Author: Cornerman

The Mortgage, paying off and how to begin.

Well, it’s getting less, and is making a significant impact on our monthly expenses . so far it saves about 115 Euro a month. Most people will say that’s not all that much.

It’s a nice dinner for two every month for example. Some money you can spend on something else than interest.
It gets more interesting if you save that money and pay your mortgage off some more. Let’s take an example.

For instance you have a 200.000 mortgage. Let’s take 5% interest. I know it’s lower nowadays but a lot of people are still around 5% from before the 2008 crisis.
In the Netherlands it was all the rage to have a mortgage where you only paid the interest and didn’t pay off the debt every month.

This works well if the market keeps going up and when you sell the house is worth more than the original price you paid.
Not so much now , and a lot of people are either waiting it out or some start to pay off. the latter being a very wise decision.

Back to the example , Let’s say you pay 20.000 which saves you about 1000 per year in interest. (not taking into account any tax benefits etc.)
Save that 1000 and pay off again at the end of the year or better monthly (if possible). Saves another 50. And next year you can pay off 1050 , saves 52,50.

Etc etc, well you get the drift. This goes pretty fast without costing any extra money per month except for the initial payment. You simply start. It’s that easy.

Floating Points -Elaenia

To be honest, I never heard any music by Floating Points before, just a very cool mix I found on Soundcloud. Shortly after I read an interview with Sam Shepherd the man behind Floating Points.

Which has a part about how to make tea which is exactly what I always explain to people. So he is a perfectionist , with an impressive set of music stuff.

So I had to check out his music, which is very remarkable indeed. I find it very relaxing music.

On first listening my favourite track was Silhouettes (I,II,III) , but now my favourites are Thin Air and For Marmish.

All tracks are excellent by the way, and there is much to discover upon listening to the tracks over and over again. So you’ll never be bored. Be sure to have a listen. Hopefully Sam will make a lot more music in the future!

November – Dividend payments so far

It’s been a while since I last posted on my dividend payments. This is 2015 so far. Including everything in the last post.
I really like dividend’s when they come in , it’s simply a lot of fun. At the moment I simply reinvest my dividends in new shares which generate dividend.

I will probably never find the next big winner in the stock market, but I am trying to generate a steady growth. And with more stock comes more dividend.
There will some other payments that are coming in the next few weeks, I post them later.

The dividends without tax, in Euro are :

12-11-2015 APPLE INC. EUR 4,42
30-10-2015 DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY EUR 3,57
26-10-2015 GENERAL ELECTRIC EUR 1,95
15-10-2015 W.P. CAREY INC. REIT EUR 8,12
1-10-2015 COCA-COLA COMPANY EUR 2,80
29-9-2015 VANGUARD DIV APPRECIATION EUR 0,76
28-9-2015 ICAHN ENTERPRISES L.P. EUR 0,91
21-9-2015 ROYAL DUTCH SHELL EUR 42,27
10-9-2015 MICROSOFT EUR 2,63
9-9-2015 UNILEVER EUR 1,51
13-8-2015 APPLE INC. EUR 4,42
30-7-2015 DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY EUR 3,57
27-7-2015 GENERAL ELECTRIC EUR 1,95
2-7-2015 VANGUARD DIV APPRECIATION EUR 0,75
30-6-2015 ICAHN ENTERPRISES L.P. EUR 0,91
22-6-2015 ROYAL DUTCH SHELL EUR 41,95
14-5-2015 APPLE INC. EUR 4,42
27-3-2015 VANGUARD DIV APPRECIATION EUR 0,67
20-3-2015 ROYAL DUTCH SHELL EUR 8,66
12-2-2015 APPLE INC. EUR 1,32

Total EUR 137,56

Jeff Mills – Exhibitionist 2

As a fan of Jeff Mills since I first discovered Techno, without knowing to much about it. I was fascinated by the first instalment of the Exhibitionist.

3 decks and a mixer, and some fine mixing. I could only barely mix two records together. Played it frequently when I was bored on a Sunday afternoon. Just watching and listening to one of the greatest DJ’s.

Well When I found out the second edition was out I immediately bought it. It now has 3 DVD’s with on the first one a mix , now with CDJ’s obviously.

And although I miss the records, this mix is very cool. then there is a DVD with a few TR-909 drum machine workouts as Jeff calls then, Which are fun.

