Weekly Roundup - November 5, 2016
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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.
- Dividend Growth Investing at Work - Ducks and Dividends
- Net Worth Update - September 2016
- Dividend Update Preview - October 2016 Infographic
- Dividend Update - October 2016
- Dividend Growth Investing at Work - Starting November Off Right!
- Dividend Growth Investing at Work - Addictions and Dividends
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
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.
ReplyDeleteThanks for including my Outlook post.
Have a great weekend
R2R
R2R,
DeleteA 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.
PIP -
ReplyDeleteLove 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
Lanny,
DeleteI 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteDH,
DeleteI'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.
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.
ReplyDeleteIH,
DeleteI'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!
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.
ReplyDeleteDerek,
DeleteUnfortunately 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.
Thank you for the mention PIP!
ReplyDeleteI 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
DGI,
DeleteI'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.