Investment BS Thread - Stocks/Futures/Mutual Funds/Bonds/Commodities/Options/ETFs/401ks/Etc

I have 34 stocks, all equal weighted by contribution except 4 that I double weighted. I’m up about 25% this year just holding and adding to all. Dividend yield on the total portfolio is currently about 4.6%, so a fair amount of returns are distributed. I can list them all if you’d like, maybe screenshot my Spreadsheet.

 

it really quite hilarious how much the price of WTI oil is staying within this.

 

Screenshot would be great! I have been reading all the big guys like Buffets, Gates and reading Motley Fool etc. Just not sure where and how to start out.

 

Here you go. Prices are current prices, it won’t let me edit that out. All positions are contributed to equally, if they run up or down I let them. My double positions are ABBV, T, CAT, and PG. I did this for better sector balance, and evening out monthly dividend payments (I know, not an ideal strategy, but they’re all dividend aristocrats so I feel ok with the larger positions).

It's probably worth adding my goals of creating this portfolio. This is probably not all of them, but off the top of my head it would be:

1.) Dividend yield as high as I can comfortably make it while balancing in growth.
2.) Probably less gains than the market, but also hopefully less losses on the big corrections (less volatility in general).
3.) Companies that I expect to be around for another 20+ years.
4.) Sector balance that starts with a similar allocation to the S&P 500, but over weighted and under weighted in ways that I prefer (i.e. less tech, more consumer staples and real estate).
5.) Companies that consistently and over a long period of time increase their dividends (I think the current annual growth rate, over 5 years averaged, of my portfolio is 9%).
6.) Companies that let me sleep well at night (KO, PEP, WMT, etc.) over companies that I would constantly worry about going broke (TSLA, UBER, LYFT, etc.)
7.) A mindset of actual ownership where I am buying a piece of a company's profits that they distribute to me, rather than imaginary things to trade.
8.) My favorite slogan is to treat your portfolio like a bar of soap, the more you mess with it, the less that is left of it. I try to buy and hope to hold forever (the goal is for my portfolio to outlast my lifetime).

 

Thank you much! I am thinking I am going to start with nice dividend payers and DRIP them of course to start with.

 

I don't DRIP, but I do reinvest all dividends. I do that because I have my own little methods of picking what is the best buy at any given time. If you DRIP, you'll be paying whatever price that company is at the time of the reinvestment. I just let them pool a little, and with free trades now, just buy shares of what I feel is cheap.

 

That a good point. I forgot there was $0 for trades now. Which platform do you use? I currently have some in E-Trade.

 

I use Merrill because I was getting free trades for a while, but now I don't think it even matters. Just pick the one you like the features of best.

 

This is more millennial than the X I actually am, but I'm using both Robinhood and Webull.
I was even able to roll the 401k from my former employer into an IRA at Webull.

 

Welp, so much for Charles Schwab, the brokerage battle continues with Robinhood now offering fractional share purchases as well. Pretty awesome

 

That is cool, but selling them isn't as easy as selling a share at my brokerage. I think they liquidate them after you make a sale for "all" shares, but after they sell the full shares. Not a big deal but seems a little strange (this is at Merrill, may be different at other firms). I also can't buy fractional shares, but if you DRIP, you do end up with them.

 

Interesting, I will need to look into that by playing around with a tiny holding of AMZN I guess haha

 

I read up on it. It is something like the brokerage will pool all fractional shares sold for the day, week, whatever, then make the sale later. So for one person, it would only be a portion of a share that wouldn't get sold immediately. It would get sold after a few days if I remember right though.

 

https://learn.robinhood.com/article...actional-share/#How_do_fractional_shares_work

 

^Unfortunately that article doesn't outline how they handle sales of fractional shares, it's just a basic outline.

 

The key is to build a dividend paying portfolio, and if you do it right (along with some luck), you'll never have to sell, just keep accumulating.

 

Funny, Robinhood introduces this feature, right as I start funding a portfolio with M1 Finance. Now I’m spread all over the place. Most of my trading is through Robinhood, opened a Roth IRA and high interest savings account with Wealthfront, and now an account with m1.

 

true that, but I have about 30% of my 401k in VDIGX because of you haha

 

That would drive me crazy haha

 

That's funny. There are 2 reasons I invest this way. One, my goal is to not sell, so this is the only way to do it. Two, if you look at returns over long periods with dividends reinvested vs. not, it's insane. I don't know how it does it, but the returns are like double over decades if you just reinvest the dividends.