One thing you will learn in investing is that nothing is ever absolute and that rules are made to be broken. With that said, I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to what stocks to buy this year and my previous declaration to use the Dogs of the Dow strategy. As I get closer to actually making a purchase, I’m starting to reconsider my initial plan and may have an alternative solution that would make more sense. Here’s is where my mind is at: … [Read more...] about Rethinking My Strategy for What Stocks to Buy This Year
CNN Money
How to Read Stocks and Evaluate Their Basic Metrics
One of the biggest things that separates individual stock investors and mutual fund investors is how to read stocks and evaluate them on an individual basis. Unlike most mutual funds, individual stocks can carry a great deal more of risk. Pick the wrong ones and there goes your hard-earned money! So how do we evaluate a company's stock metrics to know if it will be a good investment? Fortunately, all this basic information you need to understand a potential prospect has been summarized by most major news outlets into single, bite-sized profiles that are convenient for you to access and are constantly updated. The goal of this post will be to walk you through one of these pages of metrics and explain how to read stocks. For this … [Read more...] about How to Read Stocks and Evaluate Their Basic Metrics
Protecting Yourself with Dividend Stocks
Darn! The year was off to such a great start for us investors! But then worries about Greece and the Euro spoiled the party. If you were following conventional wisdom and investing in Index Funds, then you’ve basically lost about 6% in May (following the S&P 500). Don’t worry – I’m not trying to bum you out. But it is times like this that you need to ask yourself “What am I doing to hedge myself? If buying stocks is offense, what am I doing to play defense?” … [Read more...] about Protecting Yourself with Dividend Stocks
Why I Finally Sold My Apple Stock
Admit it. You saw the title of this post and thought what the #@&! is this guy thinking! Is he insane? Who goes and sells one of the world’s most profitable and admired companies? The truth is that this was not an easy post to write. Having watched the price of Apple stock (AAPL) rise above $600 (about $50 more than what I sold it for) left me wondering the same thing about my decision. But isn’t that the problem when we invest? We let our imaginations run the show. If we sell, we’ll kick ourselves if stock goes up, but we’ll pat ourselves on the back when it goes down. … [Read more...] about Why I Finally Sold My Apple Stock
What Does the Future Hold for Facebook?
It’s the real life “Revenge of the Nerds” triumph story: Facebook will finally be announcing an IPO (initial public offering) making everyone involved unimaginably rich! For anyone who doesn’t know what an IPO is, it’s when a company sells its stock to the public for the first time. It’s usually a big deal because it gives the company the chance to raise a ton of money while it gives the public a chance to own a part of the company and capitalize of their success. For example, I could kick myself back in 2004 when Google first went public and sold for $85 a share. This week it closed trading around $596. But does that mean we should all run out and buy Facebook stock? Even a Goliath-valued company such as that still has its critics … [Read more...] about What Does the Future Hold for Facebook?
Browsing for Stocks – January 2012
It’s a new year and I’m optimistic that new opportunities are out there. In keeping with that enthusiasm, I’d like to add a few more individual stocks to my portfolio. Traditionally, I stick with mutual funds to stay diversified, keep my costs down, and avoid the turbulence of the market. However, last year I had a great time with Apple (AAPL) (up 26% from my initial purchase) and I’m hoping I can use the same care and attention to pick another winner. Going After Dividends As part of my ongoing initiative to add passive income streams, I’ve decided that my next set of stocks should be dividend stocks. There are a lot of reasons why to look at dividend stocks for my next purchase: … [Read more...] about Browsing for Stocks – January 2012
Video Referral – Why It Sucks To Be Middle Class
I just caught this great short video on CNN Money and felt is was worth sharing. Basically it demonstrates through job numbers how badly the middle class has been hurt this past decade and why the economy can’t get back to normal. … [Read more...] about Video Referral – Why It Sucks To Be Middle Class
