Monday, December 21, 2020

MOTHER OF ALL THRIFT STORE FINDS

 As many of you already know, my main hobby is collecting vinyl records.  How Gen X of me..   Through garage sales, junk stores, used bins at record shops, and collectable editions through stores, I have amassed over 3,500 records.  

Every once in a while, I come across a great find.  Like "Hey Hey what Can I Do" by Led Zeppelin for 25 cents.   Or the rare Blue Note 78s I found at a thrift store   Early Blue Note 78.   

This past weekend was the Mother of All Thrift Store Finds.  Another Blue Note discovery.   

We went to the thrift store looking for joke gifts for Christmas.  This also requires a stop by the old records for sale.  I wanted to pick up any old records in decent shape to add to my hoarde.  Especially jazz.  I'm lacking in good jazz records

Sitting there among the ruined andy Williams album and multiple Barbara Streisand records was a nice copy of Cannonball Adderley's "Somethin' Else" on blue Note records.  Vinyl looked fairly clean.  And was extra heavy and thick, so I knew it was an old copy.   Picked that up along with a Stan Getz and a Charlie Parker compilation.  


Once I got home, I looked up my Cannonball Adderley on Discogs.   The first release had these qualities:

  • West 63 street address and no ® and a "micorgroove" on the labels
  • Deep groove on both sides
  • no "Inc." after Blue note on the address on the back cover and printed in Serif font
  • "P" for Plastylite Recording plant etched on run out.
  • RVG stamped on the run out




Well how about that.... This copy had ALL of these. Wha?  This was a first release of this record!   And in VG condition for the vinyl.  The cover is in G condition, a bit worn on the back and bit smudgy on the front.  but not bad for a record from 1958.

This record cost me $1.95.   This sells for around $600 in this condition.   What an absolute monumental find.  I don't think I will ever find a more collectable record.  OF course, I thought that the last time I found some Blue Notes...

I will keep it and listen to it for a while.  If I find a nice clean reissue, I will then sell.    IMO it's one of the best jazz albums ever made and right up my alley.   Sometimes you just get lucky.

Here's a track from this release.   Awesome!




Saturday, December 5, 2020

NOVEMBER 2020 DIVIDENDS

December is here!  Less than 1/12 of this year is left, thankfully.  In 26 days, we can kiss this year goodbye and never look back!

And right after Thanksgiving, it was time to pull out the Christmas decorations.  The dog does not really like her Santa outfit.


Meanwhile, I  earned some dividends.  32 companies paid me a total of $1,035.51.  This is a 13.03% year to year gain from the $916 I got in 2019.  After the big shuffles I have gone through over the past 15 months, seeing a gain like that was truly satisfying and motivating to improve on that number in 2021.

The big ones are AT&T (T) and their monster 7% dividend and Omega Healthcare (OHI), a healthcare REIT (one of my few REITs now), also with a 7% dividend.

Here's the breakdown:






Friday, December 4, 2020

NOVEMBER 2020 BUYS

Welcome to the Holiday Season!   My favorite time of the year.  Hope you are all staying safe out there on Panet Poison.

Snow started falling and got to go up to the mountain pass here an play in a fresh 18" of snow that fell the night before



Picked up a few greal albums recently.  This one here is maybe the best album I had never heard until a few weeks ago.  Dadawah - "Peace and Love", a Nyabinghi rhythm LP from 1974. Very sublime and exploratory.  Only four tracks on the LP, but they improvise into this crazy bass and drum Nyabinghi rhythm form of reggae meets the blues meets psychedelia and experiencing the rapture...  They may have smoked some of their sacrament..

What really makes it stand out is the lack of a rhythm guitar and the addition of a minimal echoing piano that really ties it all together.  This is one of the most spiritual, haunting roots reggae albums that could possibly be ever made.  Just re-issued this fall.




Oh, and I traded some shares.....  

Harvested a tiny bit of profit just so I can pick up a couple of Costco (COST) shares after they announced their special $10 dividend.  This is not their first special Dividend. 

