Put some cash to work yesterday and today:
Added to our positions in CHCO, CVX, PEP, SCL, and OLN. Initiated positions in MMM, NSC, ABBV, PLOW and CAT.
Now that the mortgage is paid off, I want to add a bit more into buying. I only made small purchases in the new stocks with the idea that every month we're going to be adding to them.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Added to OHI
Just a little purchase this afternoon to follow on my thinking the other day about adding to my OHI position. Bought 15 shares @ $36.30.
Brings my cost up to $26.05 per share, and assuming a $.55/quarter dividend my YOC runs just over 10%
I had some cash left over in my account, still have some after this, but not sure what I'm going to do with the rest. Might wait a bit.
Brings my cost up to $26.05 per share, and assuming a $.55/quarter dividend my YOC runs just over 10%
I had some cash left over in my account, still have some after this, but not sure what I'm going to do with the rest. Might wait a bit.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Dividends & Reinvestment
Got a couple of dividends reinvested yesterday.
We have a small position in National Penn Bancshares - NPBC. It's a stock that I want to put additional funds in soon. However, it is a lower priority, but in the meantime they paid out $11.11 and that bought 1.0491 shares.
Also paid was the last third of the Omega Healthcare REIT - OHI dividend that was split between last month and this month because of their acquisition of Aviv. $42.54 to get 1.1817 shares. I am thinking about adding to this position since the share price is attractive. I have previously bought on pullbacks when the price dropped to $22 and $29. This seems about as good of an opportunity as those were.
March on!
We have a small position in National Penn Bancshares - NPBC. It's a stock that I want to put additional funds in soon. However, it is a lower priority, but in the meantime they paid out $11.11 and that bought 1.0491 shares.
Also paid was the last third of the Omega Healthcare REIT - OHI dividend that was split between last month and this month because of their acquisition of Aviv. $42.54 to get 1.1817 shares. I am thinking about adding to this position since the share price is attractive. I have previously bought on pullbacks when the price dropped to $22 and $29. This seems about as good of an opportunity as those were.
March on!
Mortgage Dilemma Solved, We Hope
After talking it over with my wife last night, we went ahead and paid off the rest of the mortgage. Until writing out the post yesterday, it hadn't dawned on me that the situation had changed that much between our savings and mortgage. When we moved in just last October, we did have just about enough money to not have a mortgage, but it would have left us with nothing in savings. Really did not want that! Between an annual bonus and a large (unexpected) tax refund earlier this year, it really bumped up our savings and let us redo the back yard last month.
However, the more I thought about it the more sense it made. With the mortgage, we probably couldn't take on a sizable car loan, or at least I didn't want to, but at least we would have a large down payment. As I said previously that I wanted to pay off the mortgage before we replace her car. Well, I'd still like to replace the money we paid off on the mortgage before we purchase a new car, but if it turns out the other way, I think we are better off. The risk, minimal in my view, is that we would have to get a larger auto loan. Not a big deal since we just disposed of the house loan.
One last factor into our decision is that I also don't think her car is going to last 2 years, for us anyways. We've had it for 13 years, and put a lot of miles on it. Though, in the last year we have had two repairs. The first two repairs that we have had to do beyond maintenance. Sure, it's a Honda and that means it will probably still run for another 100,000 miles, however, I really don't want to have a situation where my wife is stranded somewhere. Then we would be stuck in a position of having to scramble to buy a new vehicle. And we really don't want that!
If it hadn't been for the car, I don't think we would have paid off the mortgage. But we agreed that the flexibility provided overrode any other factor.
March on!
However, the more I thought about it the more sense it made. With the mortgage, we probably couldn't take on a sizable car loan, or at least I didn't want to, but at least we would have a large down payment. As I said previously that I wanted to pay off the mortgage before we replace her car. Well, I'd still like to replace the money we paid off on the mortgage before we purchase a new car, but if it turns out the other way, I think we are better off. The risk, minimal in my view, is that we would have to get a larger auto loan. Not a big deal since we just disposed of the house loan.
