Anyone want to talk stocks and retirement?

[JaxRed]

I am a recent convert to Dividend Investing. So for years I pumped money into mutual funds. And I had 401K equivalent doing the same thing.

So I was able to accumulate money by sheer force (constant contributions). But.... as a example of the mutual fund story over the last decade, at one point we put about $3,000 in a Roth IRA. We are transferring the money now to our brokerage Roth account.... and it was worth about $3,200 bucks.

People that follow the stock market have referred to the last 10 years as "the lost decade". Things go up, things go down, and they end up the same.

Which is why I am now officially in the Dividend Growth Club. There are very interesting discussions going on over at Seeking Alpha Specifically this area http://seekingalpha.com/dashboard/investing_income)

One of the items of discussion is about whether to reinvest dividends automatically, or let them accumulate for the right moment.

I'd probably let them reinvest in your situation.

The Dividend Growth people are licking their chops over this market

[gonelong]

Originally Posted by JaxRed

Mentioning REITS.... one of my favorite's right now is OHI - Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. Going Ex-Dividend in the next couple days. Paying 7.9% right now. Been increasing dividends yearly since 2003

Researched, then purchased this a few days after you posted it. Sold today for ~14.5% gain (~77.5% annualized). ($20.94/$23.97)

I use a few charts to assist me on the timing of buy/sells (not what to buy/sell, just the timing) and I believe they are due for a 10%+ pullback and will be hoping to see them around 22.00 to evaluate for re-entry. I suspect this means I will miss the next dividend payment in August which is not really what I want. Time will tell.

GL

/thanks for the idea

[gonelong]

Also found this site recently.

http://dripinvesting.org/tools/tools.asp

Check out the excel spreadsheet (all tabs) under

Information
U.S. Dividend Champions

GL

[JaxRed]

Originally Posted by gonelong

Researched, then purchased this a few days after you posted it. Sold today for ~14.5% gain (~77.5% annualized). ($20.94/$23.97)

I use a few charts to assist me on the timing of buy/sells (not what to buy/sell, just the timing) and I believe they are due for a 10%+ pullback and will be hoping to see them around 22.00 to evaluate for re-entry. I suspect this means I will miss the next dividend payment in August which is not really what I want. Time will tell.

GL

/thanks for the idea

Glad it worked !!

[JaxRed]

In case anyone noticed....my Facebook advice was pretty good also..

[muddie]

Is there anywhere someone could go and learn what municiple bonds were being issued and when? I know there are some pretty good opportunities here and many funds offer them. Would it be possible to do this yourself? Where to look? Thanks all.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Originally Posted by muddie

Is there anywhere someone could go and learn what municiple bonds were being issued and when? I know there are some pretty good opportunities here and many funds offer them. Would it be possible to do this yourself? Where to look? Thanks all.

Most online brokers will have a way to search for muni's. There isn't a way to really search for new issues unless they have just been announced. You just have to keep checking. When a new issue is announced there is an advertisement and an indication of interest period that goes on before they set the yield for each time period being offered based on how many people buy the bonds.

If you are looking to buy in the secondary market that is not the case, but I would be very careful and probably use a broker that you trust. Fixed income trading is probably the top way that normal investors get screwed.

[JaxRed]

Originally Posted by muddie

Is there anywhere someone could go and learn what municiple bonds were being issued and when? I know there are some pretty good opportunities here and many funds offer them. Would it be possible to do this yourself? Where to look? Thanks all.

Not that it answers your questions.... but I personally would not be a big fan of Muni Bonds. For a couple reasons.... there's a big debt bomb building toward an explosion at some point. And the only real solution is inflation. Reduce the cost of debt by inflating the currency. Bonds is not a good place to be when that happens.

Secondly, the Feds are going to be looking for all sources of income. I personally think Social Security will be means tested. And I think they will see all the income that could be raised by removing the tax exemption on municipal bonds. That would really lower their value.

[bucksfan2]

Originally Posted by muddie

Is there anywhere someone could go and learn what municiple bonds were being issued and when? I know there are some pretty good opportunities here and many funds offer them. Would it be possible to do this yourself? Where to look? Thanks all.

Call up a broker. I know with TD Ameritrade they have a bond wizzard function where you can look up individual bonds. I just know from experience that my uncle has a muni bond latter that when one comes due he calls up a broker and buys another one.

I differ a little from Jax I don't think the feds are going to touch the interest payments. If you live in California I would be very hesitant to buy muni's becasue I think you will see some more of the municipalities default in the near future. Most of what I have heard is buy Muni's that are backed by the ability to tax. You won't see those bonds default.

