MORE EXTREME COUPON SAVINGS

To compensate for extra spending on Christmas this year, I've made it my goal to save as much as possible on household spending through extreme couponing.  I managed to walk away with a 50% savings on my weekly grocery shopping at Schnuck's this past Friday.  They had a special from Wednesday through Friday, doubling all coupons up to $1.  So I picked out all my $1 coupons and did my shopping for the week.  I purchased $80 worth of food, including meat and dairy products, for $40!  50% off is not as good as the people on TLC's hit show, "Extreme Couponing", but it still made it possible for me to buy twice the amount of groceries I would have bought normally.  

All the money I save by using coupons is money that can be better spent paying off debt and rebuilding my investment portfolio.  So the more I save the better.  With that in mind, I'm also planning to rebuild my stockpile, so I'm gearing up to take full advantage of all lupcoming coupon specials.  Wouldn't mind doing one of the $700 shopping trips for $10 or $15 like they do on TLC.  I'm working on that too.

2013 INVESTMENT PLAN

It's time once again to revise my investment plan for the new year.  After setbacks from out sized medical expenses in 2012, I'm taking an entirely new approach for 2013.  There are many roads to wealth and this time around I'm going for quality instead of quantity.  While my attempt to build a portfolio paying a dividend for every day of the year was quite doable and not entirely unsound, it was a great deal to manage.  So as I begin rebuilding my investments, I'll be targeting quality dividend stocks for the long term.  

My plan in a nutshell:  To pick a dream portfolio of no more than 12 stocks and build large holdings in each stock through monthly investments and dividend re-investment.  I plan to re-invest all dividends in my IRA account and collect all dividends from my taxable account in cash.

As for the looming "financial cliff", if the politicians can't get their heads out of their asses long enough to come up with a solution, so be it.  We've lived through major social, political and economic upheavals in the past and we'll survive this one as well.  One thing I've learned in the past 52 years is that a person can deal with anything, you just have to figure out how.  As for new taxes on stock dividends, if they're taxed like regular income, I'm O.K. with that.  Just got to roll with the punches.  

STOCK PURCHASES CNP AND UVE

Completed purchase of CNP shares for my taxable investment account this past Tuesday.  I've scheduled an order to purchase more shares of UVE for my IRA account this coming Tuesday.  With so much uncertainty in Washington and the stock market, I'm playing it safe with utilities and insurance company shares. We'll see what the new year brings and decide where to go from there.

On a brighter note, I managed to save a great deal on my shopping at Walgreens today.  I needed laundry soap and fabric softener, so I matched up coupons, register rewards and sales and managed to save 91% on laundry supplies.  On my other purchases I saved 37%, which is not nearly as good as 91% but it's still a fantastic savings.  Using coupons is making it much easier to rebuild my investment accounts.  Looking forward to 2013.  It's sure to be a challenge to maneuver changes in the tax code and new health care regulations, so it will be more important than ever to save in every way you can.

ONLINE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING AND EXTREME COUPONING

Finished my Christmas shopping in one day, actually in less than one hour.  I went through one of my shopping rewards programs online and bought everything from one store.  Didn't really get any outstanding deals, so I'm hoping the cash back rewards are good because I spent more than I'd planned on spending. 

With that in mind, I decided the best way to make up for the extra spending was to save on everything else with extreme couponing.  I hit Walgreens Sunday and picked up Colgate Total toothpaste, a Colgate Optic White toothbrush and 5 bottles of Dawn dish liquid for less than $6.  Today I stopped by Gerbes and picked up 2 boxes of Jimmy Dean's fully cooked sausage and a dozen eggs for $4, for a savings of 63% off the regular prices.  The sausage was on sale 2 for $6 and if you bought 2 boxes you got a dozen large eggs free.  I used two coupons for 55 cents off per box on the sausage, both coupons double up to $1 each bringing my total cost down to just over $4 with tax.  I'll be watching for more great deals in the weeks to come and should be able to save enough to cover everything I've spent on Christmas this year. 

