MOVE TO ETRADE NOVEMBER 5th

Well it's been months in the making but the move from Capital One Investing to Etrade is finally near.  As of Friday Nov. 3rd all accounts will be transferred to Etrade and available for access on Monday, November 5th, 2018.  I'm actually pretty excited about the move.  I made a lot of changes in my holdings prior to the move, so it will be a fresh start with Etrade.  Can't wait to get things moving again.

Just as an update, I'll still be collecting 496 dividend payments per year from my current holdings.  This does not include any dividends paid through my 401k account.  I also receive 40 interest payments per year.  While total dividends and interest are still way short of the amount I'd need to live on, they are increasing every month.  I've also started to make a substantial amount on my side gig doing surveys on the internet.  So 2018 hasn't been an entirely bad year for me.  

HEALTH ISSUES SLOW BLOG POSTS

I didn't realize until today, that it had been over two months since I'd posted to my investment blog.  I've been dealing with health issues, mostly related to advanced osteoarthritis.  I was at the point of losing my ability to walk, but with the help of a good chiropractor, I'm doing much better now.

Being distracted does not mean I've been inactive.  On the contrary, I've made several adjustments to my portfolio in the past couple of months to boost monthly dividend income.  I've also streamlined my investments by selling off some individual shares and putting the money to work elsewhere.  Unfortunately, health care is expensive and I had to take money from my taxable investment account to pay for some of my care.  This has only been a minor setback, since at the same time I was adding to my 401k and reinvesting monthly dividends.  So my total investments are about the same as before, except for the recent drop in market prices.  

Speaking of the drop in market prices, I'm thinking this may be a good time to add to some of my positions, reducing average price per share by buying additional shares at the lower price.  I'll be looking for opportunities to do this after the transfer of my accounts from Capital One to Etrade are completed.  In the mean time, I'm letting dividend payments accumulate as cash balances in my accounts.  While I'm big on automatic reinvestment, since it avoids commissions, I've seen some advantage to taking all dividends in cash.  The main advantage being that I'm able to direct the cash towards the higher dividend paying stocks.  While commissions eat into that somewhat, the higher monthly payments may make it all worthwhile.

One thing I'm excited about with Etrade are all the funds they offer with no commission charges.  I've already bought a stake in SDIV which is available through Etrade with no commission charges.  I also like the fact that I can select which stocks to reinvest dividends and which ones to collect cash.  Of course I was able to do this with Capital One as well, but I'm glad I'll be able to continue doing so.

Made some advancements in paying down old debt, which I'm very happy with.  I'll be even happier when I get the first one paid off entirely.  After I pay off the first bill, I'll be directing the money from that payment towards paying off the next one, so they'll be dropping fast!  I'm pretty excited about that!

Last month I looked at the paid survey sights I'd been working with online, with a view to increasing income from those.  I'm happy to report a dramatic increase in income from this source.  Not only will it help to pay off old debt, but it will be a boon to my investment accounts, since I'll have more free cash to invest.  I like the idea of turning money into more money!

CASHED IN GAIN ON HWBK AND BOUGHT MORE AGNC

I'd been sitting on a gain of over 51% on my HWBK shares in my IRA for quite some time now.  While I think it's a pretty decent stock, I wasn't really making much in dividends.  So I sold all shares, collected the gain and reinvested the money in more shares of AGNC.  This more than doubles the amount of money I was earning in dividends from HWBK for the same dollar investment and the dividend is paid monthly.

AGNC has a dividend of .18 cents per share or an 11.59% yield on their current price of $18.70 per share.  Their price to earnings is 5.4 with earnings per share of $3.46.  Since the stock price is currently down from my initial buy in price, I've also lowered my average price per share.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with this trade and look forward to collecting dividends from AGNC for many years to come.

BOOSTED MONTHLY DIVIDENDS ANOTHER 1%!

With Capital One Investing transferring all their investors accounts to Etrade in August, I was forced to sell fractional shares from reinvested dividends.  After liquidating the shares, it occurred to me that I could reinvest the money in mutual funds which allow for fractional share transfers.  So I took the cash from the fractional shares and used it to purchase additional shares of FTF and ZTR.  The new shares will boost monthly dividend income by 1%!  So as it turned out, this wasn't an entirely bad thing.  I took lemons and made lemonade.

Now that I'm finding out more about Etrade, I've decided to keep my accounts with them instead of transferring to TD Ameritrade.  While I still think TD Ameritrade is better, I believe I can work with Etrade and avoid the hassle of moving my accounts a second time.  

