Monday, August 31, 2020

ROAD TRIP 2020 - CABIN FEVER ESCAPE


Just got back from the first adventure outside of Seattle since March.  You read that right.  I have not left the city, and mainly the neighborhood I am in, in the past 5 months. I did go to work, but that's 5.5 miles away.  Otherwise, I hunkered down

And it drove me INSANE.   I'm a type of person who considers work what I do between vacations.  It gives me something to look forward to.

The COVID-19 lockdown is necessary, but slowly built up an insane amount of cabin fever.  We usually spend a couple weeks in Hawaii every year.  That was not possible with this pandemic.  I will not fly until I feel comfortable.

So  10 day road trip has been in the making since May.  Had to go take my 10 year old kid to go see Crater Lake and the giant Redwoods in N Cali.   Had to go see this kind of stuff...


Here's some of the highlights.

Day 1 - Kennewick, WA.  A stop to keep the drive from being too long.  My wife and kid don't like driving more than 4 hours at a time.  The Tri-Cities is about the size of Tacoma overall. But not too exciting, especially during Covid.  And the hotel pool was closed.
Did find a great sushi bar that could be a top one in Seattle.  Sushi Ya.   All take out, but great.  Here's the 15 piece sashimi


Day 2 - Bend, OR

I love bend.  I love the high desert terrain.  Love the old downtown by the river.  It's clean.  Easy to get around.  This is a place I could live in, easily.  Old Bend is amazing.
Great room at the Spring Hill Suites.  The pool was open.  Just be distant in it. 
Found another great Japanese place to eat here also.  Miyagi Ramen, in the Old Mill district.  Nice yakitori and satisfying tonkatsu ramen.

Great chunk of pork belly in the ramen.
Really liked the Tempura Maitake Mushroom steamed bun
Day 3 - Crater Lake and Ashland, OR

One of the main planned visit was Crater Lake.  Well, We will have to try another time.  The smoke from the California wildfires drifted north and the lake was not viewable.  It was about 1/4 mile visibility and actually made breathing an issue.  

At least we saw a cute chipmunk at a rest stop.   

Ashland is the home of an annual Shakespeare festival and is quite the cute little town also.  
found a great hotel right of I-5, the Ashland Hills Hotel. The pool was outdoors and open to up to 30 people at a time!  
 It's a giant old resort from the late 70's that was redone in a fine 70's retro style.  Just loved the decor.   Here's what I mean.


Swank and funk.


Swank and funk indeed.

Day 4/5 - Redwood forest and Eureka, CA

There was nothing I wanted to see more than the giant redwood trees in Northern Cali.   On the way, I recommend stopping at False Klamath Cove and its black sand beach.

But nothing is more impressive than standing next in a grove of giant sequoias.  Like this.



 These were actually taken in Sequoia Park in Eureka.  This is a MUST see.


Eureka, on the other hand, is not so impressive.   Other than being situated in a great spot for the redwoods and the great Victorian architecture, this is not a very pleasant place.   The homeless problem here is completely out of control.  It has taken over the Old Town district.  what a shame.  Such a cool place and with some nice stores and good spots eat at.  But you have to weave through wasted zombies on every single block.  Per capita, it's much worse here than in Seattle.

We did weave through them to have some lunch on the waterfront.   

And then went to go see the The Carson Mansion.  Unbelievable.  Got too close, so its 2 photos.   



Across the street is The Pink Lady, also built by Carson for his son in law.



And yes, homeless people sitting on the sidewalk around the corner.....

Eureka is a mill and fishing town.  This is neat.

After we saw what we saw, we were eager to leave.   I'll just pass through from now on. 

Day 6 - Brookings, OR

Back up the coast to Brookings.  On the way, we took the road through the Redwood Natl forest.
Yes, they are this big.

I would not eat this mushroom...





Brookings is beautiful fishing town with bit of sleepiness.  I liked it.   And I LOVED my lunch at The Hungry Clam.   Maybe the best fish and chips I have had ever.   No pictures, I ate it too fast.

Here's the beach there.




And then some more awesome sashimi at Pacific Sushi on their main drag.   Good stuff.




Day 7/8 - Bandon, OR

Bandon is kind of the halfway point between Seattle and San Francisco.  So it's not inundated with tourists from either.   I am not a fan of packed tourist traps, so this is a top choice for me when on the Oregon Coast.  It's got a touristy old town, but it's slow enough to take it all in.








The beach there is top notch. My personal favorite.






And Face Rock. Properly named.


Day 9 - Newport

More beach action.  Very windy here, so we got sandblasted and turned in.




We had one more day planned in Seaside, but hotel hopping for 9 days was exhausting. Also Newport and Seaside is still in phase 1 for Covid.  So all take out or outdoor dining (which is packed to the hilt), pools are closed, and is jam packed on weekends.  Took the extra 90 minutes to zip back home and rescue my garden.

We can always make it back to Seaside at any time.  It's only 4 hours from Seattle and we've been there many times.

I highly recommend spending about a week exploring the Oregon Coast.  Especially the southern half.




