Do you feel surrounded by market wreckage and chaos? Has your portfolio lost several percentage points? Are you feeling persecuted, hated, or worse? We get it. It’s half-time and we’re here to help. God knows we can use the cheer.
Why make any moves while all hell has already broken loose? Look at the scoreboard. No one under control sells into a price tumble. Wouldn’t anyone be just as crazy to buy now?
When the going gets tough and ugly it’s important to remain positive and engaged. It’s also important to put points on the board.
Ignore the treachery of indexes for a moment. We’re about to do nice things for your larger financial life, maybe your portfolio, and for sure your attitude.
How are we going to do this? We’ll look both ways and rely on fundamentals.
Have you looked for a good dividend payer lately? We all know and love the protection of defensive stock plays. yet those pesky rising rates suck cash out from underneath all dividend-paying defensive stocks. Multiple rate hikes this year look very likely now.
Need income? Keep looking for payers. Don’t need income? Like to win even when the winning gets hard? Below are ways to win now.
Kill the interest-bearing credit card debt.
Attack student loan debt.
These are both common elements of sound financial practice, yet both are mishandled. That’s human and so is decision making. New thinking often proves the only way to better results.
As we stated, times are tough for income seekers. However, almost anyone can profit right now by reducing or eliminating any interest.
T pays us 5.4% for being a shareholder and it’s probably not worth it. But paying down interest-bearing debt is. How accurate is “A penny saved a penny earned?”
So T will pay us 5.4% to put our money on their rollercoaster. Of course we could go for some NLY red-flag dividend, some questionable REIT. No thanks.
STOCKjAW seeks all the value of a fat dividend, but with equity risk. As rates rise the underlying share price of all payers will be devalued. That is markets in action.
Investing is hard work. Show yourself the results. When behind or beaten down, putting points on the board builds or maintains momentum and focus.
Wins matter. Momentum matters, as does feeling as though our work matters. Timing matters. Market conditions are not within our control. Yet we will not be denied.
How? Perhaps this is the only story that gets better by the detail. Dividends build assets by adding. Assets are equally built by reducing costs. Debt is a cost. All debt costs regardless of source. Reducing any cost bolsters your bottom line.
STOCKjAW DYNAMIC DUO.
IF YOU HAVE NO STUDENT OR CREDIT CARD DEBT.
1. BUILD CASH. PAY YOURSELF FIRST.
Any way you slice it, right now building cash works. Do so in or out of your investment vehicles. Ether way you win.
2. INTEREST-ONLY MORTGAGE PRINCIPAL PAYMENTS.
FOR THOSE NOT REQUIRING INCOME, REDUCING DEBT INCREASES YOUR OVERALL FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE JUST LIKE CAPITAL GAINS.
PRINCIPAL-ONLY PAYMENTS REDUCE MORTGAGE DEBT IN TWO WAYS; THEY REDUCE THE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT UPON WHICH INTEREST IN COMPOUNDED, AND REDUCE REPAYMENT TIME. INTEREST TIME IS MONEY.
YOUR BIGGEST BENEFIT IS REMAINING EMPOWERED. WORKING FOR A BETTER FINANCIAL RESULT IS ALWAYS IN YOUR HANDS, NOT THE WHIMSICAL MARKET.
