For the new year, we will be bombarded with new investment ideas, portfolio returns from everyone, and the constant drumbeat of analysis/FUD/predictions from the major media financial programs. It’s a good time to take a step back and turn all this stuff off. Keep your focus on what your are trying to accomplish with your portfolio.
The biggest threat to your portfolio is giving in to the temptation that you need to do “X” (whatever it is this week) because its the newest “trend”, will get your awesome returns, and the story is “developing”. There are so many things you could invest in, some of them will be great ideas while many won’t be great ideas. Or if it is a good idea, you need to confirm that you (and not someone else) can actually make money with it.
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During the weekend, it’s relaxing to drink coffee and…read the newspaper!
Newspapers still have value, there is an experience here that can’t be duplicated with an iPad. Though, I have to admit that I don’t read newspapers that much anymore.
If you are a person of a certain age (say over 35), you probably at sometime in the past remember getting a paper newspaper delivered to your home. It’s been over 10 years since I last had a NY Times print subscription. Like many things you develop as a habit when you are a child, I still have affection for reading newspapers – especially the Sunday edition. As much as I like everything available electronically, sometimes it is too much and overwhelming.
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My company just notified me that I can now get my W2 form electronically.
I’ve been gradually moving all of my financial communications from paper mailings to electronic forms. The last straw for me was when the Post Office lost one of my tax returns last year. It was mailed on April 17th, probably went into the same truck that all the other tax returns were in, going to the same destination. And yet they still lost it. I can’t remember the last time I bought a book of stamps, it might be more than 10 years ago.
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December 18th, 2011
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Museum of Finance
In recent years, I have visited many of the museums in Manhattan. I started with the largest and most popular ones, and quickly have determined that photos don’t do many of these fine works of art any justice; you need to see them up close. See works by Salvador Dali or Van Gogh at MOMA.
To get more ideas for museums, I went to the yearly CultureFest held in Battery Park City, NYC. There are many smaller museums which serve some niche interests which this festival highlights along with some performance art that is scheduled thoughout the day. It is worth a visit if you have the opportunity, Battery Park is beautiful and a great place to host a festival. It is at the CultureFest where I learned that there is a Museum of Finance (or as I like the call it, the Money Museum) located where else but on Wall Street. This is worth a visit, too, but make sure you plan other activities. It won’t fill up your day in the same way the CultureFest or MOMA would. I recently visited this museum.
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This is what I am reading this weekend.
Futura Seeks To Lift Fortunes - Futura UK (LON:FUM), which trades on the London exchange is looking to “enhance” earnings in an unusual way. Adding Viagra to condoms. No Joke.
Cheap Stock With A Recent Dividend – Mantra talks about Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BDX). This company has increased dividends for 38 straight years, does it belong in your portfolio?
The Maturation Of Tech Stocks – Dividend Monk talks about if those mature technology companies from the first Internet Boom are worthy of investment because of their dividend policy. Can these former pure growth companies convince you that they are dividend growth plays?
IBM Dividend Stock Analysis – Speaking of former pure growth darlings, IBM has successfully transformed itself into a formidable dividend growth stock. Read Dividend Growth Investor’s analysis.
Why You Should Not Invest Using Leverage – BuyLikeBuffett talks about why you shouldn’t use leverage. This is a controversial topic as the MF Global bankruptcy has demonstrated that the recent lessons of the financial meltdown haven’t been heeded. There are cases where even average investors can use leverage, such as Municipal Bond Funds. Most Municipal bond funds use leverage without much difficulty.
Ford Ends Dividend Drought – Marketwatch.com reported that Ford (F) has reinstated its dividend after a five year drought. Ford was the only domestic automobile manufacturer which didn’t go into bankruptcy. This is not an obvious dividend growth play more of a contrarian play.
If You Own Mutual Funds Or ETFs, Don’t Ignore This Metric – MoneyCone offers up this extensive and complete article about Lipper averages and how to use them when evaluating mutual funds and ETFs. Takeaways: Lipper averages mean beating other funds, not necessarily the market; mutual fund providers game the rating system to make their funds look better (does this surprise anyone?).
