FISH | Financial Independence Seeking Happiness: DRIP

Financial Independence through Dividend Value Stock Investing

Contender 4 #financialindependence, Compound Interest, Dividends, downshifting, DRIP, Finance, financial independence, Inflation, Investing, Schiller PE10, stock screen 07:35

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#FinancialIndependence requires setting up multiple income streams to replace your income from your labour. 
 
#Downshifting may mean that you still work but rely on a smaller income from some work and possibly some investments. 
 
Today the focus is on dividend value stock investing to provide a passive income. 
 
Buying shares in a company has several advantages 
 
1. You have access to many companies in many different businesses 
2. Companies can grow their earnings and dividends rapidly 
3. Companies can be out of favour and cheap to buy 
4. Companies are strictly regulated and lots of information is available about them 
5. Companies can have a competitive advantage \ high barriers to entry 
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"One of the biggest mistakes investors make 
is to focus on stock picking for 
capital gains. 
 
The reality is that if you're not looking at 
 
dividends when you buy a company... you're 
likely not going to make much 
AT ALL. 
 
Did you know that without dividends, stocks 
have actually 
UNDERPERFORMED bonds 
for the last 113 years? 
 
This is not hype, a 
study by the London Business 
School found that without dividends, stocks 
return 
a measly 1.9% per year... LESS than Treasuries!" Gains, Pains and Capital</blockquote>
</div>
To help identify companies that are of interest to invest in  I have been spending some time massively improving the stock screening tool  to find some cheap #dividend stocks out there. Here is a look at the new screen (The UK all share list as of the 6th April is available towards the end of the post): 
 
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKG1J-p6L6SRJAhMxH3yBS6dQ3HQd0HFDsBsbGKKdlG11TbNHV0-NzXhOELzI9oWs4T2CX4jPGva84VYnLW65sjurZHqtF68rg-X5Ig_AUuVFilaJc00iwAerwZV9CrpnUfvC8cLgqnAN/s1600/10YrScreen.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdKG1J-p6L6SRJAhMxH3yBS6dQ3HQd0HFDsBsbGKKdlG11TbNHV0-NzXhOELzI9oWs4T2CX4jPGva84VYnLW65sjurZHqtF68rg-X5Ig_AUuVFilaJc00iwAerwZV9CrpnUfvC8cLgqnAN/s280/10YrScreen.JPG" width="280"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sample from a stock screener created with 10 years worth of data</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It has been made very visual with its colour coded formatting. 10 years worth of financial data is used for graphs and calculations. More of the major indices have been added. It has been made easier to use. Easy to personalise with your own portfolio of stocks. Backed by a large powerful data set and statistical data analysis. 
<ul>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHX_XuYh9NK5qtOnhOJ7BocXylAjDT-zl3CYmSLkMtSSNH35I31GoG26urt84z1VI677QX1YiyWTDYFK3Nd3QAbpPUwSltlg-npDAfSsgLPQA947E04TNMw3vrP4PtneB0NKsQFcbPQrt4/s1600/PG.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHX_XuYh9NK5qtOnhOJ7BocXylAjDT-zl3CYmSLkMtSSNH35I31GoG26urt84z1VI677QX1YiyWTDYFK3Nd3QAbpPUwSltlg-npDAfSsgLPQA947E04TNMw3vrP4PtneB0NKsQFcbPQrt4/s280/PG.JPG" width="280"></a>
<li>Contains major market data (US, UK, EU) </li>
<li>Current data can be evaluated on the fly for the Value Screener and Dividend Value Screener by clicking the magic button</li>
<li>Stocks can be interrogated individually with 10 years worth of data in the graphical evaluation tool</li>
<li>10 years of financial performance is used to create the 10yr Value Dividend Screener to check the quality of the stock - has it made a regular growing profit and paid a regular increasing dividend?</li>
<li>"My Portfolio" can be setup to show the screener results for your stocks <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIgQZ-EaJrZ7NJH1g0-aW4PDlIhsaiHrjFdZUnmXgD-CTQV0oWnDAVFvDoMqg7y-xDvuGxFB4GKB7SukMemE26DSlNCq0nYYwP0zvMbHeHO9PZu6FU_-O1vwDtpOX2AtvXQuNcZ4t0z6q/s1600/Portfolio.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIgQZ-EaJrZ7NJH1g0-aW4PDlIhsaiHrjFdZUnmXgD-CTQV0oWnDAVFvDoMqg7y-xDvuGxFB4GKB7SukMemE26DSlNCq0nYYwP0zvMbHeHO9PZu6FU_-O1vwDtpOX2AtvXQuNcZ4t0z6q/s280/Portfolio.JPG" width="280"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Fe2TuX0Ec6bIb0Eytdx_T-yyKayX4tXgJq9x-XpES2vbkyBSiDs0zJMMrfqicwucnaN-JUD9bIGIkR5EaYaoqqa9j7DXyoEHtTozpMfC3rWVAu_AObPV2n7EN3gkzXl6vz1hUoC2LfIV/s1600/ValueStocks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style=""></a>Markets no longer perform true market functions. In markets today, the dead hands of the academic and the rentier have replaced the invisible hand of the merchant or the entrepreneur. James Rickards  </blockquote>
</div>
Why Look at History 
 
