August 2016 portfolio update

During August 2016 I have become active once again on my investment portfolio.

As a matter of fact, during this month, I have opened two new exciting positions in my investment portfolio. I am confident these will help me achieve my ling term goal of financial strengthening.

The August 2016 additions to my portfolio:

x500 Unicredit spa (BIT:UCG) @ €2.00

x431 British Land Company plc (LON:BLND) @ GBX 650 (or £6.50)

Unicredit spa is the second Italian bank for market cap. At €2/share, I consider it very cheap.

Looking at the fundamentals, the €2 price point represents a P/E of 6.06 which is very cheap, 6% dividend yield (even when considering Italian withholding tax on distributions) is great for my passive income strategy. The performance in august has been astonishing ever since I made the purchase, with a current price of €2.35. Not bad at all!

British Land Company is a much different beast. It is a British REIT business which holds estate properties in several areas, from office space to shopping centres. Because of Brexit, the general confidence in land and estate properties had fallen dramatically. Hence why I decided to risk it and invest in this kind of stock. So far so good, as the stock trades at GBX 671.

The stock pays a decent dividend (around 5%), no withholding tax on this one as it's a British company purchased through my ISA. P/E of only 5.4, another bargain!

The above investments will take me one step closer to my ultimate goal of robust cash inflow.

Few months back I kind of promised myself I would have resisted to the temptation to invest any further during August, as I wanted to maximise my firing power in September (generally considered a bearish market, as you can read here). However, as these new opportunity emerged, I decided to go ahead with the purchase. At the end of the day you never know when the next market correction will take place.

August update - ISA utilisation progress

Now the focus is on September. Hopefully this month will open up new entry points in some interesting companies I am following. 

Some names include: Johnson&Johnson, P&G, Unilever (I think I am not sufficiently exposed to the consumables sector), Pepsi, Diageo. These are just some of the many names in my watchlist.

Of course I will keep you updated through my Twitter account on any new purchase. Just waiting for the right conditions...

Thanks for reading.

Yours,

The Gentleman Investor

Strategy revision ahead of Brexit vote - end of June 2016

For those who started following me in my exciting journey, you will know that I always have a plan for the future. Recently I had the opportunity to explain my thoughts on Brexit and how this historical decision may affect my personal finances.

The conclusions of my analysis is that it is wise to adopt a conservative approach given the great uncertainty surrounding the future months. It would be better to hold on to the money right now and see what will happen next. After all, the referendum is just few weeks away and it does not make any sense to rush through investments for the moment. It is exactly in these conditions that one may be led to make big mistakes which may become a regret in the future.

Black Tuesday (29.10.1929). Are we heading in that direction?

My plan is to slow down until September, which is not a random month...indeed September is generally considered a bearish month, as you can read in this article from Investopedia.

So, when we take into account the high level of uncertainty surrounding the future, plus the need to reinforce my cash position due to the recent investments and the fact that we have a nice bearish month coming in the near future, I think my new contingency plan will be quite effective!
By end of August-September I should be in a much better position to exploit any opportunity on the horizon.

September is generally considered a bearish month for investors.

In my review for the end of the month I will update my net worth and take a look at how this contingency plan will affect my overall wealth distribution.

Yours,

The Gentleman Investor

May 2016 portfolio update

May 2016 has been a crucial month for my strategy and objectives.

As a matter of fact, it's only a month ago that I decided I wanted to maximise the ISA allocation for the current tax year (£15,240).

The same month, I also decided to open this club. Sharing my progress and achievements openly is already getting me closer to my goals.

The May 2016 additions to my portfolio:

Welcome

Welcome to this space, my brand new blog where I will be sharing my personal experience in terms of investing.

The aim of the blog is to publicly share my goals, motivations, decisions and achievements.

By doing this, not only I hope to create a stronger sense of commitment and discipline in my investing activity, but it may prove useful to 'wanna-be' investors who may need some ideas to get started.