Where Will I Be Looking to Invest in 2014

I am still very Bullish on the U.S. economy and am also increasingly looking for an economic boost for Europe too.

With almost six years of an economic downturn behind us, since the collapse of the financial markets in 2008-9.

My theory is that people are innately positive creatures, we cannot remain negative for an extended period. So it seems to me that Europe will pull up more strongly during 2014, and as it does the people of Europe and the United States will slowly increase spending and overall consumption will rise.

As a result of this I am looking to move some of my reserves to consumer goods manufacturing stocks, with a small back-up in European financials.

This is a risky move, but I am only backing my hunch with my "Silly Money" fund. About 5% of my portfolio.

All the rest of my funds are staying in broad market stocks and bond funds with a strong position in rail road companies, I own Union Pacific and CSX stock, these are needed for getting goods across the US to ports for import and export and I also look to consumer staples to hold strong support for the year.

Can We Beat the Market?

As investors we often  hear talk about "beating the market." It has almost become a holy grail for many, but can we really beat the market?

Do I as an investor even want to beat the market?

It would be nice to earn consecutively high amounts of interest on my money, don't get me wrong, but beating the market is not one of my goals. I aim to earn more on my investments than the rate of inflation. So I am generally happy most of the time.

Also to be contrarian, I also love stock prices to fall. A falling stock price in a falling market can mean a bargain price. A falling stock price in a stable or rising market can mean you just need to get away from that stock pretty darn quickly.

Beating the market means I win,. For me to win someone has to lose. That someone has to be you.

We are all the market. You make as important a contribution to my beating the market as everyone else. In the long run I cannot beat all of you often enough to claim that I consistently beat the market. I do however, come in the upper return levels often enough so as to make me happy. Returns this year for me are above inflation andmy cash balance is nicely placed for the coming year.

Can we Beat the Market, yes, I have done it a couple of times in the past thirty years. My method then was mainly to stick all my money in one hot stock. Scarey, especially when the hot stock turns colder than an iceberg in deep space, and falls to nothing meaning that I beat the market at losing too.

As the Year Comes to an End

As this year of 2013 comes to an end, I am very happy with my investments and life in general.

In October I received my first Guide dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind. Yes folks, in the interest of full disclosure I am a blind investor.

A walk down the street for me was once a genuine random walk, now I just put my dog in harness and let his nose sniff out the good stocks.

No, not really. I am blind and do have a new guide dog named Leif. But he does not help me with my investments.

I am however very happy about the situation as it stands in my financial life. With additions of cash and increases in the market my financial base this end of year looks to have improved about 320% over the same time last year.

All in all a nice end of year report from my brokers leaves me very happy and hopeful for a prosperous year for us all next year.

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Half Year

As this first hald of the year passes, I am happy with my portfolios.

The gains of 2012 have held strong. The recent fall in the S&P has taken away some of the first five month gains which I had, but over the months I had taken some profits and rebalanced my accounts at least three times.

So now I have some loose change available to invest in stock as we go into the third quarter.

I believe we will have a rough couple of months until September begins. A volatile market with lots of good opportunities.

At the end of the third quarter we will see a rise towards the end of the year maybe up to the same levels we saw in May. That is just my guess, and unless I change my opinion it will be the framework upon which I build my second half of the year financial plans.

Uncertain Times

For the past few days market reporters have been talking of volatility and uncertainty in the markets.

OK so if you are frightened of volatility and uncertainty, if you want certain profits and easy money. What are you doing in the Stock Markets anyway?

You cannot expect certainty at anytime within the stock market. If it were a certain bet it would be no fun.

To paraphrase good old Ben Franklin the "only certainties in life are death and taxes"

Prepare for a nice bumpy ride till at least November as the markets will fluctuate for a few weeks, thensettle to a rise towards the middle of the final quarter and with a final upward bound at Christmas.

Basically the markets have returned to a "normal situation" this year following old patterns of rise and fall. I am still in the market because I see good returns in the next few months.

Back to the DRIP

With the fall in the market over the last week I am looking to adjust some of my programs.

As markets rose I switched from using DRIP's (Dividend Reinvestment Plans) to taking dividends on my higer paying stocks.

Stock prices were just too high to warrant buying and reducing the dividend yield. So better to take the cash and wait on the sidelines till some of the prices began to come back and dividend yields rose again.

We are now entering the region where many of those dividend yields are coming backto looking very attractive to me again.

Yeilds are coming up on some of my stock to above 6% and so as this month is mid year and both the second quarter dividend for many stocks as well as this week being a paying week for many monthly dividend paying stocks I am putting back Drip plans into force for the month.

We will see if prices rise again at the end of the month if I will continue the strategy for July and August too.

So there will be little cash entering my funds this month. I am going all in on DRIP's for the hugher yields.

Are You a Whig or Conservative?

Todays stock markets can trace their existence back to the mid 18th Century. The era when men met in coffee houses and read the latest news from the new fangled newspapers of the day.

They gambled and drank coffee or chocolate and talked of politics and philosophy.

From the melee of coffee houses rose stock exchanges, insurance houses and the two party system.

Call them whig or Toriy in their day or bulls and bears today. A conversation between these two sides of the argument still revolves around the same idea.

For the Whig or Bull, things are better now than they have ever been. Buy now because things will be even better tomorrow.

For the Conservative, Tory or bear things are only marginal right now but tomorrow will bring disaster as we face the punishment we deserve for our folly.

Be you a bear, or be you a bull. You will share many of the values of your whig and Tory ancestor.

To be honest there is little new in this market and nor will there be in any future markets. The whigs will look forward in hope, the bears will sell in fear.

Whig or Conservative we all stand on the right side, most of the time.