Weekly Roundup - November 5, 2016

Curated list of articles on dividend growth investing, financial independence, freedom and passive income
Happy Weekend!  Check out what's been going on in my world and some of the best articles from around the blogosphere.
There isn't much to report about my portfolio.  Well no big changes but there were 2 dividend increases this week which always puts a smile on my face.  

Over the last month or so I've been trying to decide what to do with my 401k from my previous employer specifically what brokerage to roll it over to.  I was all set to move it to Interactive Brokers, but had to call my current broker to initiate the rollover and they lured me in.  


If I opened a rollover IRA there they were going to offer me 500 free trades that had to be used within 2 years.  The big draw for Interactive Brokers is their ridiculously low costs, but getting this many free trades negates a lot of the advantage that Interactive Brokers had.  Plus the whole process was ridiculously easy and only took about 15 minutes of my time to get it rolled over.  The funds and free trades are already in my new Rollover IRA and ready to be deployed.

I'll readdress my brokerage firm for the Rollover IRA at the end of 2 years and if I don't see any value to staying here then I'll likely move over to Interactive Brokers at that time.

As a long term investor I don't expect to come anywhere close to using up those trades, although my intentions are to be more active with this account via the options market.  Since it's a tax deferred account the premium from options won't be taxed until I withdraw the funds so I no longer have that drag on the option income.

I'm sitting on about $140k and I'm ready to put it to work.  Although I need to make sure that I take a slow and methodical approach as opposed to just immediately getting it all "invested" right away while ignoring the all important aspect of valuation.  I'm still trying to figure out my plan, but it'll likely be something along the lines of anywhere between 25-50% of the portfolio will be along the lines of buy and hold long term dividend growth investing with the rest being used in the options markets on dividend growth companies.

So you can expect to see a lot more invetsment activity coming from me and if the markets happen to go crazy a lot more activity.

Now that we're into November I can't help but start to think about Black Friday.  I'm not normally excited about the day because I'm not much of a shopper, but this year I might be splurging.  

One of my goals, like just about everyone's, is to get in better shape.  I've let myself go over the last 6 years because it was hard to workout since I never knew where I was going to be.  I also loathe running just to run and much prefer to go throw some weights around.  I can do that just fine at a gym, but it's much more difficult now with a baby in tow and the costs are rather steep. 

The average gym membership runs about $60 per month, although there are much cheaper options out there.  Of course with the aforementioned baby in tow I also need to find a gym that has a decent daycare staff/setup to watch our daughter.  

The way my brain is wired I find it very hard to do just bodyweight exercises or run, although there's plenty of good in those, but I have plenty of motivation to go and lift weights.  And I can even do it without needing a personal trainer to guide me or to be an accountability partner.  Now that I'm a SAHD, there really needs to be a better acronym for that because it sounds kind of depressing, I really want to build up a home gym in my garage.


I'll need to slowly build up my home gym, but there's a whole lot you can do with just a setup like this.  That's an Olympic bar plus 320 lbs of bumpers.  The upfront cost is steep at $795 so I'm looking for a deal on Black Friday and/or the holiday season.  Of course that $795 is just over 1 years worth of a gym memberships cost except I'll use it regularly and get to keep it.

Are you on the lookout for anything in particular with the holiday shopping season, and hopefully discounts, coming up?

On to the Roundup

In case you missed them, here's the posts from Passive-Income-Pursuit over the 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.  You can also follow me on Facebook or Pinterest if you prefer those methods to get your daily fix and keep up to date on happenings around here.

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!

