Category: Finance

March 2016 – Dividend

This month a bit more dividend then last month, which is always nice. More under way with payout in April.

In Euro without the tax :

29-mrt Shell 42,21
29-mrt Unibail Rodamco 4,85
9-mrt Unilever 3,02
28-mrt Vanguard dividend Appreciation fund 1,08
10-mrt Microsoft 3,16
10-mrt Emerson electric Company 4,17

Total 58.49

Next week I will post the March additions to the portfolio. Have a great weekend !

Portfolio news – January 2016 additions

A new month and new additions to the portfolio. The markets have taken a dive in recent months so there should be some bargains out there.
The main concern is the oil price , which is getting lower and everyone is lowering the price target for this year.
The world has a surplus now but once the dust settles prices will recover and Shell will be well positioned.

The decline in the international markets will continue for some time I think, for the long term portfolio this is not bad at all, it leaves room for buying some nice dividend stocks.
For the additions this month I looked towards Germany and in the Netherlands. Starting off here, I bought one share of Unibail Rodamco. It’s a real estate company which owns a lot of real commercial real estate, mainly shopping. Shopping is dying , everybody seems to think these days. I am old school and I like a physical shop, you see the products try them and get service.

I see a lot of people shopping for speciality items, food, cloths etc. It’s about the experience, the run of the mill discounter will not cut it but the quality shops certainly will.
And in this department they have a nice segment of high end commercial property. The dividend has just been raised which is good and sits around 4%. The Q4 results were solid and I think they will continue to be.
In Germany I added 1 new company’s to the portfolio. It’s the insurer Munich Re , a very solid company with an ever growing dividend. It might be a bit expensive but even at the current price it will give out a 4,7% dividend. Which is very good, and it’s increasing.

January 2016 – Dividend

I am going to record the dividends per month from now on. It makes it easier for me and gives a nice overview of the monthly payments.

January 2016 is done again and the dividends for this month are :

In Euro without the tax :

26-01-2016 WHOLE FOODS MARKET IN) EUR 1,22
25-01-2016 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY EUR 2,00
15-01-2016 W.P. CAREY INC. REIT EUR 8,69

Total 11.91

2016 Mortage payment

It’s a new year which means I can pay off another 15% on the base sum of my mortgage. And that will save me around 100 Euro in interest payments each month. For the duration of the mortgage.

Most people still think I am crazy, because I am missing out on my tax deduction on the interest payment. Well I still feel differently about this. Since I am paying this interest in the first place and I also pay tax on my savings. Which yields a whopping 0,75% in interest at the moment. And I am paying around 5% on the mortgage.

for me it’s an easy way to save money each month without having to do anything , and I need to pay back the loan anyway, so why not now. It might not make for a spectacular story at a party but saving 5% is exciting enough for me. More people should do it in my opinion. Debt is debt , no matter what you have as collateral. Your net value might include the value of your house , but you have to live somewhere. So having a mortgage free house will help you a long way too financial independence. Just do the maths.

Dividend in 2015

Well 2015 has generated the dividend revenue you can see in the table below. It has been the first year where I am trying to build a portfolio around dividend income. It’s has been a learning experience and for this year I have to look harder at the price I am willing to pay for a certain stock, making it yield a bigger dividend percentage wise.

The market has been down a lot in the first few weeks and this move down is a nice start to being able to buy at a lower level.

I really like the research that goes into selecting the stocks. The main goal is to be better at this.

The dividends without tax, in Euro are :

30-12-2015 VANGUARD DIV APPRECIATION EUR 0,95
24-12-2015 ICAHN ENTERPRISES EUR 1,50
18-12-2015 ROYAL DUTCH SHELL EUR 42,99
15-12-2015 COCA-COLA COMPANY EUR 3,30
10-12-2015 EMERSON ELECTRIC EUR 4,75
10-12-2015 MICROSOFT EUR 3,60
09-12-2015 UNILEVER EUR 3,02
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 197,56

Strange China markets and debt

It has been a strange beginning of the new year in the financial markets. China crashed a bit, and then the trading was suspended. And it happened again. Then as quick as the rule was implemented. It was withdrawn again.

