Monthly Archives

June 2016

Stock Market,

Revitalizing my stock portfolio!

(image from businessdayonline.com)

During the past days, I have been working on revitalizing my stock portfolio. My strategy is clear: I am a conservative investor who cares about wealth preservation and increasing income. Therefore, I only buy stocks that pay dividends. Buying a stock that doesn’t pay a dividend is insane to me. It doesn’t make sense in my head. Why would you do that? If a stock doesn’t pay dividends, it is speculation. Maybe you recall these words being said by somebody else. That is possible, because Kevin O’Leary says this day in day out. And when it comes to the stock market, I second Mr Wonderful all the way up: I only buy dividend paying stocks, and in particular, solid companies which have the ability to consistently pay dividends and increase them over time. I also allocate up to 5% in anyone’s name, and 20% per sector (if possible, low volatility is desired). As I am European, I need to apply market limits as well, and currency hedges. To achieve this, I could simply go out there and buy a wallet of aristocrat stocks in different markets, right? Well, I personally want high yields too!

Planning, Real Estate,

Why will I pay RP#2 in 9-19 years

mortagerp2

Even though my buddy investors mock me with the fact that I bought my RP#1 all cash, I still believe that it was a great decision. First, it is a cash-cow which I don’t have to concern much with (it will still cash-flow). Second, it was such a great tool when I came to the bank asking for money. “Look fellas, I’ve got myself this nice property in cash. It nets me about €2400 a year. Don’t you think that I am creditworthy? Oh, and BTW, I am debt free.”

You should look at the bankers face when they saw this 27 years old who bought an apartment all cash, when they have been paying theirs for 20 years and ain’t done yet. Maybe I sound like a privileged prick right now, but that is not my intention. I am simply happy with the fact that this helps me negotiating with the bank (remember, Portuguese banks are very peculiar when it comes to lending money…).

Planning,

Planning the next 6/10 years

My dear dudes,

Because I bought another Rental Property, I spent my Sunday redefining my plan for the next 6-10 years. Here it is:

First, note that I bought a lot of Real Estate this year (3 properties and another one coming up soon) as I found what I think are excellent deals. I am getting fixed-rate 30-year mortgages at less than 5%*. I think that inflation and interest rates will be low for the next 2,5 – 5 years. After that, I think that both will raise, but all bets are off regarding figures**. I would like to limit my real estate portfolio to 50-60% of my overall net worth, in the long run.

My plan revolves around inflation, interest rates and liquidity. Based on the situation, I will take appropriate action each year. There will be years in which I care about liquidity (L) (which means that I will not amortize my mortgages and buy assets that are not liquid, such as real estate) and years in which I care little about my liquidity (NL) (just like this year), in which I will try to pay off debt as quickly as I can, and have non-liquid assets that either have capital appreciation or high yields.