Weekly Roundup - June 27, 2015

As per usual this week was very up and down.  Luke continues to befuddle the doctors since he rarely does anything that follows any text book.  For starters, in normal babies if you increase the amount of oxygen they are receiving the oxygen their bloodstream will then increase.  Well, not if you're Luke because his body decided a few months back that no longer works for him.  That's just one of the many things that Luke is writing in his own book on patient care.  If you've been following Luke's story he's back to having his full on clamp down episodes where he sometimes has to pass out before his body will relax and he can recover.  The weirdest thing about it all is that some are unprovoked as far as looking at him but you can tell from the monitors that are hooked up to him that there's a chance it's going to be that bad.  But sometimes they aren't.  And the weirdest thing is that this was happening last Thursday and Friday but then stopped until Thursday of this week despite no changes being made to any of his medications, ventilator support or anything really other than increasing the amount of milk/formula that he gets.  He's a very confusing child to my wife and I, let alone the group of doctors that follow him.

I finally got to make a few more purchases for my portfolio after making none the previous two weeks.  It always feels good to make strides towards financial independence and the only way to do that is with consistent saving, investing, and letting the excellent companies out there do their thing.  I finally added some more capital to one of the oil and gas super majors this week.  I've been looking at adding shares of this company for a while with the decline in oil prices and feel that current price levels are very attractive.  Their scale in geography, size, and operations will allow them to weather the downturn much better than the smaller independent companies.  You can check out my post with more details of my purchase here.

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!

The one lesson about Warren Buffett's success that no one wants to hear by Dividend Growth Investor

How to invest in water - Water Utilities by Roadmap2Retire

My investment strategy by Financially Integrated

Investment Plan Island interview with...Jason from Dividend Mantra on Islands of Investing

A look at food and soda behemoth Pepsico on Income Surfer

2015 Goals update by Dividend Dreams

Appreciation by Dividend Hustler

Running on thin ice by Dividend Diplomats

We can't afford it remains taboo by My Own Advisor

Becton, Dickinson and Company: Did this leader just overextend itself? by Dividend Ladder

10 benefits of being a dividend growth investor by Dividends Build Wealth

Recent Buy by Dividend Mantra

My 2015 goals update by Dividend Beginner

3 Avoidable mistakes dividend investors make by Sure Dividend

Analyze any stock in 12 minutes or less by Retire29

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.

Sometimes when I get some free time I like to check out TED talks because there's a wealth of knowledge and always very interesting topics.  Here's an great talk by Morgan Spurlock that deals with the marketing industry.


I hope you all have a great weekend!

Image courtesy of Gubgib on FreeDigitalPhotos.net.