The worries about the Chinese economy, and with that the rest of the world maybe justified. I don’t know. What I do know is a lot of the trading in China is more gambling than anything else. A lot of people borrow money to speculate rather then invest. And if the market doesn’t go your way the need to sell fast is much higher with borrowed money. So it may not even be a problem of the ‘real’ economy but more a problem of gambling with borrowed money. But it could mean a debt problem in the near future. Which will slow the ‘real’ economy.

Debt in all forms is bad, in my opinion. If you can’t afford something, simply don’t buy it. The only exception being to buy a house. And even then it’s very much advisable not to overspend on a house.

A lot of people are always talking about the beauty of compounding interest. Well buy simply paying off all your debt , you will save a lot of money on interest payments which you can then save or allocate to other useful goals. It creates space in your monthly budget. If you have debt and are thinking about investing in any shape way or form. Just keep it simple and start by paying off your debt. It might sound boring but it works like nothing else.

Portfolio news – December additions

So it’s December again, end of the year and the last stocks I bought this year. Rocky markets all round with declining commodities , nervous currencies and bond issues. Hopefully I have managed to select a few nice stocks. I am also researching alternative energy company’s away from the oil, gas sector. Which has not been easy, most don’t pay dividends yet and are heavily indebted. So this is something to work on more in the next few months. I also want to invest more in technology and engineering. Any helpful insight will be much appreciated.

Ok back on topic, what did I add to the Portfolio. New to the portfolio are Accell, Whole foods and Disney.

An interesting addition is Accell which is a Dutch bicycle manufacturer, a steady growing business , especially the e-bikes, which allow older people to still enjoy long distance bike tours. More importantly there may be a nice future for longer distance commuting using the battery packs and the electric power to ease the bike ride. So you don’t need to take a shower upon arrival at the office. If everyone does this the Paris eco agreement goals are easily obtainable.

I personally like bikes very much, I don’t own a e bike since I have sufficient condition to take longer rides and since being fit is the new wealth I can only see this business grow. The products are of great quality and the sale numbers are solid. They also pay out a bit of dividend, not a lot percentage wise , but I think the dividend will grow along with the business.

Disney is something I had set my eyes on for some time. It’s maybe a bit expensive , but it has come down somewhat from the 120 dollar per share earlier this year. Having seen the new Star Wars film I am sure they will generate a lot of business from this franchise. They also have been paying dividend for a long time. I think this will be around the 120 again soon. And hopefully they will rise the dividend payment.

Last addition this month is whole foods. They say they are the healthiest supermarket in the US, well a lot healthier than others I have visited and they are building more supermarkets in area’s where fresh vegetables and fruits, and all other healthier foods are not available. And have programs for sustainable fishing growing etc. This is a very good thing, so this purchase has been done more from the fact I like their view of things than anything else. They do pay out dividend and I think they will raise this in 2016. It’s a bit expensive now but as with everything, it’s all for the long term. Hopefully lot’s of people will see the benefits of healthy food.

Portfolio news – November additions

So it’s November again and this month has seen the following additions to my portfolio. Adidas is the first one, just 5 shares as it is a bit expensive at the moment. One of the reasons I bought the stock is I really like the shoes. I have some and always wear them. Apart from that there is the dividend, which is a bit low in percentage, current stock price is 88,15 and the with 2,38 dividend. Which is 2,67 % , decent enough. Another plus is the company has no more cash than outstanding debt. I am going to add to this position over time.

Another stock I added is ONEOK. A gas company, which has been hammered this year,it has been paying out dividends for a very long time, it’s around 8%. Which is high. Too high most people say. But I am confident the energy market will rebound and natural gas is still a very important energy source. So I think of the current price as buying with a discount. I added 10 shares to the portfolio.

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.