All I want for Christmas is a great stock portfolio
December 11, 2013
PiC was relatively unimpressed when I announced that our Christmas presents this year were going to be Costco stock.
“… I like Costco….”
Yup. So do most people I know. Fun fact: Costco apparently ed to keep offering mainland prices when they opened up their Hawaii stores. This was from a Hawaii-based friend. We’ve shopped there and while I won’t say all the prices are still on par with mainland prices, they’re pretty close. For a place that easily charges 3-5x more for basics than the mainland, that’s not bad.
I’ve been on the hunt for an addition to my tiny portfolio, so I started thinking over the businesses that I’ve tracked over the years, as well as the businesses we frequent. If we’re consistently willing to spend money at a business that has a strong foundation and cash flow, it makes sense to consider them as a stock holding after some research.
I’m looking for stocks with dividends this round and Costco (COST) fits that bill. Their fundamentals looked tolerably good, though the ratios are on the lower side compared to some other stocks that are flying high. I will admit that my working knowledge of the market is pretty rusty after spending enough years sitting on stocks and not doing a lot of research. It makes Evan’s Investment Club an attractive idea; you’d think this was like riding a bike but apparently I was never that good at riding bikes/stock picking!
I decided the number of stocks I wanted (based on how much cash I had on hand, honestly), the price I’d be willing to pay and set a GTC (good til canceled) stop order at that price.
My portfolio is currently at TradeKing (referral link gets you and me $50) which has been great for my style: simple, low-cost at $4.95 per trade, easy to navigate and good information resources. I buy and hold, reinvest dividends, and balance growth and income stocks.
::Update: I’m now the proud owner of COST. PiC remains slightly indifferent. 🙂
Putting them on my list to look at. 🙂 Although at around $118/share, I am balking at the sticker price (haha.. how ironic right?) 🙂
Heh, yeah, I know, I look at the prices in the absence of context and balk. But then I realized: I keep doing that and the prices keep changing, mostly going up all the time. I have to stop myself trying to time the market because that’s what I’m clearly doing.
I don’t own any individual stocks – I have stuck with index funds – so I might actually own some Costco stock, but I’m not sure 🙂
That’s probably served you well 🙂 I primarily hold index funds as well but like to have a little diversity in this way as well.
Congrats on the pick up! People are freaking fanatical when it comes to Costco and BJ’s. If you are looking for dividend payers, why not check out the dividend champion or dividend aristocrat lists? They are dividend payers that have increased their dividend for at least the past 25 years (which hopefully means they have a desire not to get kicked off the list and will continue to increase their dividends for 25 more).
Thanks! And agreed – I haven’t seen the mania for Costco/BJ’s fade in the least over the years among the greater consumer population (I discount the PF population in this, for the most part). Thanks for the suggestions, I will look at the two lists to see if there’s anything I want to own there.
Congrats on the addition 🙂 some day i’ll get back into it!
Thanks! Whenever you’re ready! I haven’t been actively adding to this portfolio for a while, either, just reminding myself to make it more of a priority.
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