Steadfast Finances
A Personal Finance & Investing 101 blog that delves into current events, consumer education, and techniques to improve your bottom line.
Cisco Pays Dividend; I Feel Old
Cisco Systems, once touted as the 500lb gorilla of the high flying tech stocks back in the late 90s, showed its age maturity today by going dividend. In the dividend world, 6 cents on a $17 stock is virtually nothing, and with today’s growth is king mentality (see Apple, see Chipolte Mexican Grill, etc.), the [...]
Renting Hot, Home Ownership Not
Better late than never… Call it the upside to the downturn in residential housing: apartment demand is back and that is profiting the multifamily sector. — Diana Olick, CNBC Realty Check [video] I called this in early 2008 as the bubble was collapsing (before I started this blog otherwise I’d link to it) for a [...]
How I Find the Highest Paying Dividend Stocks
Whether you believe that dividend investing is one of best forms of passive income or not, it’s certainly one of the most reliable ways to boost your ROI over the long haul and in a sideways market. So not surprisingly, one of the questions I’ve been getting on a regular basis is: How do you [...]
10 Off the Beaten Path ETFs That Everyday Investors (Probably) Haven’t Heard About
Have you noticed that everyone seems more interested in the esoteric, out of the ordinary types of investments these days? I have. Some people might want to buy gold because they’re caught up in the fear trade, or others might want to buy raw commodities like oil or natural gas because they’re a dwindling resource. [...]
Bull and Bear Markets Consistently Appear in 16 Year Supercycle Intervals
If you think the stock market doesn’t behave in consistent (possibly predictable) boom and bust economic cycles, this graphic might change your mind. Going as far back as 1886, this chart indicates that bull markets and bear markets routinely plague our economy. Aptly named Supercycles, they come and go in a somewhat predictable pattern. On average, they occur every [...]
Preferred Stock Index Funds: The Future for High Yield Dividend Investors?
Since Wall Street has thrown us such an unexpected curve ball and subsequently slammed the S&P 500 down ~35% (2008 YTD), most of us are justifiably thinking about readjusting our portfolios, reviewing our asset allocations, or even reducing our 401k / IRA contributions until this financial crisis is resolved. For my own portfolio, I’ve been [...]
