Investing 102

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by CRCRFT78

Since you brought up dividends, is there a time frame of when you'll start to receive them if you own some shares of that stock? If you bought Monday and Friday they're paying dividends, will you receive that? Lastly, is there a schedule when dividends are paid?

Each company is separate - and pay dividends on different days. So you'd have to look up each company and see what their pay dates are.

Most pay quarterly.

They will make an announcement as to what the "ex dividend" date is... and if you own the shares prior to that day.. you will get the dividend even if you sold it after the ex date... but the actual pay date is sometimes weeks after the "ex" date.

Confusing, I know. But we're "INVESTING" not trading. There are traders that will just attempt to trade around the dividend - by coming in the day before - and selling shortly after - and picking up the dividend and perhaps a few pennies gain but they're very sharp - and have all the details down.

Here's a website that you can get that kind of info - such as the declare date - the ex date - the pay date...but you'll have to check each company separately. This sites info is easy to read - just scan down and it gives you all the pertinent info.

http://www.dividendinvestor.com/

[Sieg]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

I'll use AT&T as an example - since it went "ex dividend" today and it's down .50 this morning.... Here's what the notice looks like.

Regular Dividend of $0.44 went Ex: T began trading ex-dividend today, payable to shareholders of record as of 01/10/2012.

Greg,

Since I'm close to pulling the trigger on T is the first of the week traditionally a good time to buy in?

Sprint at $2.19 today.........short-term opportunity?

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Sieg

Greg,

Since I'm close to pulling the trigger on T is the first of the week traditionally a good time to buy in?

Sprint at $2.19 today.........short-term opportunity?

Sorry -- I just don't pay any attention to that kind of stuff. T (AT&T) trades in a very narrow range -- whether I buy it down .25 or up .35 just isn't important to me... I'll get that back the first dividend payment -- which is what I'm after.

With the amount of shares I buy (1000's of shares in a name) I tend to scale in and scale out... so if I want to own 10,000 shares -- I might start with 5000 -- then buy another 2,000 on a big down day (market wise)... But that's just because it's the way I work. Not for any other reason than that. I never just punch the button and buy or sell all 10,000.

That's a little different "level" than most on here will be doing. So I don't think saving - or trying to save - .50 a share on a 500 share buy is very important. The important part is that next year - or 3 years out - the stock will be higher and I'll have gotten all those dividends.

+++++++++++++++


RE: Sprint -- again -- that just isn't the way I invest. I don't "gamble"... so unless the stock is something I think is a good -- make that a great -- long term investment... I just don't even look at them. I'd rather "miss an opportunity" than I would wake up in the middle of the night wondering if I'm getting creamed in the morning.

I also look at the possible gain scenario.... so If I was going to buy 1000 shares at 2.15 and they went up a buck.... I'd have a gain of $1000 and since that would be my "goal" (short term pop) then I'd have to sell - now I have a SHORT TERM CAPITAL GAIN (since I'm not trading IRA/401) and now I have an income tax event taxable at ordinary income tax rates rather than the 15% long term capital gains rate.

Just trying to explain so that others can "think" about all of these things....

[Sieg]

Thank you - I'm guessing I'm not the only one that can have a tendancy to micro-manage the purchase price of a stock......so hopefully there's a lesson learned from the question.

Then there's the Sprint or XXX stock get rich quick gambling temptation and risk vs net reward factoring - another lesson.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Sieg

Thank you - I'm guessing I'm not the only one that can have a tendancy to micro-manage the purchase price of a stock......so hopefully there's a lesson learned from the question.

Then there's the Sprint or XXX stock get rich quick gambling temptation and risk vs net reward factoring - another lesson.

Yep -- and that was the point of my response.... That "we're" not chasing pennies... "we're" investing in long term capital growth and dividend streams. The pennies aren't really important long term.

I used to chase every opportunity - and buy stocks and flip them out up 50 cents or a buck... I paid the taxes on all that - and then looked back and saw that while I was making 50 cents a share -- the shares have climbed 40%... and had I just bought the first time and let 'em ride - I'd have made A LOT more money. I stopped doing that in 1998 to be exact... and started to invest . It's a much better strategy.

Now - if everyone on here already had 3 or 4 or 5 million - then we'd be discussing the next hot opportunity.... because at some point "you have enough" and can now truly "afford" to take some risk...(gambling) and then we'd be having an entirely different discussion.

[Sieg]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Now - if everyone on here already had 3 or 4 or 5 million - then we'd be discussing the next hot opportunity.... because at some point "you have enough" and can now truly "afford" to take some risk...(gambling) and then we'd be having an entirely different discussion.

I'll pm you....................

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Sieg

I'll pm you....................

I don't have the next hot opportunity....



I've hit a couple in the past... but don't have any in the works now. In fact, I quit even looking for them. I'm too old.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Sieg

Greg,

Since I'm close to pulling the trigger on T is the first of the week traditionally a good time to buy in?

Sprint at $2.19 today.........short-term opportunity?

Went back to make sure I hadn't said anything too "off" -- and this got me to thinking about the "short term" Sprint question.

Think about this... and I'm just tossing this out there as a way of thinking rather than sitting down and doing all the math required etc.

A $2.15 stock.... Hold that thought -- AT&T pays a dividend of .44 per quarter -- so they pay you $1.76 per share per year in income.... so in 5 stinky quarters you'd have made in dividends what the cost of the Sprint shares were. By the 6th quarter (one and a half short years) you're ahead of the game... and you didn't have do to a thing.


One is "sure money" - the other is a gamble... If it's in my IRA/401K -- I'll take the sure money. If I have spare money or just some "what the hell" money - then the Sprint play (pick a name here) can be entertaining and some times you'll make a couple bucks.

[WSSix]

Well, I haven't been able to research stocks as much as I had hoped to by now but that's ok. I'll get to it soon enough. It is however the beginning of the year which for me means it is time to max my Roth IRA out for this year. It also means it is time to check out what my Roth has done over the past year. I have my Roth set up with Vanguard in their Target Retirement 2045 account. The good news is it is up. I've had this account since 2003 and haven't maxed it out each year. I've added what I could when I could. Now that I actually have a career, I can max it out with $5000 a year. According to the info on my account, since inception in 2003 my average annual returns have been (drum roll please)..... 5.32%

Honestly, I haven't a clue if this is any good or just how much my investment has returned as a whole ie I've put in a total of X and it's now worth Y which means my return is Z%. I'm having trouble reading the website and finding the info I want. Then again, is it important or is what I need to know the 5.32% part and that's it?

Over a 5 year period I've had both growth and dividend/earnings. More dividends/earnings than growth but only slightly.

[Sieg]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Went back to make sure I hadn't said anything too "off" -- and this got me to thinking about the "short term" Sprint question.

Think about this... and I'm just tossing this out there as a way of thinking rather than sitting down and doing all the math required etc.

A $2.15 stock.... Hold that thought -- AT&T pays a dividend of .44 per quarter -- so they pay you $1.76 per share per year in income.... so in 5 stinky quarters you'd have made in dividends what the cost of the Sprint shares were. By the 6th quarter (one and a half short years) you're ahead of the game... and you didn't have do to a thing.


One is "sure money" - the other is a gamble... If it's in my IRA/401K -- I'll take the sure money. If I have spare money or just some "what the hell" money - then the Sprint play (pick a name here) can be entertaining and some times you'll make a couple bucks.

Now I feel much better about the spare change order at $2.19 for 1K............