Passive Income – September 2008
In September I took a road trip, moved out, started school, and generally slacked off.
- Interest: $51.94
- Dividends: $50.58
- Credit Card Rewards: $87.55
- AdSense: $14.36
- Text Ads: $38.13
- Surveys: $6
But I still managed $248.56, which is not bad at all.
Passive Income – August 2008
For most of the month of August I was gone, first on a family vacation in Michigan, then on a trip to the badlands. So, how did all that travel affect my passive income? Well, my AdSense revenue declined since I wasn’t around to post any new content, and I spent all my money in July, so my interest income was a classic example of an epic fail.
- Interest: $30.89
- Dividends: $44.88
- Credit Card Rewards: $81.53
- AdSense: $11.41
- Text Ads: $29.91
- Surveys: $18.00
Leaving me with $216.32, not too shabby.
REITs
With the housing market falling faster than Bush’s approval rating, Real Estate Income Trusts (REITs) are a shaky investment at best.
The good news is that you can buy into REITs that only invest in business real estate or development properties, and that can help reduce the risk.
Most REITs also pay great dividends, so for my long term dividend investing strategy they fit nicely. Here’s the problem though, a lot of REITs are either based out of Canada or are considering reducing or stopping their dividends, not cool. Case in point, CapitalSource (CSE) has announced that they’re thinking about putting the kibosh on their dividends for the time being to help combat the rising costs of operating in a floundering economy.
A huge drawback of the Canada REITs is the dividend is taxed both in Canada and the US. Boo!
Thoughts or opinions?
New Investment Strategy
It’s no secret that I like to dabble in the stock market, and that I’m trying to generate a decent income from dividend stocks.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to start taking the entire balance earned each month through my Passive Income Project and invest it in various dividend stocks. Now since I’m only making around $125 a month in passive income, I’m planning on setting that money aside on a month to month basis and investing it in a different stock every 3 to 6 months.
Since I’ll be making smaller trades than I usual do, I’m considering getting an account with Zecco so I can invest while avoiding that pesky $12.95 per trade fee with E*Trade.
The general idea is that I’ll be able to both expand my stock holdings as well as my return from passive income. I’ll post updates as I make purchases.
Dividend Stocks
2006 was the first year I purchased a dividend yielding stock, and it was quite by accident, I didn’t even know it yielded a dividend when I bought it! I made a whopping $3 off of dividends that year.
In 2007 I did a bit better, I actually focused on buying a few small dividend stocks. My total gains (from dividends) for 2007 were $95.38.
Six solid months into the year and my quest for dividend stocks is proving far more fruitful. Thanks largely in part to a hefty jump start in investment collateral from selling off some shares of Apple and seeing a 63% return on a 12 month investment.
My goal for 2008 is to make close to $300 in dividends, in pursuit of that goal, I recently purchased 300 shares of a stock which is currently yielding a beautiful 18.80% dividend, paid out monthly. The stock itself has decent growth potential over the next few years as the market corrects itself, and in the meantime is setup in a dividend reinvestment program.
And while I’ve considered a lot of the bank stocks which yield decent dividends for my next purchase, I doubt I’ll invest in any of them considering the trouble the banking sector is in right now.
Anyone else trying their hand at dividend investing?
Passive Income – April 2008
Tragically when my bank cut my interest rate again last month, it was not an April Fools joke, now the rate is 3.01%… for shame.
- Interest: $36.22
- Dividends: $10.04
- Credit Card Rewards: $18.37
- AdSense: $11.78
- Text Ads: $25.00
- Misc website income: $15
- Surveys: $12.00
That’s a total of $128.41, so I made just slightly over the $100 a month target.
Apple Q2 Earnings Preview
Remember kids, tomorrow Apple is set to release its Q2 earnings after market close. While their earnings should be impressive and likely beat the market expectations of $1.11 per share, it’s the Q3 guidance people will really be focused on. As we’ve seen in the past an overly conservative outlook can destroy investor confidence in a hurry (see Apples Q2 outlook as reported with their Q1 earnings), almost as much as missing a quarters projected EPS.
With the economy in a slow down Apple’s pricey computers and accessories may not be as likely to move, which is a point thats been raised over and over by analysts. It should be noted that some believe that Apple’s high prices make it recession proof, purely from the standpoint that they can drop the price per computer by $300 and still make a handsome profit. Apple dropping their prices… Yeah, that’s likely to happen (please pay attention to the dripping sarcasm there).
However, the impending launch of the 3G iPhone coupled with the expanding availability of the iPhone in other countries should do nicely for offsetting any slow down in computer sales. Although since investors tend to act like a bunch of girls, they may see a decrease in computer sales as bad news and run scared.
Let’s try and focus on Apple as a whole, not just their computer division… Mm’kay? After all, they did drop the Computers from the name, remember?
In the interest of full disclosure, I own shares in Apple Inc. so I might be biased, yeah, maybe a little.
p.s. Remind me to sell when Apple hits $200
Blockbuster Hearts Circuit City
In a move that no one expected, or can even understand, Blockbuster has offered a cash buyout of Circuit City… Wait… What?!
Zac Bissonnette of BloggingStocks puts it quite well:
This deal would be the absolute epitome of “two drunken sailors trying to hold each other up.” Both of these companies have experienced precipitous declines in recent years, reporting losses as industry changes and more nimble competitors take their market share.
Blockbuster is said to be offering a cash buyout between $6 and $8 a share. Shares of Circuit City are currently up 28.46%, or $1.11 to $5.01. Shares in Blockbuster are down 13.74%, or $0.43 to $2.70
Now I don’t mind Blockbuster, but I hate Circuit City.
In other news, Google announced its plans to acquire Payless Shoes, citing the pivotal shift in market strategy Blockbuster is forging with its attempted acquisition of Circuit City as the driving factor behind the deal.
