Post 2306
- 8 years and 203 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
I've been investing in the stock market for about forty years now.
My first investment was a total loser, bought from one of the cold-calling 'boiler rooms' that tout stocks they have bought to push the price up, then sell the stock themselves, precipitating a fall in stock price leaving the investors with a loss. In short, I was scammed.
But I learned a great lesson, and started educating myself.
My next stock purchase was a power company bucking the nuclear trend, which had a dividend and offered additional stock purchases at a discount.
I did pretty well, and it started an interest that has persisted through many iterations.
I briefly got wealthy (on paper) with options in a dot-com startup during the tech boom in the late '90s, and lost almost all of it in the tech crash.
When my second marriage failed, it left me homeless and with more personal debt than I had ever known in my life. My single asset (my car) was mine free and clear and I had a negative net worth.
When I got a decent-paying job and moved to Syracuse, I began to fix my financial situation. I was on the way to recovery when I got laid off two years later. In the two years, I had been investing in the company's 401-K plan, and on severance, I put that money in a self-directed traditional IRA (I was sixty years old by then).
That was the start, in September, 2010, of my reentry into the world of stocks, the beginning of a new investment portfolio (my previous one had been closed out to pay off debt in 2008).
After the ups and downs (net down) of my investment career, I wanted to be very careful with this relatively small amount. I decided to buy only stocks that paid a dividend, having learned that dividends account for about 70% of the profits made in stocks.
My plan evolved from there - initially, I bought stocks that had a dividend and good-to-excellent chance for price appreciation (increasing the value of the portfolio through the value of stocks).
I then began to look at stocks that offered a higher dividend yield that I could compound by reinvesting. That plan, which I 'invented' on my own, I eventually found was not unknown at all. But rather, investing for income was a lesser-known but still popular way of utilizing money in the market.
This type of portfolio is known as an Income Factory. Generating income with dividends, rather than increasing the net value of the portfolio is the goal.
This has proven to be very successful for me, so far.
I got a job with the VA a couple of months after I began the portfolio, and added to it with every paycheck, also saving via the government's TSP (the government version of a 401-K plan).
By the time I retired and stopped adding to my investment portfolio, with dividend reinvestment and capital appreciation, I had taken my portfolio of under $18,000 with annual dividend income of about $1,300 to a value of more than $120,000 and annual dividend income of about $8,100.
Since then (3-1/2 years), through dividend reinvestment and capital appreciation only, my portfolio stands at more than $150,000 with an annual income of more than $15,000.
I have a factory that makes income. While not as secure as an annuity, it is very similar and is paying out more on the principle.
Next year, IRS regulations require that I start withdrawing from my IRA. The annual required withdrawal amount, about $5,000 (based on current value), will be paid entirely out of dividends, and will still allow reinvesting (growing) my dividend. In other words, I don't have to close the factory.
I have been lucky. I started investing at the beginning of the longest bull market in stock history.
I'm set up where I can easily survive corrections and the recession that everybody predicts is 'right around the corner'.
I am profoundly grateful for my luck and for my relative wealth. Life is sweet.
Food and Diet
My first investment was a total loser, bought from one of the cold-calling 'boiler rooms' that tout stocks they have bought to push the price up, then sell the stock themselves, precipitating a fall in stock price leaving the investors with a loss. In short, I was scammed.
But I learned a great lesson, and started educating myself.
My next stock purchase was a power company bucking the nuclear trend, which had a dividend and offered additional stock purchases at a discount.
I did pretty well, and it started an interest that has persisted through many iterations.
I briefly got wealthy (on paper) with options in a dot-com startup during the tech boom in the late '90s, and lost almost all of it in the tech crash.
When my second marriage failed, it left me homeless and with more personal debt than I had ever known in my life. My single asset (my car) was mine free and clear and I had a negative net worth.
When I got a decent-paying job and moved to Syracuse, I began to fix my financial situation. I was on the way to recovery when I got laid off two years later. In the two years, I had been investing in the company's 401-K plan, and on severance, I put that money in a self-directed traditional IRA (I was sixty years old by then).
That was the start, in September, 2010, of my reentry into the world of stocks, the beginning of a new investment portfolio (my previous one had been closed out to pay off debt in 2008).
After the ups and downs (net down) of my investment career, I wanted to be very careful with this relatively small amount. I decided to buy only stocks that paid a dividend, having learned that dividends account for about 70% of the profits made in stocks.
My plan evolved from there - initially, I bought stocks that had a dividend and good-to-excellent chance for price appreciation (increasing the value of the portfolio through the value of stocks).
I then began to look at stocks that offered a higher dividend yield that I could compound by reinvesting. That plan, which I 'invented' on my own, I eventually found was not unknown at all. But rather, investing for income was a lesser-known but still popular way of utilizing money in the market.
This type of portfolio is known as an Income Factory. Generating income with dividends, rather than increasing the net value of the portfolio is the goal.
This has proven to be very successful for me, so far.
I got a job with the VA a couple of months after I began the portfolio, and added to it with every paycheck, also saving via the government's TSP (the government version of a 401-K plan).
By the time I retired and stopped adding to my investment portfolio, with dividend reinvestment and capital appreciation, I had taken my portfolio of under $18,000 with annual dividend income of about $1,300 to a value of more than $120,000 and annual dividend income of about $8,100.
Since then (3-1/2 years), through dividend reinvestment and capital appreciation only, my portfolio stands at more than $150,000 with an annual income of more than $15,000.
I have a factory that makes income. While not as secure as an annuity, it is very similar and is paying out more on the principle.
Next year, IRS regulations require that I start withdrawing from my IRA. The annual required withdrawal amount, about $5,000 (based on current value), will be paid entirely out of dividends, and will still allow reinvesting (growing) my dividend. In other words, I don't have to close the factory.
I have been lucky. I started investing at the beginning of the longest bull market in stock history.
I'm set up where I can easily survive corrections and the recession that everybody predicts is 'right around the corner'.
I am profoundly grateful for my luck and for my relative wealth. Life is sweet.
Today's Weight: 200.6 lbs.
Previous Weight (7/19/19): 200.6 lbs.
Net Loss/Gain: - 0.0 lbs.
Diet Comment
Food Log
Breakfast
7:45pm:
Lunch
10:30pm: Manchego cheese with walnuts and a Quest bar.
Dinner
12:45am: Spinach and kale with chick pea curry on riced cauliflower, and a Quest bar.
Liquid Intake
7:45pm:
 |
| A LEO (lox, eggs and onions). Not shown: Brussel sprouts with balsamic vinaigrette). |
10:30pm: Manchego cheese with walnuts and a Quest bar.
Dinner
12:45am: Spinach and kale with chick pea curry on riced cauliflower, and a Quest bar.
Liquid Intake
Espressos: 1; Coffee: 0 oz.; Water: 96+ oz.;
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