It’s official! I have purchased my first stock ever!
After going over all the fine advice offered in my last post (thanks so much, guys), I’ve decided to go with 10 shares of Coca-Cola Company.
Honestly, it was a huge help reading the Coca Cola (KO) Dividend Stock Analysis post from Div4Son. While I’m getting my own analysis sheets going, it definitely helps to have friends!
Jason from Islands of Investing also gave me a great link to dig into PE ratio to remove some of the mystery from that term, so I also appreciated that.
Oh, and to give a few details, I bought just 10 shares of KO at 41.1599 ($411.60). Combined with the $7 trading fee, it cost me $418.60. Man, I can see how that starts to add up. Still, it’s better than the $20/trade I’d have to pay with Vanguard after the honeymoon period is over.
What an exciting day! And, of course, it went way more smoothly than I thought it would.
Now I’m looking into what to purchase next, but apparently there are only certain hours where trades can happen (I tried buying some Union Pacific stock as well). I’ll wait to see what the price looks like in the morning and perhaps give that a shot then.
Thanks for all the help, guys. I’ll update once I figure out what to buy next!
Update: After buying 5 shares each of UNP, WMT and MMM (in that order), I just created a Portfolio page like all you fancy people!
Congratulations on your first purchases – all excellent companies. Remember to try to keep the fees low. Also, Thanks for the mention!
Div4son
Div4son recently posted…Dividend Re-Investment Experiments Part 3 – Regular Investing vs Lump Sum Investing
Div4Son,
Thank you so much! Yeah, the fees are killing me, man. I do not like this $7/trade, but I also really like the Scottrade customer service right now so as long as I keep the actual number of trades low, I think I’ll be okay until I can get up to the point where I’m doing $2 trades.
Also, no need to thank me for the mention — thank YOU for doing the leg work that helps the rest of us. :)
FM
Congrats on the purchase! (and the subsequent 3!). Glad you found the PE ratio link helpful too.
Looks like the beginning of an exciting journey for sure!
Cheers,
Jason
Jason @ Islands of Investing recently posted…Investment Plan Island Interview with….. Mr 1500!
Jason,
Absolutely. I’m still going over your post on PE to understand it, but I imagine I’ll be going over it a few times more before I actually do. I’m taking baby steps though, so I don’t beat myself up too much.
FM
All solid companies there FM! As you know otherwise you wouldn’t have bought them! It is pretty exciting and addicting isn’t it!
Adam – IWTRS recently posted…Recent Buys – June 14, 2015
Adam,
Yeah — this stuff gets the blood pumping for sure. Not sure exactly what it is but there is definitely thrill in it.
And about these companies, I am definitely leveraging the knowledge within the community to determine quality companies at decent share prices. I have a feeling it’s once I venture out beyond that point that I’ll get the real education, but I’m glad I now know how to actually purchase a stock. That’s important!
FM
All you fancy people, nice portfolio page I love the google sheets insert for wordpress.
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Rich,
Ha! It’s not too complicated. Plus, I love the GOOGLEFINANCE function you can use that automatically updates everything based on real-time (or date ranged) data: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093281?hl=en
It’s up to 20 minutes behind but it’s still better than going into each stock and putting that data in manually!
FM
FI Monkey,
Awesome! You could have done much worse with your first purchase… KO, one of the longest dividend growers out there – what’s not to love?
Funny thing is that I was currently looking into KO again. still debating between increasing my BHP Billiton position, racking up on JNJ or KO. If only I had enough cash for all three. ;)
Best wishes,
NMW
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