As the pandemic continues, I have found extra cash around to invest as well as a few new apps to use that have bonuses for joining, primarily Webull. I will go into information about that in another post.
While so many are suffering, I have been extremely fortunate. And that allows me to delve deeper into investing and continuing to explore with my finances. This is both a good and a bad time to continue investing. It is good because stocks are at a low point and recovering from the changes the world had to go through during the pandemic, and as things return to normal these stocks will rise. It is bad because some stocks simply will not recover what they lost, either through poor management, cuts in dividends even for a short time, or because they did not survive the pandemic as a business.
But the good outweighs the bad, especially with diversification. Bonds with Worthy are steady, projects with Fundrise have been paying back successfully, and a variety of stocks, even those with dividends, continues to be ahead of where I got them. The largest chunk of my portfolio is still in WPG with Robinhood and is sitting at $0.74 per share as of writing this. My average cost per share is $4.00. That is quite a drop!
But while I’m down $6,203 on my investment, I haven’t cashed out, and I’m expecting this REIT to at least regain some of what it has lost as it converts a portfolio of malls and other real estate to accommodate the climate.
Announced on April 15 and due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Board of WPG decided to temporarily suspend the quarterly cash dividend for common shares and operating partnership units throughout the remainder of the year with a potential true up of the dividend for common shares and operating partnership units during the fourth quarter of 2020 in order to address the Company’s REIT taxable income distribution requirements.
While this means that there are no dividends right now, and the dividend was halved in the first quarter of 2020, it will still be paying over time once things get back to normal. It may take a very long time to do that, but I’m in WPG for the long haul. I have also put into some other dividend stocks, and purchased some fractional shares with Robinhood’s new program into other stocks.
I purchase:
1 share of VZ
1 share of T
1 share of BEP
1 share of ENB
2 shares of EPD
2 shares of MPW
2 shares of STOR
1 share of GILD
0.005698 shares of AAPL
0.000755 shares of AMZN
0.016296 shares of DIS
0.001373 shares of GOOG
0.001374 shares of GOOGL
0.014452 shares of SBUX
So far it’s been up or down about $50.00 each day, including after-hours.
Other platforms, new ones like Webull and other ones I have had for a while like NVSTR are doing just about as well, with some dividend yielding stocks continuing as normal, some cutting the dividend by a certain amount or entirely, but overall with decent projected outlooks for the long term.
I have played this game short before, taking out before I should, or leaving it in too long. But it’s all an experience. A beginner’s experience with investing.
Yeah, I know what I did there.
A Beginner's Experience With Investing 