FIRST STOCK PURCHASE THROUGH ETRADE

I made my first stock purchase through my new Etrade account.  Decided to buy more shares of AGNC for my Roth IRA and my regular taxable account.  AGNC's numbers look very promising and I love the monthly dividends.  Their monthly dividend of eighteen cents per shares works out to a 12.34% yield on their recent price of $17.42 per share.  With earnings per shares far exceeding current dividend payouts, I think it will be a good pick for my portfolio going forward.  I wouldn't suggest anyone else buy into it without first doing some research to see if it fits with their own investment plan.  

My car was totaled by a hit and run driver while parked in my front driveway last week.  So it's been a hectic 2 weeks, replacing my vehicle, dealing with the insurance, working extra hours and spending time with the family for Thanksgiving.  I'm very tired, but happy to report that it all worked out well.  With a lot of research, I was able to buy a car 6 years newer than the one I lost, using only the insurance settlement and none of my own money.  Actually had about $460 left over, which I'll use to get any work needed on the car.  I bought a smaller car with much better gas mileage, so it should save me a great deal going forward.  I'm pretty happy with the way it all worked out.

With market prices down, I'm currently reinvesting all dividends.  I figure I'll take advantage of the lower prices to pick up more shares of current holdings at lower prices.  It will also help reduce the average price per share.  So when the market eventually goes back up, I'll be in a much better position to profit on my holdings.  In the mean time, I'm happy to keep collecting the dividends and watching the payments increase month after month.

MOVE TO ETRADE COMPLETE!

It was a long time in coming, but the transfer of my investment accounts to Etrade is now complete.  While I've been spending a lot of time getting acquainted with their format, I think I'm really going to like the move.  I made my first cash deposit into my taxable account.  I had drawn quite a lot of money out before the move, mostly to pay for medical bills not covered by my insurance.  However, I'm in a position now to start replacing the money I took out, thanks in large part to the extra cash I've been earning from Prizerebel, Swagbucks and MyPoints.  

Haven't decided on my first stock purchase yet.  I'll probably go with a monthly dividend ETF.  Most likely it will be one of the ones they offer with no commissions.  Haven't figured out how to find those yet, but I know they offer them.  I could just buy more shares of SDIV, but I think I can do better income wise.  So I'm going to shop around.

I did get signed up for dividend reinvestment.  Want to take advantage of the current lower prices in the market to add to all my positions.  Also leaning very heavily toward adding a great deal to my position in AGNC.  As a dividend investor, I love the monthly dividends with the 12.14% yield, but I'm especially crazy about their earnings per share of $3.17 compared to their annualized payout of $2.16!  Add in a price to earnings of only 5.65 and I think I'd be crazy not to buy more.  I'm always cautious when it comes to real estate trusts because I've been burned in the past.  However, in those cases they were paying out huge dividends without the earnings to back it up.  So I'm pretty optimistic about this one.  I already hold shares in my IRA and Roth IRA, but I think I'll boost my holdings in the Roth account as soon as I have the available cash.

If my workplace comes through with the Christmas bonus this year, I plan on investing the majority of the money.  We haven't had a very good year, so I'm not sure whether we'll get a bonus or not.  I would think so, but in case we don't, I don't want to be disappointed by not being able to go ahead with my investment plans.  So I'm looking at ways to boost my investments and dividend income outside of getting a bonus.

My 401k just keeps racking up the cash.  The investment performance is lackluster at best and I hate the fees.  But I would not have that money in my portfolio if it weren't for the 401k, since the deductions from my paycheck come mostly from taxes.  So I'm pretty happy to see the balance increase every payday.  When I'm ready to retire, I plan on rolling that money over into my Roth IRA.  It should provide a substantial boost to monthly dividend income and I'm pretty happy about that.