Adsense-$5.34; traffic is down on my music website considerably. Not sure what is going on but ever since I converted to https my traffic has dropped off! This truly affects ad revenue.
Dividends $69.13
Amazon Affiliate $0.18; Once again Amazon continues to be the weakest link, just a few book sales via clicks on my youtube channel.
Credit Card Rewards $6.25
Credit Union Rewards $14.27
Skillshare-$31.52
Digital Products $12.55; had a few TAB sales but most were of the lower priced tier, so it didn’t amount to much.
Youtube $29.28; It FINALLY happened, I’m able to monetize my music channel on youtube. Looks like that is going to net me around an extra $30 per month.
TOTAL PASSIVE INCOME FOR OCTOBER is $278.62
This is a little less than last month, largely because I didn’t make any video sales through TEACHABLE as normal. I still have my prize on making over $350 in passive income over the next couple of months. I think I got this now with the extra Youtube ad revenue.
I just passed one of my milestones, breaking $300 in PASSIVE INCOME.
Here is my breakdown of how I did it
1)Patreon $114.96
Patreon continues to be my outperformer, I love this site.
2)Google Adsense $3.04
3)Teachable $58.62
Teachable is where I sell my Digital Music Teaching videos for download and sale.
4)Skillshare $26.85
Not a bad month for skillshare, I generally average around $20 a month from my online music course on the site.
5)Stock Dividends $117.05; Now this is my complete TOTAL of dividends which includes my Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, and Brokerage account. Not all of these dividends can or should be withdrawn today.
6)Digital Products $15.03
This is from sheet music sales. I only sold a few this month.
7)Amazon Affiliate $2.81
This gave me a total of $338.36 in passive income with a total of $239.47 that I could potentially take out as income today.
Lastly, I’d like to end by stating I’m now officially monetized on my youtube music channel so that will add somewhere around 30-40 dollars to my passive income as well next month. Good things coming down the pipe!
Today I woke up with a big smile on my face. Eaton Vance, my 4th largest position, was acquired by Morgan Stanley for 7 billion dollars. This made the stock shoot up approximately 50%.
Needless to say, I sold about 85% of my shares for a nice 47% gain (not counting years of dividends of course). While I’m happy for the gains, now I do have one less dividend paying stock, haha. On the other hand, I did make over $1000 in gains off of this sale so not bad.
I took some of the money and bought more ITOT, Kaiser Aluminum, and added QQQ to my Brokerage account as well.
In other news, I am very pleased with the way my TOTAL RETURN is going. The value of all of my accounts is going up rather nicely. Last month I was quite surprised with some of my value stocks like Hooker Furniture company, Westrock, and others. They all had fantastic months.
I’m not sure what positions I will be adding to this next month. Chewy, DR Horton, and QQQ are the most likely suspects.
In my IRA account, I did buy just a bit more Universal Forest Products today. With that account, I think ITOT and QQQ are about the only things I want to buy more. However, I may add some to Virgin Galactic, just for a risky “bet” as it has been very kind to me so far.
I’ll first give you the list and then some data about why I like these companies. However, I’ll preface it by saying I own all of them but two.
FORTINET
NETFLIX
MIMECASE
TYLER TECHNOLOGIES
IDEXX
CHEWY
GENPACT
FACEBOOK
The chart above provides a summary of SOME of the data I look at when evaluating GROWTH STOCKS. Things like EPS growth, both on a quarterly and yearly basis. Predicted EPS growth and Cash Flow Growth rates are some other things I make sure to look at. Lastly, Return on Equity and REVENUE trends.
SO HERE ARE THE STOCKS
First, let’s look at FORTINET. Fortinet is a Cyber Security stock that isn’t too exposed to the COVID-19 area.
Quarter to Quarter EPS growth of 76.47%, A 5 yr cash flow growth rate of 52.4%, 22.07% Revenue growth Q to Q and lastly a 35.56% Return on Equity. FORTINET is an extremely well managed company, has very little debt on their books, and is a CASH FLOW KING.
MIME: Mimecast is an EMAIL SECURITY company. They do a lot of work with Microsoft products. 29.2% Year to Year EPS growth and a 21.57% 5 year Cash Flow Growth Rate. This stock has an even higher EPS growth rate year over year than Fortinet. In addition, it beats it out in the Revenue growth department. Another thing you can’t see in this chart is that the companies MARGINS are increasing, which is a good sign as well.
NETFLIX-What can I say, Netflix is one of my all-time favorite stocks; I am up over 60% in this stock. The main reason I started investing in Netflix was because I saw that the Cash Flow growth rate was incredible. Over five years it has increased its CF growth rate 44%. INCREDIBLE! You can also see from the chart above that NFLX is putting up some HUGE growth numbers, over 100% Quarter to Quarter. Return on Equity is fantastic, so the company is managing itself well and revenues continue to increase. I believe Netflix is positioned well during COVID-19. I simply hope they are able to film more and more movies without too much interruption. Lastly, I believe NFLX has shown that its competitors are no match for it, DIS didn’t take its market share (for many obvious reasons).
