The Weekly Investment

Dividend Investing

Tag Archives: shingles


by 2 Comments

February 11, 2017 Net Worth Update

Hello Everyone

This is my late January early February net worth update!  I hope to create one update each month this year.

The shingles that I had the misfortune of developing about a month ago have resolved for the most part but I still have residual affects in my lower back and leg and the remnants of the rash is still visible.  I believe these nuisances will clear up, hopefully within the next year.  Shingles is a horrible condition and I feel the need to write another cathartic article about it within the next couple of months, with pictures…

I have recently started selling items on ebay and this has kept me very busy.  I really enjoy reselling; there is a lot of “stuff” out there to resell and I live in an area that offers a lot of shopping opportunities so I am going to give it a try and see if I can make at least enough money to cover my monthly bills.

Covering my monthly bills is my main goal because I do not want to be forced to take the flu shot this fall.  If I can find a means of decent income outside my current job I am going to quit.  I will be “living on the cheap” but I do want to quit…

Living on the cheap is of course risky.  One health incident could really hurt me financially.  But then again, even if I were extremely wealthy, a health incident could hurt me financially as well.

Speaking of the flu shot, I just thought that I would mention something because this has really been bugging me.  Every year we are also forced to take a yearly TB skin test.  This test never really bothered me and I did not object to it until recently but I will not get into my objections on this post.

But what I am getting at is that every year we are forced to get a TB test with accompanying paperwork to fill out.  Within the past couple of years the paperwork has changed with 2016’s paperwork the most comprehensive.

I had the test performed in December of 2016 and before getting the shot I had to fill out the paperwork.  And do you know what the paperwork statement stated in the area where I signed my name?  The statement read, “I am requesting a TB test to be administered” What!!???? HELLO?????

2017-02-25-12-21-16

2017-02-25-12-23-11

Yes, the paperwork’s statement basically forced me to state that I was asking for it…and therefore if anything detrimental…in terms of my health… or anything else…were to happen…then…I could not sue because I WANTED IT!!!!!!  This is very sick.  I see where this is going.  The flu shot paperwork this fall will most probably say the same thing.

I work in an environment that requires FIERCE attention to detail and truth and critical thinking.  This statement that I had to sign was dishonest and wicked so my question is…”What kind of workers are they looking for?”  Easily controllable workers???  Workers that don’t think critically????  What a joke…I am becoming very jaded.

The statement could at least have stated “I understand that I am required to take the TB as a requirement of my job.”  I still don’t agree with being forced to take a medical procedure but at least this is an HONEST statement.  I became very angry after reading the contents of the paperwork and wanted to point out the absurdity to the nurse giving the shot but this would have been pointless so I held it all in and anyway deep down I feared retaliation…yep this is where this is going.

Ok, so anyway, back to the net worth update! 🙂  I was saving for a car but ended up placing the $4000.00 I had saved into my brokerage.  Combined with the stock market increases, my portfolio is above $200,000!!!

It is fascinating to see the gains in the portfolio in just one year.  You can check it all out here. 🙂

Have a great rest of February!!!


by 2 Comments

December 31, 2016 Net Worth Update / Shingles – Graphic

 

Happy New Year Everyone!

I was going over my portfolio changes for 2016.  My portfolio, which consists of a brokerage account and Roth IRA, experienced a combined increase of $47,946.42 for 2016!  That is great news especially since I added approximately $20,000.00.

It is nice to see portfolio increases but dividend increases are equally as important and more important in some ways.  An interesting detail occurred in that the dividends earned in 2016 surpassed those of 2015 by only $700.00!  I began dividend investing in 2015.  Starting in April, 2015’s dividend total does not even represent a full year.

With $20,000.00 invested in newly purchased dividend stocks I was hoping to reach $7000.00 in dividends in 2016.  I believe there are two reasons why I did not reach $7000.00.  Most of my Roth IRA consists of a mutual fund.  The mutual fund produces “distributions” every quarter, not dividends, and these “distributions” vary.  For instance I made $1435.63 less in distributions from my mutual fund in 2016 than in 2015.  Adding $1435.63 to my dividend 2016 income of $5884.16 equals $7319.79…

Would selling off my mutual fund and investing in dividend stocks increase my earnings?  That is the question I keep asking myself and need to research throughout the coming year.

