My weekly stock list (9/6)

This week I bought shares of RIG and ESV. 

It looks like many of offshore drilling companies are trading at their 
lowest this week.

Here is my list for upcoming week. I added some extra columns

Stock	Name, description	price as 9/6	Yield	52 wks low	52 wks high	1 yr target price	my opinion of holding
NE	Noble Corp	$26.60	5.60%	$25.06	$35.54	$31.38	watch very close, decide later to sell or keep
MAT	Mattel (toys - barbie, fisher price, baby gear, etc)	$35.10	4.30%	$34.30	$47.94	$38.00	long term
MCD	Mcdonalds	$93.07	3.40%	$92.22	$103.78	$101.39	long term
RIG	Transocean ltd	$37.60	7.60%	$37.33	$55.74	$37.63	watch very close, decide later to sell or keep
PCL	Plum Creek Timber	$41.18	4.30%	$40.24	$50.08	$44.22	potential long term
ESV	Ensco	$47.46	5.90%	$46.43	$62.25	$50.96	maybe potential long term
EC	Ecopetrol SA	$34.84	6.80%	32.88	49.45	36.96	watch very close, decide later to sell or keep

* If I move stock to this list, it means there was a price drop or current price is somewhere in the middle.

I do not buy stocks at their highest prices. I might miss some good stocks but I prefer to sit and wait.

If I have a stock on my list, it means I like something about this stock. If I buy one of these stocks, it does not mean I plan to keep them forever. I might sell them if their price would go up a lot and I feel it's time to sell.

I love Sales on my regular shopping sprays and I use this strategy for my stock shopping... :)

Check A Frugal Family Journey Collection of Stock Analysis
 h ere. 

My complete Watch List of Dividends Stocks here. I update this watch list at least once a month.

My stock picking strategy here. 

Will this way speed up your earnings? I wrote about my idea of speeding up my earnings by trading more often and I would like to hear your opinion. Please read here. 

Please share your thoughts and watch lists.

Thanks for stopping by!

Will this way speed up your earnings?

I keep lots of my stocks in IRA, IRA Roth and SEP accounts.

After observing stock market for a while, I have this idea of speeding up my earnings.

Usually I try to spend at least $1,500 per purchase on my stocks. Or if I am not sure in stock or short on money, I might spend less.

My point is - most stocks keep fluctuating in pricing. 52 weeks high/low pricing is a great example.
I try to buy my stocks on bad news at their lowest or close to lowest price. Then usually after some period of time stock's price will come back to original price or even higher. Then company might have another bad report and price will fall again. If I keep stock without selling I will just earn my dividends and see how my stock's prices jump back and forth - feeling happy on good earnings reports and a little worried on bad days.

But what if I pick certain amount as a point for sale and I will try to do it every week or every other week for different stock? Lets say I pick $300 or $400. So if any of my stocks earn this amount, I sell it. Then I will buy a different stock, which is on sale. By following this strategy, I can earn between $600 and $1600 extra money per month and reinvest it. I could add between $7,200 and $19,200 to my investment portfolio without even doing much extra. I already watch market every day. Even if I do it just once a month, I still can earn an extra $3600 - $4800 on top of my dividends earning.

What do you think about this strategy?

I think I will try to follow this way and I will update you in a while.

My Weekly stock list (8/29)

This week I got bored with my regular list of stocks because there was not much changes and I decided to research and add more stocks to my list.

I updated My Dividend Stock List with all new stocks I added to my watch list. It doesn't mean I plan to buy all of them but if their prices drop one day, I might consider to buy. I added stocks, which have positive numbers and pay more than 4% in dividends.

I did not buy or sell any stocks this week. 

Here is my list for upcoming week.

Stock	Name, description	price as 8/29	Yield
NE	Noble Corp	$28.46	5.60%
MAT	Mattel (toys - barbie, fisher price, baby gear, etc)	$34.49	4.30%
MCD	Mcdonalds	$93.72	3.40%
RIG	Transocean ltd	$38.65	7.60%
PCL	Plum Creek Timber	$40.63	4.30%
ESV	Ensco	$50.48	5.90%

* If I move stock to this list, it means there was a price drop or current price is somewhere in the middle.