Can't say I'm especially proud of the performance of my 401k, although the account is making money.  It's just not making much money.  I've always thought TransAmerica was a very good company.  They're the ones managing my 401k.  I have to say I'd really like to see on my account statements when or if my dividend funds payout dividends.  For some reason, that information is not provided.  Otherwise, I'm O.K. with how things are going there.  I'm certainly stockpiling a lot of extra retirement savings I probably wouldn't have, had I not signed up for the 401k.

Can't wait to get things moving with Etrade.  I've researched some of their "no fee" funds and have already purchased a stake in one.  I have another one I'd like to buy shares in as cash permits.  That probably won't happen until my accounts are transferred over.  I'll have to get my dividend reinvestment program in place.  It's a little more involved with them than it was at Capital One, but it doesn't seem especially difficult.  I'm excited about the move.  Sometimes change is good.

KEEP YOUR MONEY MOVING!

I've been reading a lot lately about the laws of attraction, especially pertaining to attracting money.  One thing that struck me as really profound is that money is energy and needs to be in a state of flow.  Normally people think of money as coming in and flowing back out to bills and expenses, but we should never forget it's just as easy to spend your money on tools to make more money as it is to spend it on things you probably don't really need.  

I have a weakness for electronic gadgets and have a tendency to spend too much money on them.  Even though I know I don't really need them.  Lately I've taken to asking myself whether these things will increase or decrease cash flow.  So I've cut way back on the amount of money I spend on things and use it instead to buy more dividend stocks to increase money coming in.  If you get in the habit of spending your money on things that will bring you more money instead of things that collect dust around your house, eventually you'll be making way more than you ever thought possible.  

So you need to keep your money moving.  But most importantly, you need to keep it moving in the right direction.  Make a habit of it.  Once it comes in, pay yourself and put that money to work earning you more money.  Then pay your bills and expenses and if there's anything left, you can buy the extra things that you want.  

SDIV REPLACES NRZ AS MY FINAL STOCK PURCHASE WITH CAP ONE

After doing a little more research on Etrade, I decided I may leave my account with them after it's transferred from Capital One.  With that in mind, I looked up a list of their commission free funds and identified two monthly payers with high yields and low price to earnings.  So I cancelled my purchase of NRZ and put in an order for SDIV instead.  Once my account transfers to Etrade, I'll be able to purchase additional shares of SDIV commission free!  Not to mention this initial stake will increase monthly dividends by over 1%!

Once my account is transferred and I have the DRIP plan in place, I'll also be purchasing shares of SRET.  It's a REIT with a yield of 8.4% and a P/E of only 9.49 and pays monthly dividends as well.  In order to have more cash on hand, I'll be taking all dividend income from my taxable account in cash.  I'll transfer that to an interest bearing account to hold for a rainy day or in case some incredible opportunities should pop up in the future.  As for my retirement accounts, I'll be mostly reinvesting dividends, although I think I'll make an exception for the bond funds and take those payments in cash.  

At the beginning of the year, I certainly didn't expect to make so many changes.  However, sometimes change is good and you got to roll with the punches, especially where the stock market is concerned.  So I'm excited and optimistic about the changes.  I think there could be some real opportunities here to take my investments to the next level.

LAST STOCK PURCHASE THROUGH CAPITAL ONE

Just put in an order to make my last stock purchase through Capital One Investing.  I'm buying a stake in NRZ for their 11%+ yield and intend to hold on for the long term, as long as their earnings hold up.  This will increase monthly dividend income by a little over 1%.  Not a huge increase, but it all adds up.  Don't know how I'll feel about Etrade, I'm taking a wait and see approach right now.  If I don't like it, I'll switch my accounts to TD Ameritrade.  

My place of employment has become really unstable due to poor management, so I've been looking at options outside my job for earning an income.  I restarted my resale business, which is doing good so far and am considering launching a service type business involving computer upgrades.  More on that to follow.  Due to ongoing health issues, I'm not really sure how much longer I'll be able to work a regular 40 week, so I've been exploring my options.  Would love to see my health improve so I could move on to another job, but I'm beginning to think that just might not happen.

I think there's a lot of instability in the markets going forward, so I've decided to take some money off the table by collecting all dividends in cash.  I'll be holding the cash in an interest bearing account and waiting for future opportunities to put it to work.  While this will slow the growth of my investment portfolio to an extent, I'll still be adding more through my 401k at work.