'Let's Get It Right' EX3 Network 8

 

Robinhood Buys: 2/9/21

 Today is a good day to buy.

Vanguard Total Market Index (VTI): $5

Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM): $5

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO): $5

Vanguard US REIT Fund (VNQ): $5

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index (VIG): $5

Vanguard Utiltites ETF (VPU): $5

Back to the usual format with this batch.  Nothing too fancy, but it's still forward progress.

Click here to open a Robinhood account

'Let's Get It Right' EX3 Network 7

 

Robinhood buys: 2/2/21

Getting some momentum going for the new month

Starbucks (SBUX): $5

Vanguard Total Market Index (VTI): $5

Verizon (VZ): $5

Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM): $5

AT&T (T): $5

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG): $5

Campbell's Soup (CPB): $5

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO): $5

I deviated from my usual "cluster" approach this time around.  There were some positions that I missed last month that I wanted to hit.  I also figured that doing this occasionally would make the posts more interesting.  I got a good mix of Vanguard ETF's and individual holdings too, which is nice.  I also initiated a position in Verizon.   AT&T is under $30 again so I didn't want to miss out on that.

Despite all the hullabaloo, I had no trouble buying these stocks through Robinhood.  There are a lot of stocks out there (a whole market of them, in fact.)  So, yeah, the train keeps on rolling.  

Click here to open a Robinhood account

January 2021 Dividend Income: Senzu Bean

 

Just like that, the first month of the new year is done.  It hasn't been too shabby, in all honesty.  It's been busy, but I can't complain.  I've been tuning out the news and pulling away from social media (you'd be surprised what a positive effect that has.)  I upped both my 401K and United Way contributions.  I've also been more fiscally aggressive. This was helped, in part, by the $600 economic impact payments that went out earlier in the month.   

As we do, it's time to log the dividends. January is in a tough spot.  We're coming off two strong months, with November's record breaking mid-quarter and December's big 401K payout.  So, right there, this is when some of the air gets let out of the balloon and the numbers start to come back down to Earth. It's made worse by the fact that it's followed by another mid-quarter month.  As far as positions on the dividend calendar go, it's really the worst spot to be in.  Nevertheless, it persists, so with that in mind, let's get to it.

Armanino Foods (AMNF): $0.19  Same as last quarter

Invesco Powershares High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (SPHD): $0.01

ViacomCBS (VIAC): $0.24

GlobalXSuperdividend (SDIV): $0.02

AGNC: $0.28  (+ $0.14 QoQ due to DRIP and a share buy; +$ 0.11 YoY) 

Franklin Resources (BEN): $2.37 (+ $0.11 QoQ; + $0.46 YoY)

Leggett & Platt (LEG): $0.41 Up a penny from last quarter

Pepsi (PEP): $1.13 (+ $0.05 QoQ; + $0.17 YoY)

Best Buy (BBY): $3.92  Up a penny from last quarter

Realty Income (O): $1.02  Up 2 cents from last month due to DRIP and a partial share buy

Iron Mountain (IRM): $3.41 (+ $0.08 QoQ; + $1.48 YoY)

This brings the sub-total to $12.99, which is $0.54 higher than last quarter and up $6.34 from last year.

Over in the 401K, the Baird Aggregate Bond fund thew in $0.63.  It's a down a couple of cents from last quarter, but higher than last year.  

All in all, the portfolio pulled in $13.62, not too much growth QoQ, but the YoY spread is much better.  

Interest clocked in at $2.57. How banks can boast about high yield savings accounts at this point is beyond me.

 

In addition to the Robinhood buys (which you can read about here and here) I also made some moves over in my primary brokerage account.  I made single share buys of Kimberly Clark (KMB), People's United (PBCT), Lumen (LUMN),  and Wendy's (WEN).  A share of Tanger (SKT) was added as well, seeing as they announced that they were bringing their dividend back, albeit at a lower amount than it was pre-suspension.  Still, it's better than nothing.

I also sold my last remaining share of Bed, Bath, and Beyond (BBBY).  I wasn't really sweating the 'wallstreetbets" stuff.  I only had one share with a buy point of $8.  There really wasn't too much that could happen there that would affect me drastically.  Still, I had family members texting me telling me to sell, so I caved and sold it at $45.  It wasn't paying a dividend anyway, so I can't really say that cashing out was a bad move.  I took that money and used it for coke...a share of Coca-Cola (KO) to be more specific.  Yes, I know the "C" should have been capitalized, but keeping it lower cased makes the joke work, so just roll with it.  This did eliminate two one share positions in one fol swoop.  I'm hoping to phase those out in the months ahead.

The portfolio has been updated accordingly.  

All in all, January was OK.  Bad spot aside, the numbers were solid, sans the interest which needs to stop going down.  Hopefully, this'll break the $20 barrier this year; we'll see.  Next month's post should definitely be fun, though.

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Reddit Fails at Stock

 Reddit was up to some shenanigans this week that sent shock waves through the invest-o-sphere.  From what I can gather, they hatched some scheme to buy stocks in certain companies en masse to artificially drive the price up, then sell it to cash out and send the stock price crashing down  They did this because...I don't know, something about hedge funds; it was weird.

Right out of the gate, I could have told them that this was the wrong play and that they should have, instead, bought some dividend paying stocks, held on to them, and started building those passive income streams.  Hindsight is 2020, though, so what's done is done.  This would all be well and good, but brokerage firms are now restricting buys on these companies, which has prompted a lot of "the rich won't let us play in their sandbox" caterwauling. That's nonsense, but whatever.

The first company to get hit was GameStop.  Now, I was surprised to find out that this was a publicly traded company.  I figured they were the sort to operate on a franchise set up.  This company's inclusion perplexed me at first, given that GameStop doesn't have the best reputation.  They're one of the bigger heels in the retail industry.  Giving it further thought, though, it did make sense.  I could see people saying "hey, let's buy their stock en masse and sell it because $#^$ em".  To my knowledge, that wasn't the driving factor.  It might have been icing on the cake, but it seems like hedge funds were the primary target and the bigger adversary.

The second was AMC theaters.  This was a missed opportunity.  Movie theaters have been hit especially hard and a lot of AMC theaters have had to close as a result of the pandemic.  If people had bought the shares as a way to support the industry and ensure that movie theaters were able to open when the age of COVID did finally end, it could have actually been a useful bit of internet activism.  Alas, that wasn't how things played out.  

Bed, Bath, and Beyond was the final brand in the trifecta.  It doesn't seem like there's any rhyme or reason on this one.  If there is, I don't know what it is.

While a lot of people are talking about how this is making for a volatile market, that bridge had already been crossed some time ago.  On the plus side, this will probably just be a blip in the grand scheme of things.  I don't think it's going to be an ongoing endeavor.  I could be wrong, but it seemed more like a one and done action.  After a couple of weeks, things will even themselves out.

The lesson here is buy and hold.  Investing is better than trying the day trading thing; the latter is basically gambling.  If you want your cut of the Wall Street pie, go ahead and get it.  

'Let's Get It Right' EX3 Network 6