also saving clippings from the MotleyFool.com which has great advice. I've been thinking Yahoo! or maybe Chipotle, maybe something really small like Jone's Soda. I'm not really sure. I'm afraid Jone's is too much of a niche and doesn't have much realistic growth potential and that Chipolte has been hyped and is now over valued. I'm thinking of maybe trying to cash in on some hype over video games so my Electronic Arts or Game Stop...
I'm not sure... but I'll keep you guys in the loop.