Recent Buy - Reynolds American Inc. (RAI)

Hi Everyone,

Another purchase is in the books.  After my sell of O, I had a decent amount of funds.  RAI has pulled back just a tad off its 52 week high and the quarter looked really good.  Not to mention is that they just raised the dividend 17%!!!  That's what I'm talking about!

Ever since the merger with LO I have been looking to buy this stock.  Turns out a 22 forward PE is above average, but the synergies they should see from LO, the growth in brands, especially Newport and consistent business model is a reason for investment. 

This stock rarely pulls back and I was tired of watching it go up without me being in it.  I seemed to have traded one overvalued stock for another, but the growth in RAI I think will be much better than O at the current prices.  We shall see how things work out.  I lost just .5% in dividends as RAI is 3.5% yield and O was 4% when I sold it.  Currently I have a buy order in for OHI but the stock has taken off a bit the last couple of days.  If that purchase goes through, the combined dividends will be higher than what I was making for just O alone, and I cover 8 out of 12 months in the year.  There is just 4 others that I would not receive a dividend like I did with O.

I'm looking for O to pull back to $55.00 before repurchasing.  I will be saving cash over the next month to make sure I have some capital ready for that purchase.  I love O, just not the price!

With that being said:

I purchased 42 shares of Reynolds (RAI) at $48.04.  This purchase adds $70.56 of annual dividends to our account at the now current .42 quarterly dividend.

Tobacco has now become a pillar of my portfolio.  With roughly $10,500 invested between PM and RAI, I think I am done with tobacco for a while unless they pull back.  The REIT space in general still interests me.  If I can't get OHI, then perhaps something else...   What do you guys suggest???

So there you have it, the next building block on the path to the American Dividend Dream!  What do you think, good purchase, bad purchase?  What are you looking to buy next?

ADD

Recent Buys - UA, UNP & AAPL

Hi Everyone,

The month of January got away from me a little bit so this post is well overdue.  I did not expect to invest nearly this much money the past month but my wife and I did well on expenses in December  and used significant credit card points to keep the expenses down in January!  Come to think of it, I don't even think I told my wife what I bought!  Surprise babe...  we spent $4,000 last month :)

So I'll keep this quick:


On 1/4/2016:  We bought 12 shares of UNP at $79.00 per share - $950 total

On 1/4/2016:  We bought 13 shares of UA at $79.25 per share - $1,037 total

On 1/21/2016:  We bought 15 shares of UA at $68.65 per share - $1,036 total

On 2/1/2016:  We bought 10 shares of AAPL at $96.00 per share - $970 total

Total new dividends from these purchases stands at just $47.20 per year.  Definitely does not have the wow factor like buying REIT's or Telecom's but I'm hopeful that UA (down significantly from the all time high) will become the next NKE, UNP has been beaten down hard and the same can be said for AAPL.

With a substantial time frame to let compounding and growth continue, I believe above average dividend increases from UNP and AAPL plus a potential dividend initiation in UA will propel our dividends greatly in the future.

As more capital becomes available, UNP and AAPL are on the list to average down on if they continue to stay depressed.

So there you have it, the next couple building blocks on the path to the American Dividend Dream!  What do you think, good purchases, bad purchases?  What are you looking to buy next?

ADD

Recent Buy - Universal Insurance Holdings Inc. (UVE)

Hi Everyone,

Another purchase is in the books.  This one is a bit out of the normal for me.  To be perfectly honest, I have been looking to initiate a position in this company for a while now but: 1) Never had the capital and 2) It always seemed over-priced.  However, this purchase was made with a 'trade' mentality in mind.  Against most Dividend Growth Investors rules, the timing of this purchase was made for a short term gain with the idea of long term hold in the background.

Universal took a substantial nose dive on the 17th of November which is the same day I bought the stock.  The stock fell because of an analyst that came out saying it could represent one of the greatest shorts of his life.  Few shares, a CEO's son in trouble with the law (which is same name as CEO) and a sell first, think later mentality I believe led to a catastrophic fall of over 30% in one day!  

I purchased 100 shares of Universal (UVE) at $20.07.  This purchase adds $48.00 of annual dividends to our account.

