Financial Planning, Retirement Plan, 401k, Investment Blog

Financial Planning, Retirement Plan, 401k, Investment Blog

Posts Tagged ‘stocks’

Dogs of the Dow- Investing Strategy That Needs to be Retired?

Posted June 21, 2009 by Bernz

I was doing some research online about stock investing two days ago and came across this strategy and thought I should share my insights with my readers.

The Dogs of the Dow is an investing strategy first promoted 35 years ago by Michael O’Higgins, a fund manager who now runs his own firm. The strategy calls for choosing the 10 stocks in the Dow 30 index that have the highest dividend yields at the end of the year. You hold these stocks until the end of the following year when you re-balance your portfolio based on the new Dogs. A dividend yield is calculated by dividing the dividend by the stock’s price. Therefore, the stocks with the highest dividend yields have the lowest stock prices and may be ready for a jump.

Because all of the stocks in the Dow 30 are large cap, stable companies, the Dogs of the Dow strategy states that the companies chosen are likely to be solid in bad times and rise quickly in price in good ones. 2009’s Dogs are: Alcoa, AT&T, Bank of America, DuPont, General Electric, JPMorgan Chase, Kraft, Merck, Pfizer, and Verizon. (more…)

Posted in Financial Education, Investing Strategies, Stock Market Investing | 2 Comments »

Buying Stocks Now- Throwing Good Money After Bad or Smart Investing?

Posted February 26, 2009 by Bernz

It’s now official. The American economy is in recession. The S&P 500 index- a broad-based thermometer of the health of American corporations- has declined almost 50% in the past 18 months.

The volatility of the stock market in the current recession has touched the majority of households. Investing in stocks was once the privilege of the rich, but today, many retirement plans, especially 401(k) plans, contain stock-based mutual funds and the values of these funds have dropped precipitously.

So why would anyone want to buy stocks right now? Surely, it’s time to tuck your money under your mattress and wait it out? Smart investors know better. They are using this time of market fear to pick up great values in stocks. The one thing that stock market performance has taught us over the past eighty years is that it always goes back up. Even in times of economic crisis (remember Black Monday?), the stock market always finds its bottom and begins its climb once again. Over time, the stock market has outperformed any other investment vehicle.

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Posted in Investing Strategies, Stock Market Investing | No Comments »

Is $20 billion Enough for Bank of America?

Posted January 16, 2009 by Bernz

Bank of America (BAC) today reported a loss of $1.79 billion in the fourth quarter and this is not including Merrill Lynch, which it acquired recently. Merrill Lynch lost a record $15.31bn in the quarter. Bank of America financials are supposed to be good until the purchased of Merrill. Additionally, Bank of America today announced that they received another $20 billion capital infusion from the Fed. This is on top of the $25bn the bank received from Tarp funds last October . This confirms that the crisis in the financial/bank sector is not yet over and it looks like everybody thinks that the government will not let these major banks fail.

Bank of America (BAC) stocks down more than 8% this morning.

Now, the question again is, is $20 billion enough and how far more can the Fed go?

Posted in Stock Watch | No Comments »

How to invest in the right types of stocks

Posted October 30, 2008 by Bernz

Stocks and stock markets can be really confusing! This article will clear up a few misconceptions and help you understand how stocks and markets work and how to invest in the stock market.

By Dustin M.

Quite simply, stocks or shares are small parts of a publicly traded companies. Companies sell these parts to raise capital for future investment in buildings, employees, and other resources. There are two types of stocks or shares called, common and preferred.

Common stock

Common stock/shares is the most common kind as you can imagine. This is the kind of stock traded on the stock market every day. It is the kind of stock that is bought for mutual funds and 401K plans.

Preferred Stock

Preferred stock/shares are high level, very expensive stocks. Sold only to hand-picked investors by companies with stocks that run into the thousands of dollars. Usually founders of the company and their friends end up with these privileged shares. Also, private banks also tend to hold these shares as well. These are not often traded on the open market because people who own these shares tend to sit on the board of the company or have other controlling interest.

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Posted in Investing Basics | No Comments »

Wacky Week on Stocks

Posted October 23, 2008 by Bernz

Before you buy T-Bills or stash cash under your bed, read this!

Copyright 2008, Amy Strycula

700, 800, 900, 400 the stock markets are going up and down like a crazy roller coaster the only problem is that this roller coaster has to do with your money. This past week we saw the stock market recover 400 points of its losses, oil dropped to $70 a barrel and there is a great deal of relief at the gas pump.

The Federal reserve, the government, and such have been busy trying to correct the economy but as credit lines are effectively frozen until the large banks regain capital and unload this sub-prime debt economic expansion is at a stand still unfortunately. Right now the best thing to do across the board is to sit on whatever investments that you have. Remember my number 1 tip, you haven’t lost money until you actually sell the investment for a lower price than you paid for it.

The 700 billion dollar bailout plan slightly pacified the market but really hasn’t had that much of an effect on the economy so far. Another bailout is in the works and a possible stimulus package from congress as well as they attempt to induce economic expansion and rescue the banks.

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Posted in Investing Strategies | 1 Comment »