I did get out of a smal position in Delek Holdings (DK) after they ended their dividend. I'd rather have my money in something that will pay me back so I can sit on it and get paid for breathing...

I also snagged 3 more shares of Vanguard's VYM, which I plan to do on a regular basis. It's a perfect mix of all of the dividend growth companies I already invest in.

The other major purchases, not really major, but at least over $100, was some more Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Target (TGT).  Both are pretty much recession proof companies that are not going to go tits up any time soon.

In summary, I added $1,063 of new money and increased my annual dividend by $39.26.  That's a payout ratio of 3.69% on the investment.  And should grow.

Check out the details



Wednesday, December 2, 2020

NOVEMBER 2020 DIVIDEND INCREASES

'Tis the season of dividend increases! Fa la la la la....

November, December, and January have been the months I used to see the most dividend increase.  Now 2020 is one hell of a strange year.   But at least it started well this October.   

I received 5 dividend increases over the past month.  The whopper was the 17.9% increase by Aflac (AFL).  

Overall, I received an extra $35.27 in dividends per year.   That's the name of the game, Dividend growth..



In December, I'm expecting increases from AT&T (T), Pfizer (PFE) and Amgen (AMGN).  I'l keep my fingers crossed.





Tuesday, November 17, 2020

VELVERT TURNER, JIMI HENDRIX'S ONLY GUITAR STUDENT

A few days ago I picked up a copy of the only album by The Velvert Turner Group.  

Yes, them

You are now currently saying to yourself, "Who the hell is Velvert Turner"?!?!?!?  So did I.  This is where it gets interesting.

Velvert Turner happened to be a close friend and the only student of Jimi Hendrix.   They met in 1966 and took to each other as they both had a love for the guitar.  Jimi mentored him through instructional sessions at Jimi's apartment in Greenwich Village.

As Jimi's popularity grew, Velvert was invited to the concerts and would mention he is friends of Jimi.  Almost no one believed him.  After Jimi's death in 1970, Velvert decided to form his own band, the Velvert Turner Group.  In 1972, their only album was released.



 The guitar stylings and vocals eerily resemble Hendrix's.  He would even play guitar with his teeth and behind his head.  Here's a track from the album.  And yes, this does sound almost exactly like Jimi Hendrix, vocals and all..  




But this album did not sell well.  It was seen as "behind the times".  Fickle audiences of 1972 had moved on from Jimi's wild psychedelic 60's style.

He performed sporadically after the LP, and his former bandmates went on to play in other groups including The Motels, The Knack, The New York Dolls and Burning Sensations.  Quite the backup band....

Sadly he passed in 2000 at the age of 49.

This pink vinyl reissue was a Record Store Day release back in 2017.  2,000 copies were pressed.

And yes, it will make you wonder what it would have been like to see them play together at the same time.

Here's another track..  Unreal.


Take care folks!

I'll be working on picking up the pace posting bits and pieces of my record colection that I think are interesting.


Monday, November 16, 2020

2020 GOAL UPDATE THROUGH OCTOBER

 Posting my 2020 New Years' goals was a great idea.  It forced me to focus on meeting these goals or otherwise look like a massive chump. 

Well, at least no so chumpish..

FINANCIAL GOALS:

Not only did I keep up with my goals, but I have completed the goal of matching all but one of my goals for the year.   The overages are going into the 2021 goals.

This is a twisted way to find a positive in the Covid lockdown.  I just could not spend my money.



PERSONAL PROGRESS:

1. Take a spring road trip.  Yellowstone would be ideal.  SUMMER ROAD TRIP THROUGH OREGON COAST & CALIFORNIA.  RIGHT BEFORE THE FIRES.  PHEW.

2. Exercise more.  DROPPED OFF SINCE SEPTEMBER  

3. Drop about 20 lbs.   I AM NOT GOING HERE.  THE COVID 15 IS REAL. MY NEXT GOAL WILL BE 35 LESS.  GRRRR.

4. Drink more green tea. HITTIN' IT.  ADDING SOME JASMINE, OOLONG, WHITE, AND EARL GREY

5. Sell off some of my record collection.   It was a long term goal to sell eventually.  Well, I have run out of room.  I think I would rather sell than keep some of the ones I rarely listen to.  GOT RID OF SOME, BUT HAVE RENEWED MY INTREST IN SOME NEW ALBUMS, SO THE COLLECTION IS GROWING AGAIN.  AND I WILL BE POSTING ABOUT VINYL MORE.

