Investing 102

[SSLance]

So I did a little number crunching this morning.

I tip toed back into the market for the first time since 2008 starting on Feb 07, 2014. I made a few more purchases of the same stocks in early March, and then again in early April. I sold one stock in August then bought the dip in the middle of October pretty hard across the board. Still only holding 11 equities total and still only about 25% of my total portfolio is invested in the market.

So far YTD, my total return is just over 15% on the invested portion. My biggest gainer on an individual purchase is up 40%, overall my purchases in that stock are up 27%. My smallest gainer is up 3.34%. I've also earned about 2.5% of my total current invested amount in actual dividend payments.

Mentally...I feel pretty good. While there is a little part of me that is hindsight wishing that I would have dove in head first back in February...the smart angel on the other shoulder is reminding me just how happy I've been all year long and how the dips have NOT bothered me at all. In fact, I look for them anxiously now as more opportunities to pick up my stocks on sale. One thing that I enjoy is how stable my group of stocks are...even on the wildest of days of the DOW going up and\or down...these stocks just rock on with little blips, not huge dips.

I want to thank the board for all the help along the way, I can honestly say I would have NEVER ventured back into the market had it not been for this thread. I have a whole new perspective on this now and am enjoying the ride so much more than I ever have in my investing history that goes back to 1997.

Here's to more of those dividends rolling in and the total return rising right along with them.