Happy Thanksgiving!

It's hard to believe it's Thanksgiving already and before we know it Christmas and New Years Day will be here. So I'll take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I guess I'm most thankful for being back at work. While my new job leaves a lot to be desired, I'm thankful for having a job at all, when so many people are unemployed.

Looking ahead to the new year, I'm working on my investment plan. I've decided to take advantage of the capital gains on some of my stocks and retire the remaining debt on my credit cards. At the same time I plan to sell some of the underperforming stocks in my personal portfolio and divert the cash to more shares in master limited partnerships. This should reduce my tax liability in the coming years, while increasing average monthly cash flow from dividends. The increased cash flow and reduction in taxes, should more than make up for the loss of dividends from the stocks I'm selling to pay off old credit card debt. I'm only keeping 2 credit cards and using them very sparingly. Maybe one of these days the credit card companies will come to their senses and if not I'll simply avoid doing business with them.

Back in August I wrote about some of my investments in Master Limited Partnerships (see: http://thebluecollarinvestor.blogspot.com/2009/08/mlps-start-paying-off.html) and how they were beginning to pay off. I've been very pleased with their performance and look forward to earning even more going forward. I really love the idea of tax advantaged income outside of my IRA account.

For the new year, I'm also looking in to starting a new business or possibly purchasing a business in partnership with some of my family members or friends. I am aware of the risks involved in starting a business, but I'm also well aware of the potential rewards if the business is successful. No concrete plans yet, but I'm definitely interested in starting a business of my own.