6. Improve piano skills and improve guitar skills. STILL NOODLING ON A PIANO AND A BOUZOUKI NOW 

7. Blog more. I HAVE LITTLE TIME WITH A FULL LIFE TO BLOG AS MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE.  BUT I WANT TO ADD MORE VINYL POSTS.  I HAVE AN ABUNDANT AMOUNT OF MATERIAL FOR THIS.

8. Enjoy more oysters like these.  HAVE NOT HAD THE CHANCE LATELY.


UNTIL NEXT TIME FRIENDS!

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

OCTOBER 2020 BUYS

I've been looking forward to writing this piece for the whole month.

My purchasing activity for October 2020 has been unforgettable.  

Why?

Well, this was the month I decided to divorce myself from Best Buy (BBY).  You can read all about that here: SOLD SHARES FOR ETHICAL REASONS.   

Long story short, they ripped me off selling me a broken TV and refusing to return it.   So I cashed out.  I refuse to be a part of a company that shows this kind of blatant disregard for its customer.

The resulting activity was huge increase in my annual dividend payout.  So much so, I closed out of another company (QCOM) that was not paying a fat dividend, took the profits and purchased shares that have a higher return. QCOM had performed well, but was only growing their dividend by 6% over 5 years.  That is not keeping up with inflation.

The final tally was that I invested a total of $662.60 new dollars and will earn an additional  $448.46 in dividends per year.  That's a 73.7% return!

How?  

My equity gain was over 100% for both BBY and QCOM.  BBY was only earning me 1.89% on the investment.  QCOM was earning only 2%.  Selling them cost me $374.60 per year in dividends.

With the finds from the sales and the additional $662.00 I put in, my new purchases will earn me $863.06, a 4.37% rate.   More than doubled my dividend income.

Take a look at the details....



You may have noticed that I sold some shares of HBAN.  That was a mistake.  I was intending to buy a bunch, and hit "sell" like the dumbass I am.  (made up for that later)

The only one I started a new position in was Orrstown Financial Services (ORRF).  Learned of them from a purchase by Lanny over at the dividend Diplomats.  Dividend Stock Purchase: Lanny’s September 2020 Summary

 Loved the look of this company, and decided to dip my toes in.

The other major purchases was a good sized chunk of Citibank (C), the Vanguard Exchange Traded Fund VYM, and of Macatawa Bank (MCBC), which I was longing to get more of with their low P/E at this time and a 4% yield.

What do you think?  Was it smart of me to cash out of QCOM and go shopping for higher dividends?  I feel good about it.


Tuesday, November 10, 2020

OCTOBER 2020 DIVIDEND INCREASES

 Howdy folks!   I am glad to report that we are actually beginning to see the return of the increasing dividend.

A central focus on my investment strategy is to buy shares in companies that have a solid pattern of increasing their dividend.  If it happens on a regular basis, your original investment will earn a giant percentage back in dividend payments.  That's the appeal of Dividend Aristocrats, companies that have increased their dividend for 25 years or more.


For October, I saw increases to 6 companies.  The biggest gainers were ABBV, with a surprising 10.2% increase, and Onemain Holdings with a whopping 32% dividend increase.   Also saw a 10% gain from Williams Sonoma (WSM). 

 Stuff like that beats inflation.  That's the name of the game.

Overall, I saw a $59.92 annual increase in my dividends, just for hanging on to them.  Taking these increased dividend payouts and re-investing them in more dividend growth stock will result in a passive income snowball that can make a huge change in your life.   Remember, if I can do it, anyone can.  and your dog...


Thursday, November 5, 2020

OCTOBER 2020 DIVIDENDS

I love Halloween.  My favorite holiday.  The pandemic changed it a lot, but still fun.  My kid was in top form!  