The Value Stock Screener and Dividend Value Stock Screener allow the user to click a magic button to download the latest data from the web. The tool then allows individual stock evaluation. The screen looks for undervalued stocks based on the methodology of "The Little Book That Beats the Market". 
 
1. Stocks with a very high Return on Capital - are they a well run business? 
2. Stocks with  high earnings yield (i.e low PE) are they currently cheap 
 
Why a spreadsheet - there are loads of options on the web? So why use this tool instead of one of the numerous screeners out there? Well in my opinion spreadsheets are more personal with the data, you can add your own comments and keep them for reference. Websites have flexibility in the type of graphs and how the data is shown on the screen.  
 
This is great at looking at THE.PReSeNT but this is not the full picture. The stock may be cheap for a very good reason and can get cheaper. 
 
In order to avoid this trap further research is required. 
 
One part of the research is looking at THE.PaST and secondly can we be confident about THE.FuTuRe performance? How good is the stock really? Is the company solid, has solid earnings growth and good dividend cover? This needed to be added. 
 
Introducing 10 Year Dividend Value Screening 
 
Dividend champion investing is not new and numerous lists of stocks that have consistent dividend growth can be found across the web. What is more difficult to attain is weather you are paying too much for a champion share? 
 
<div style="text-align: center;">
We need to gain in capital and dividends overtime. That way buying lowly valued stocks that become expensive can be sold and re-invested to gain MORE income. </div>
 
 
The new screener has the ability to analyse 10 years worth of financial data for selected Markets (NASDAQ, NYSE, DJIA FTSE 100, FTSE 250, DAX, EURSTOX50). 
 
 Its purpose is to ask the following questions: 
<ol>
<li>Is the current PE ratio expensive for the share in comparison to its historical PE10 (10 year average PE      PE10 = 10 year average share price / 10 years average EPS </li>
<li>Is the company growing its EPS (Earnings per share) consistently?      What is the average EPS growth rate over 10 years?      How many years has the company made a profit?</li>
<li>Is the company growing its dividend?     What is the average dividend growth rate over 10 years?     How many years has a dividend been paid?</li>
<li>How much debt does the company currently have?</li>
<li>What overall score is the company on Quality, Income and Value? </li>
</ol>
All of this information is used to create a score and rank versus other companies. 
<ol></ol>
10yr Data Screen Benefits 
 