With that being said, I had a sell order in at $27.00 (and still do) to capture a 35% gain but unfortunately the stock only bounced back to $24.50ish and has since leveled off around $20.00.  I've heard the saying don't turn a trade into a investment but I'm hoping this works out for the good.

The company purchased almost $10 million dollars worth of stock the day of the 30+% drop and initiated another $10 million dollar buyback a few days later good through 2016.  The company has over $200 million in cash and has a Price to Book of 2.49 (a common insurance valuation metric).  Normal Price to Book values for big time insurance companies are usually around 1.50.  This might still make UVE a bit expensive but this is a small cap insurance company that is expanding rapidly into new markets/states.

The major concern that the "big time" short seller stated was the fact that most of the companies customers are in Florida and it will take just one major hurricane to destroy the company.  This is suspect timing to say the least since Florida is at minimum 6 months away from hurricane season and the "potential" for one of these major hurricanes.  UVE brought in roughly $30 million net income last quarter.  Another 2 quarters without a major hurricane and that $200 million in cash turns into $250+ million.  The company is rapidly expanding into new states which further diversifies their portfolio so a major hurricane will not destroy them.  No one can predict the weather but Florida could go another 10 years without seeing a major hurricane, although doubtful, I'd expect UVE to be a massive company in that time if no hurricanes occur.

I have been looking to diversify into a smaller market cap company with significant growth and this stock fits the bill.  They have a short time frame with regards to dividend growth of just two years but the most recent increase was 20% and have paid out a special dividend of .15 cents the last two years.  This stock adds a little bit more risk to the portfolio but I'm still young and all it could take is just one homerun to really knock my investment returns out of the park.  I'd call this my fifth really risky/speculative stock right behind:  SAM, PSEC, SN & UA.

If you jump over to our Portfolio page, you can see the rest of what we are working with.  Notice that we almost have basically an entire month of expenses taken care of if we choose to quit our day jobs and that's another reason I'm okay picking up a risky company.  At age 28, we are significantly ahead of most of our peers and if this investment fails, we have time to make up for the stumble.  If it takes off, we might look back in 20 years and say that was the best decision of our lives.  Using Aflac as a proxy, investing $2000 in 1995, you'd end up with over a 1200% return or $26,000 today.  Going back to a higher growth stage for Aflac in 1985, investing that same $2000, you would have over $140,000 today!  A 7,000% return!  Not saying UVE will be the next Aflac, but I'll take my chances right now.

You can check out all the other purchases we have made for the year on my Stock Purchases and Sells page.

So there you have it, the next building block on the path to the American Dividend Dream!  What do you think, good purchase, bad purchase?  What are you looking to buy next?

ADD

Recent Buy - HCP Inc. (HCP)

Hi Everyone,

Another building block to the American Dividend Dream has been bought.  This time, a little bit smaller of a purchase than some of the previous ones but a purchase nonetheless.

Just a quick post tonight.  I just want to get the information out there for all to see...

We purchased 27 shares of HCP, Inc (HCP) at $37.05 on November 2nd.  This purchase adds $61.02 of annual dividends to our account.

Of course hindsight is 20/20 and would have loved to buy it for the current price of $33 or less, but with any luck the stock will stay at this level when the dividend payout occurs.

For all of you keeping track at home, we made the purchase of WBA which only has a yield of about 1.65% but was purchased for the potential growth of the dividend.  With that being said, this next purchase I thought needed a little more bang for the buck so at $37, we are looking at a yield around 6.00%.  Combined, this results in about a 3.50% dividend yield - $85/$2500 = 3.40% and about a 5.00% growth rate.  I think this growth rate could expand to 6 or 7 percent combined when WBA starts seeing synergies with the recent merger and the potential Rite Aid purchase.  Anything over 10% combined growth is gravy in my book and that's what I was shooting for with these two purchases!

You can check out all the other purchases we have made for the year on my Stock Purchases and Sells page.

So there you have it, the next building block on the path to the American Dividend Dream!  What do you think, good purchase, bad purchase?  What are you looking to buy next?