Outlook November 2016 by Roadmap2Retire

November 2016 Stock Considerations by DivHut

Dividend Aristocrats in Focus Part 31: Stanley Black & Decker by Sure Dividend

Put It On The Line: Advice From A 9-Time World Champion by Retire Before Dad

When is the PEG Ratio Superior to the P/E Ratio (Part 2) by Chuck Carnevale via Seeking Alpha

Munger's Pearls of Wisdom by Financially Integrated

Why Investors Must Be Contrarians To Outperform The Market by 25iq

Timing The Market is Costly, Risky and Difficult by Dividend Growth Investor

Neart Term Volatility = Recent Buys and Watchlist Add by Dividend Ten

The Power of a Low Income in Early Retirement by Our Next Life

Why We Decided to Revisit Our Budget System Before the End of the Year by Tawcan

October Dividends and Option Income by Investment Hunting

Options Update: October 2016 (Part 1) by DivGro

Don't Be Afraid of All-Time Highs in the Stock Market by A Wealth of Common Sense

October Dividend Income Summary Lanny and Bert on Dividend Diplomats

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

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Image courtesy of Gubgib via FreeDigitalPhotos

Comments

  1. Having a home gym might be a great option considering the baby in tow...good luck with the shopping and hope you find some good deals. No major shopping here -- we are doubling down on our savings as my wife is taking a few more months off work unpaid to look after our daughter next year.

    Thanks for including my Outlook post.

    Have a great weekend
    R2R

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. R2R,

      A home gym would definitely give a lot more freedom to exercise whenever I have the time which is a big bonus.

      That's a great opportunity that y'all have especially if your wife is allowed to take more time off. Personally I think everyone should do it if they can "afford" to.

      All the best.

      Delete
  2. PIP -

    Love the gym and/or working out. I've been debating about cancelling my $37/month membership - some months I use it 15-20x and some maybe once. It's hit or miss depending on my travel load. Thanks again for the mention above, as well. Great reads!!! Do it up and have a great weekend.

    -Lanny

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lanny,

      I love lifting weights, but hate doing just about everything else. I can't really stand doing cardio via just running, but getting in cardio via some kind of sport or doing higher intensity workouts is fine by me. At $37 per month that's not too bad if you make sure you use the gym whenever you're home. Too often though people sign up and pay those membership fees just to use the gym 2-3 times each month.

      We have some great weather here now so outside activities are in store.

      All the best.

      Delete
  3. Thank you for the DivHut mention. As always, I appreciate it. I never was into the gym scene. I do exercise with my Tae Kwon Do. I have been doing that for a long time and it's very much part of my life. If you are into the gym experience then setting one up at home makes sense to me. SAHD shouldn't sound depressing either. I have been one for a year and half and love it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DH,

      I'm more into functional strength rather than bodybuilding or anything like that. So I typically do more active and intense exercises and try to vary the way my body is worked often. I think the best thing, especially now with the complete lack of schedule for our daughter, is to get a home gym. It gives so much more freedom to workout whenever. I'm hoping to get a decent deal on the set I'm eyeballing.

      I'm only about 1 month in but it's great being a SAHD.

      All the best.

      Delete
  4. Thanks for the mention JC. I'm excited to see what you do with that $140k. A guy can make a lot of money selling puts until such time as the next market correction comes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IH,

      I'm excited too to get that freed up capital working for me. I just need to make sure I take a measured approach to getting it invested because I could easily get it all earmarked for puts within the next week.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  5. If you haven't already, try checking out craigslist for used weights. A lot of times you can find stuff for 50%-75% off. And, there isn't really anything to break with weights, so you don't have to worry about buying used.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Derek,

      Unfortunately I haven't found too many weights on Craigslist near where I live. I have no problem buying them used because like you said they don't exactly break so there isn't much risk of buying a lemon. I'll have to scour the various sites a bit more over the next few weeks before Black Friday gets here and then weigh the possibilities.

      All the best.

      Delete
  6. Thank you for the mention PIP!

    I am glad you were able to receive 500 stock and options trades for 2 years. That is big.

    I think IBKR is going to be here 2 years from now. And I am hopeful that other cheap brokers may have some good promos then

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DGI,

      I'll likely be moving to IB in the future but I just couldn't pass up all of those free trades in conjunction with simplifying and speeding up the process of getting access to the funds.

      All the best.

      Delete

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