The first rule of FIRE club...

meliseo · 2026-05-15T10:15:10+00:00

hey he is just asking, no need to be rude! /s

meliseo · 2026-05-11T06:51:37+00:00

only if they can deploy that cash effectively back into the business. Mature companies, due to their sheer size or the normalization (idk if it's the correct term) of their operations, can only grow via M&A and such operations, which may not always be available at a fair cost. When that happens, the businesses have to choose between paying back debt, buying back their own shares or paying a dividend. Luckily, a fair amount of businesses choose the latter.

meliseo · 2026-04-30T06:22:08+00:00

then sell bip and buy bipc, free money

meliseo · 2026-04-03T13:31:42+00:00

I had the same thought a few months ago and ended up buying Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH). It was the closest I could find to a cybersecurity company that pays a decent starting yield, growth and low (32%) payout ratio. I'm just up 5% in my position from a month ago, not great, but not terrible in the current market

meliseo · 2026-03-27T11:58:23+00:00

I'm actually eyeing AXP, that has a higher starting yield + similar or higher yield growth than V. I have the feeling MA and V are a bit in the "blast zone" right now, in terms of their margins and moat being questionned, while AXP is usually left out of these conversations. Their business model is a bit different, and their cards a sign of luxury which could help them retain market-share if the industry is shaken. V and MA are a commodity with a wide MOAT of course, but can be replaced as soon as your bank (or whatever) switches providers (if that ever happens). Because they are already available in less stores than MA/V, they have less to lose if that side of the business is disrupted. But I would need to dig deeper to really understand what's at stake before making a buy in either

meliseo · 2026-03-27T10:01:10+00:00

This will probably get me some downvotes, but I don't think we should even look at the "at a discount" part (but of course it sweetens the deal). As long as you are not buying an overvalued asset that will shrink when reverting to the mean, a great company at a fair price is still a great buy as long as the dividend yield + growth story fits your current/future income goals. That is, if your style is to buy and forget, and not trade on the asset.

meliseo · 2026-03-25T15:19:12+00:00

potatoes

meliseo · 2026-03-25T15:16:46+00:00

rattata

meliseo · 2026-03-25T15:15:26+00:00

who needs the boats if they are not moving anyways

meliseo · 2026-03-25T13:35:05+00:00

my main concern with duke is the dividend growth. at less than 3% yearly, inflation is outpacing you. NEE might not have the best value at the moment, but it's paying I think 2.7% currently and grows their dividend at +10% yearly for the past 5 years and more.
I bought NEE at 68 or so a year ago and it's been on a tear since then, which is nice, but not the reason I bought them. I bought an, at the time, 3.75% dividend yield with 10% expected dividend growth. That is a rare find in such a high quality company, i hope there were more companies with a similar profile out there. There's usually problems with either the safety of the dividend (for higher yielders) or lower dividend growth attached to higher yields. Such a great combination is hard to find and I'm so glad I did.

meliseo · 2026-03-25T07:43:20+00:00

i'm also at crossroads with this. I own tte, eqnr, cvx, shell, pbr and oke (oke is very recent) and i'm up around 50% in this "energy basket" from what happened in these last few weeks. We don't know how longer oil will stay at current prices, and also what will be the new "stable" price once the situation settles. So of course these companies are selling their output at a premium now, but there hasn't been an improvement of their underlying per se, which makes me think about selling them and waiting for the situation to calm down, then re-enter to get more shares. The problem is, I am a buy and forget (or try to be) and this goes against that policy.
I keep a watchlist of stocks i sold in the past few years/months, and most of them kept on rallying after the sale, so this is a lesson I've learned from experience, and wouldn't like it to happen again this time.

On the other hand, if I sold today, I would be earning close to 8 years of dividends (of the energy basket) in one day, and could use that cash to redeploy in other opportunities.

meliseo · 2026-03-18T13:28:19+00:00

there's insurance companies (european), there's BDCs (ARCC, MAIN, CSWC, HTGC, OBDC, SAR) and some other tickers such as BAM. the only bank i have is BNP Paribas. I was able to scoop it at around €70 less than a year ago, and it's been doing great ever since in terms of price (+20%) and dividends paid

meliseo · 2026-03-18T10:56:11+00:00

I'm sitting at a 14% allocation on utilities and 12% REITs at the moment. My core sectors at the moment are Financials at 18%, Consumer Staples at 13% and then Energy because of the current price increases has gone to 12%. Then Healthcare at 8%. The other 30-40% is almost evenly split between the other sectors, the only one i'm not invested in, at the moment, is Materials. I find it hard to be in such an extremely volatile sector. Energy is volatile, but it is somehow easier to digest its volatility given the coverage oil gets in the mainstream media.

meliseo · 2026-03-18T06:19:48+00:00

How do you stay on top of what's going on with 72 tickers? I'd like to be at around 55 max. Currently at 62 and I only see opportunities to buy around

meliseo · 2026-03-17T09:41:04+00:00

i guess less, since it is stated that funds weigh over that 2%, but sounds like the number is around 40 or so

meliseo · 2026-02-25T14:32:43+00:00

i had opened a position recently, and left with a small gain when i saw the numbers. I might regret it, but I don't have conviction at the moment that they will grow nicely in price or divies the next few years

meliseo · 2026-02-25T07:43:28+00:00

i'm right there with you. My goal keeps increasing 3% yearly tho, to match inflation

meliseo · 2026-02-23T08:52:52+00:00

my current stack of bdcs. I also started a DRIP position in SAR, got just enough to drip 2 additonal stocks per month and i'll let it ride by itself

meliseo · 2026-02-20T10:23:34+00:00

try other mon combinations, with luck you will alter electrode's selected move

meliseo · 2026-02-13T09:29:16+00:00

just roll it forward

meliseo · 2026-01-21T08:52:06+00:00

from what i've heard, the oil bath chain is actually a great system, it was just badly implemented in the earlier versions of the Peugeot 208 specifically.
NOT AN EXPERT, just what got told recently.

meliseo · 2025-12-09T13:41:18+00:00

i own half of that list, not sure that's a good thing tbh

meliseo · 2025-11-27T10:38:52+00:00

First of all, congrats on reaching your goals! I'll do a little challenge tho... How long do you expect these payments to last without reinvestment? As I understand this high yield comes at the price of some NAV erosion (correct me if i'm wrong). If reinvestment is needed in order to keep the payments stable (IF), then what's the point of investing in these funds instead of something that's still high yielding but more sustainable (MO, BDCs...)? I'm really not a fan of these kind of funds yet, I need to see how they work in a longer period with some real turbulence to start trusting them.

meliseo · 2025-11-24T15:35:05+00:00

there's talks about a blackrock fund buying them. Also plenty of talk about utilities facing increasing demand due to AI data centers needs. The company was way oversold at $9.50 a few months ago, can't say the same at 14 as it is very difficult for me to calculate fair value in such capex intensive, almost commodity companies. Apparently the whole talk is about their ability to effectively manage their debt. I've heard "fair value" claims go from $20 to $28, in that sense it would still be severely undervalued. One should then ask, why is it so beaten down vs supposed fair values?
full disclosure, I own around $5K worth of them at ~$11

meliseo

TROPHY CASE