Thursday, December 4, 2014

December 2014 update ($ 288,608 -$29,871 or - 9%)

Accumulated $8,000 USD as part of my annual saving goal for November and December
Received $ 108 as quarterly dividends for my holdings in the company shares
Vanguard S&P500 ETF gained $2,475
Grand total additions: US$ 10,583

EUR lost $1,711 towards USD
GBP lost $1,471 towards USD
RUB lost $900 towards USD
Vanguard emerging markets ETF lost $188
Gazprom shares lost $35,199
Company shares lost $460
Rosneft shares lost $525
Grand total losses: US$ 40,454

Monday, October 13, 2014

Family budget comparison 2008 – 2014



Non-inflation adjusted table of our family finance for the last 6 years:
Family Financial Independence budget comparison


Observations:
-         Education expenditure is up by ~$10,000.  Expect to remain stable next year.
-         Car insurance remained almost the same. However additional cost was two set of tyres (winter –summer) and annual service.
-         Miscellaneous expenditure was up due to the administration expenses (~$4,000).
-         Medical bills are up (additional dentist cost ~$2,700).
-         Bills are up (electricity and heating are up, etc).
-         Home, after extended period of time we started renewing some of the furniture – bed, carpets.  Additional electronics cost us  ~ $3,200.
-         Joy – $4,000 extra in comparison with last year. Two separate week breaks cost us $9,600 this year, which is $,2700 more than last year on the holidays. Another $1,300 increase came from random miscellaneous expenses.

Monday, October 6, 2014

October 2014 update ($ 318,479 -$13,808 or - 4.2%)

Accumulated $4,000 USD as part of my annual saving goal for October
Received $ 350 as quarterly dividends for my holdings in S&P500 and Emerging markets ETFs.
Vanguard S&P500 ETF gained $1,100
Grand total additions: US$ 5,450

EUR lost $11,983 towards USD
GBP lost $1,470 towards USD
RUB lost $900 towards USD
Vanguard emerging markets ETF lost $710
Gazprom shares lost $3,000
Company shares lost $670
Rosneft shares lost $525

Grand total losses: US$ 19,258

Thursday, September 11, 2014

S&P 500 lacks of insiration and talent to create value



Earlier this year I suggested that so-called most of the Companies are not ran in shareholders’ interest.
It took some time to do the actual facts digging, but here they are:
Out of S&P 500 index 449 companies used 54% of their profits ….to buy back their own stock, this represents $2.4 trillion dollars. Dividends payouts consumed another 37% of the earnings.  This was happening last ten years from 2003 through 2012 and continues today.
There is three main reasons for it:
- -   One of the main metrics CEOs are being rewarded based on so called total shareholder return. It combines share price appreciation and dividends paid to show the total return to the shareholder expressed as an annualized percentage. It is calculated by the growth in capital from purchasing a share in the company assuming that the dividends are reinvested each time they are paid.
         This means that they are inevitably driven to push shares prices at all cost.  Average  CEO salary in S&P 500 index is $30.3 million each in 2012, 42% compensation comes from stock options.
-   -    In Western Europe some countries actually establish minimum returns on pension funds, meaning that the companies have to achieve it, or their shares will be unloaded.
-  -     Lack of vision and talent to invest back home. Obviously, the leaders are run out of profitable investment opportunities. One of the chief functions of top executives is to discover new opportunities.  Buying the socks back begs the question whether the CEOs are doing their job.  For example, the only money that Apple ever raised from public shareholders was $97 million at its IPO in 1980.

Friday, September 5, 2014

September 2014 update ($ 332,287 -$17,051 or - 5%)



Accumulated $8,000 USD as part of my annual saving goal for August & September
Received $6,314 USD as Gazprom dividend (6.6% a year).
Received $ 490 USD as Rosneft dividend (7% a year)
Received $65.5 USD as Vanguard S&P 500 dividend (2% a year)
Company shares went up & dividends reinvested $603 USD
Vanguard S&P 500 gained $ 400 USD
Grand total additions: US$ 15,870

Precious metals lost $540 USD
EUR lost to USD $9,346 USD
GBP lost to USD  $2,895
Vanguard Energy ETF lost $ 600 USD
$30 USD Confiscated by Company due to cancellation of the reinvestment programme
  Gazprom shares down by $18,080 USD
Rosneft shares down by $1,170 USD
Loss due to forced selling of Vanguard funds and additional investments 290 USD
Grand total losses: US$ 32,951

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Dividends for financial independence



Dividends for mine holdings:
Investment
Per share, USD
After taxes, in EUR
Annual dividends , % at purchased price
Annual dividends at current price %
Vanguard Energy ETF
2.194
423.86
2.3
1.5
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF**
3.13
210.97
2.2
1.7
Company stocks*
1.75
375*
4.8
4.2
Gazprom
0.42
6,400
5.1
5
Rosneft
0.37
490
5.2
5.3
* Has a tax effective reinvestment policy, where all dividends reinvested straight away avoiding income taxation. Only capital tax is paid once they are sold, however option exists to start receiving dividends only at some point in time.
** I bought Vanguard ETF S&P back in April 2013 and the ETF pays dividends quarterly.

