There are so many stocks and companies that I want to invest in, that if I did, I would blow every penny I had and still not be satisfied. I mean for a long time now I have been looking at stocks in the tech sector like Micron, SanDisk, Broadcom, and others, but haven’t yet pulled the trigger on them.
There are also stocks in other sectors like Merck, AbbVie in the pharmaceutical sector, Home Depot, Lowes, Target, and Kroger in a retail store space, and Consumer Staples companies like Dwight and Church, Clorox, and Colgate-Palmolive. After all, no matter what happens, people still need to clean their house and brush their teeth, right?
I have this list of interesting companies that I have titled “come Monday” which started with stocks I would start to buy over the week coming up. It now has over 85 stocks and those are only the one’s that I haven’t bought yet.
I also want to keep my dividend to growth stock ratio close to the same. I think I’m at 17% growth and 83% dividend right now and I think I want to keep it around that 80 – 20 level. At my age, I think I need to stay more focused on building a cash flow rather than net worth. I don’t have unlimited funds and I don’t have any real income that I can rely on so I have to find a way to supply my own using what resources that I have.
That’s just my point of view of course, because everyone’s situation is different. If I was younger and still had a normal income, I think I would change that ratio but at this late stage of my life, I will have to stay in this area.
With so many stocks that I want to buy, I am starting to take a harder look at the ETFs out there. Since I cannot afford to buy all the stocks individually, maybe I can get them through some ETFs. I am looking right now at ETFs that are sector specific. Like Energy, Utilities, Pharmaceutical, and Consumer Staples. I know that some people say to get just into overall ETFs, and I will probably find one index fund ETF but I’m not sure. I have had the 2 index funds from Fidelity for a while now that are Total Market and Top 500 market, which are mutual funds, and I have been pretty disappointed in them. They didn’t drop 20 dollars per share (like some of my stocks) but they have been down a dollar of two since about the day I bought them. I think that last Friday they moved to a plus 50 cent level which is good, I just hope it continues.
If 2026 turns out like I expect it too, with a pretty healthy stock market, then my buy and hold philosophy will work out fine. I know there is going to be some crazy ups and downs and depending on what the president does in the days coming up, we might see some great increases, but I think it will take the whole year to get there.
So I am looking now at ETFs to include in my portfolio. I think it’s the right move for me now to give me the exposure to the stocks I want. It’s hard to choose because it’s difficult to see all the stocks that are included in the ETFs. You usually only get the top 10 or top 25, so I am digging a little deeper to see what I can find out about all the holdings.
Also, ETFs can pay dividends too, but it’s more difficult to find what the reliable rate would be for each of them, since that may change as each of the companies change theirs at different times. I have to also watch out for expense ratios. I’m going to try to keep them all below 0.08% but mostly down around 0.04%. So, I will try to post up here some of the ones that I find to look at and we’ll see if they pan out.