Monday, August 3, 2020

JULY 2020 BUYS, SELLS AND MAJOR CHANGES - PT 2


Let me quickly summarize PART 1 for those who missed it:

I cashed out all of the shares that halted their dividend.  Also, I got out of Whitehouse Financial after their latest dividend because it simply cannot be sustained at a nearly 1000% dividend payout ratio.

Reinvested $14,000 in some solid companies with a history of dividend increases, a low price to earnings, and a low dividend payout ratio.   I have $12,000 left to spend.

Two factors made me pause on the next round of purchases.....  Here goes.

FACTOR 1:   On Saturdays, I visited my mom to deliver some groceries and check on her well being.  She's been battling a slow advancing dementia over the past dozen years and is still resistant to moving into assisted living.

Her whole life had been and experiment in absolute miserly behavior.  Not just frugal, but all out miserly.   Until 4 years ago, she drove a rusted out Tercel that she would not even repair.  I had to take it in to fix the steering that was almost totally broken and would have caused a major accident.

She has a 45 year old carpet and a 50 year old couch that no longer supports sitting comfortably.  She refused to get a new dishwasher after the last one died.  Same with the broken washing machine.  I do her laundry.   I bought her a new lawnmower.  She threw it away and went back to the dull rusty push one from the 70's.  She never travelled.   Her whole family is in Greece and she last visited them in 1983.   I bought her a ticket 15 years ago after hearing years of wishing to go back.   She refused to go and then let the credit for the flight expire.  That was a $1,200 ticket thrown away.

Seeing this has resulted in a MAJOR impact on my behavior.  This is a miserable life and the reality of knowing "you can't take it with you" hits me hard.  We only live once.  She missed out.  I refuse to.

FACTOR 2:  I recently heard of a friend of a friend that unfortunately succumbed to Covid-19.  He was also quite the frugal person.  Old car and no travel.  His spouse said he regretted not travelling and actually living before dying.   That sucks.  You can't take it with you.

These two factors have given me a chance to reflect on living.  Living a bit instead of seeing the years go by.

TRIGGER: My wife's car started having problems.  Oil leaks, a power steering leak, sunroof motor dies, the doors will not lock.  This totalls $8,000 of repairs on a 9 year old Honda CR-V.  A car that only gets 18 miles per gallon and it absolutely gutless.   It considers moving when flooring it up a hill. 

RESULT:  Enough was enough.   We took the car from the shop, went next door, and traded it in for a brand new Prius. 

We got the car for $3,000 off and with 0% interest.   Got $6,800 for the CR-V and put some of my bit for my WHF sales on a down payment.  It's a wash in regards to my budget too
Pay Raise + gas savings = payment on a 0% loan.   It was a no brainer.

Switched out the wheels for black.  The stock plastic hub caps suck.


TRIGGER, THE SEQUEL: Right after that, I had to get some maintenance done on my 2004 Civic.  130,000 miles have resulted in a handful of major repairs as well.  The biggest problem is that it is recently began burning oil at a bigger than normal clip.  It's a matter of time that this will turn into a smoky mess.   I had a 1989 Honda CRX I put 240,000 miles on that left a trail of blue smoke.

So guess what I did?  Yep...
I thought of the two stories above of not living life and how you can't take it with you..  Yep...


RESULT:  I took my car and traded it in for a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid.  We decided we needed to not have worries about either car.  I already put away $2,000 a month of my income.  I can afford a nicer ride.  I only live once

.560 miles per tank and has carrying capacity for hauling things from Costco and Home Depot.  I wanted a black one with the leather like seats.  None were in stock, but I found this loaded one that was a deep blue sparkly limited color with a real cool interior.   "Live a little", said I to myself.  Sold.

2020 Toyota Rav4 Hybrid XSE.  
This is the road trip car. 

Yes it is a debt I have to pay, but it feels good not worrying about the status of a car or buying gas.  Our gasoline bill was about $350 per month.  This will take it down to maybe $100 per month.

I was saving $2,000 per month.   Now I will still be saving $1,400 per month.   And still have a chunk of the WHF sale in cash.  I may pay down this car fast since it does carry an interest rate and I hate interest payments more than anything else.

I do want to save as much as possible and invest for passive income.

But at age 51, I need to reap the benefits of where I am at in this race to escape the 9 to 5.  I would have not done this in my 20's, but time is not stopping for myself, my wife, and a 10 year old girl looking forward to adventures. 

Chickenwizard and and adventurous 10 year old.

Now we will be road tripping to the Redwood National Park, Crater Lake, and the whole Oregon Coast.  I get to relive all of the road trips I experienced in the back seat of my dad's car all over again.  Some of the greatest memories I have.   I get to improve on them!

Any thoughts? 

Sunday, August 2, 2020

JULY 2020 BUYS, SELLS AND MAJOR CHANGES - PART 1


Throughout this pandemic, we all have been teetering on wondering if we will have our health, a job, a roof over our heads, and any future at all.   It's scary.  It's stressful.  And it makes all turn inward.

I turned a bit inward in the past month on two fronts.  One was to stabilize my portfolio.  Put and end to owning high yield but teetering companies and invest in solid companies that are not going to wither away before our eyes. 