I do not buy stocks at their highest prices. I might miss some good stocks but I prefer to sit and wait.

If I have a stock on my list, it means I like something about this stock. If I buy one of these stocks, it does not mean I plan to keep them forever. I might sell them if their price would go up a lot and I feel it's time to sell.

I love Sales on my regular shopping sprays and I use this strategy for my stock shopping... :)

Check A Frugal Family Journey Collection of Stock Analysis
 h ere. 

My complete Watch List of Dividends Stocks here. I update this watch list at least once a month.

My stock picking strategy here. 

Please share your thoughts and watch lists.

Thanks for stopping by!

August Progress

I started tracking my passive income this summer.

My June passive income was $261.00
My July passive income was $209.67  

In August I bought more shares of MCD, GSK, and a new stock EC.

I received $118.36 in Dividends income
My dividend paying stocks were: ARCP, T, RYN, KMI, PETS, PG. 
I earned an interest of $26.05
I earned $11.26 in points on my Discover card
I received $10 check from my Kroger card
I received $70 gift card from amazon.com for opening a credit card account. I am not sure if I supposed to count this one but I was buying a new printer and using $70 off was very appealing... :)

My total financial passive income for the month of August was $235.62

At this moment my goal is to have $1k in passive income from dividends and other financial institutions.

How paying $520 saved me thousands dollars...

I bought my house a year ago. When I bought my house, I had a Home Warranty insurance through the seller. The year passed by and it was time to renew or drop Home Warranty Insurance. My house was built in 2002, not very old. But we live in Texas and our ACs run like crazy during summer months. I decided to renew. Actually instead of renewing I found a new Home Warranty company.

If you are not familiar with Home Warranty insurance, it usually covers most main systems in your house: AC, Heater, Plumbing, Electrical, etc.

The yearly contract cost me $520.00. You can choose either pay in monthly payments or once a year payment. If something that is under the warranty breaks, you call your warranty company, pay a service fee, in my case it is $60, and technician will come and diagnose the problem and sometimes fix it right away.

The thing is you might use it through the year but you might not. Plus not everything is covered. Someone would think it is a waste of money. It turned out it was not in my case.

About two months after I bought a new Home Warranty Insurance my AC stopped working.
I called my Warranty company. Paid $60.00. AC technician came 3 days later. I was upset because I have to wait so long. Technician said I have a leak in the compressor and it needs to be replaced. Then it took another week for installers to come. But instead of compressor they brought entire new unit! I was very happy.

But my happiness didn't last long. They installed new unit, but AC still didn't work. After checking around, they found that previous technician did not notice the real cause of the problem! My motor was broke. It took several long phone calls with my warranty company and AC company, another $60 dollars and a new technician in order to replace the motor. Finally after another week of waiting my AC started working again.

We were lucky to stay with our family member these two weeks. It was a stressful two weeks, and it took me a while to straighten it all up. But I can't complain at the end.

If I would not have warranty company it would cost me at least 1,200 dollars just for a new unit and about $300-500 for the motor, plus freon - another $260 and work - not sure how much. By new regulations AC companies might want to replace my entire system, which would cost me even more. But all that I paid was a price of a contract $520.00 plus 2x$60.00 technician costs.

My warranty is still good for another 10 months, in case something else breaks down.
Will I keep renewing my Warranty? Oh yes!

My Weekly Stock List (8/24)

I spent my last week in Samara, Russia. You can see Volga river on my picture. This is an old Russian town. It was my first time there and it was an interesting experience. But I am so glad to be back home! Everything feels perfect when I am at home! 


While I was in Russia, there was 9 hours difference, so the stock market was open by the time I was back to my hotel room. 

This week I sold one of my non dividend stocks - BJRI. I bought more shares of MCD and GSK and also added EC to my portfolio. 

Here is my list for upcoming week. It did not change much since last week.

Stock	Name, description	price as 8/23	Dividend Yield
GSK	GlaxoSmithCline	$47.68	4.70%
MAT	Mattel (toys - barbie, fisher price, baby gear, etc)	$34.99	4.30%
MCD	McDonalds	$94.45	3.40%
ESV	Ensco	$50.01	5.90%
EC	Ecopetrol SA	$33.13	6.80%

* If I move stock to this list, it means there was a price drop or current price is somewhere in the middle.