FACEBOOK-I no longer own FB, I swing trade it from time to time. At the same time, it’s hard to deny that its book look wonderful. Just look at the Cash Flow and Revenues, not to mention the great EPS growth rate quarter to quarter. Once again, I think Facebook is one of those stocks you can count on to get you through COVID-19 unscathed. Despite a recent mix up with large companies that no longer want to use the company for advertisement, I believe FB is going to be okay without them. FB has a HUGE number of advertisers, it’s a place they need to be.
GENPACT-Genpact is more of a slow grower, not a 100% growth stock. It’s been around for a long time and is a very diversified company. Its primary business of course is analytics. 41.94 EPS growth Q2Q is pretty incredible for a company with this history. 23% projected growth next year is another reason I put this on my growth stock list. At these prices, I believe the company is seriously undervalued. I’m currently buying more of this stock.
IDEXX-Idexx is involved in the vetinary product business. Between this and Chewy, you could be on the start to a PET ETF :). Once again, you can see that this one has some slower EPS and revenue growth numbers than many of the others. However, a hefty 21% projected growth for next year. I think this will be a fine company to own in the future. Disclaimer-I do not own this one, at the moment I find the valuation to be just a bit high.
TYLER TECHNOLOGIES-This is another one that is more of a slower grower. It’s revenues have slowed and is only projected to grow 8.52% next year. At the same time, I feel the company has a nice moat. 68% increase in EPS quarter over quarter, so maybe it can keep that going and beat expectations with its growth
CHEWY-Chewy is one of my favorite stocks right now, our little cats love this company. With COVID-19 still running rampart, I think ordering pet supplies through the mail is here to stay. I do have some concerns with the company, the main one being how many shares it’s employees are being reimbursed with. However, look at the gigantic REVENUE growth on this one quarter to quarter…..46%! Analysts are projecting a 57% increase in earnings next year as well. I believe the future looks bright for Chewy. I unfortunately only own a very small portion (1% of my portfolio) so I plan on upping my game in this one before the year is over.
Chasing Dividends – Do not chase DIVIDENDS. You will Underperform the market. Look at the following ETF’s-ITOT vs NOBL vs DGRO. You will find that taking on the additional risk of a concentrated dividend portfolio did not provide you with any additional rewards this year. The more you focused on dividends with those ETF’s, the less your return was.
Cut losers Faster- Tax Loss Harvesting is a real thing. If a stock falls 15%, don’t be tempted to keep buying. Get out of the stock and move on to something else. I am talking INDIVIDUAL STOCKS not Mutual Funds or ETF’s. Things like total market funds/ETF’s are meant for buying and holding.
Buy into strength not weakness – This was something I learned that immediately improved my returns. Don’t always buy the dip, buy stocks that are moving higher via strength (momentum if you will). Stocks that are going up often just keeping going on. Meanwhile, stocks that are losers, often continue going down for very long periods of time. It has been my experience that chasing TURNAROUND KIDS are simply not worth it. The amount of time you hold them before they turn around is a HUGE opportunity cost.
Buy and Hold with Individual stocks doesn’t always make sense. If you just had a year of 30% returns, why not scrape a little off the top? It is not winning until you take something off the table. If a companies revenues and earnings are still growing strong, it may make sense to buy and hold for a long time; however, if you see them start to slow, it MAY be time to sell a little bit.
Pick LESS stocks – I see investors pick 40 individual stocks. I’m sorry, but if it takes 30 stocks, then you are doing it wrong. You should not need that many stocks to be diversified. This is partly why a total market ETF or fund should be the meat and potatoes of your portfolio. Pick a few strong stocks to JUICE your returns. I’m still trying to reduce my positions a year later. It has been proven past a certain point, you are now over diversified, and aren’t adding anything positive to your returns.
Swing Trading is ok if you don’t risk much and you limit yourself to doing it a few times a month. If you MUST swing trade, no, you don’t always lose. In fact, I don’t ever remember losing on a swing trade (only on buy and holding). Just use very small positions and pick stocks you will be okay holding if your trade doesn’t work out. Yes, as a general rule of thumb ACTIVE investing underperforms PASSIVE investing. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with stocks if you enjoy it, just be sensible. Many people get addicted to gambling and such and can’t be sensible.
Avoid Retail company stocks that are in the mall. The biggest loser I’ve bought is American Eagle Outfitters. Trust me when I say, Wall Street does not like these apparel/clothing stocks. If it’s not Target, Wal-mart or LULU then buying a retail stock is a losing proposition. You could invest in most any other sector and come out better.
Sector ETF’s will most likely underperform. I’ve owned Healthcare Sector funds, country ETF’s and they ALL underperformed a boring total market ETF or QQQ. They are usually not worth the additional risk. QQQ that is heavily weighted towards tech is really the only exception I’ve found so far; however, even it holds more than just tech stocks.
Don’t spend too much time eyeing your portfolio. Go get to work making more money. Your returns are basically decreasing if you spend hours each day looking at your brokerage account (BEEN THERE, STILL AM THERE SOME DAYS!
