Weekly Roundup - February 13, 2016

The craziness of the markets right now doesn't show any signs of ending.  Last week saw the S&P 500 have big fluctuations and was down 3.7% at it's worst from the close of last week.  Then came Friday with a huge positive day where the S&P 500 added 2.0% ending the week down just 0.8%.  The market has no clear cut direction right now but that's great for investors because many companies have seen their share prices decline and increasing their yields while opening up a lot more long term value.  I have no clue what the next week will bring, but if the start to the year is any indication of what to expect we could be in for another wild ride.

I'm working my way through The Outsiders (affiliate link) right now which is a great book that profiles a handful of CEOs that have had truly amazing returns for their investors.  I hope to get a book review out about it later this month.



I'm also "reading" The Devil's Financial Dictionary by Jason Zweig which is a brutally honest look at the financial/investment industry.  The book gives the true definition of financial terms often in humorous ways.

Each week during my Weekly Roundup I plan to highlight one of the terms.

"Acquisition, n. - A transaction in which one company pays too much for another.  

As Warren Buffett wrote, 'If a CEO is enthused about a particularly foolish acquisition, both his internal staff and his outside advisors will come up with whatever projections are needed to justify his stance.  Only in fairy tales are emperors told that they are naked.'"

Blogging/Writing

If you're looking for some tips on writing make sure to check out Retire29's 100 Writing Tips in honor of his 100th blog post.

I was able to get a lot of writing done last week and also got some great ideas and data compiled for some more articles.  One article I plan to get out next week, if I can get it written up in time, is profiling a "Big Oil" company and what could have been done to shore up their dividend.  There's lots of concerns going through the patch right now, even more so for the employees trust me, so I wanted to look further into one of the companies and what I'd like to see going forward for them.

Self Improvement

I'm a big fan of setting SMART Goals and that means you need specific ways to measure and quantify your progress.  So being without any means to track my weight loss progress these past few weeks has been a pain.  But I finally got a chance to get back home and  was able to take a look at some of the numbers regarding my weight loss.  I only weighed myself just to get a quick update but I'm down about 11 pounds over the last 22 days or so.  I still have a couple days left on my challenge so I'm just waiting until I finish to do my measurements.

Portfolio News

I mentioned earlier this week that purchases will likely be non-existent, at least through the first half of this year so portfolio news was rather light this week.  Even though I won't be growing my dividends through purchases that doesn't mean they won't be increasing each month.  PepsiCo announced a solid 7.1% increase to their dividend payment which is always welcome.  Since initiating my position in PEP in 2013 they've given me three raises for a total percentage increase of 32.6%.  Considering I've had to take a pay cut from my day job over the same time that 32% increase sure is looking great.

HCP announced earnings this past week as well and the share price fell off dramatically.  HCP is dealing with lots of issues from HCR Manorcare and is even trying to sell off assets to reduce their exposure to that SNF operator.  HCP is the only REIT found on the Dividend Champions list with a 30+ year dividend growth streak.  There's concerns about a dividend cut possibly needing to happen so analyzing their earnings and most importantly their forecast is going to be of high priority this weekend.

On to the Roundup

In case you missed them, here's the posts from Passive-Income-Pursuit this past week.

• Visa, Inc.: Cash is King, but Credit's Good Too on Seeking Alpha
• Calling Up Visa for Cash on Seeking Alpha
• Shifting Focus
• Dividend Growth Investing at Work - Pouring Out Higher Dividends!

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!

You need conviction to average down in a stock by Dividend Growth Investor

100 Writing Tips from My Favorite Bloggers by Retire29

Bull Markets vs Bear Markets by A Wealth of Common Sense

American Electric Power Dividend Stock Analysis by Roadmap2Retire on Seeking Alpha

My Ultimate Growth Portfolio by Financially Integrated

Destinations by Income Surfer

Recent Stock Purchase February 2016 by DivHut

Early FI: An Alternative to the Marathon Approach by FI Fighter

How do you define financial independence? + A very full bucket by Our Next Life

Appreciation by Dividend Hustler

I can admit my mistakes can you by James Melvin on Seeking Alpha

The Beautiful Long Road to Freedom by White Collar Freedom

Investing the Cash Portion of a Portfolio by The Conservative Income Investor

A Dozen Things I've Learned from Carl Icahn About Investing by 25iq

4 Consistently High Paying Dividend Stocks with Growth Potential by Sure Dividend

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 weekend!

Image courtesy of Gubgib on FreeDigitalPhotos.net.