Nothing special to report on my investments.  With the looming "financial cliff"  and all the dawdling in Washington, I'm not expecting much to happen with the stock market until after the first of the year.  Since I'm in a buying phase, to replace stocks I sold to pay off medical bills this year, I'm kind of hoping for the market to stay low.  Whatever the case may be, I'll go with the flow and add some great dividend paying shares each month until I've replaced everything I had to sell.

BUYING UVE

Put in orders to purchase shares of UVE (Universal Insurance) for my taxable and retirement accounts.  With their 8.71% dividend yield on their recent price of $3.91, I'm looking to add to overall portfolio yield from dividends with this purchase. 

Got a big corporate inspection at work on Monday, so I'll be spending the weekend brushing up on corporate policy and procedure in preparation for that.  Be glad to have that out of the way.

The holidays are here, looking forward to a great Thanksgiving dinner, but I must admit I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet.  I'll be looking for some great deals online, probably won't do much shopping in the stores this year.

Started shopping around for health insurance.  The company I work for only offers realistic coverage for management, so I've opted not to sign up for their plans, since their policy only covers up to $10,000 per year and doesn't cover major medical.  I really only need major medical, so I could have a high deductible and pay for my own doctor visits and prescriptions, just have to find coverage at a reasonable rate.

DON'T BLAME ME, I VOTED FOR THE OTHER GUYS

The presidential election results may have been disappointing for me, but not entirely unexpected.  After all, I never really thought Romney had the charisma to beat Obama.  Even so, it was a lot closer than I expected, which should have sent signals to Obama and the Democrats that maybe they need to have a good hard look at the way they've been doing things.  Not likely to happen I suspect.

At any rate, the elections over and the results are what they are.  The administration is already talking tax hikes and the stock market took an immediate dive.  Neither of which were unexpected with an Obama win.  So what does a person do now?

I don't know about anyone else, but I've decided to look at it all as a stock buying opportunity and rebuild my investment portfolio.  After my last heart attack, the medical bills devastated my savings and investments, but like with any disaster,  things are starting to turn around and I'm getting back on track.  I've scheduled transfers to my regular stock account and my retirement account next week.  I'll be keeping things on a conservative level, trying to minimize tax exposure while maximizing income.

I've been reading the book, "You're Broke Because You Want to Be" by Larry Winget.  Great book for people who find themselves living paycheck to paycheck or never being able to pay their bills.  While I don't really have any trouble managing my finances anymore (I haven't been "broke" since September of 1993), I'm always looking for new ideas and ways to improve.  It's a great book and a great read, I highly recommend it.

As for election results, it's time to move on.  Whatever happens, don't blame me, I voted for the other guys.  Politicians come and go, and my "hope" is that moving "forward" they won't do too much damage along the way.  

WHO IS OBAMA REALLY ASKING TO PAY MORE IN TAXES?

Saw coverage of one of President Obama's campaign speeches today on HLN.  During the speech he received a round of applause when he compared his plan for our economy to former President Clinton.  While I think it highly questionable that Clinton's economic policies had anything to do with the budget surplus during his administration, there is one thing I know for sure about that time.  When President Clinton was elected, he passed one of the largest tax increases in history and made it retroactive to the beginning of the year.  Did he ask the rich to "pay a little bit" more, like President Obama says in his campaign commercials?  Undoubtedly.  However, as someone who lived and worked through those years, I know from first hand experience that my personal income taxes increased dramatically during Clinton's years in office, while my income did not.  In fact, there is no doubt in my mind that I would be considered among the "working poor" and yet I was faced with higher taxes and less take home pay.  

So if President Obama wants to compare himself to Bill Clinton, then I'm afraid I'll be saying NO THANK YOU on election day.  And by the way, wasn't it during this administration that government bailouts, with taxpayers money, helped rich bankers pay themselves obscene bonuses, while the rest of the nation suffered through the "Great Recession"?  I didn't hear any mention of that in his commercials about all that he's accomplished during his first term.  In all fairness, I think he probably should have mentioned that as well.

All this leads me to question who the President is really asking to "pay a little bit more"?