Investing 102

[SSLance]

You talked me into it once again Greg... Thanks!!

I had some free time this afternoon so I finally made a spreadsheet up tracking all of my initial buys, divvies received, growth and earnings %s.

I had always tracked my investments inside Quicken, but it adds each dividend reinvestment to the initial cost basis which really skews the numbers. By figuring the earnings back against the initial investment, it gives a MUCH clearer picture of the results...and lets one make more intelligent trading decisions. With everything else going on in my life, I've let this stuff just sit and ride and while that hasn't really hurt me (thanks to Dividend Growth Investing strategy) it can be optimized which I'll be doing shortly.