My Financial Independence Journey » Archive
Caterpillar (CAT) Dividend Stock Analysis
Caterpillar (CAT) is the world’s largest producer of earth moving equipment, a major manufacturer of engines and electric power generators for the petroleum industry, and a major producer of mining equipment. CAT is divided into four main business segments: 1) Construction industries (29% of revenue) which provide machinery for construction and mining clients. 2) Resource industries (32% of revenue) which provides machines for forestry, mining, and tunneling clients. 3) Power systems (32% of revenue) which … Read entire article »
Filed under: Stock Analysis
Weekend Link Love: Spring may finally be here edition
This weekend link love is brought to you by the hopefully better temperatures this weekend. After over a month of bitching about the lousy weather outside it looks like this weekend might not suck. I will take a walk. Hopefully a long one. So enjoy these links while I’m out enjoying the weather. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Link Love
Selling Put Options with a Margin Account
I’ve written a lot about options in my three part options primer. I also wrote a brief primer about how a margin account works. What we need to do now is to put these two concepts together and discuss why you should be excited about the prospect of selling put options using a margin account. Using this strategy can seriously juice your returns if you are willing to take on the additional risk associated with … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing
Should I buy a new car or keep the old one?
I’m quite certain that I’ve mentioned somewhere or other that I drive a reliable, but old car. Occasionally, I catch flack from people about why I haven’t bought a new car yet. I don’t really feel like buying a new car yet – mostly because I’m cheap and lazy. So who’s right? My cheap lazy self, or my consumerist oriented acquaintances. It’s gonna get all consumerist vs frugality demolition derby style up in here today. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
Recent Transactions – Many
As part of my commitment to keep my readers up to date on my stock portfolio and options holdings, I write up short posts describing my transactions. Today, I’m going to try to do something different by writing this transaction update as a bit of a fun story so that you can see my exact train of thought. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investment portfolio
Proctor and Gamble (PG) Dividend Stock Analysis
Proctor and Gamble (PG) is a leading company in the manufacture of household and personal care products. The company has five main business segments: beauty (24% of sales) , grooming (10% of sales), health care (15% of sales), fabric and home care (32% of sales), and baby and family care (19% of sales). The company has around 25 commonly recognizable brands including Tide, Gillette, Crest, Dawn, Duracell, Charmin, and Pampers. The US and Canada account … Read entire article »
Filed under: Stock Analysis
Weekend Link Love: Soggy Weekend Edition
This weekend link love is brought to you by the rain (and the threat of rain), which is keeping me inside this weekend. But maybe I’ll luck out and get outside some on Sunday. Without further whining, here’s some great links you should consider checking out. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Link Love
17 Ways to save money without adversely affecting your quality of life
Saving money is essential to achieving early financial independence. But saving money at the expense of wrecking your quality of life is a game that I don’t play. Here are some methods that I have have successfully used to reduce my bills. And I promise no BS about meatless Mondays, biking to work, or taking cold showers. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
A Brief Primer on Options: Part 3 (Two ways to enhance your dividend growth portfolio with cash-secured puts)
In part one, we discussed what options are and why you might want to use them. In part two, we discussed how to read an options table as well as how to open and close option positions. Now that we’ve made it to part 3, we’re going to look at two ways that you can use cash-secured puts to enhance your dividend growth portfolio. Cash-secured puts are my flavor of options, and after reading this, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing
Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Dividend Stock Analysis
Air Products and Chemicals (APD) is one the largest global producers of industrial gasses and has a large specialty chemical industry as well. APD has a global reach with 57.2% of its sales coming from foreign sources. The company is divided into 4 main business units. 1) Merchant Gases which includes gases used in a variety of industries including health care, food processing, steel, and manufacturing accounts for 38.1% of sales. 2) Tonnage gases which … Read entire article »
Filed under: Stock Analysis