I was a male Billie Eilish.  I will spare you the look....

But I can't believe there are only 2 months left in this year.  2021 can't come fast enough.  2020 sucked eggs.

But for dividend income, 2020 was not too awful.  A couple of cuts were expected, but once dealing with that,  things have stabilized.

Wasn't the biggest month, but have a good base to grow on.  Even with the $689.99 in dividends I earned last month, I still average over $1,000 per month overall.  That's the important thing.

Normally, the first month of each quarter, I was earning a massive dividend from Whitehorse Finance (WHF).  They had sustained massive losses and their dividend payout ratio was totally unsustainable for my comfort level.  It was by far my largest holding so I faced the reality of getting out before a dividend cut and a huge hit to the equity value.  

The result was a loss of $431 for this month's dividend.  The positive was that the other months are much larger from the reinvestment of the WHF shares.

Here's the breakdown:   21 payments for $689.89

Date

Company

Dividend


10/1/20

KO

$38.13


10/1/20

HBAN

$43.95


10/1/20

PPL

$56.03


10/2/20

KMB

$39.59


10/5/20

CNQ

$2.45


10/6/20

BBY

$46.20


10/7/20

MRK

$29.89


10/9/20

CB

$10.92


10/12/20

OMC

$33.80


10/13/20

VTR

$29.70


10/15/20

MAIN

$20.50


10/15/20

O

$15.68


10/15/20

STOR

$48.96


10/21/20

CSCO

$29.52


10/22/20

ORCL

$18.48


10/23/20

SYY

$28.35


10/26/20

AMNF

$28.19


10/28/20

BNS

$38.51


10/28/20

CM

$41.02


10/29/20

TWO

$49.56


10/31/20

TD

$40.56

$689.99


Slowly plugging away results in this amount of passive income.  All invested a little bit at a time.  If I can do it, you can do it better!

Saturday, October 10, 2020

SOLD SHARES FOR ETHICAL REASONS

Welcome back to the blog about my journey towards a better life.   I appreciate the readership.

The central focus of my dividend investment plan is to own a large amount of dividend companies to create a protective buffer for my portfolio.   A moat.  The more companies I own, the safer I am to volatility of a particular company.  

Yesterday I had to sell ownership in one of these companies.  I could not in good faith own a piece of a company that does not treat their customers with any sort of respect.  

Usually, I make my investment decisions based on the numbers:  increasing dividends, low payout ratio, a good P/E, and not buried in debt.  I only have consciously decided to not own tobacco companies.  That is due to deaths in my family related to tobacco.  

But I had an experience yesterday that put a major retailer on my shit list.  

I made the fatal error of buying a TV at Best Buy (BBY).   Hey, it had the model I wanted.  Good price. In stock.  Ready for pickup immediately.  Then it went all downhill.

Once home, I carefully took the TV out of the box, slapped on the legs, and plugged it in.   Oh oh.The screen was broken.  The picture had a spider web like pattern, but square.  Half the screen was like that.   

So I boxed it up and took it right back to Best Buy.  

Once there,  they called a manager to deal with it.  He looked at the crack, looked at the video of me putting it in the car.  Marked the damage with a post it.  Then compared the damage with the a dent in the box.  He claimed the box dent was a few too many inches away.  HUH?   

He denied to accept a return,  but offered a discounted second one for sale.  WTF?

I explained how I was very careful with it.  He claimed that Sony confirms every TV is verified to work leaving the factory, so the only way it could be damaged was by me.  He failed to consider shipping the TV, receiving it in their warehouse, and getting it ready for me.  

I was beyond enraged.  I just paid over $600 for a TV that never worked and it's my fault..   

The only fault of mine was going to Best Buy.   

He offered to help me take my useless TV back to my car. That only made me more blind with rage.  What would I do with a broken TV.  I told him to keep it and will call corporate.  He said "OK that is up to you".

