Weekly Roundup - July 13, 2014

As most of you know I was on vacation in Nashville over the past 1.5 weeks and it was awesome.  It's always great to get some time to go have fun and see some good friends.  Even better was that we happened to be vacationing over the July 4th weekend which meant there was lots to do.  We went to the hot chicken festival which was good although it did involve standing in a bunch of lines.  It was definitely worth it although I wish we could have tried more than one company's hot chicken.  Hot chicken, for those that don't know, is a local specialty in Nashville that is exactly what it sounds like spicy friend chicken.  We only got to try out Hattie B's and it was delicious.  With July 4th happening we also got to go enjoy the second best fireworks display in the nation as rated by the American Pyrotechnics Association.  There were over 30,000 fireworks set off in less than 30 minutes which is pretty cool if you like watching fireworks displays.  We were also looking for things to do on Monday and for anyone that likes puzzles and is in the Nashville area or where they have other places like this I'd highly recommend it.  We went to the Nashville Escape Game and did the Underground Playground room.  The four of us and 10 other people were locked in a room (claustrophobes don't worry you can leave if you want) and had to solve a series of puzzles in order to try and "escape" the room.  It seems a bit expensive at $28 per person for 1 hour but it was definitely a lot of fun.  We also did a little bit of geocaching (a great cheap entertainment) near our friends house and finished with a trip to Arnold's and the Johnny Cash Museum.  Arnold's Country Kitchen is a meat and three (sides) restaurant that has honestly some of the best chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes, green beans and the best collard greens I've ever eaten.  Go there if you're in Nashville for whatever reason.  You won't be disappointed.  But get there early because the line starts forming before place opens.

So I was quite busy with everything we tried to pack into our trip and then coming back home to get a few things done before heading back to work.  Since then I've been back to the grind and trying to find places to invest some capital.  Unfortunately that didn't happen this past week but the markets have been a bit more choppy lately so there's always the possibility for some better valuations on the horizon.  I didn't get a lot of writing done but I'm working on that for the next week or so.  I've got some stock analysis reports to get written up and hopefully posted soon in case we do get that elusive pullback.



Thanks again to everyone that stopped by, commented, or shared posts from Passive-Income-Pursuit this past week.  I truly appreciate it and I love this time of year as I'll get to see some mid year goal update posts to see just how awesome all of you have been doing.  I know I'm behind on some of my goals but I'm ahead on others.  One really awesome thing is that in 2Q I finally passed $1k in dividends for one quarter.  That's truly amazing to me and helps to reinforce that with consistent investment in dividend growth companies financial independence will eventually become a reality.

Now on to the links!

Why dividend growth investing is such a robust investment strategy by Dividend Mantra

I nearly doubled the General Electric stake in the KRIP by Joshua Kennon

Are you drowning in cash? by Dividend Growth Investor

Starwood Hotels:  Earning Starwood Points (1/5) on FI Fighter

Quit worrying about the perfect entry price to buy a stock! Just buy when ready! by Dividend Growth Stock Investing

Recap of this crazy week by Income Surfer

Coca-Cola has not finished minting millionaires yet by The Conservative Income Investor

Financial literacy and asking the wrong questions by Planting Our Pennies

Universal lessons from every investment discipline by A Wealth of Common Sense

Also if you haven't done so yet make sure you follow me on Twitter@JC_PIP and sign up to receive posts by email so you don't miss anything going on here.

Have a great weekend!

Comments

  1. I am hoping to visit Nashville one day. When I become financially independent I want to travel across the country. I can't do that as much now because I work 55+ hours a week and it's hard to take vacation time. Thanks for the update, and it sounds like you had a great time. I look forward to reading your future stock analysis reports!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dividend Mongrel,

      Nashville was really fun and the weather was perfect the whole time we were there. I also want to take a really good, long, slow road trip across the country and get to see all the sights. We were thinking of doing a mini road trip to Nashville instead of flying there but it's a bit far of a drive with just 1 week off to be able to do it. Work is a b*tch some times. But it's allowing us to make great strides towards FI and freedom.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
    2. I have never been to Nashille, but your vacation sounds like a pretty fun one.Vacations are important, because they recharge you. A person cannot work for 52 weeks straights.

      Anyway, thank you for highlighting my post.

      Best Regards,

      DGI

      Delete
    3. DGI,

      I completely agree on needing a recharge every now and then. I work way too much as it is; of course that's also why I'm pursuing FI as strongly as I am.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  2. Thanks for including my post in your round up. There were some great posts this week. I particularly enjoyed the PoP's post, and Tim's post about Coke. Have a great week.
    -Bryan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bryan,

      No problem. I was pretty shocked with the question that the PoP's covered. I had no idea how to answer that question with the information given.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  3. JC,

    Glad you got to visit Nashville during the 4th. Really fun time, and the downtown is awesome with all the music. And the fireworks show over the water is awesome.

    Thanks for including me in your roundup. Much appreciated!

    Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DM,

      Nashville was awesome. I've been before but not over the 4th and the fireworks over the river were great. Although the traffic absolutely sucked getting out of there.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  4. Good to see you had a chance to visit Nashville and recharge those batteries. I visited Memphis a few years back with a couple of buddies but unfortunately never made it to Nashville. I do plan to go there one day though. As a Dave Ramsey listener, I hope to go there to do my debt free scream one day (including my house, of course!).

    Thanks for sharing your roundup...I've already check out a few and plan on checking our the rest. AFFJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AFFJ,

      I had completely forgot about DR being in Nashville. There's some of his stuff I don't agree with but for the most part it's all sound advice for everyone.

      Maybe when we get the house paid off we can make another trip to Nashville and actually go to the station.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete

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