Make me wanted to save up for a dedicated drum machine again. Not a 909 , but maybe the new TR-8.

Wandering off, the best part of this series is on the third DVD which is the studio mix. It’s Jeff surrounded by cool gear and starting performing various tracks.

This looks boring to some people, but for me this is very inspiring, simply watching is makes me want to turn on my gear again , and start making music.
Which I seldom do due to a lack of time and or other things that go before making music. And the worst of all lack of energy or inspiration. This DVD puts me right in the mood.

Amp Fiddler – Afro strut

Ampfiddlerafrostrut

Amp Fiddler, an artist I always meant to check out , but somehow never did. Late to the party as always. I found the album Afro strut for a few Euro. Which is always good, inexpensive vinyl.
In a time where vinyl is king again. Where was everyone the last 20 or so years?

Anyway back to the music, I really like this album. It sounds great and has an excellent vibe. Some of my favourite tracks are Dope, Ridin and Heaven. It’s simply a very good listening experience!
Just a shame I haven’t listened to it sooner. So get this one, if you already haven’t got it. Like most , but me 😉

Portfolio news – October additions

This month I added Nedap to my portfolio, Nedap is a Dutch company which designs and builds solutions for energy , healthcare , transportation solutions etc. The dividend yield is around 4% at the current share price. It’s by no means a fast company which I very much prefer. It has been growing steadily over the years with solid results. Since they are active in markets which will grow in the future I am very confident they will be able to keep paying the dividends.

Some figures : The cash flow per share is 4,25 in Euro. Dividend over 2014 1,25 per share. Earnings per share 2,67.

I think this is a good and welcome addition to my portfolio.

Portfolio news – September additions

So for September , and the beginning of October I added the following share to my portfolio.

K + S Group

It’s a company that builds active in mining, food and agriculture. The stock price has been on a steady decline recently and is in my opinion, pretty cheap at the moment. Dividend now is around 2,9% of the share price. Which is good enough to buy the stock. It has been paying dividend for a good number of years now.

Watch list

Glencore is off the watch list as they had to cut the dividends and are in the process of reducing their debt. With the current commodity prices the situation is said to be hard for Glencore in the coming months. But the company isn’t just there to trade, it’s very much part of the whole logistical chain for the commodity business. That’s how they became such a powerhouse. They provide a valuable service which not just anyone can take over.

For the coming months the I will be watching Disney, Caterpillar and Shell.
Shell is cheap at the moment , especially if you count the dividend. Some people fear the dividend percentage is too high and Shell maybe has to lower or cancel it.
I don’t think that is going to happen. I also don’t think the slump in commodities will continue. Also oil is nowhere near finished as a fuel or base product for a lot of other products.

I might add to my Apple position as it still is very undervalued. The dividend yield is too low and most of the profit has to be made with a substantial increase in it’s share price. So this is also something to think about.

I am also looking further into the possibilities options offer to add some more revenue. I already sold some calls (covered) with good results, and I am now looking into getting more into options. For now I will just use it with caution.

First some more reading about the subject.

Stalin the court of the red tsar

Well this was quite the read, this was one that was on the reading list for a long time. Finally I got round to reading this voluminous book about one of the most controversial figures in history. Stalin.

The book is focused on the time when Stalin was at the height of his power, so it’s not a full account of his life. It’s a bloody one for sure.

It tells a lot about all the people around him , his family and allies who by no exception all fell victim to the infamous terror, with the help of the people in his entourage who he gave a lot of power.

That power led to a lot of murders , even Stalin’s own family. What surprised me was the numbers of people who were killed and the damage it did not only to all the victims but to the country as well. When Hitler started operation Barbarossa the Red Army almost had no officers with any experience , they were all murdered.

To make matters worse a lot of very bad mistakes were made by the Politburo before the red army generals got a bit of authority back. By then off course Hitler overreached as well and the tide started to shift.

He controlled everyone around him by instilling the fear in people that by making just one slight mistake you could become an enemy of Stalin. The way he did this and kept control over such a large empire with no opposition is remarkable. It feels like he planned and orchestrated everything from start to finish.

It’s a bit of a hard read sometimes with all the different people but after a few chapters you’ll find it gets easier. A very solid book on Stalin. For people who like to read biography’s and are interested in Stalin or that part of history.

Stalincourtredtsar