ADD

Recent Buy - Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA)

Hi Everyone,

Another building block to the American Dividend Dream has been bought.  This time, a little bit smaller of a purchase than some of the previous ones but a purchase nonetheless.

Personally, these buy posts make me hungrier than ever to keep making money, keep saving and keep investing.  This lifestyle is not for the faint of heart as you might be called stingy, might over spend on a new toy or obsess over retirement, but I have an amazing wife who appreciates my work ethic and determination to retire at an early age. The income that we are starting to make every month is starting to accelerate and it is fun to watch.  If you jump over to our Portfolio page, you can see that we are bringing in a pretty substantial amount of dividend income every year.   

With this recent purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $43,500 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 has been accomplished! With that being said, lets get down to the numbers...

Did I make a mistake? Also, Recent Buy!

Hi Everyone,

This post is a bit behind but nonetheless, here it is.  We were able to pull out one purchase recently even though our expenses have taken a bit of a hit this year.  I have mentioned in a few areas of the blog that I need a truck to do my job.  Well, my previous truck crapped out on me and I was getting tired of buying higher mileage trucks and needing to put work into them a few years down the road.

Because of this, I ended up buying a used Dodge Ram 2500 with only 13,000 miles on it for an enormous....   $35,000....   OUCH!!!  I have felt uneasy about this purchase over the past couple weeks because I have never had a car payment before.  We were able to put down $20,000 on the truck which we are very thankful for, but the $400 car payment showed up in the mail and I got choked up a little bit.  It's a weird feeling but I only drive about 10-15K miles per year so we realize that I could have this truck for 15-20 years, maybe longer if things go well...  fingers crossed!! 

I think I've held off on writing this post because this goes against the retire early community big time. To think that $35,000 at 4% is $1,400 in dividend income I'm missing out on is a heart breaker.  That would pay for more than a month of our mortgage payment per year.  Or, that would take care of all of our additional expenses for one month every year...

But then I think about all the good things.  The truck is beautiful.  All chromed out like I have always wanted, fully loaded, large crew cab (think car seats for babies!) low mileage, one year old, cheaper than brand new since its slightly used, no thought of it breaking down in the near future and most importantly...   I will make money with it!  The truck should pay for itself in just a few years time and if it lasts 15-20 years, you are looking at 10-15 years of positive cash flow.  

Other than our house, this is the biggest purchase I have ever made.  Hopefully it will last for years to come and awesome memories will be made with it!  

With that being said, our goal to invest another $6-10K this year will be very tough.  I highly doubt it will happen because I'd love to be able to pay off the truck by December/January by using some of our emergency fund and any additional savings we will have. But we will see.  If the markets tank, I might decide to buy some stocks instead!

Now the good news...  

My wife and I bought Kinder Morgan (KMI) on October 1st.  With this purchase, we have put a total of around $42,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 has been accomplished! So now for the numbers... 

Recent Buy - Exxon Mobil (XOM)

Hi Everyone,

The buys keep piling up this month.  This is the last buy post I have right now so next post will be the dividend income for August post...  just a tad bit behind.  

Personally, these buy posts make me hungrier than ever to keep saving, keep making money and keep investing.  The income that we are starting to make every month is starting to put a significant dent into our expenses.  If you jump over to our Portfolio page, you can see that we almost have an entire month of expenses taken care of if we choose to quit our day jobs.  Eleven more months to go and we are home free!!  In a previous post, I asked you readers what company I should buy but, there were no comments and our money is just burning a hole in our pockets so no more waiting around.  

With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $40,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 has been accomplished! We are about three quarters of the way through the year and we still have the pedal to the metal.  We are trying aggressively to put another 6-10K to work this year.  We shall see how it goes!  So now for the numbers... 

Recent Buy - Apple (AAPL)

Hi Everyone,

The buys keep piling up this month.  For all you readers out there waiting for the dividend income post, I've got bad news...  you are going to have to wait a bit longer.  I have another buy post coming after this one before I get up the dividend income.  I'm trying the best I can to get caught up.  Life is getting in the way a little bit right now but no complaints here.  

