*This blog post is my personal opinion only and contains affiliate/promo links.
The word on everyone’s mouth and ear right now is the election, the US Presidential election to be precise. Today, November 3, is the last day to vote. Tonight, we may or may not know the results, but we will expect that everyone will be glued to the tv or mobile phone for the minute by minute update. Best of luck to your bet and my congratulations to the next president of the United States.
It’s a significant day for many reasons. A new leadership or the incumbent continuing what was started, but at any case the next administration ushers hope and trust for the American people and their neighbours. It’s been a wild past week of campaign. A keen observer would notice the divisiveness of beliefs, political and non political, for the leaders and the spectators alike. But today, hopefully a reconciliation of values will start as we all welcome a new brave world in our hands.
The trigger that this confusion causes are more prevalent on the Stock Market swing last week. I think almost a thousand points were chunked on the Dow Jones Industrial and the other indexes suffered almost the same fate. Fast forward today, it has been superstitiously all green and climbing since yesterday. It’s hard to tell if it’s the Biden effect, as he has the slightest lead according to polls, or we are seeing a Trump resurgence on the final tail of the campaign, but at any case, investors are seeing a positive outlook on the economy so far.
I don’t have much extra money to spend on purchases last week (remember my principle of stock investing and trading: only use money that you can afford to lose) so i just sold some and bought another to catch the dip. Although $LAND has good prospect, i sold all my shares and bought them with $ABR, Arbor Realty Trust, a REIT with 10.03% Dividend Yield and 17.70% 5 year average DGR. I believe this is a solid buy because of the $766 million cash flow for a revenue under $635 million. The cash surplus is reflected on their dividend increase in the past 7 years.
I also sold a portion of my bond mutual fund so i can buy stocks mutual fund. This is from my Roth IRA. I’ve been holding this bond fund since the start of the pandemic and was too conservative to sell when the stock market is recovering. So after the early October correction and last week’s big slide, i finally found the courage to add FZIPX and FNILX. These are two Zero Fidelity funds, one with a large cap concentration and the other mid and small cap. I am aiming to hold this for long term growth since this is my retirement account.
On another news, I continue to build my POD business and I’m happy to say i now have 4 platforms, namely Etsy, Redbubble, Teesprings and the newest addition is Ebay. The transition to Ebay is easy because Printful has integration capability with Ebay, so i just move 21 of my items on its marketplace. I try to concentrate my active listings to Fall and Winter apparel and accessories. I look at it now and am amazed at how i am speedily learning and building this side hustle from the scratch. It really all begin with Printful and their easy to navigate designing system and one easy to understand POD course.
Another form of POD biz that i explore most recently is Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). I’m still getting my feet wet with this platform but is able to publish one paperback already. No, it’s not a 500 page novel that i published but a simple and crafty blank book journal type of paperback. My first venture in publishing is a handy bedtime journal for kids so they can write their gratitude or thank you for just about anything. Please give it a look when you have a chance and let me know what you think.
That is my wrap up for now. One thing i can tell you as a POD seller though is that marketing is big part of your time, and that you should exert the same effort with promoting your product the same way when your are designing. Spread the word and be consistent and your hard work hopefully will pay off.
Everyone’s question will be answer soon about the presidential election, so let’s all be cool whatever the outcome is and be cooperative and forward-looking for better days ahead. Because we all need it right now. Be safe everyone and thank you for reading.
Jay
The Middle Rule 