I called corporate and they said they could pick it up, examine it and possible give me a refund.  Told them it was at the Tukwila Best Buy. They said "Ohhhh.  Then you abandoned it.  We can't consider a refund.  Only the manager that you saw could make that determination now and you could not go and pick it back up since it was "abandoned".   It would already have been recycled.."

What. The. F.??????

 They were telling me that they wanted me to take the TV home and sit on it until they could schedule a pickup to take it back to Best Buy to determine that I did not break it myself.  But since it already is at Best Buy, they can't just take it from their own store and examine it.  Not only was I not told any of this, but the concept was completely absurd.    And there is no way they already recycled it since I was there at closing time the evening before and I called corporate in the early morning.

Said I was never told that that was the case.  They said their "salaried managers" are trained to tell me about abandoning it, but let me call him.  

They then spoke with the manager who told corporate that they think I damaged it taking it out of the box.  Corporate came back to me and denied my refund and that the damage was documented and that they re-confirmed the dent on the box is a couple inches away from the screen damage.

Oh, so they did not recycle it... But I could not go get it now that is in their possession of my "abandoned" TV.  I guarantee you , they will be sending it back to SONY and getting credited for a damaged TV.  

I am totally offended that they are accusing me of mishandling this TV.  I am totally pissed off at the lack of customer service by the millennial company boy who seemed to relish sticking me with it.  I am disgusted by corporate who gave me a run around about getting the TV to them to examine it, since they already have it...

I told them that this will be the last I will shop there.  His response was "that's your decision".  That in itself is a total lack of respect for the customer that keeps them in business. 

I CANNOT OWN SHARES IN A COMPANY THAT TREATS THEIR CUSTOMERS LIKE THIS.  PERIOD


This picture also applies to retail when they push their loss prevention.  In the long run, their clientele will shrivel up and disappear if they do not focus on long term relationships.

So I sold them yesterday afternoon.  They were a long hold for me.  I was up over 100% in equity. 

I took my profits bought some shares in a company that have succeeded in customer service:  Costco.

In fact, the dividends I lost from selling BBY were almost doubled with new purchases.  

Here is the breakdown:

Ticker

Date

QTY

Price

Total

DIV INC / Yr

YIELD


BBY

10/9/20

-84

$116.5799

-$9792.49

-$184.80

1.89%


HBAN

10/9/20

-73

$9.8540

-$719.32

-$43.80

6.09%


VYM

10/9/20

15

$84.0650

$1260.98

$42.30

3.35%


ASB

10/9/20

71

$14.0600

$998.26

$51.12

5.12%


BOH

10/6/20

60

$55.2600

$3315.60

$160.80

4.85%


MCBC

10/9/20

464

$7.3300

$3401.12

$148.48

4.37%


VYM

10/9/20

9

$84.0550

$756.50

$25.38

3.35%


COST

10/9/20

2

$369.3963

$738.79

$5.60

0.76%










TOTALS




-$40.56

$205.08

-505.62%


You may notice I sold 73 shares of HBAN.  I meant to buy, but I hit the sell button by accident.  Oops..😒

I promise I will make that up.

So with the $10,500.  I went shopping.  I needed to make up $228.60 in dividends.

I went Vanguarding and picked up 15 shares of VYM.  That added an estimated $42.40 in annual dividends.

Got 71 shares of Associated Bancshares (ASB).  That added $51.12 of dividends

Picked up 60 shares of Bank of Hawaii (BOH), adding $160.80 in annual dividends.   I had already made up the dividend loss and had over half the money left.

Then got 464 shares of Macatawa Bank (MCBC).  That assws $148.48 in shares.

Got 9 more shares of VYM.  Should get about $25.38 in dividends

Finally, got 2 shares of Costco (COST).  It adds $5.60 in dividends.  But on top of that, there is an emotional satisfaction.   I have always been treated very well at Costco.  Their return policy is fantastic.  You can dislike a frozen item and return the rest for a full refund.

The final result is earning $433.68 in annual dividends.  And increase of $205.08.  Maybe getting upset can result in a financial boon..

Good CS makes a difference. Not just as a customer, but as an investor.

I will never set foot in a Best Buy ever again.  You can count on that.