Year to date performance

SP 500 +31.86%
Sieg :sieg: +33.60%

:woot: :woot:

Woohoo! Awesome!

Good to hear Mike! And thanks for the kudos... The whole thread - as you have read - is pretty basic stuff. We could get far deeper into it but I don't think that serves anyone very well. As you've no doubt heard me say repeatedly -- it's not all that complicated. But sadly, schools do a HORRIBLE job at preparing people for "beyond work"... actually - they do a pretty sad job at preparing for LIFE period -- but we digress.... LOL


The funniest part about the whole investing thing is -- the principals remain the same regardless of the amount invested! Oh yeah -- for certain - big money has more stuff available to them - particularly when you hit that 10 million dollar threshold... but it still all boils down to the same principal... make a return on your money, minimize the risks if possible, pay long term capital gains preferably if at all possible...
Pretty simple really.







Okay -- YOU need to start to take over -- 'cause I just barely beat the dogs of the dow (kidding).




Nice job by the way -- and to the rest of you.... don't think for one minute it's always this easy! It's been a real easy market to be in. It's more that you have to be in it to win it... and trying to "time" the market usually means you're sidelined during the big plays. So while it's more fun to be out when it sucks and only in when it's rolling high... it's just almost impossible to gauge. Ya just have to remember the good times and think longer term.

Both Con Ed (ED) and Duke Energy (DUK) have crushed Southern (SO) by a large margin the last 5 years.... not sure why -- but given a similar dividend -- the TOTAL RETURN is very important -- so yeah -- you need the capital growth component to be there as well.

What I like is I did this with stocks rated "C" or higher by Schwab.

The C rated stocks are AT&T, Coca Cola, Excelis, Nike, and Sprint. All but a few pay 3+ % dividends.

Thank you GW :thumbsup:

WTF!!! You made 33% on your money AND YOU DIDN'T GAMBLE?? Well that's just not right!!!


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

So I've already sat down and decided how I'll divvy up my Roth installment for 2014. I just have to wait for the calender to say 2014 and the money to hit the account. Here's what I'll be doing.

I'm still in growth mode so I looked at my returns, especially dividend payments, to decide what to do. I put more weight in the dividend payment than the total return. I like the dividend payments, lol.

KMP is barely positive right now for me but they pay a great dividend and buying more will bring down my average share cost/price.

SO I'm actually losing a little money on but the share price is low enough that I can buy enough to get a good dividend payment. I'm putting a little more in but not as much as other stocks. The company is still considered solid and a good position to hold. This works with my long term desires just like KMP.

WFM has been fantastic for me but I'm only putting a small amount into it. The dividend is small and the gains have been mainly capital. That's great but I prefer the dividend payments. It's more real to me that way. If that makes any sense. I'm simply not focusing a lot on this one but certainly not forgetting about it. Maybe next year I'll put a bigger chunk in but not this year.

MCEP. This one is weird for me. If anyone remembers way back in the spring when I bought this one I said it was a gamble. It's still a gamble. Its share price has actually gone down slightly since I bought it. The dividend payment has gone up not only since I bought it but also since the company became public only a short while ago. The combination of a good dividend payment and a low share price means I can buy a good number of shares for not a whole lot of money. Its dividend is on tract to be close to a 10% return. I can't reinvest the dividend, unless that's changed recently, which sucks but it's no big deal. It's not a lot of money I'm playing with, and I figure I'll use the dividend payments at the beginning of the next year to buy more stocks. That's still free money to me. I should also note I'm huge on percentages. I don't care if 10% returns only equals 50 cents. I feel like I've won the damn lottery. :lol:

The rest of the money is going into my other companies which are simply solid investments, nothing risky or special. Examples are KO, MCD, JNJ, and CLX.

I'm not putting anything into OXY or COST. COST is too expensive right now for what little I would have been able to put into it. It's a long term solid choice. I'm trying to be more aggressive with my rather safe choices. That's my idea of risk. OXY simply hasn't performed well enough for me to put more into it at this point. I'm just going to hold it though as I've got a good bit of dividend payments reinvested that are doing ok compared to my initial investment. I'll look at this one again next year or through the year really.

2013 has been good for me. Hopefully, 2014 will be as well. This is the path I'm taking so we will find out. Hope the rest of you do well also.

Here's the whole deal in a nutshell Trey....


You have a plan --- and you're doing something. Nobody is EVER going to be able to invest and have every single company or investment work out 100% of the time. But you're thinking about what you're doing -- you're doing some work by looking at things and thinking about them in a RATIONAL LOGICAL way... and that my friend is a home run in the making.

BTW -- You're always correct looking at money in a PERCENTAGE basis... not just dollars. Percentages are what counts 10% is better than 2% --- even though one might be 10 cents and the other is 2 dollars.... 10% beats 2% every time.

You saw how much I gamble on the SEMA Trip. :D

Tighter than a frogs ass --- and that's water tight!