The screen can be looked at stand alone via Google spreadsheets however the excel spreadsheet has some distinct advantages 
<ol>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_9YEXBHqCTE9KtBxO-njGNrubmKJMA3F27OeD2ZoCm3jwf1j93FMnKamE5DFmPzs-6bWwEfZ_8m52kBJNY3vJvGfldpheVj39_1a8uwvv52XGuC_UZdcWGiIAl8C-FosQM6ZKHhjt7WzG/s1600/PG.JPG" imageanchor="1" style=""></a>
<li>Enter your portfolio and watch stocks to see what the screen results are. Here is a screen shot with some well known companies:<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIgQZ-EaJrZ7NJH1g0-aW4PDlIhsaiHrjFdZUnmXgD-CTQV0oWnDAVFvDoMqg7y-xDvuGxFB4GKB7SukMemE26DSlNCq0nYYwP0zvMbHeHO9PZu6FU_-O1vwDtpOX2AtvXQuNcZ4t0z6q/s1600/Portfolio.JPG" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIgQZ-EaJrZ7NJH1g0-aW4PDlIhsaiHrjFdZUnmXgD-CTQV0oWnDAVFvDoMqg7y-xDvuGxFB4GKB7SukMemE26DSlNCq0nYYwP0zvMbHeHO9PZu6FU_-O1vwDtpOX2AtvXQuNcZ4t0z6q/s280/Portfolio.JPG" width="280"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A manually entered portfolio showing 10YR data quality results and current value result</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li>Query the data by bringing up a graphical interface. Here is a screenshot of Proctor and Gamble: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_9YEXBHqCTE9KtBxO-njGNrubmKJMA3F27OeD2ZoCm3jwf1j93FMnKamE5DFmPzs-6bWwEfZ_8m52kBJNY3vJvGfldpheVj39_1a8uwvv52XGuC_UZdcWGiIAl8C-FosQM6ZKHhjt7WzG/s1600/PG.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_9YEXBHqCTE9KtBxO-njGNrubmKJMA3F27OeD2ZoCm3jwf1j93FMnKamE5DFmPzs-6bWwEfZ_8m52kBJNY3vJvGfldpheVj39_1a8uwvv52XGuC_UZdcWGiIAl8C-FosQM6ZKHhjt7WzG/s280/PG.JPG" width="280"></a></li>
<li>Record reasons for investing in the stock in the spreadsheet for future use <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Lq_hdZnY86jba5V6cMynqSfgWClSeoxuHyKTYBCy9WsKevQjjIft9HBXp2Dkdd7GwuEvZ-jBFRfpv9iQYJeudR6wFuQWwbkJkWjy7DN5q_GO00zvyM4bdFKi1HgPaJDy9tXvrugXDb_7/s1600/Comment.JPG" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="18" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Lq_hdZnY86jba5V6cMynqSfgWClSeoxuHyKTYBCy9WsKevQjjIft9HBXp2Dkdd7GwuEvZ-jBFRfpv9iQYJeudR6wFuQWwbkJkWjy7DN5q_GO00zvyM4bdFKi1HgPaJDy9tXvrugXDb_7/s280/Comment.JPG" width="280"></a></div>
</li>
</ol>
<ul>
</ul>
Please read on for the 10 Yr Data Screen for the United Kingdoms FTSE All Share index (Yahoo! ^FTAS):

Financial Independence through Dividend Value Stock Investing

#FinancialIndependence requires setting up multiple income streams to replace your income from your labour. #Downshifting may mean that...

Dividend Surprise Part 2

Contender 0 Compound Interest, Dividends, DRIP, Early Retirement, Finance, financial freedom, financial independence 08:49

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Risky business be careful!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After taking a parting blow to the head from CHEAP.SHOT his sparring buddy THE.CONTENDER was dazed and disorientated. Is the right thing to be doing, he asked himself? This fighting THE.FUTURE stuff is quite risky. Is he risking it all on black? 
 
CHEAP.SHOT: "CONTENDER! CONTENDER! are you alright? Sorry mate I thought we were still sparring. I did not hear PLAN.AHEAD calling us over" 
 
PLAN.AHEAD took THE.CONTENDER to one side: "Look what happened, you dropped your guard. You thought you were safe and in control. This is a risky business and you need to have your wits about you at ALL times" 
 
In part 1 of this post (found here) we had a look at the pros and cons of dividend investing. Here in Part 2 we are going to have a look at the risks of investing in dividend stocks, our strategy and tracking progress. 
 
Personal Financial Goals 
 
As we are well into our financial freedom plans we have been fortunate to accumulate enough savings and investments to be very close to our desired goal. This is to buy a "nice" property in France and enough passive income to cover living costs. Currently this nest-egg is 2/3 in cash and funds and 1/3 is in dividend stocks. Ultimately we need our investments setup in the following manner: 
<ul>
<li>45% in cash to buy a property outright </li>
<li>45% in dividend stocks. We are aware the nominal value will rise and fall with the market and company performance but the income that we need will hopefully grow over time. </li>
<li>10% in our protection portfolio for emergencies cash and cash alternatives such as precious metals.</li>
</ul>
So what do I think are the risks that lie ahead for this approach if we follow this route? 
<ul>
</ul>
Mitigating Currency Risk 
 
US
 shares carry a premium (more costly / lower yield) to them but the dollar is the reserve currency 
of the world. Likewise UK and Continental European stocks carry Pound 
Sterling and Euro risk (get the money printing presses ready, Mr Carney - New Bank of England Governor) 
 
We are going to be living in France and paying for everything in Euros so what do we think are our options to reduce currency risk? 
 
a)
 Ideally we want to have much more income than outgoings if possible. This is the 
ideal situation as we can continue to invest and grow our income and 
it will provide a buffer in hard times. Likelihood low - we want to spend as much as possible on a home. 
 
b) Investments will be made in countries with strong currency fundamentals and good 
trade agreements that avoid double or punitive taxation. Global low cost
 funds can help to mitigate currency risk instead of trying to work out 
the "best" country to invest in. In our case we cannot invest in funds in the short term due to higher French taxation. Our income will be paid in multiple currencies before being converted to Euros. 
 
c) PROTECTION - our cash will be spread across different currencies and cash equivalents. Primarily this will be covered by income from multiple countries in the form of dividends, pounds, euros and some precious metals fund. 
 
d) We will monitor all investments and country risk monthly and change the mix of the portfolio as required. Our monthly dividend tracker and risk evaluator is outlined below. 
 
