TradeWars!

There was a game I used to play back in the day on the BBS's (dialup 300 baud modem days) called Tradewars.  You would go around "space" (I say that loosely, it was a text game) and trade between planets, building up your ship(s) and sometimes encountering opposition.  It was a pretty fun game, but not as fun as dividend stocks.  This month wasn't as fun as usual, though.  Mainly because I'm in a spot where I need to spend money due to our move and remodeling, so I don't have as much cash on hand as I would like.  There have been great dividend stock opportunities here in my accumulation stage I would like to take advantage of during this Tradewar with China (and now Mexico).  The good news is I didn't limit my normal contributions like the previous month, but going forward things will be tighter than usual.  The important thing is that I keep the flow of money consistent to take advantage of the drops.

All of my stocks are headquartered domestically, but many are global, not immune to the TradeWar.  ADM particularly is a stock I would like to take advantage of next week.  "International" Paper, or IP, is another one to accumulate.  Both are great companies, but Mr. Market doesn't think so at the moment, so some good deals with higher yields.  This war could last a month, or it could last 10 years.  While it will strengthen the domestic economy in the long run, it won't be without casualties.  Vigilance is the watchword for any investor out there.  Quarterly earning trends will be a focus area for many of these companies that deal with China.

I've been moving money out of my 401k's BrokerageLink into the taxable dividend generating area of my 401k to the fullest (I found the limit) to increase income and ease some of the debt I've been accumulating for the remodel.  The Brokeragelink netted some profit, but was not the great thing I thought it would be.  I thought I could reinvest the "ETF" dividends where I wanted to, but they gave me no control.  They also only allowed ETF investment, when I wanted to invest in individual dividend stocks.  Nope.  Not allowed.  I'm not going to waste my time with it anymore.

The good news is the debt is interest fee for at least a year to 18 months.  The bad news is they want us to start paying it down.  I have no fears we will pay it off, I would just prefer to do it in my time.  I am looking at fee free balance transfer zero interest credit lines for the long run, but for now I would like to take advantage of the current zero interest situation as long as possible.  Just need to move a few things around.  My wife had mentioned taking a job at home, and we may look into that more just to pay down the debt sooner than later, and then I can get back to the business of investing into retirement.  In the end, this is probably a good time to take on some debt, as the market is still priced quite high for most of my stocks, and instead of stockpiling cash for a downturn, I'm dropping money into the house for resale value instead.  Not a great ROI, but better than bonds!

My net profit in my brokerage dropped from that brief 20% profit at the end of April to 15% at the end of May.  Easy come easy go :)  At this point there is no end in sight for the TradeWar, so I don't expect a rebound anytime soon.  In the meantime I'll just buy the deals where I can find them.  I did make the $4k annual income goal, though!

FAST had a stock split this month, which wreaked havoc on my tracking app for a week, but my Google spreadsheet took it all in stride.  My first stock split since I started dividend investing, I hope it allows small investors (like me) to get in on it.

May Dividends Received: $306.56 (the mid paying month)
FAST $12.04  
O           $10.17  
PG         $31.33  
OKE       $38.06  
NNN       $36.50  
MAIN   $22.00  
HRL       $8.61  
ABBV       $26.75  
ABT        $6.08  
APD       $17.40  
MA         $5.28  
T              $55.59  
GIS        $36.75

May Purchases  
OKE 8
CVX 2
ADM   12
IP        4
O         3
FAST   5