Weekly Roundup - April 1, 2017

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

Blink and it's gone.  Somehow the first quarter of 2017 is officially over now that the calendar has turned to April.  That's hard to believe and yet it's true.
I for one am glad to see March come to an end.  Well, the last week of March that is.  On Monday of last week I caught a nasty bug and let's just say things weren't pretty.  Despite having to work while being sick, that's one of the big negatives to my job, I have to say that I'm glad I was at work and not at home where I could have potentially gotten my wife or daughter sick.  That would have definitely been no fun.  After being lethargic from Monday through Thursday, I woke up feeling like a new man on Friday.  Thank goodness!

Being sick wasn't really conducive to me paying much attention to the markets, but one of the great things about dividend growth investing is that those dividends don't call in sick even if you do.  I haven't run the final tally for March, but being the end month of the quarter I'm sure it was a great total.  Most likely it's still short of my all-time monthly high, but it's starting to move in the right direction again which is all I can ask for.

I'm still pretty amazed at the markets' ability to just shrug off any kind of bad news over the past few months.  I still think valuations across the board are stretched, although that doesn't mean there aren't pockets of value out there.  But it seems like at least part of the markets' surge has been on the hopes that Trump will pass much of his campaign promises, especially regarding tax reform and overseas repatriation.  That very well may come to pass, but the markets seem to be pricing that in as a sure thing while, if the Obamacare/Trumpcare repeal/replace failure shows us anything, it's far from a guarantee.  Nevertheless I'm still a big believer in getting my capital to work for me if I find opportunities, but there just aren't that many that I'm finding.

On to the Roundup

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

• 12 More Option Moves to Boost My Investment Income
• MasterCard Inc.: A Classic Toll Road Moat 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.  This dividend growth investing and financial independence community is amazing and the openness from everyone is awesome.  Thanks again!

Now on to the links!

"As Long As The Stock Market Doesn't Crash" by Retire Before Dad

What If Other Areas Of Life Operated Like Wall Street? by A Wealth of Common Sense

What To Do About Slowing Earnings Growth? by Dividend Growth Investor

DivGro Pulse: March 2017 by DivGro

Out Of Action by Income Surfer

Early FI - My Revised Thoughts by FI Fighter

April 2017 Stock Considerations by DivHut

March Dividend and Options Income by Investment Hunting

Don't Listen to Us by Our Next Life

Kinder Morgan (KMI): How Appealing Is This Pipeline Giants Dividend Going Forward? by Simply Safe Dividends

How Bill Gates Built His Net Worth: Four Lessons by The Conservative Income Investor

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