There are several countries and currencies that are of interest to our little tribe Canada, China, Chile, Singapore and to a lesser extent Brazil, countries located in Eastern Europe and Australia. 
 
Canada and Chile are of interest for example as they both have growing populations, an abundance of natural
 resources, are business friendly and have a lot of undeveloped land for agriculture and natural resources. 
 
For more on risk management and the low cost fund approach to investing have a look at the videos on the <a href="http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Video:Bogleheads%C2%AE_investment_philosophy" target="_blank">Bogleheads wiki</a>. 
 
<div style="text-align: center;">
Please read on to have a look at the tribes own strategy and progress</div>

Dividend Surprise Part 2

Risky business be careful! After taking a parting blow to the head from CHEAP.SHOT his sparring buddy THE.CONTENDER was dazed and di...

Dividend Surprise Part 1

Contender 3 Compound Interest, Dividends, DRIP, Early Retirement, Finance, financial freedom, financial independence 12:46

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJUN69d_sRVQbJi0ZIYrOWP42BmCXOhW8tlAQcuk4tz4RUn4yAZGmybCpJHMsbv7fwfIZDU74zjN94ghPbKaT7rxBk7t4wfJgPIE6ihorwA34RhH_aZLzgGAJpz178x1X3aT9Lx6n5npuW/s1600/Cash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style=""><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJUN69d_sRVQbJi0ZIYrOWP42BmCXOhW8tlAQcuk4tz4RUn4yAZGmybCpJHMsbv7fwfIZDU74zjN94ghPbKaT7rxBk7t4wfJgPIE6ihorwA34RhH_aZLzgGAJpz178x1X3aT9Lx6n5npuW/s280/Cash.jpg" width="280"></a></div>
THE FUTURE: "Jobs are being created, resources are abundant and technology is amazing - go out and enjoy yourself - I will look after you!"   
PLAN.AHEAD: "That is all good mate but I want options. I want freedom to do as I wish. If I spend all my money today I will have none for tomorrow" 
CONTENDER: "What about dividend investing, will this work?"  
PLAN.AHEAD: "Contender, the stock market is a casino mate! you have less chance in it than in the ring with THE.FUTURE!" 
Over the past 12 months a lot of work has been carried out to develop a strategy for a sustainable dividend income for our Tribe.  
 
Part 1 of this post is going to look at the pros and cons of dividends versus capital appreciation of stocks. Part 2 is going to look at risks of investing in dividend stocks, our strategy and tracking progress. 
 
The Tribes Dividend Journey 
 
We have been investing heavily for the past 7 years in three portfolios GROWTH, INCOME and PROTECTION (covered here). It is only in the last year we have been heavily interested in increasing the share of the INCOME portfolio. In particular we are buying individual company shares for their dividends. 
 
To get to the target we are gradually selling our tracker funds from the GROWTH 
(Primarily global, European and emerging markets) and adding capital 
from dividends and adding income from Mrs C's [delete] income into individual shares. The PROTECT portfolio is staying static. 
 
In the current climate of a historically high priced stock market (P/E ratios are at towards the top of their historical trading ranges) and what THE.CONTENDER considers a stagflation environment this poses several concerns about the timing of owning MORE shares. 
 
We currently live in a very different financial landscape with lots of printed money circling the globe. This is very supportive of stocks so there is no reason to believe the stock market will capitulate just yet. 
 
<ul>
<li>Our exercise is moving money out of one group of shares (funds) to another group (individual dividend stocks) </li>
<li>We are adding some extra earned income so we are in effect nearly neutral on purchases.</li>
<li>Our objective is all about GROWING INCOME over CAPITAL APPRECIATION. </li>
<li>We are comfortable in owning a large amount of stocks but... we want to be more DEFENSIVE with the choice of these shares. </li>
<li>We are buying shares in these sectors that we consider DEFENSIVE: utilities, energy and pharmaceutical.</li>
<li>We consider their goods and services as a "need" instead of "want". </li>
<li>We understand dividends can be variable such as energy companies that are beholden to the underlying price the the commodity they are selling.</li>
<li>We hold some fixed income assets (preference shares and cash accounts) </li>
</ul>
While it may seem a little Kamikaze to keep holding so much wealth in stocks at the moment we are buying them for their income, not overall value (appreciation is desired ;). 
 
