So Far, A Terrific Tuesday!

Monday was good to everyone in the stock market, with over a 200 point increase in the Dow. I was a little worried today when I saw stock futures were lower, although I have to admit I expected that to happen after such a good day yesterday. As it turns out though, both of my accounts are up, so I'm feeling pretty good about my stock picks right now.

My Top 10 Holdings and Percentage of Portfolio:

Universal Insurance Holdings (UVE) 21.6%
British Petroleum (BP) 9.1%
AT & T (T) 7.1%
BDMXX Money market account 5.8%
Veolia Environmental (VE) 5.1%
AFLAC (AFL) 4.6%
Euroseas LTD (ESEA) 4.4%
Merck and Company Inc. (MRK) 3.9%
General Maritime (GMR) 3.3%
Sysco Corp. (SYY) 3.3%

I'm thinking I probably need to sell a few shares of UVE to decrease my exposure, but I may increase other holdings instead, which would reduce the percentage of UVE in my overall portfolio. I think at the current price, UVE is still a good buy. They seem to be a very well run small insurance company with a promising future.

My money market account is not usually in the top ten holdings. I currently have extra cash due to recent stock sales. I'll be re-investing that money soon.

IRA's, 401k's and Mutual Funds Revisited

On February 25th of this year, I wrote an entry in my blog explaining why I don't invest in mutual funds.

http://thebluecollarinvestor.blogspot.com/2008/02/why-i-dont-invest-in-mutual-funds.html

On November 14th, 2007 I also wrote an entry concerning my views on IRA and 401k retirement accounts.

http://thebluecollarinvestor.blogspot.com/2007/11/iras-and-401ks-and-lions-and-tigers-and.html

Needless to say, my views are not extremely popular. I'm sure that, due to these two articles, a lot of readers and so called "investment professionals" would question my credibility as an investor. However, I'm not exactly writing to give investment advice to anyone. I'm writing about what I personally am doing to build my investment portfolio, it's up to the reader to make up their own mind about what's right for them.

Having said all that, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Robert Kiyosaki's latest post on the Rich Dad blog, "Playing the Mutual Fund Lottery." I came to many of the same conclusions expressed in this article after my experience with mutual fund investments and after reviewing both IRA's and 401k's and deciding against investing in them for retirement. Robert Kiyosaki's credibility, as a successful investor and best-selling author, is unimpeachable. Read what he has to say on the subject of mutual funds and retirement accounts at:

http://richdadblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/playing-mutual-fund-lottery.html