Weekly Roundup - March 18, 2017

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.
In probably one of the least surprising moves this week the Fed raised their target rate by another 0.25%.  While the increase wasn't much of a shocker, I have to say I was a bit surprised by the moves in the markets.  Just about everything started going up after the announcement: stocks, bonds and gold.  Even REITs, a bond proxy, had some decent moves higher after the interest rate increase was official.  All that goes to show you that no one knows anything about the short term direction of the markets.
Other than that this was just another week back at work which is both a good thing and a bad thing.  I love being home and spending time with my wife and daughter, but unfortunately we're not FI yet so active income needs to lead the way which means that dreaded four letter word: WORK.

As many of you know I headed back to work at the beginning of February, while it was bittersweet it was the right decision for us.  The original plan was for me to be a contract worker, which sadly means no benefits, but does come with added bonus of being able to say "no I won't work there" or "no I need this time off".  That's a luxury that just isn't afforded to you as an employee.  

Well I spoke with my old boss yesterday and he said that they are having some spots open up and are looking to hire some people and my name was brought up.  It's tempting to take them up on that offer, but I'll need to have a good talk with my wife before any decision is made.  The way I see it the decision is centered around whether I want the freedom to say "no" like I currently have or make ~10% more money with benefits, with the big ones being a 401k with matching and the employee stock purchase plan.  

From a purely financial perspective going back to being an employee is the no-brainer decision; however, after living that life for 5.5 years the ability to say no is a big plus.

What would your preference be: flexibility or money?

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.  This dividend growth investing and financial independence community is amazing and the openness from everyone is awesome.  Thanks again!

Now on to the links!

Happy 8th Birthday Bull Market! Has The S&P 500 Become Dangerously Overvalued? by Chuck Carnevale

Recent Buy - Toronto Dominion Bank by Roadmap2Retire

Staring Into The Early Retirement Health Care Abyss by Our Next Life

Long Term Investing Is All About Saving Yourself From Yourself by Financial Samurai

Recent Stock Purchase March 2017 by DivHut

Monthly Review: February 2017 by DivGro

Canadian Banks for Long Term Dividend Growth Investors by Dividend Growth Investor

Great Groveling, Guys: Counting All The Ways Analysts Fawn Over Management by Jason Zweig

January 2017 Data Update 10: The Pricing Game! by Aswath Damodaran

Some Lessons For Living From Older Generations by A Wealth of Common Sense

No Choice But To Roth by 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. PiP -

    Great list of articles and I agree - was not surprised by the increase, at all! Hope to see some different pieces moving that's for sure. Now back to research for a stock... would love to put some dough to work!

    -Lanny

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the mention, JC. Hope things are well on your end.

    R2R

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Just about everything started going up after the announcement," just goes to show the market, talking heads, "experts" and everyone else have no idea how the market will behave, especially in the short term. Was the move rational? Expected? No. Just tune out, buy quality known companies, diversify and let market rise or fall 1000 points. It just doesn't matter. As always, thanks for the DivHut mention!

    ReplyDelete

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