Robbie Thomas
Q3 2021 Finance/Investing Talk
These eviction protections have ended for the most part in my home state of Michigan. I live in an apartment condo-like complex and I have been noticing a few empty patios. I’ve also been noticing a few U-Hauls around with one seeing people moving their items out of the apartment. I also some stuff outside of an apartment with a sign that says: Free. Not sure if it was my complex doing that or perhaps the people living in that said apartment did that themselves.
In 2011, I lived in a complex in Roseville and I did see the end result of the eviction of a neighbors apartment with the stuff scattered in the back side of the building. That scared the shit out of me and kept myself motivated to keep working and saving. I didn’t go out much in 2011, I worked midnights and what I did on my days off were long walks. Especially at between 11p-3a. Ugh… I was that sad man wandering around Roseville/St. Clair Shores.
Anyways, I’m not going to give vivid details of my situation. Let’s say that I have been seeing the rental rates jumping up big time in the area I’m in. My complex is now asking for $240 more than I’m paying now. My lease ends in March. Moving to a cheaper city in Macomb County is on my mind. Also, this video helps out somewhat:
Stock Market
Recently, I have made my portfolio into 70/30. 70 percent stocks / 30 percent bonds. According to Google, I should be at 60/40 due to my age. But for now, I want to keep it 70/30. I got my Stash+ Insights Report last month and the report had suggested bonds. One of the things I was expecting in the middle months of this year was for the economy to recover with consumer goods and services reign high. However, we have since ended the war with Afghanistan and history does tell us that the economy doesn’t do so well within a year of an end of a war.
Besides that and the rents raising, we are seeing 5.4 percent inflation. One of the main factors of this is the money printing. This was started by the Cares Act last year (2020) and money is still being printed as of this blog posting. Been reading and listening to a few podcasts about the 1970’s inflation. I also heard this podcast from NPR’s Planet Money.
While at work in the early part of this year, I heard a previous show from the aforementioned podcast with some experts talking about the current inflation. They said it could end this year, but I have a funny feeling this inflation won’t go to the normal level of 2% this year. Perhaps it’s my negative thinking telling me this. Been told lately by some folks that I’m quite negative. For those who are bitching about my negativity, trust me when I say this, I hope I’m wrong on high inflation continuing to next year (2022). I did predict this on a previous post.
Credit Card Virgin
Guess what folks! More negativity that might piss off some religious folks! My Equifax rating is 666! Transunion at 665. I do recall that there is a Soundgarden song called 665 and it was subject to some controversy on Guitar Magazine somewhere in 1995, and Kim Thyall responded to it (supposedly). It has climbed 20 points since I checked it. I’m doing pretty good with that.
Portfolio Going Down / Thoughts On Crypto
My portfoilo has dropped to 16% from 21% a few weeks back. My portfolio is 10% metals and I did some buys recently in Gold. On one of Peter Schiff’s podcasts, he did say that Gold is going on a rollercoaster ride for some time. I want to keep my portfolio at 10% metals regardless and I’m kinda confident it’ll go back up, just not anytime soon.
When it comes to Crypto, I don’t own any of it. None of my brokerages offer anything directly in Crypto and I don’t look to go out of my way to get it. I heard there is an ETF being made or soon to be made containing Crypto. If anything, I might have my portfolio at 0.25%. Now imagine a pie with 400 slices, one slice would be Crypto. It’s of my opinion that Crypto is faith-based and it doesn’t seem to be the right investment for me now. Yes, people made millions with that, and quite a shitload of people due fucked up with it. You hardly hear from the latter. Yes, in 2005, I surely wish I bought a bitcoin. But I cannot predict the future (unlike some folks around me).
Intel, Verizon and AT&T
With the possible Stagflation coming up, I’m looking to drop my Tech down a percentage point or two. I want to keep Verizon around and also Intel. Intel for me is something I’m looking to keep going with for the next five years on the bet that their foundations they are building will fix the microchip problem. Intel will unlikely boom within a year (that’s a guess), this is something I’m keeping for about five years. Verizon I also want to keep as I think they will be able to stay intact in the upcoming months of troubles. As long as they keep the dividend, I’ll keep a’going. I talked about my AT&T blunder on a previous post.
Dividends
In all of 2020, I made $223 in dividends. So far in 2021, I’ve made $363. I was able to get to $223 this year on June 23. In 2019, I made $90 in dividends. The multiple of those two years is 2.48.
Example, 223/90 = 2.48.
If I can keep that multiple going for this year, I will make $552.
Example, 233*2.48=552.
So far, I’m off my mark a little bit. However, I made $93 in June. Perhaps December will bring me more. Will let you know.
I’m also taking my dividends and add them to Dynex Capital (DX) and Annaly Capital Mgmt (NLY). The former is a low-cost stock that pays each month. NLY doesn’t pay each month but it’s a good play. They are both real estate stocks.
I’m going to finish with the disclaimer, it’s all I got to say for finances/investing for now.
WARNING: Do not take this advice and put all your eggs in the basket on a single stock or fund that I mentioned. When it comes to investing, I’m Single-A ball at best (short season A-ball). Please do your research and due diligence. I don’t want an e-mail with: “Hey dickwad! I put all my money in a stock you mentioned in a blog, and the CEO got caught naked with a 7-year-old boy in Thailand.”
Gabby Petito Case
Yes, this is not considered financial/investing talk, but I got to say something. I did see the VAN LIFE video (still up as of this post). And next, the Moab video where the cops talk to Gabby and Brian Laundrie. Gabby did mention she had/has (still missing as of this post) OCD. Going back to that VAN LIFE video, it surely shows a different aspect of their travels. The Moab video, the total opposite. It’s quite strange how there is a week in between where Gabby was last heard from via a phone call to Brian coming on home on September 1st. And as of this post, he’s missing again.
My guess is Gabby isn’t alive unfortunately, and Brian did kill her. Gabby may not be found for a while or perhaps never if she was killed and left at Grand Teton Park. Another thing I wonder is that Brian might have got upset at Gabby when she was having a mental health crisis and sadly went too far.
Besides that, the VAN LIFE video got me to thinking about 2008 when I got a plastics job via a temp service. The temp service was managed and operated by women. I had been to that temp office a few times and the women would have photos of themselves with their husbands in happy times. It just seems like they were quite flaunt with that. That’s fine.
But also, these folks were quite pissy. Yes, at the time I didn’t have reliable transportation and there were a few times when my Buick Shitlark would fail and they would call and get upset about me being late. Of course, they have a good argument, I was late. But they would threaten to terminate my employment with a serious pissy tone of voice. I thought at the time that these woman were looking for the easy life before 2008 where they didn’t have to work. making the husbands work and pay all the bills. Then 2007-08 came around and the husbands said, “I can’t pay for all of this, you need to work.”
With that VAN LIFE video, it has got me thinking that their lives were not so grand before then. But they wanted to appear that they are happy. I’m quite sure these women wouldn’t be happy being in my position in 2008, a mentally defective guy trying to catch up on bills driving a piece of shit car 40 miles round trip for $8.75/hour. Even when gas got up to $4 a gallon.