I do not buy stocks at their highest prices. I might miss some good stocks but I prefer to sit and wait.

If I have a stock on my list, it means I like something about this stock. If I buy one of these stocks, it does not mean I plan to keep them forever. I might sell them if their price would go up a lot and I feel it's time to sell.

I love Sales on my regular shopping sprays and I use this strategy for my stock shopping... :)

Check A Frugal Family Journey Collection of Stock Analysis h ere. 

My complete Watch List of Dividends Stocks here. I update this watch list at least once a month.

My stock picking strategy here. 

Please share your thoughts and watch lists.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Weekly Stock List (8/16/2014)

This week I spent working in Moscow. It was a busy week.
I was going to blog last week when I just arrived, but I keep having errors when I try to blog.
I guess because I am in a different country now. So I will keep it short.

Here is my stock list for upcoming week.

Stock	Name, Description	Price as 8/16/2014	Dividend Yield
MCD	Macdonalds	$                       93.79	3.2%
GSK	GlaxoSmithKline plc	$                       46.87	4.7%
MAT	Mattel, Inc.	$                       35.08	3.9%
SEAS	SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc	$                       18.66	2.8%
EC	Ecopetrol	$                       33.17	6.2%
ESV	Ensco plc	$                       48.80	5.4%

July Progress

I started tracking my monthly passive financial inflow just last month.

My June passive income was $261.00

This month I bought shares of DRI, MCD and GSK.

I again received more than $100 in dividends! Total of $122.68
My dividend paying stocks were: WIN, ARCP, PM, NKE, KO, IGT, WFM.

I earned an interest of $32.

I earned $13.83 in points on my Discover card. 

I got $10 gift card from Victoria Secret credit card, $10 from Palais Royal credit card, $15 rewards from Kohls and $10 from JCPenney.

My total financial passive income for the month of July was $209.67

At this moment my goal is to have $1k in passive income from dividends and other financial institutions.


This month's pleasant extra - a free new door! :)

My front door desperately needed repair or replacement. I happened to do bookkeeping for a door company. After long discussions we decided that I need to buy a new door instead of repairs. I decided to  buy one of the doors at the shop ($1200 value) at 50% discount with a labor cost of $275 for me. 

It took me a while to accept this price. 

Well, at the end when I came to my client with a checkbook to pay, I had a very pleasant surprise from him. He charged me only $275 for labor and said that he wants to give me a new door as a bonus for my good job I perform for him. I was very happy. :) 

My First Stock Purchase

After I read an interesting back to 1989 story of DivHut  about his first stock purchase I looked back and thought about my first stock purchase.

I think I bought my first stock in 2003.  I did not know much about investing and did not have a trading account.

First of all I had to write a report for one of my University classes about one stock. So I had to pick the stock.

At this moment I was married and we were trying to pay all debts my ex husband accumulated before he had met me. So after reading a bunch of books on how to eliminate debts and reviewing our expenses, I noticed that every morning my ex husband would go to Starbucks and buy a latte and banana bread. I asked him to stop. I even made him banana bread at home. He took my banana bread but said he couldn't live without his cup of Starbucks. I was mad. This is how I made my choice of stock for my school project. I thought there should be not just one person being addicted to this coffee.

It turned out I was right and after my research paper I liked the stock but I did not buy it yet.

Later same year my ex husband got obsessed with the idea of moving to a bigger house. He said it was the one and only opportunity and perfect timing. So at the end we actually built a bigger house. One night while we were at the party and my ex was bragging about our new house to his boss I said, "yeah but it is lots of cleaning". My ex's boss told my ex to get a cleaning lady for me. He even gave me a phone of his cleaning lady.

I called and asked cleaning lady for her fee. Back then it was something around $80-$100 per cleaning. Then I don't know how but I got this idea in my head that instead of inviting and paying cleaning lady every time I clean the house I would put money into investment account and invest in stocks.

This is how I got my first share of Starbucks. It turned out to be a good investment. I actually sold my shares last year but I might buy it again one day.

