The Ups and Downs

A great example of market ups and downs happened today. GameStop (GME) shared their Q1 reports today with lots of things to be happy about. They saw new hardware sales up by 25%, new software sales up 8%, digital sales up 3%, collectibles up 39%, and posted that they expect full-year EPS of 3.10-3.32 points. One would think with all of these positive earning results that they would see a massive price increase but instead Mr. Market decided to rear its ugly head and slam the stock in after hours for a total of -6.3%.

It's time like these that remind me that as much as one may try to predict the market, they can only do so much. And when that happens it's incredibly important for each investor to return to the books, blogs, and teachings that can reassure us that we are still moving forward with whatever certainty we can obtain through financial reports, investor sentiment, and general good-luck guessing. After all, we all have had or will have a day on Wall Street where this kind of shenanigans hits.

It's not for lack of trying to time or beat the market. It's just that investing is hard. There is a science to picking stocks but there is also a lot of luck and for those that believe in the efficient market theory, days like today prove that you really can't predict everything. The market will do what it wants to do and in the fashion that it wishes to do it. That being said, Bloomberg machine or not, we are all a little more humbled when we get taken for a brain-melting and head spinning trading day like GameStop (GME) saw today.

Self-Tax Budget

Imagine if at 5PM today the government came up to you and tapped you on the shoulder. Imagine that when you turned around to address them, they advised you that starting tomorrow morning they would start taxing you an additional 10% on everything you decided to buy. What would you do? Would you riot in the streets? Would you cry and moan about how unfair it is? Would you be willing to go to jail for not paying it?

Odds are you would be mad or sad but ultimately you would pay it. You would pay it because you would seemingly have no choice but to do so. Your life would be tough for a while and you would have to change a lot of your habits to reflect the new tax but eventually you would adjust to this new way of life. Eventually you would be so used to it that you wouldn’t even notice that tax being taken out.

New Acquisition: LB

New Acquisition: L Brands (LB)

Purchase: 50 shares of LB @ 49.19/share

Total Purchase Price: $2,466.45

Previous Projected Annual Dividends: $868.99

New Projected Annual Dividends: $988.99

Previous Projected Monthly Dividends: $72.41

New Projected Monthly Dividends: $82.46

Free"ish" Money Saving

Grocery Tips

Wealth: One Card Budget

Keeping a bunch of envelopes around the house or at arm’s reach can be a pain in the Kim Jong-Un. It’s one of the primary reasons that the envelope system of budgeting is hard for some people. If you don’t have the luxury of carrying around a purse or a man-bag (AKA: a satchel, AKA: Indiana Jones had one), keeping track of the envelopes can really be enough in itself to stop someone from using that way of budgeting. That’s why I offer an alternative to the equal to zero budget. The alternative is what I like to call the One Card Budget. With this budget, one can easily manage their expenses, track their spending, and make money by spending money.

The budget itself revolves around one simple rule: put everything on one credit card. I know; it seems a bit wild to be talking about savings and credit cards in the same sentence but it works. In fact, it works just about as well as any cut scene in a Marvel movie where Stan Lee gets five more seconds of fame. The best part is that it’s one of the easiest out there to keep track of.

Quick Adjustment

Even though I would like to think that I am above making errors, I must admit that I made one on my last post. The good thing however is that it is a good error. On my last post I had announced that I had made a little over $40 in dividends for the month of April. After looking at my trading account today however, I noticed that the AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) dividends didn't show as having been made in April but they were in fact made in April.

This brings the month of April's dividend income to a much more respectable total of $75.40. Sorry not sorry.