One last factor into our decision is that I also don't think her car is going to last 2 years, for us anyways. We've had it for 13 years, and put a lot of miles on it. Though, in the last year we have had two repairs. The first two repairs that we have had to do beyond maintenance. Sure, it's a Honda and that means it will probably still run for another 100,000 miles, however, I really don't want to have a situation where my wife is stranded somewhere. Then we would be stuck in a position of having to scramble to buy a new vehicle. And we really don't want that!
If it hadn't been for the car, I don't think we would have paid off the mortgage. But we agreed that the flexibility provided overrode any other factor.
March on!
Monday, May 18, 2015
The Mortgage Payoff Dilemma
We have a little over $10k left on our mortgage. We had to get a large mortgage when we moved here last year because we still owned our house in Florida, but got a great rate on it - 2.75% (5 year ARM since we were going to pay it off before five years). When the house sold there a month later, we took almost all of the proceeds to put against the mortgage here, taking the balance from north of $205K to where we are now. We do have the money saved in a credit union to pay it off, but as I said in the other post that we wanted to keep some out just in case we need a down payment on a new car for my wife.
I am starting to rethink that. I am leaning towards now paying it off. We'd take our savings from a little over $17,500 down to $7500, but it would decrease our monthly mortgage costs by $850, while self-escrowing the taxes and insurance. Saving it back up would take a year or so at the same rate. However, in the case that we need a car, we would have more flexibility. We also would use up all of our savings in that scenario, leaving us a bit vulnerable should the worst happen. Or we would put much less down on a car, that might work too. It's a risk, but writing it out like this shows me that maybe it isn't quite the risk I thought it was at first.
We have a few other things we want to do around the house that we need to save up for - closet organizers, adding on to the deck, swing and chairs for the front porch, swing for the back yard, upgrading our DVR to Tablo TV, buying a soundbar, and saving up for a family vacation just to name a few.
Will let you know what we decide! March on!
I am starting to rethink that. I am leaning towards now paying it off. We'd take our savings from a little over $17,500 down to $7500, but it would decrease our monthly mortgage costs by $850, while self-escrowing the taxes and insurance. Saving it back up would take a year or so at the same rate. However, in the case that we need a car, we would have more flexibility. We also would use up all of our savings in that scenario, leaving us a bit vulnerable should the worst happen. Or we would put much less down on a car, that might work too. It's a risk, but writing it out like this shows me that maybe it isn't quite the risk I thought it was at first.
We have a few other things we want to do around the house that we need to save up for - closet organizers, adding on to the deck, swing and chairs for the front porch, swing for the back yard, upgrading our DVR to Tablo TV, buying a soundbar, and saving up for a family vacation just to name a few.
Will let you know what we decide! March on!
A Little About Me
I'm in my early 40s, married with 3 wonderful children. We live in a small southern town in North Carolina, where we moved back to last year to be closer to family. I've been investing for over 10 years now, a bit haphazardly at first but has morphed into a focused strategy of dividend reinvestment. We have been following a budget/plan for about that long as well. Trying to live the frugal life while not being miserly with our money, because what's the point of saving if all you do is nothing!
We have quite a few competing money priorities that we are working through. Our house is almost paid off - we have probably a little over a year to go. However, my wife's car is going to have to be replaced in the next couple of years. It's 17 years old with over 200,000 miles on it and starting to have a few repairs in the last year. We have some savings set aside should the need to replace it sooner happen, but we'd really like to have the house paid off before. That's the plan, but have kept some option available.
March on!
We have quite a few competing money priorities that we are working through. Our house is almost paid off - we have probably a little over a year to go. However, my wife's car is going to have to be replaced in the next couple of years. It's 17 years old with over 200,000 miles on it and starting to have a few repairs in the last year. We have some savings set aside should the need to replace it sooner happen, but we'd really like to have the house paid off before. That's the plan, but have kept some option available.
March on!
March On!
This is going to be a place for me to keep track of our march to financial independence - paying down debt, spending, investing, dividends and anything else I want to talk about. Hang out a bit.
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