Perhaps lots of cash is better? Unfortunately like anything in life it is all about risk aversion. Cash loses value to inflation but is safe. At our point in our lives we are do [which one?] not need to be overly safe. If a problem happens we will do what it takes to get back on track. 
 
We are aiming for 80% INCOME and 20% in GROWTH and PROTECTION after the purchase of a property in FRANCE and the semi early retirement situation we are looking for. 
 
Starting a portfolio 
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin   </blockquote>
We have read about dividend investing from several sites and blogs such as the <a href="http://dividendmonk.com/" target="_blank">dividend monk</a>, <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/" target="_blank">seekingalpha</a>, <a href="http://monevator.com/" target="_blank">monevator </a>and several early financial independence blogs such as <a href="http://www.bravenewlife.com/" target="_blank">brave new life</a>, <a href="http://retireby40.org/" target="_blank">retire by 40</a> and <a href="http://jlcollinsnh.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">jlcollinsnh</a>. 
 
We have a list of our our current holdings and the current dividend income they provide per month. We have added "what if" we bought x shares in each company to work out what the portfolio could look like to generate our desired final income (more detail will be provided in part 2 of the post). 
 
All of the stocks are researched  (Mr C spends lots of time on this) and evaluated. Decision of what to buy each month are made by having a look at share valuations and performance. We are currently concerned about buying some of the shares we have identified that have had large run ups at the start of the year (typically 10-20%). 
 
We are currently targeting the "laggards" - shares that are behind the market gains. Is this a good approach? Laggards are usually laggards for a reason? Well perhaps that is because their sector is out of favor and might be the next "performer". There is a "risk on" appetite in the market so some defensive sectors have been laggards / sold off in favor of stocks with perhaps more growth prospects. 
 
Please read on for: Are companies paying dividends the right choice? High paying dividend stock considerations. Dividend champion investing.

Dividend Surprise Part 1

THE FUTURE : "Jobs are being created, resources are abundant and technology is amazing - go out and enjoy yourself - I will look afte...

Investment Challenges

Contender 0 Dividends, DRIP, Ethical, Inflation, Risk, Saving 15:02

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<h2>
One Black Eye Too Many?</h2>
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Today I would like to discuss some CIT (Contender Investment Themes) and challenges faced today. Investing at the time of writing is a mine field. We are in one of the most volatile financial periods in recent years. An economic crisis is ongoing in the western world while concerns about sustainable growth in emerging markets are frequent in the financial press. 
 
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Managing Inflation</h3>
 
Inflation is most often described as prices are going up because materials and labor etc are getting more expensive.... Really as I see it this is a fallacy - money is actually loosing its purchasing power as there is more of it. 
 
Like everything in life we have supply and demand balances. The more abundant something is the less it is worth to the consumer. The same is true of the current version of "money" we have in the world. We are creating vast amounts of money - mainly electronically. The more there is, the value of each unit decreases over time. In the UK I have seen the cost of a loaf of bread increase by 2.5 times over 20 years but if anything we have more global grain supply now. 
 
Inflation is a real concern in the MIT list. It affects our investment choices, pension allocation and impacts our ability to build and protect our savings. Inflation is like a stealth tax - legal theft. 
 
It is of utmost importance to plan for a significant rate of inflation and make sure you have assets that compensate for any increase in prices \ decrease in the value of the fiat currency in the future. Examples of investments that could grow at the same rate if not faster than inflation: 
 
1. Companies with strong brands, advanced distribution and manufacturing networks \ economies of scale can raise prices in line or above inflation (such as consumer goods companies) 
2. Energy and raw material producers 
3. Stable currencies and precious metals (scarcity value) 
4. Agriculture (we are not creating any more land on the planet) 
 
A note on CASH and GOVERNMENT BONDS. Cash and bonds are deemed safe investments. Bonds will pay some interest and you can buy inflation protected products. In MIT I consider these investments \ savings as dry powder for opportunities when there is "blood on the canvass": 
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"I am not so much concerned with the return on capital as I am with the return of capital." - Will Rodgers </blockquote>
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Investment Challenges

One Black Eye Too Many? Today I would like to discuss some CIT ( C ontender I nvestment T hemes) and challenges faced today. Invest...