Weekly Roundup - July 14, 2013

Well my first attempt at the roundup for this week went horribly wrong.  I had finished and scheduled it for yesterday morning and then wanted to add one more thing to it and changed my mind.  Needless to say I didn't save it again and then it got deleted.  Note to everyone else, save.

It was a pretty good week and everything went smoothly at work until we had finished drilling.  Then it was issue after issue and it took us forever to get my tool back topside.  30+ hours for something that should have been around 20.  So that pushed my return trip home back until yesterday and I didn't get home until early afternoon.  Oh well, I'm still away from the rig and back home for a few days.

I was expecting for July and the next few months to be pretty light as far as my portfolio goes but best laid plans right?  I ended up selling off some shares of HAL and closing out 2 open put options because I felt a bit over-leveraged, especially since capital will be lower the second half since my wife and I are needing to finish up saving for a downpayment.  I wanted to be able to pick and choose my spots a bit more since capital will be lower so I decided to close out some of the options.  In other investing news, my dividend income increased this past week with a 14.5% increase from Walgreens, a 25% increase from Cummins, and a 4.5% increase from ConocoPhillips.  I love dividend increase announcements.  You want to give me more money because your company is doing better?  Sure thing boss.
If you haven't heard, Washington D.C.'s city council passed a bill forcing large retailers, more than $1 billion in annual revenues and 75,000 square feet, must pay a "living wage".  Of course this "living wage" of $12.50 is 50% higher than the normal minimum wage in the area.  In response to this Wal-mart has said they are scrapping the plans to build 3 more stores and are looking into whether they will stop construction on the stores in progress.  I like that Wal-mart is taking a stand on this.  I hate it when the government steps in on situations like this, especially when they are making different rules for different groups.  If they wanted to raise the minimum wage for everyone to $12.50 okay, I still wouldn't like that but at least it's even across all companies.  But singling out specific companies is annoys me.  And yes they're targeting the large chain retailers like Wal-mart, Target, Macy's and many more.  Let the people vote with their wallets not through government interaction.

Thanks to everyone that mentioned Passive-Income-Pursuit this past week and stopped by.  I truly appreciate it and if anyone has a question or needs help with something feel free to comment or email.

Now on to the links.

Problems in the portfolio by Compounding Income

Freedom from fear (at work) by Death to the Full-time Job

Yes, I got laid off!!! on Financial Samurai

The role of different dividend payers by Get Financially Integrated

How to become rich the right way by Frugal Rules

Dividend Income Update - June 2013 by Dividend Mantra

Portfolio in action:  4 new buys by Dividend Growth Stock Investing

A personal residence is NOT an asset by FI Fighter

How to accumulate your nest egg by Dividend Growth Investor

Why I don't like the word saving by Planting Our Pennies

Big huge WTF!!! by 1500 Days to Freedom

Emerson Electric Dividend Stock Analysis by My Journey to Financial Independence

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Comments

  1. Pursuit,

    Thanks for including me!

    It's a rainy, crappy weekend down here in Florida. And I had to work yesterday, so I'm just ready to relax indoors today!

    Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much for the mention JC, I really appreciate it! Hope you have a great rest of the weekend. I don't know about you - but ours went by WAY too quickly. ;)

    ReplyDelete

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