Personally, these buy posts make me hungrier than ever to keep saving, keep making money and keep investing.  The income that we are starting to make every month is starting to put a significant dent into our expenses.  If you jump over to our Portfolio page, you can see that we almost have an entire month of expenses taken care of if we choose to quit our day jobs.  Eleven more months to go and we are home free!!

In this post, I asked you readers what company I should buy but, there were no comments and our money is just burning a hole in our pockets so no more waiting around.  

With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $38,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is coming ever so close! We are about three quarters of the way through the year and our total is 95% of the way to our goal.  So now for the numbers... 

Recent Buy - 3M Company (MMM)

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I continue to be blessed with the way this year has shaped up.  Personally, these buy posts make me hungrier than ever to keep saving, keep making money and keep investing.  The income that we are starting to make every month is starting to put a significant dent into our expenses.  If you jump over to our Portfolio page, you can see that we almost have an entire month of expenses taken care of if we choose to quit our day jobs.  Eleven more months to go and we are home free!!

The previous month was crazy busy but now that summer is coming to an end so are our social gatherings on every weekend.  As said in my last post, we have still been saving a good portion of our income which has afforded us to make another purchase into our growing portfolio

In my last post, I asked you readers what company I should buy but, there were no comments and I just could not wait any longer.  

With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $36,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is coming ever so close! We are about three quarters of the way through the year and our total is 90% of the way to our goal.  So now for the numbers... 

Phew I've been busy - Plus a Recent Buy - DOV

Hi Everyone,

Sorry y'all for being out of pocket so much the past month!  Our schedule has been jam packed with stuff to do every weekend and work has been really been draining me of energy recently.  Since my last post, my wife and I have had three weddings, one week long vacation and other minor social gatherings.  I might have mentioned this but my wife's friends all live primarily out of state so we are either flying or driving 4+ hours to every wedding.  This traveling really takes a toll on the energy levels since we get back on a Sunday afternoon, have to do the laundry, clean up the house and get ready for the next week of work.  It seems like I don't catch my breath till Wednesday or Thursday and we are right back at it either Friday or Saturday night traveling.

All this travel you would think takes a toll on the finances but we have done our best to share hotel rooms with other couples and eat at cheaper establishments which makes a big difference.  Over the past month and a half we have had some of our smallest expense totals to date since I have started tracking our combined expenses over 2 years ago!

To top off our travels, we drove down to the shore for a week with my wife's family which is always a great time.  This vacation really allowed myself the ability to take a step back, stop going through the motions of my daily life and really relax.  I made it a point to really take this week and rejuvenate.  I routinely woke up early - 615am - went surfing till 930am and came back to the house to nap until noon.  I was able to start and finish two books which I have NEVER done in my entire life while on vacation and I was able to really enjoy the time spent with my wife which we do not get to do much of during our daily lives.  This was one of the first vacations I have been on since my journey to retire early and I now want that type of life - wake up when I want, nap when I want, read what I want - for every day of my life.

Once again, our finances did not take much of a hit.  My wife did a fantastic job pre-cooking a lot of our meals for the week and we only went out to eat twice.  Quality time was spent with family instead of rushing to play mini-golf, or go-karts, etc so we did not spend much money frivolously which was nice.

With that being said, hopefully I'll be able to get back on the horse and pound out some new material and updates to all the usual reports/dividend posts that have need to be developed.

Recent Buy

On September 1st, we bought 33 shares of Dover Corp. (DOV) at $60.00 per share.  This purchase adds $55.44 of annual dividends to our account based on .42 quarterly payout.  The P/E at time of purchase was roughly 15, the yield is 2.8%, market cap of 9.35B and the stock has fallen roughly 40% from the peak of $96.00.  This was a chance to average down on Dover after this purchase at $74.00.  I will bring up just one main point from that post ----  Dover has been raising its dividend for 60 YEARS now.  I have confidence they will continue this trend into the future so why not average down on this company?  

The market has been all over the place the past month and I have seen other bloggers take full advantage of the pullback.  I will be doing research thoroughly to try and pick up some companies on the cheap.  My watch list in no particular order, looks like this:

ENERGY:   EMR, CVX, XOM, KMI

HIGH YIELD:  T, VZ, OHI, O, WPC

GROWTH:  MMM, UNP, AAPL, DIS

Please pick one stock from each category that you think I should purchase!

