Weekly Roundup - September 24, 2016

Happy Weekend!  Check out what's been going on in my world and some of the best articles from around the blogosphere.

There's not much to report this week for the portfolio or otherwise.  Although the big news of the week was that the Federal Reserve did not raise interest rates.  That didn't really come as much of a surprise to me since the economy isn't exactly booming and we're so close to the next election.  Status quo, much to the chagrin of many, was the most likely result.


I'm sitting on a decent sized chunk of cash in my FI Portfolio with over $7k on the sidelines.  There's also just under $2k in my Roth IRA since I just trimmed a position.  For my FI Portfolio cash there isn't a whole lot that I'm interested in purchasing at this time so my likely move is to use options to boost my cash flow while I wait for better opportunities.  The cash for my Roth IRA is likely to be used for an outright purchase at some point, but there just isn't much to be excited about.  I wish I could use options in that account but at 100 share lots that $1,900 doesn't go too far.

The good news though is that we'll be getting a slight reprieve from the end of summer heat and it can't come quick enough.  It'll be gone before we know it, but it's forecast that we'll be in the mid 80's for our highs next week with a drop in humidity down to the 50% area.  That might not seem like much for those that haven't been to the Houston area, but trust me it's going to feel great here.

There was an interesting fact about U.S. Presidential elections and recessions that I heard during one of the podcasts that I listen to, although I do have to say that I didn't fact check it.  I can't remember if it was every single time or the last 6-7 times it's come up, but the stat was that a recession has started soon before or just after a Presidential election that didn't involve an incumbent, such as 2016's.  

Looks like I wrote too soon about there not being much to report on this week.  I started writing this post about 4:30 and around 5:00 we headed up to an urgent care clinic and then to the E.R.  Fun times!  Now, 8 hours later we're finally back home.  Don't worry though it wasn't anything major/serious, our daughter just had a temperature of 102°F and it's better to be safe than sorry so off we went.  I'm now the only person in our house that isn't currently on antibiotics so yeah...that doesn't look good.

Also, if any other bloggers are in Washington D.C. or the surrounding area I'll be there for a friend's wedding at the end of next week.  I'll be flying in on 9/30 and leaving on 10/2 so hit me up via email or twitter if you're there and can meet up.

On to the Roundup

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

• PepsiCo, Inc.: Keep It Simple, Stupid on Seeking Alpha
• Dividend Growth Investing at Work - Excelling To Higher Dividends
• Recent Sell: Position Trim
• Altria: Better, But Keep Waiting on Seeking Alpha
  

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!

How To Spell "Love" by Retire29

Starving For Yield - The Passive Income And Cash Flow Trap by FI Fighter

Capital Appreciation or Cash Flow by Income Surfer

Broken Fed by Roadmap2Retire

How To Find Dividend Stocks With Strong Competitive Advantages by Sure Dividend

Flowers Foods - A Contrarian View Of A Popular DGI Stock by Dividend Ten

Options Update: September 2016 by DivGro

China Facing Full-Blown Banking Crisis on The Telegraph

Dividend Portfolio Sector Allocation: September 2016 by DivHut

Quitting The Hustle For Good by Our Next Life

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Dividend Investing by Dividend Growth Investor

Recent Buy - Cardinal Health (CAH) by Dividend Diplomats

List of Debt Free S&P 500 Companies by Retire Before Dad

A Dozen Ways To Apply The Lessons Taught In The Book "The Most Important Thing" By Howard Marks 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 weekend!

Image courtesy of Gubgib via FreeDigitalPhotos