My Weekly Stock List (7/26)

This week I did not sell any stocks but I bought shares of MCD@95.46. So I told my daughter that now I own a small piece of McDonald's and every time she or her brother buy food there I actually am getting some money back. :)


This picture was made in Russian McDonalds in 2000. :)




Here is my list for upcoming week:

Stock	Name, description	price as 7/26	Dividend Yield
GSK	GlaxoSmithCline	$48.60	4.70%
DRI	Darden Restaurant group	$44.66	4.40%
MAT	Mattel (toys - barbie, fisher price, baby gear, etc)	$35.30	3.90%
MCD	McDonalds	$95.72	3.20%
RCII	Rent-a-Center inc	$24.13	3.20%
WFM	Whole Food Market	$36.88	1.20%
ROST	Ross Stores	$63.46	1.20%

As you can see I added a new stock to my current watch list.

GSK - GlaxoSmithCline is trading at 52 weeks low due to not good earning report and I guess news about bribery in Syria. I have this stock on my main watch list for a while but finally price went down. 

We all know this drug manufacturing company, which manufacture most of vaccines, some specific prescription drugs as well as over counter medicine and everyday products like Aquafresh, Sensodyne, Tums... Plus they are in process of Research and Development on many new drugs and vaccines.

4.7% Dividend Yield paid for more than 20 years sounds great to me.

PE 13.81, 1 Year Target price is $58. 

Read my post about ROST - ROSS Dress for Less stores - here, 

DRI - Darden Restaurant group, RCII - Rent-a-Center  here, 

MAT - Mattel - here

By the way if you are a big Harley Davidson (HOG) fan, check out their stock. It is trading in the middle of 52 weeks low/high. But their dividends only 1.5%, although projected 1 year Target price have room to grow.


Also check A Frugal Family Journey Collection of Stock Analysis here. 

My complete Watch List of Dividends Stocks here. I update this watch list at least once a month.

My stock picking strategy here. 

Please share your thoughts and watch lists.

Thanks for stopping by!

I've got Liebster Nomination :)

So today I got a Liebster Nomination from Kip from Frankly Frugal Finance. I had no idea what it was about, so of course I googled it. :)
It turned out a Liebster award is like a helpful hand for new bloggers you like and want other people to hear about. In order to accept an award in your turn you are supposed to answer 5 questions from the person who promoted you and then find your own 5 nominates for Liebster awards and create list of questions for them.

Thank you Kip for making me feel special today! :)


Here are my answers for Questions from Kip.

 What is your favorite color? 

My favorite color is pink. :)

2.) What is your quest?

If I understand the question correctly my quest is to find the way to live happy, healthy and wealthy life.

3.) Do you know what the first two questions are in reference to?

description of blogger?

4.) What is your favorite blog post to date?

My own favorite blog post was my Feng shui for health wealth and happiness because I organized my notes in a table and sometimes I come back and refer. Like for example when I have to pick a spot for a picture...

5.) Do you have any big travel plans once reaching financial independence?

We already travel here and there and I have one international trip for work once a year for sure. Next summer we might go to Europe or Russia but it will depend if I make a good planning and find good deals on flights. 

For my nomination I pick

1. A Frugal Family Journey 

2. Dividend for starters 

3. Living at Home 

4. Divhut.com

5. My Dividend Pipeline


My Questions for my nominees:

1. Your favorite vacation spot

2. Your first stock

3. Your worst and best investment

4. Do you have pets? 

5. What will you do if you win a lottery tomorrow?

My Stock Picking Strategy

When I describe my stock picking strategy, many people think it's weird.

I wrote about my Stock picking strategy before, you can read it here.

Here is my updated list:

1. The stock should pay dividends. I added it as a rule. I still have stocks from my "before dividends stocks picks", which I am waiting to sell.

2. I have my list of stocks I like, which I update monthly here

In order to put stocks on my list I look through

- all financial data - Ratios, Income Statement, Balance Sheet. I make sure all their numbers are positive and debts make sense.

- 10K, 10Q (not always) - usually if this is unfamiliar stock and I need more info

- company website, especially if I am unfamiliar with industry or stock. The stock should make sense to me - well known brand, love by many, one of necessities, have future, etc.

