When examining stocks, we are all too quick to focus on the price itself, and overlook the underlying value of the stock, which presents itself to the equity holder in terms of dividends. For this example, let’s examine two stocks: Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT
).
At the time of this writing, we find that Microsoft offers a dividend of 0.13, generally every quarter. Put another way, this means that for every 1000 shares you own in the company, you would receive 130 dollars in distributions. You can then take this money and use it as additional income, or reinvest the dividends back into the company to buy additional shares.
Google on the other hand, offers no dividends. It’s value is entirely reflected in the price of the stock itself — if the price of the stock goes up and you sell it, you make money. On the other hand, if the price of the stock drops, you may lose significant value. But until you actually sell the stock, you can’t realize the value.
In my opinion, stock in a company isn’t worth holding unless there exists some way for shareholders to share in the company’s profits. As a long-term strategy, always buy stocks that pay dividends.
If you’ve got points with both Delta
SkyMiles and Northwest WorldPerks, you can now link them together
to get an extra 500 bonus miles. You’ll need both membership numbers and their respective PIN numbers to proceed. You’ve got to do this by March 15, 2009 to receive the bonus miles.
Eventually, when Delta and Northwest finalize their merger, the bonus miles will consolidated anyway, so it’s a good idea to go ahead and take advantage of these free miles while you can.
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I always wondered how Zecco
would sustain their business model of free stock trades during this economic climate. Turns out that they couldn’t:
I’m writing to tell you that as of March 1st, 2009, we’re increasing the minimum level of assets needed to earn 10 free trades per month to $25,000. We’re also adding a new way to get free trades: customers who make at least 25 total trades per month will also qualify for 10 free stock trades per month.
Their explanation:
Why was this necessary now? Anyone who’s read a newspaper lately knows that the US and world economies have been hit hard over the past 4 months. As a result, some of the largest corporations in the world have had to cut costs and adjust to new business realities. With reduced retail trading volumes and lower interest rates, we at Zecco Trading simply could no longer provide free trades to as many people as we would like.
Before you think about quitting your day job, why not consider starting a second one first? It isn’t as hard as you think, even if you do have a job that requires travel as well as occasional weekend commitments as I do. It’s also a good way to bring additional income to eventually support what you really want to do. Here are some options to consider:
- Provide tutoring services through places such as Tutor.com. It doesn’t pay a lot, but a lot of people find it fulfilling regardless. You can get qualified to tutor in fields such as geometry and calculus.
- Better yet, if you have a master’s degree, you can apply for an adjunct instructor position at a community college to teach distance classes. The pay varies, but a good estimate is somewhere around $2000 a semester. Teaching courses in your field is a great way to keep up to date on topics you’re interested in. Plus, you’ll quite often get instructor’s manuals and complementary textbooks free of charge, which is great if you’re an autodidact.
- Folks with technical or programming knowledge can often do consulting work on weekends on evenings. A good example of this is web site design and hosting, which provides both immediate and recurring income. The initial web site design brings in a quick chunk of cash, while the hosting provides monthly or annual recurring income with minimal maintenance. Be careful about this though — you may not be able to do this depending on what non-compete agreements you have signed with your current employer.
- Publish articles in trade journals or magazines. Most trade journals will pay anywhere from $250 – $1000 for a single article. Places I’ve published include IBM DeveloperWorks
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, Linux Journal , and PHP Architect.
Not only is this a good way to bring in some extra income, it helps establish your reputation as a consultant, and provides a good source of referrals for future business leads.
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The key is to start slowly, building your residual income on the side. While it takes great discipline to not immediately spend this extra “play” money, remember your end goal: financial freedom. Take the extra money, invest it wisely, or put it away for a rainy day in a guaranteed investment for that moment when you finally do decide you’ve had enough with your day job.
The first post is always the hardest one, so this is a good time to go ahead and get that out of the way. In addition to my personal blog
addams family the free , I recently decided to start a new blog dedicated to my personal journey towards financial freedom.
Of course, financial freedom means different things to different people. For me, I have always been mesmerized by the stock markets, so naturally, my ideal job would involve working for myself as a technical trader, working when I choose to, on my own terms. My secondary goal is to bring in enough residual income so that I can cover all essential expenses on a monthly basis — currently, this amounts to about $2000 a month.
The risks are high, but so are the rewards. Whether or not I succeed or fail, I hope you’ll learn from my journey.
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