How has your last month been?  Look forward to talking to you!

ADD

Recent Buys - W. P. Carey (WPC) & Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI)

Hi Everyone,

I have been a little MIA the past couple of weeks but this summer has been extremely busy.  Wedding season continues to be in full swing, lounging by the pool, playing golf (I know, not very frugal), working my butt off and overall just trying to enjoy life, has taken priority over the blog...  Sorry!

I'm hoping to get back to writing a little bit more frequently but thank you all for being patient.  Now to the good stuff...

On June 24th, we bought 33 shares of WPC at $61.45.  This purchase adds $125.92 to our annual dividends based on a .9540 quarterly dividend.  I went over some of WPC's business more in depth in this post a while back when I made the first purchase.  At the time, the REIT's were still falling so we decided to buy some more of this great company.  Hopefully they continue to grow just as rapidly in the next few years as they have in the past few years.

On July 17th, we bought 56 shares of OHI at $35.74.  This purchase adds $123.20 to our annual dividends based on a .55 quarterly dividend.  I went over OHI in more depth on this post a while back so feel free to check that out if you want more info.  OHI has fallen over 20% from its 52 week high and another 10+% from our last purchase at $40.  OHI could be in a great position in the future with regards to the baby boomers getting older and the need for more skilled nursing facilities.  Hopefully there growth continues to be stellar and they dividend keeps increasing every quarter!

So thats it,  These two purchases have added $249.12 to our annual dividends.  Not too shabby.  Now if we could only pick a stock like AMZN, NFLX to really accelerate our portfolio!  Visa is helping out tonight/tomorrow and UNP keeps falling to more attractive levels.

Overall, I think UNP, MMM, DNKN, DPS could warrant initial purchases after their recent drops due to earnings. We should really just buy UA and let it ride...   It continues to be in exponential growth mode and I would not be surprised if it becomes the next NKE.

Anyways, what do you think of the purchases? What are you all looking to buy next?

ADD

Recent Buy - Boeing (BA)

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I continue to be blessed with the way this year has shaped up.  Personally, these buy posts make me hungrier than ever to keep saving, keep making money and keep investing.  The income that we are starting to make every month is could put a significant dent into our expenses.  If you jump over to our Portfolio page, you can see that we almost have an entire month of expenses taken care of if we so choose to quit our day jobs.  Eleven more months to go and we are home free!!

The next couple of months are going to be extremely busy with activities and such going on just about every single weekend.  Between weddings, birthdays, parties, etc. hopefully we will still be able to keep saving at the pace we have been the past 2 months.  

In my last post, I asked you readers what company I should buy after the RAI/LO merger gave me about $1,700 of capital to work with.  I received quite a few comments but ultimately I decided to buy Boeing (BA). 

With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $28,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is coming ever so close! We are about half way through the year and our total is 70% of the way to our goal.  So now for the numbers... 

Recent Buy - Parker-Hannifin Corp.

Hi Everyone,

I fell behind a little bit with getting this post out, but its been a busy couple weeks.  This purchase actually occurred on June 6th.  It looks as if I'll make another purchase here pretty quickly because of the RAI/LO merger.  I received quite a decent chunk of funds for my shares.  I might just buy RAI to stay in the tobacco area, or maybe split the funds between RAI and MO.  Not sure what I'll do with those yet.  My wife and I had a record month of May on the savings front and that has opened up the opportunity to invest some extra capital which is always an amazing feeling!  

With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $26,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is coming ever so close! We are just about half way through the year and our total is just a tad more than 50% of the way there.  We are in a great position to reach this goal.  I moved away from the REIT area with this purchase but I feel this is a great time to start a position so without further ado...

Recent Buy - Digital Realty Trust, Inc (DLR)

Hi Everyone,

Well, like I said with the last recent buy post, things have slowed down a bit, but this month my wife and I have now managed to purchase 2 fine companies!  A third purchase may come soon after this one, so stay tuned.  The student loans are paid off and we are 1 wedding down out of the 7 we are attending this year.  With most of the costs such as hotels and gifts paid for already hopefully we can get back to putting more money to work.  