Friday, July 11, 2014

July 2014 update ($349,340 +$29,470 or +9%)



Accumulated $4,000 as part of my annual saving goal
EUR is up to USD,  represents 7,750 USD gain
GBP is up to USD, represents  2,650 USD gain
RUB is up to USD, represents 670 USD gain
Vanguard ETF is up by 1,800 USD
Vanguard S&P 500 is up by 400
Gazprom shares are up by 9,550 USD
Company shares are up 760 USD
Rosneft shares are up by 1,520 USD
Precisous metals up by 370 USD
Grand total additions: US$ 29,740

Thursday, June 12, 2014

The most important thing



         I started catching up on the financial independence reading and Howard Marks wrote the  first book I would like to recommend to you, as worth reading. Howard is current chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management.
Admittedly, as many other books on financial topics the book is about philosophy and mindset rather than analytical process. There is no surefire recipe for investment success or step-by-step instructions.
         The book helps to understand an investor concept of the risk and tolerance to it. I have to confess that prior reading it I never thought of it that way.
As an example, I liked an analogy an analogy about professional tennis, as a “winner’s game”, in which match goes to the player who’s able to hit most winners: fast-paced, well-placed shots that an opponent can’t return. Given anything other than an outright winner by an opponent, professional tennis players can make the shot they want almost all the time: hard or soft, deep or short, left or right, flat or with spin. Professional players aren’t troubled by the things that make the game challenging for amateurs: bad bounces; wind; sun in the eyes, limitations on speed, stamina and skill; or an opponent’s efforts to put the ball beyond reach.  The pros can get to most shots their opponents hit and do what they want with the ball almost all the time.
          The tennis the rest of us play is a “loser’s game”, with the match going to the player who hits the fewest losers.  The winner just keeps the ball in play until the loser hits it into the net or off the court. In other words, in amateur tennis, points are not won; they lost.
The same goes with the investing – we could not possibly predict future but need to cater for various scenarios and  avoid losing money in the bad times. Controlling the risk in your portfolio is a very important and worth-while pursuit. The fruits, however, come only in the form of losses that don’t happen.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

June 2014 update ($319,876 +$23,290 or +8%)



Accumulated $4,000 as part of my annual saving goal
Vanguard ETF is up by $300
Vanguard S&P 500 is up by $400
Gazprom stocks are up by $23,248
Rosneft shares are up $532
 Grand total additions: US$ 28,480

EUR is down to USD, represented loss of $4,118
GBP is down to USD, represented loss of $725
Gold is down by $347
 Grand total losses: US$ 5,190

Thursday, May 8, 2014

May 2014 update ($296,600 +$2,600 or +0.9%)



 ↑Accumulated $4,000 as part of my annual saving goal
GBP went up towards USD for my holdings it is gain of US$ 650
Vanguard VDE is up by US$ 2,400
↑ Vanguard S&P500 is up by US$ 300
Company shares went up by US$ 750
Grand total additions: US$ 8,100

Gazprom shares are down US$ 5,000
Rosneft shares are down  US$ 550
 Grand total losses: US$ 5,500

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Energy Stocks Screening

Energy Prices forecast*

2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Oil $/bbl (Brent)
112
109.5
101
99.5
96
92
Oil $/bbl (WTI)
94.2
98
94.4
93.1
89.5
85.5
Gas $/mcf
2.8
3.7
4
4.15
4.6
5
*The prices are in 2013 money
mcf - hundreds cubic feet.
The prices are a little bit  higher from the previous forecast, either because inflation projected to be much higher or demand stronger.
May 2014 major Energy Companies analysis:
Remaining Reserves
Gazprom*
Exxon Mobil
PetroChina
Shell
Chevron
BP
ENI
Total
Statoil
Rosneft
Oil, mmbbl
11,940
19,700
15,430
13,650
14,220
16,500
6,560
10,190
8,030
42,120
Gas, bcf
547,980
131,620
79,000
83,160
86,500
72,250
35,300
58,950
46,440
71,550
Total, mmboe
100,040
41,630
28,600
27,500
28,700
28,530
12,440
20,000
15,770
52,300
Production Oil, mmboe
990
2,200
2,560
1,540
1,730
2,014
830
1,170
960
4,190
Production Gas, mmscfd**
47,100
11.820
7,680
9,600
5,190
7,020
4,320
6,180
4,740
3,780
Production Total             '000 boe/d
8,830
4,170
3,830
3,150
2,600
3,100
1,550
2,200
1,750
4,860
Reserves, years
31
27
20.5
24
30
25
22
25
25
29
Market Capitalization, USD bn
89
430
222
246
235
150
94
161
93
69
Dividends paid in 2013, %
5.4
2.5
4.5
4.5
3.2
4.5
5.8
4.8
3.9
3.8
US/boe
0.89
10.3
7.8
8.9
8.2
5.25
7.6
8.05
5.90
1.31
* Gazprom has big exposure to one country only - Russia
** 6mscf -1boe