- Insider transactions ( I do not like when insiders are selling)

- Historical prices and years of dividends

- Current articles and reviews (just to see what's going on)

I watch my list on yahoo finance. I created my customized view, which helps me track my stocks.

It includes

Stock name / stock price / change&%change / 52-wk high/ 52-wk low / Yield / EPS/ PE/ Div Pay date/ Ex Div Date/ 1-yr Trgt price

I like how I can sort by different criteria and I can easily see how each stock is doing.

3. I move stocks to my "Maybe to buy list" if

- stock is already on my watch list (it means I already research stock)

- it is trading close to 52 week low

- 1 Year Target Price is higher then stock trading price

4. I sell stock if it earned >35%, not including dividends, stock is trading at the same price with some ups and downs for 2-3 months and if the current price of stock exceeds 1 year Target price.

I mostly use my IRA accounts for these kinds of transactions.

Some of you asked me why I sell my winners. I have limited capital and by rotating stocks - repeatedly selling winners/buying losers I can increase my capital faster.


5. New stocks. 

- I review % Losers and Most Active on Yahoo Finance daily. I check if any stocks can be added to my list.

- I analyze other bloggers stocks picks

- I read Financial part of local newspaper.

What about you? How do you pick your stocks?

My Weekly Stock List (7/20)

I did not buy or sell any stocks this week.

It is reporting time for many companies, so we might see more stocks selling at bargain price.

if you visit my blog regularly, you might notice that my Weekly stock list is longer this week.

Stock	Name, description	price as 7/19	Dividend Yield
CAG	ConAgra Foods inc	$30.67	3.10%
ARI	Apollo Commercial Real Estate	$16.55	9.50%
MAT	Mattel (toys - barbie, fisher price, baby gear, etc)	$36.20	3.90%
ROST	Ross Stores	$63.31	1.20%
DRI	Darden Restaurant group	$44.38	4.40%
MCD	Mcdonalds	$98.99	3.20%
RCII	Rent-a-Center inc	$24.77	3.20%
WHR	Whirlpool corp	$139.50	2.20%
CPB	Campbell Soup	$43.95	2.70%
WFM	Whole Food Market	$37.10	1.20%

* If I move stock to this list, it means there was a price drop or current price is somewhere in the middle.

I do not buy stocks at their highest prices. I might miss some good stocks but I prefer to sit and wait.

If I have a stock on my list, it means I like something about this stock. If I buy one of these stocks, it does not mean I plan to keep them forever. I might sell them if their price would go up a lot and I feel it's time to sell.

I noticed that MCD(Mcdonald's) shares price went down this week. This is one of the stocks I really want to have in my portfolio. Even if I am a healthy freak, I still like Mcdonalds. I believe they do have some "healthy" fast food options. My favorites are yogurt with fruit for breakfast, salad with grilled chicken or snack wrap for lunch or dinner.

ROST Ross Stores was trading at their lowest this week $91.90 on Thursday.
Read my post about ARI  here, ROST here.

I wrote about DRI - Darden Restaurant group, RCII - Rent-a-Center  here, WHR -Whirlpool here, CAG - Conagra food here

I already have shares of WFM - Whole Food Market which I purchased in  May. The stock is trading at lowest now and if you believe in organic food market, you might consider this stock as a small addition to your portfolio.

I have shares of MAT - Mattel, which I purchased at their previous not good report. I added this stock back to my watch list because this stock is trading close to 52 lows. Everybody is saying "bye bye Barbie' but MAT - Mattel is not only Barbie. They also sell Fisher price toys, baby gear - seats, chairs, swings, nursery furniture, Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels, My American Girl, some Disney toys, etc. If you have a child, you know that we always will buy toys as well as Fisher price baby gear.
PE: 14.75, Dividends Yield 3.9%, paying dividends every year since 1990.
I believe this stock is a great addition to anyone portfolio.

I added CPB - Campbell Soup to my watch list. The dividend yield 2.7% is a little low for me but if the price of stock will keep going down, I might consider to purchase this stock. As I mentioned before I don't like to buy stocks when they are trading over 1 year target price. 1 year target price for CPB now is $41.27. PE 26.54.

My complete Watch List of Dividends Stocks here. I update this watch list at least once a month.

Please share your thoughts and watch lists.

Thanks for stopping by!