The second reason I think my dividends did not reach $7000.00 is because the “snowball” is just getting started.  I am new to dividend investing and am thinking there might be a cyclical pattern of increasing dividends?  For instance maybe 2017 will yield a noticeable difference after two years of monetary additions?  This is just a hunch and I am a newbie but I will definitely look into selling my mutual fund for single stocks.

New Perspective

Sometimes I feel guilty for going over my dollar earnings, feeling like I am being greedy or something as I count all my cash.  Well, I have reminded myself that cash value is relative and my savings is paltry to some and grandiose to others and the cost of my monthly bills places my savings amounts into perspective.  If I had a $1500.00 per month mortgage this would be a totally different blog.  So, it is all relative…

Well, I now feel a little less guilty about “counting my cash” each month because I see how it is a protective measure for me and my life.

I sometimes get a cold but never severe enough to call in to work.  I have called into work at total of three times in the past 14.5 years.  Unfortunately I was stricken with shingles about two weeks ago.  It was a good thing that I happened to schedule some vacation time during this outbreak but I still needed to call in for two days.  As I type this I am still in pain and wonder if I will make it in on Tuesday.

Shingles is one of the most physically painful things I have ever experienced.  The condition is horrible and I feel sick thinking about its symptoms, it is a very agonizingly sickening condition. I have a new empathy for anyone who has experienced… shingles.

As I rested on the couch again yesterday, feeling as if I was suffering the aftermath of a shark attack, it was a great comfort to see that I earned $69.73 in dividends on that day!  Without doing anything!  With no fees!  This is such a comfort to me because at that moment I was once again contemplating quitting my job, taking money considerations into account.

I am grateful for dividend bloggers such as Jason Fieber for constructing the Dividend Mantra blog, which is now discontinued, because it was available at just the right time for me in 2015 to learn what I needed to know.  This topic of early retirement is not greed, it is survival.  I believe that people such as myself will not make it to retirement at 65, we are sensitive individuals, easily stressed and weeded out if not careful…

Shingles has left me wondering if my lower back will be okay?  I am being melodramatic but it has caused a lower back pain I never had.  Shingles arises from dormancy from something called a dermatome and in my case this happened to be located in the area of the L2 and L3 dermatomes of my lower back.  The dermatomes extended and spread the rash as the they twisted and turned from my right upper hip into my right outer and inner thigh, and finally to the back of my knee.

I could feel the inflammation begin in my lower back as the rash began.  I had to work at my job during the beginning of the shingles pain since it occurred on Christmas and I was scheduled for the entire weekend.  There are many areas of pain in the affected areas of a bought of shingles and different types of pain, horrible, electrocution type shocks of pain and others that I do not want to remember…shingles will make you cry.

For now I seem to be on the mend.  I become happy when I realize there are areas that feel better but then sad when I realize I still have pain.  It has been exactly two weeks since the very initial symptoms of a deeply achy femur bone.  I believe stress played a role in my shingles development; I work too hard and need to take a long break and do the things I want to do.  I want a garden and I want to raise monarch butterflies, and hike and take trips.  I basically do nothing but work and it is catching up with me and it is now obvious through the effects of shingles.

I realize that I have to keep stress at bay because I DO NOT want shingles to come back.  I have been longing for a free life for too long.  I plan to manage stress with yoga and detoxing, things I have always believed-in but found very hard to do…and look at where it got me!

Outer Thigh
Inner Thigh

 

On a lighter note these are some of the places and things I got involved in before shingles.  I  was happy to find some “mid century modern” chairs at a local thrift store.  Their brand name is Viko and they were manufactured in 1959, if I am correct, in Pennsylvania.

 

Viko Chairs
Black Chemtrail