If you wanted to go a different route you can buy a muni bond fund. I own one in Ohio and it pays a nice monthly tax free dividend.

[mdccclxix]

Without reading this whole thread, I want to ask a question. I had a thought occur to me yesterday that if you picked a stock that was clearly down, or well below it's all time high, just one stock, bought in full fledged, waited for it to go up a set amount even if it took years, sell, then find another stock, what could go wrong other than the stock dying or going totally limp forever? When does patience not payoff in this regard?

[BuckeyeRed27]

Originally Posted by JaxRed

Not that it answers your questions.... but I personally would not be a big fan of Muni Bonds. For a couple reasons.... there's a big debt bomb building toward an explosion at some point. And the only real solution is inflation. Reduce the cost of debt by inflating the currency. Bonds is not a good place to be when that happens.

Secondly, the Feds are going to be looking for all sources of income. I personally think Social Security will be means tested. And I think they will see all the income that could be raised by removing the tax exemption on municipal bonds. That would really lower their value.

Bonds almost throughout history have yielding slightly above inflation. I guess to your point I wouldn't go buying long term bonds right now, but there are plenty of good reason to buy bonds.

Munis are fine as long as they are tax backed or GO bonds. They get a little more dicey when they are RO or project based.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Originally Posted by mdccclxix

Without reading this whole thread, I want to ask a question. I had a thought occur to me yesterday that if you picked a stock that was clearly down, or well below it's all time high, just one stock, bought in full fledged, waited for it to go up a set amount even if it took years, sell, then find another stock, what could go wrong other than the stock dying or going totally limp forever? When does patience not payoff in this regard?

Information is the problem. How do you know the stock is going to go up? There are lots of stocks that have lost tons of value and haven't and may never get back to prices that they traded at at one point. Growth investing tries to do what you are talking about, but trust me it is very difficult.

There is also the enormous risk of just buying one stock and not diversifying out into several holdings.

[mdccclxix]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeRed27

Information is the problem. How do you know the stock is going to go up? There are lots of stocks that have lost tons of value and haven't and may never get back to prices that they traded at at one point. Growth investing tries to do what you are talking about, but trust me it is very difficult.

There is also the enormous risk of just buying one stock and not diversifying out into several holdings.

True, I know that diversification is recommended, but at the same time it can weigh you down, right? This goes up, that goes down. But picking a stock that has a solid reputation and a solid future in terms of where the world is going, that is also on a down beat, could pay off if you're patient. That said, a) I'm young and not risk averse b) I set up a fake portfolio at google finance in 2009 when everything was down and went 9 for 10 in picking winners, so that's not likely to be as easy as it was then.

[gonelong]

Originally Posted by mdccclxix

True, I know that diversification is recommended, but at the same time it can weigh you down, right? This goes up, that goes down. But picking a stock that has a solid reputation and a solid future in terms of where the world is going, that is also on a down beat, could pay off if you're patient. That said, a) I'm young and not risk averse b) I set up a fake portfolio at google finance in 2009 when everything was down and went 9 for 10 in picking winners, so that's not likely to be as easy as it was then.

Fairly recently, ENRON, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mack, etc. - you just never really know what is lurking behind the curtain.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

GL

[oneupper]

Originally Posted by mdccclxix

True, I know that diversification is recommended, but at the same time it can weigh you down, right? This goes up, that goes down. But picking a stock that has a solid reputation and a solid future in terms of where the world is going, that is also on a down beat, could pay off if you're patient. That said, a) I'm young and not risk averse b) I set up a fake portfolio at google finance in 2009 when everything was down and went 9 for 10 in picking winners, so that's not likely to be as easy as it was then.

You know, this goes totally "against the book" on investing, but it is something that as a young investor you can afford to take that chance on.
If there is something that looks "so right" that you can put a big chunk of your investable assets into it, do it. You'll kick yourself later if you didn't.

The reason is that you can expect to continue to earn (and save for retirement) for the next 30 years. As you age, you can become more conservative. Want to take a shot? Now's the time.

I'm in my 50s now, and most of my clients are also, but in my 20s and 30s I took a number of flyers. Some paid off spectacularly (I made out like a bandit in the Venezuelan stock market in 1990-1 and turned my meager savings into a fully paid condo) and others not so much (I joined a group trying to take over a ceramic tile producer...crappy group, crappy industry, crappy company, crappy result...). And lots of stuff in between...

Thing is...if you have skills to fall back on and manageable responsibilities , you can be looser with your investments when you're young.

And...you can't tell anyone I said any of this, the investment advisory community would kick me out immediately.