MI Rental Property
Posted on | June 29, 2012 | No Comments
In addition to building a dividend income stream from a diversified portfolio of stocks, I also have a rental property. I initially purchased the property to live in but when I moved out of the vicinity for a new job I converted it into a rental.
Currently the property is operating as a loss and I’m able to deduct the loss against my income so it reduces my taxable income. Obviously, I would not recommend for someone to acquire a rental property with a net loss on a monthly basis but this is the situation I’m in and have to just accept it for now. Here are the details. Read more
I won $500!
Posted on | May 27, 2012 | No Comments
I’m still trying to win the Lottery. In my monthly budget, I allocate some money to be spent on the Lottery. Up until recently, I was just buying quick picks. I typically buy Super Lotto and Mega tickets because the jackpot is going to be at least several million dollars. I’ll also buy Fantasy 5 and Daily Derby tickets when I see the jackpot rolls over multiple times. Although I’d like to win a multimillion dollar jackpot, I’d also be content to win just enough to be debt free. The California Lottery offers several Scratchers whose grand prize I wouldn’t mind winning.
For instance, on a recent trip to the grocery store, I decided to buy the $5 ticket below which has a $250k grand prize. It is the best $5 I’ve ever spent.
It wasn’t the grand prize, however, I’m very pleased with the result.
Somewhat Good News for GE Shareholders
Posted on | May 17, 2012 | No Comments
Somewhat good news for GE shareholders: GE Capital was deemed healthy enough by regulators to return profit to its parent company, GE. As a GE shareholder, I would prefer the money passed through to us in the form a dividend, unfortunately, the CEO, Jeff Immelt, wants to use the money to buyback GE stock to make up for the dilution that was caused in 2008 when they sold $12 billion worth of common stock. The stock hasn’t risen that much lately and is down 7.5% in the last year so it might be a good time for them to purchase the stock at current prices.
GE is currently paying 17 cents a share on a quarterly basis. I bought 100 shares back in 2010 and I’ve already received $114 in dividends. I plan on holding on to the stock for a very long time.
California Lottery’s Best Week of Sales
Posted on | April 9, 2012 | No Comments
I bought a handful of tickets hoping to get a piece of the $656 million Mega Millions jackpot that was finally won on March 30, 2012. Unfortunately, I didn’t win, not even close. I’m still glad I played though. For a few weeks, I was able to imagine myself winning and living the good life.
The amount of money that was spent on tickets that week was overwhelming.
Total sales were: $249,144,779. This also included Scratchers ($60,245,267) and tickets bought towards the other California lottery games. California retailers sold $167,973,775 Mega Millions tickets. Coincidentally, the odds of winning are 1 in 175,711,536. So, it appears that collectively if we all had unique tickets we would have been close to exhausting all the possible permutations! This kind of makes me wonder how many duplicate tickets were sold. At least 38 winning tickets had the same 5 out of 6 numbers.
I’ll keep playing until I find a strategy that works!
Allen Stanford Convicted
Posted on | March 6, 2012 | No Comments
Only a few years ago, Allen Stanford was believed to have a net worth of more than $2 billion. Today he was convicted of operating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme over the last 20 years. The jury convicted Stanford on 13 charges. Bernard Madoff is serving a 150 year sentence, I’m curious to see what Stanford gets. Prosecutors successfully argued that Sir Allen Stanford sold Certificates of Deposits to investors but in reality used the money to maintain a lavish lifestyle and fund various failed businesses. You can read more here.
Buffett Expands his Deficit Matching Program
Posted on | February 9, 2012 | No Comments
Changes to HARP
Posted on | January 17, 2012 | No Comments
The guidelines for Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) have been expanded to (hopefully) include even more homeowners.
- Eliminating certain risk-based fees for borrowers who refinance into shorter-term mortgages and lowering fees for other borrowers;
- Removing the current 125 percent LTV ceiling for fixed-rate mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;
- Waiving certain representations and warranties that lenders commit to in making loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;
- Eliminating the need for a new property appraisal where there is a reliable AVM (automated valuation model) estimate provided by the Enterprises
- Extending the end date for HARP until Dec. 31, 2013 for loans originally sold to the Enterprises on or before May 31, 2009.
The details were disclosed in this press release.
It appears that Bank of America has already implemented the new guidelines. From the Bank of America website:
If you are interested in learning more about the Home Affordable Refinance Program, please call 1.800.669.6607. At Bank of America, we are committed to making government and proprietary home loan assistance solutions available as quickly as possible. As a reminder, if you are experiencing a financial hardship or are struggling to make your mortgage payments, please contact us right away at 1.800.669.6607. The sooner we understand your situation, the sooner we can explore all of the options that may be available to you.
I have two concerns:
I’ve read they are getting tons of requests to refinance!
Buffett’s Wager
Posted on | January 12, 2012 | No Comments
Mr. Warren Buffett put forth a challenge to the GOP in Congress: He will match all the voluntary monetary contributions Republican members of Congress make toward reducing the deficit and will even triple Senator Mitch McConnell’s donation.
Is the GOP really concerned about the Public Debt? They should take him up on the offer!
Auspicious Ending to 2011
Posted on | January 1, 2012 | No Comments
I finally made it below the 250K mark debt-wise! Yes!!! I hope to continue the trend this year but at a slower clip. Instead, I want to invest more in equities. Last year, I started keeping track of my returns from my stock holdings. Now, I’ll be able to compare from one year to the next.
I’ve tallied my investment income for December and updated the graphs. The totals for this month are a bit misleading because mutual funds I hold in my 401k and HSA wait until December every year to disperse the dividends. I ‘m still very pleased with the results though.
I’m also going to look into refinancing my mortgage. I’m underwater but I’m hoping I’ll qualify for the new HARP program now that the guidelines have been eased a bit. (With interest rates hovering around 4% it is distressing that very few are able to take advantage of the cheap financing yet everyone holding cash is penalized.) I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
I’m also very pleased that House Republicans finally did the right thing and let the payroll tax holiday continue a bit longer. I believe it puts money into the hands of people who spend it helping to stimulate the economy.
Happy New Year to all!
Bye-Bye 11-11
Posted on | December 5, 2011 | No Comments
I’ve updated my debt and Meager Income charts through December 1st. One more month to go before the start of 2012. I’ll be very excited if I can break through the $250k mark. I’m tempted to take out a 401k loan if the stock market rallies in the next few weeks to pay off a higher interest loan and pay back the loan over time.
I received a total of $305.78 in dividends this month:
| AIOAX | 19.97 |
| CLP | 22.22 |
| FNFG | 66.21 |
| T | 97.38 |
| VZ | 100 |
| Total | 305.78 |
I was able to take advantage of the stock volatility this month with options. I had a net gain of $218.05. I sold a few calls against existing holdings and sold some put options as well. I was assigned some of the put options and then turned around and sold call options on the holdings. As I was preparing my update, I thought to myself that maybe I should be reporting my Capital Gains and Losses here too. I will.
I no longer own Microsoft stock directly (I’m sure I have plenty of exposure to it through mutual funds). I was assigned the stock after a put option I sold expired in the money. After selling a couple of covered calls against it, I decided it was not volatile enough for covered calls. Additionally, the option strike prices did not have a large enough range and the premiums barely covered the transaction costs. I am a novice options trader though so I may revisit the stock again after I gain additional experience trading options. At this point I decided it would be best to sell my holdings for a small gain of $274.55.
On my to do list before the end of the month is locking in some capital gains. I’ve already locked in losses for the year.
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