Weekly Roundup - November 15, 2015


This past week was great.  I was able to go home, although only for a day, and be with my wife which is always a good thing.  We ended up going to see another movie at the theaters which is more than I've seen in probably the previous three years combined.  We're suckers for scary movies even though they tend to be a letdown in the end but watched Crimson Peak anyways.  It was an okay movie, but one that I'd definitely recommend to wait until it goes to Netflix.

It also doesn't hurt that cooler weather has moved in.  Well it's good during the days with highs in the upper 60's and lower 70's, but at night it's a bit too cold for this Texas boy.

Blogging/Writing

If you've been following along this week I was quite busy with the blog/writing.  The good thing about me working nights is that there's less distractions during the time I work.  No checking in o how the markets are doing, less people from town worried about the drilling.  So I get to focus a lot more and get more writing done.  I was able to post 5 different articles, get 3 other articles written that should be going up this week, as well as get started on a 4 part series as well.  There's plenty of ideas rolling around in my head and I'm excited to get a lot more writing done.  It was definitely a good week for writing.

Additions to my Portfolio Tracking

I was also busy making some changes to my FI Portfolio that I track in Google Sheets to be able to get quick visuals of the weightings for my portfolio.  I added a Weights tab that compares the capital weight vs the dividend weight for each sector that I'm invested.  This gives me a quick view of which sectors might be out of whack with how I would prefer my portfolio allocation to be as well as let's me know if a sector is also providing an abnormally high amount of dividends.  There's also a new tab called Tree Map.  Google added the tree map function to their sheets and I really do like it.  Here's what it looks like.


With the tree map I'm able to get a quick view of how many companies I own within each sector as well as the respective weights by both company and sector.  You can even "zoom in" on just one sector by clicking on it.  I'm trying to figure out how to add annotations that show the respective weights when you move the mouse over it, so if anyone knows how to do that feel free to pass that information along.

Self-Improvement

I didn't quite stay on track with working out due to the travel home and getting started back up with work, but still managed to get in two solid workouts this week.  I'll just give a quick recap of the exercises I did.  On 11/7 I did hang clean and presses, deadlifts, and then I honestly can't remember what the last exercise was.  I keep track of my workouts as I progress through them but didn't realize my phone had auto-corrected my note to "Bor" and I have no idea what I meant to type in.  The workouts were done following the EMOM set/rep schemes and the total weight lifted on 11/7 came to 8,340 lbs.  To finish up the "finisher" I used was alternating arm kettle bell swings and complete 55 swings per arm in 4:30.  Not bad, but man is that killer because it's pretty much non-stop work.

The second workout was on 11/12 and followed the EMOM set/rep schemes s well.  I wasn't really feeling all that great going into the workout because I didn't fuel my body right the day before.  So my energy level was dragging so I cut the workout short of what I'd have liked to do.  I did hang clean into front squats and bench presses with a total weight lifted of 3,690 lbs.  Obviously that's much lower than where I need to get for total weight moved each workout, but it was better than laying down and watching tv like I wanted to do.  My finisher was a circuit of 10 kettle bell swings followed by 5 box jumps and I completed 5 rounds in 5 minutes.  That finisher is pretty killer for working the lower body and your cardiovascular system.

I don't know how much progress I've made in terms of weight loss or inches gained/lost but I can definitely tell you my body feels so much better than a couple weeks back.  I stumbled upon this quote from the Dalai Lama a couple weeks ago and it couldn't be more true.

"Man sacrifices his health in order to make money.  The he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.  And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

Your health is the greatest investment you can make during your lifetime; after all you only get one life.

In case you missed them, here's the posts from this past week.
Also, be sure to sign up to receive posts via email and to follow me on Twitter@JC_PIP so you don't miss anything.  I also started a Facebook page to give people another option for keeping up to date on posts and happenings with the blog.

Once again I'd like to say thanks to each and every one of you that read, commented, and shared posts from here this past week.  I think this dividend growth investing and financial independence community is amazing and the openness from everyone is awesome.  Thanks again!

Now on to the links!

Entering Wealth Preservation Mode by Dividend Growth Investor

A Closer Look at Apple Services by Roadmap2Retire

Conversation with Son - Part 1 by Div4Son

Portfolio Update: October 2015 by My Dividend Growth

Zero to Millionaire in 10 years by Root of Good

Recent Stock Purchase - November 2015 by DivHut

The ten questions to answer before you retire early by Our Next Life

Know what you love and be uncompromising by Retire29

How safe are your dividends? by All About Interest

Three small cap value ideas by Income Surfer

Disney Stock: Should Dividend Growth Investors Buy Now? by Sure Dividend

How does Charlie Munger recommend dealing with adversity? by 25iq

Also, if you're looking for investment ideas, A Frugal Family's Journey keeps a list of stock analyses and recent buys from fellow bloggers.

I hope you all have a great rest of the weekend!

Image courtesy of Gubgib on FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing my post on potential small cap value stocks. Glad you're soaking in the cooler weather. I hope next week is a great one for you!
    -Bryan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bryan,

      The cooler weather is definitely nice during the day but low 40's is a bit chilly for my liking for nights. It's looking like it should be a good week.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  2. Congrats on your exercise routine - they take a lot of discipline to maintain. Thanks for linking to Sure Dividend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ben,

      I think I'm over the hump as far as forming the habit of working out. I'm trying to work out every other day and when I skip it I can definitely feel my body craving some exercise which is a good thing. And the best part is that my body already feels so much better and keeping up with it will just show continued progress.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  3. I've been enjoying your articles on Seeking Alpha -- keep up the good work and best of luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ferdi,

      Glad you've been enjoying them. They're rather quick analyses but they give a good overview of what could be in store. I hope to continue working through several more companies over the coming weeks.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  4. Thanks for the mention, JC. Hope you are having a good weekend

    R2R

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. R2R,

      Great weather and the best part was that I got to spend some time with my wife since she came up to see me. So it was definitely a great weekend!

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  5. Hi PIP,

    You have been pretty busy these few weeks. I am glad you are able to do something productive in your down time. It must feel great to get paid to work, and also use the time to earn some income on the side as well ( and then invest that money for the long term and earn dividends for a lifetime)

    Keep it up buddy!

    DGI

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DGI,

      It sure is nice to have a job where I can read and blog while I'll on the clock because that helps out a whole lot when it comes to freeing up my non-work time for things like working out or pretty much anything else. The added income is a bonus as you mentioned because that's a little bit extra income I can use to invest and continue building up the portfolio and dividends.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  6. Hi JC. Glad to see you've been so busy, really liking the content you've been putting out. Those tree graphs look awesome too, I need to play around with them. Thank you for the shout out and have a great week ahead!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ryan,

      It's nice working nights because it frees me up quite a bit to focus on writing. I really like the tree graphs because it gives a great quick visual of the weightings by position as well as sector. I just need to figure out a way to get the weights to show up if you move the mouse over it so I can get the exact number quickly too without going to another sheet.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete

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