I did this a bit last August,  which I documented here:  (BIG SHAKE UP IN MY PORTFOLIO)
I did more this month.  I want it to be a leaner and less volatile collection I can feel a sense of comfort with. 

In June, I began cutting ties to companies that ended or "suspended" their dividend and but it into some dividend champions that will actually pay me back something.  That's why I cashed out on Boeing and put it into Target. 

Now in July, I decided to not wait these other companies out with fingers crossed hoping they will recover.  I got out and may revisit them once they recover.  They will not drag me through that on their path. 

I decided to sell my holdings in Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), General Motors (GM), Delta Airlines (DAL), Brinkler (EAT), and the big shocker, Whitehorse Financial (WHF).

Other than WHF, those shares was earning me zilch.  I took some loses on then, yes, but bought companies like Kroger (KR), Tyson (TSN), Western Union (WU), Consolidated Edison (ED), Hormel (HRL), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and a few others that will actually return the investment.  I also put a chunk of change from my savings and  invested.

Before the WHF escape, I added $3,723 to my portfolio that will return a fat $537.50 in dividends.  that's a 14.43% yield.  I also feel it made the overall portfolio more of what I envisioned it to be.  Solid.

Then I had a heart to heart with myself over one of my major players:  Whitehorse Financial (WHF).
I got in on them fairly early.  They consistently paid a giant dividend and had a relatively low P/E and low dividend payout ratio.  So I sunk a large portion into them about 5 years ago and held steady.

Over the past 5 years, the dividend and price stayed stable.  Boring but earned me a cool $12,000 in dividends over the past 5 years.  A 70% return.  Not to shabby.

But with the economy essentially collapsing this spring, WHF found themselves in a rough spot.

Their payout ratio leapt to 947%.   Their P/E soared up to 64.53.    There is no way they can maintain a dividend at that level.  At all.  They have not cut it yet, but will.  And that will impact the price, so I was facing a double bad hit.

What made it tough was that it was my largest holding.   5% of my whole portfolio and earning 12% of all of my dividends.  I had to get out now before watching it wither away.   So I sold them last week and got out while I was still over $5,000 ahead when considering dividend earnings. 

The WHF sale resulted in a negative $8993.75 invested and a cut of $1,187.80  for the month of July. 

A major shock to the system, but my goal of being more diversified can see the light of day.

Here's the chart for the month.

Ticker
Date
QTY
Price
Total
DIV INC / Yr
YIELD

CSCO
7/1/20
3
$46.1650
$138.50
$4.32
3.12%

HD
7/6/20
1
$250.5650
$250.57
$6.00
2.39%

BMO
7/6/20
5
$53.9387
$269.69
$21.20
7.86%

BBBY
7/8/20
-260
$10.2450
-$2663.64
$0.00
0.00%
SELL
LVS
7/8/20
-65
$44.9600
-$2922.33
$0.00
0.00%
SELL
GM
7/8/20
-112
$24.8600
-$2784.25
$0.00
0.00%
SELL
HRL
7/8/20
44
$47.9560
$2110.06
$40.92
1.94%

TSN
7/8/20
39
$57.7100
$2250.69
$65.52
2.91%

T
7/8/20
5
$30.3150
$151.58
$10.40
6.86%

VZ
7/8/20
7
$54.9150
$384.41
$17.22
4.48%

WU
7/8/20
34
$21.0575
$715.96
$30.60
4.27%

JNJ
7/8/20
7
$142.36
$996.52
$28.28
2.84%

ABBV
7/8/20
8
$99.1750
$1785.15
$84.96
4.76%

OMF
7/10/20
3
$22.7600
$68.28
$3.96
5.80%

PG
7/13/20
8
$125.4500
$1003.60
$25.30
2.52%

OMF
7/13/20
34
$23.7200
$806.48
$44.88
5.56%

ED
7/13/20
9
$72.4550
$652.10
$27.54
4.22%

HRL
7/13/20
1
$48.5700
$48.57
$0.93
1.91%

DAL
7/14/20
-68
$25.8916
-$1760.59
$0.00
0.00%
SELL
KR
7/14/20
45
$33.9173
$1526.28
$32.40
2.12%

KR
7/15/20
10
$33.5750
$335.75
$7.20
2.14%

EAT
7/21/20
-76
$24.1845
-$1837.97
$0.00
0.00%
SELL
ED
7/21/20
21
$74.5500
$1565.55
$64.26
4.10%

KR
7/21/20
8
$34.7373
$277.90
$5.76
2.07%

AES
7/22/20
2
$15.6550
$31.31
$1.15
3.67%

WHF
7/24/20
-900
$9.9850
-$8986.30
-$1278.00
14.22%
SELL
WHF
7/24/20
-315
$9.9401
-$3131.06
-$447.30
14.29%
SELL
OMF
7/28/20
7
$28.2700
$197.89
$9.26
4.68%

MCBC
7/30/20
17
$7.3850
$125.55
$5.44
4.33%

















TOTALS



-$8,393.75
-$1187.80
14.15%
current month


So what did I do with the $12,000 in cash I ended up with?   A major look in the mirror.

PART II  coming soon and you will see what I did.