April 2014 - Investment No.2

I now realised that I would need to make a share transaction at least once in each quarter, or I would have to pay an additional fee to Selftrade.

So I made the decision that it was worth making sure I was able to do a transaction without any pressure as early as possible in every quarter.  One month later I transferred just under £1,000 to my dealing account.  So I choose an old favourite Pace Micro.



 The Stock market EPIC was PIC

I knew it was going to go ex-dividend in June, with the payment a month later.  Pace Micro had a turbulent history.  A company founded in 1982, and it was the biggest developer of set-top boxes for all broadcast platforms.  In its early days it had been a penny share.  Now it was paying dividends so I purchased 244 shares at about £4.00 a share.  



There is a reason there is no link - Pace later is taken over. When I post the details, I will add a link then. 

White Festoon Lights

Festoon lights make a beautiful addition to any garden, whether big or small. These set of 20 warm lights will look fantastic strung along a fascia or gazebo, or a tree or fence. What makes them extra special is that they use energy saving LEDs Say goodbye to expensive electricity bills. They can also be used indoors, and there is 22cm between each lamp on the black rubber cable

www.lights4fun.co.uk

With a total lit length of 5 meters, you can connect additional sets using 4 different power options depending on the additional length you require.

The AA size battery box is perfect for just a single string. 

The D size batter box or Solar panel is ideal for 2 strings with a total length of 10meters.

For up to 30 meters the Plug-in transformer will give you all the power you need.

I found these on the lights4fun website :
www.lights4fun.co.uk

March 2014 - Investment No.1

I arranged to transfer £1,000 to my Selftrade dealing account, and set about looking for a share to purchase which would also provide a good dividend.

I choose Antofagasta, a FTSE100 company, involved in mining, transport and water mostly in Chile, South America, but with a smaller presence in other parts of the world.  It was incorporated in London in 1888, and seem to know what it was doing, and where it was going.

The Stock market EPIC was ANTO and was listed in the mining sector.

I also knew that if I owned the share on 23 April, I would be entitled to the dividend of  US$0.861 per share as this was the ex-dividend date.  The dividend payment would be added to my cash balance on 23 May.  Antofagasta was a company whose I thought had a sensible dividend policy. Simply, it was always paid out of the profit for the year, and not taken from reserves.

The share price had previously peaked at the end of December 2010 at £16.30, 2 years after the banking crisis. I think people had been investing in mining as a safer place to put their money!  The share price was about £8.50 a share, so I purchased 116 shares for a cost of £996 to start my portfolio.

If you want to know more about Antofagasta this is the company website:  http://www.antofagasta.co.uk

Are you too British on the internet?

You may wonder what I mean by this?  I will explain.  My husband (as does many people and children I know) is always watching YouTube videos online. Initially, it was just videos about SuperCars. Then he started noticing he was watching 1 particular person and started to seek out their videos. Out of the blue he said out loud “these are kids, they don't have jobs or rich parents yet they can afford these SuperCars.?”

Really. I thought, how British! Its simple really, so I sat him down and explained. They have learnt how to harness the internet to make enough money to access a SuperCars or even buy one, which then they use to make more money, buy more cars and so on.  He looked at me blankly.  The YouTube videos you are watching all the time as they film themselves talking about the SuperCars. Take a look at how many people have watch them, the number of videos each person has. I was talking about telephone numbers for each video!  When the numbers hit a certain level they get payments from YouTube, and also companies will start to seek them out. Some companies will also help promote their videos increasing the views and even start to pay them too.

That's the thing about the American people, they are not scared to put their head above the parapet and go public on the internet about something they are passionate about   Especially if they can also  make some money.  And I am talking about big Lottery win sized money. We British just sit and watch them and tut tut. Once in a while someone British will have a go buts its difficult for us as we are too private so often don’t get it right.

If you have a website which is not performing and would like to find out how you can improve it, get more traffic, higher listings on Google etc?  Find a way to visit this blog from time to time and I will post some simple ideas which anyone in the UK can do which is free. It may take 15 minutes of your time, but I think in time you will agree that it could become the most profitable 15 minutes you will have.  Of course, if you are British, you may not think so, but if you don't do it, you will never know.

https://www.youtube.com