With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $24,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is coming ever so close! Greater than half way to our goal with still more than half the year left to go...  pretty sweet!  I'm sticking with the REIT theme as they are still depressed due to potential rate hike increases so with that being said, my next purchase was Digital Realty Trust, Inc (DLR)...

Recent Buy - W. P. Carey Inc. (WPC)

Hi Everyone,

Well, the year has slowed down a bit with regards to buys, but the savings account has been built back up after I used them all up to pay off the student loans so hopefully I can get back to putting more money to work.  With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $22,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is within sight! To think that we are more than half way to our total is a great feeling since we are just 4 months into the year.   The market continues to stay at elevated levels but there was some recent weakness in REIT's so with that being said, my next purchase was W.P. Carey Inc. (WPC)...

Recent Buy - Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI)

Hi Everyone,

The buys keep coming!  It's been a real busy start to the year and things are not slowing down.  I just got a raise at work, my wife is getting a new job that could potentially earn us a fair bit more money and we recently paid off the last of my student loans.  With all this movement with regards to our finances, we are still saving a good bit of money to invest and hopefully we'll be able to up our investing a bit more!  With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $20,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is within sight! To think that we are half way to our total is a great feeling since we are just 3 months into the year.   The market continues to stay at elevated levels but there was some recent weakness in REIT's because of the anticipation of rising interest rates.  Well, the Fed did not raise the rates but it gave us an opportunity to buy at lower prices.  With that being said, my next purchase was Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI) so without further adieu...

Recent Buy - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Hi Everyone,

Finally, my last purchase with funds left over from last year.  I'm having mixed emotions thinking about writing this post.  I'm thrilled to add more income to the portfolio but I'm fresh out of extra capital to invest at the moment which is a bit saddening. With this purchase, my wife and I have put a total of around $18,000 to work since the beginning of 2015.  My goal of investing roughly $40,000 is within sight! To think that we are almost half way to our total is a great feeling.  I was also able to add most of this capital before the companies started paying out their 2015 dividends so our portfolio/income goals are much better off. I thought of holding out until the market pulled back in order to invest that much capital but I just couldn't do it.  I'm not a fan of sitting on capital for too long at this point in my life.  Plus, after watching the market continue to make new high after new high while the so called "experts" have been calling for a pullback for 4 years I figure screw it, get my money working for me!  With that being said, my next purchase was Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) so without further adieu...

Recent Buy - Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM)

Hi Everyone,

Another purchase is in the books!  Like I said in the last post, I put a good chunk of change to work in the past week.  The only way to get closer to the American Dividend Dream is to keep buying high quality companies and letting the portfolio compound for years to come.  With the market staying around all time highs I continue to look for companies that are attractively valued.  It gets harder and harder every day as the market keeps going up but I think I found a few good ones.  My next purchase was Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) so without further adieu...

Recent Buy - Dover Corp (DOV)

Hi Everyone,

February is half way over and I put quite a good bit of money to work in the past week.  The only way to get closer to the American Dividend Dream is to keep buying high quality companies and letting the portfolio compound for years to come.  Hopefully I was able to pick stocks that continue to do what they do - reward shareholders!  With the market staying around all time highs I continue to look for companies that are attractively valued.  It gets harder and harder every day as the market keeps going up but I think I found a few good ones.  First up, Dover Corp (DOV) so without further adieu...

Recent Buy - T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (TROW)

Hi Everyone,

Once again, January continues to be a busy month in terms of buying companies for the American Dividend Dream portfolio.  I went through my portfolio and noticed that it was lacking an investment management company.  I looked around at a few different such companies and was about to pull the trigger but realized their earnings report was just around the corner.  As you can see from one of my recent purchases MSFT I should have waited until after the earnings report.  Lesson learned and a costly one at that but oh well, I try not to time the market that much and the cash I have is burning a hole in my pocket.  Had MSFT killed earnings, I could post how well that buy was. I waited until after the earnings report for TROW and liked what I saw so I bought it today,  Without further adieu...