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Weekend Link Love

Labor Day weekend is upon us, which means that almost everyone(*) is on vacation.  So today’s link love is short. Enjoy! (*) I’m not on vacation.  I’m working a bit over this weekend, because yeah…. I’m kind of pathetic like that and I’m also in charge of a mission critical project with ultra short deadlines. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Link Love

13 Ways to Maximize Your Employee Benefits

Career development and management can rapidly accelerate your path to financial independence, by both increasing your income and decreasing your expenditures.  Today, I’d like to cover some of the more and less obvious ways that I (and others) leverage my employer to get far more than just my base salary and bonus. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Career

Recent Buy – Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI)

As part of my commitment to keep my readers up to date on my portfolio, I write up short posts describing my transactions.  Recently, I purchased 26 shares of Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI). … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investment portfolio

Verizon (VZ) Dividend Stock Analysis

Verizon (VZ) Dividend Stock Analysis

Verizon (VZ) provides wireless and wired communication services to over 120 million customers.  VZ’s landline service, which is operated in conjunction with Vodafone (VOD) serves about 21.8 million customers, while Verizon wireless serves about 100 million customers.  Verizon also offers broadband internet to around 9 million customers.  About 65% of Verizon’s post-paid (read: those of us who signed a contract for cell service) customers have a smart phone. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Stock Analysis

Weekend Link Love

It appears that the weekend is here.  Go check out the below list of links for some great reading. Enjoy. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Link Love

Dividend Disaster Prevention and Recovery

Dividend Disaster Prevention and Recovery

Last week, I discussed several dividend disaster scenarios.  Now that we’ve considered the worst, its time to prepare our defenses.  Risk is inherent in every investment.  Now that we understand some of those risks, we can explore various ways to prepare our portfolios against them. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing

Diebold (DBD) Dividend Stock Analysis

Diebold (DBD) Dividend Stock Analysis

Diebold (DBD) is a maker of security systems for financial, commercial, government, and retail customers. Diebold’s products include automated teller machines, electronic and physical security systems.  DBD is also branching out into newer product areas like self-service check out stations and electronic voting machines.  54% of sales in 2012 came from services provided by the company and the remaining 46% of sales came from products.  North American Sales represented 53% of total sales.   … Read entire article »

Filed under: Stock Analysis

Weekend Link Love

The weekend arrives once again.  And so does the weekly recommended reading list.  While this wasn’t a great week for the markets, it was a strong week for stock analyses. Enjoy. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Link Love

Dividend Disasters (Cuts, Recessions, Deflation, Brokerage Failure)

Dividend Disasters (Cuts, Recessions, Deflation, Brokerage Failure)

Today, I want to channel my inner pessimist and wax apocalyptic.  It’s time to imagine some financial scenarios ranging from bad to abysmal. Today is all about losing money, and lots of it.  Why?  Because risk is inherent in every investment.  Unless we understand those risks, anticipate them, and prepare for them we are positioning ourselves for disaster.  Go get yourself a stiff drink and box of tissues, because financial sadness awaits us. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investing

Portfolio Status: August 2013

Portfolio Status: August 2013

Continuing with my goal of financial transparency, I’m posting my portfolio as it is at the beginning of August of 2013. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Investment portfolio