I was starting to get worried that Cornerstone Strategic Value Fund (CLM: chart, Y!) would not be able to maintain its dividend due to the 50% premium to the net asset value (NAV).

Seems I was worried over nothing.

Today, CLM released news that they will raise the monthly distribution to $0.093 per share, up from $0.087 per share. There is additional information in the release that indicates the board of directors seeks to return 21% of the NAV to shareholders over the course of the following year.

“Under the updated policy, the Distribution Amount for the calendar year 2007 …

Read more…

Flashback to the end of May when the buzz was all about the upcoming hurricane season. Better yet, just read this article from AccuWeather about their hurricane forecast.

Turns out, 2006 was the most tranquil hurricane season in a decade.

Ah, fickle speculation is no match for the forces of mother nature.

After downing a cup of coffee last Thursday in an effort to counter the effects of tryptophan, I sat down to watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Denver Broncos.

During half time, I learned that my relatives half-way across the country could not enjoy the same past time. Why? Because in order to get the Thanksgiving Day football game, they had to have a subscription to NFL Network.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen the Dallas Cowboys take on some low caliber team-de-jur. The only hope would be that Terrell Owens would do something dumb (again) and we’d have something …

Before dinner tonight I sat down and started reading some business articles from around the area. Usually, I’m not terribly impressed with the literary options in the local paper or the internet news sites I frequent, but on occasion I’ll come across one and find myself cheering the author on as I read.

Such was a column I read today about stock dividends and how the crash of the dot-com era turned the investment world on its head. It’s rare that profits are being filtered back to the owners of the company (i.e. the shareholders).

To own stock literally means to own part of …

I just received our annual homeowners insurance renewal, and to my surprise, USAA is actually reducing our premium by just over $150!

Accompanying the new premium was a letter stating that USAA has recently changed the way they calculate the premium to ensure the premium reflects the risk our policy presents to USAA.

A few of the factors they used to calculate the new premium:
Previous property insurance claims (we’ve had none)
Length of time we’ve been covered by USAA
The fire protection against our property
Age, location and construction features of our home

It’s nice to see the insurance company is sending our premiums in the right direction, and this reminds me that we need to …

My Cornerstone Strategic Value Fund (CLM: chart, Y!) continues to sell off like a homesick anvil, and no one seems to know why. Could it be the market just got leery of it’s huge premium to the NAV?

CLM has dropped like this several times over the past three years. See the weekly chart below, or click here for a real-time expanded view.

What makes this chart interesting (and even appealing) is not just what is presented in the chart, but how the dividends changed through these deep dips in the price.

Even though the stock price …

In an effort to roll over my former employers IRA into my new employers 401(k), T. Rowe Price seems to have misplaced my roll over checks.

After waiting a few days after the paperwork had cleared, I noticed that only $300 of my $9,000+ roll over was deposited into my account.

After a quick inquiry to T. Rowe Price, they looked through their records and realized they’ve “misplaced” several checks totaling over $9,000! MISPLACED $9,000!

Fortunately, they have resolved the issue and will credit my account, including the prorated interest, effective on the date the first check was deposited into the account.

I’m not …

Low and behold, I’m not the only one noticing the early arrival of Christmas retail.

Gayle Ronan, contributor to MSNBC, wrote a front page article on how Christmas seems to be coming earlier and earlier every year. She calls the phenomenon “Christmas Creep.”

“Retailers would like to recondition consumers to shop earlier and return to the days of paying full price, which may be why they are putting out merchandise hoping it will no longer be around for discounting in December,” says William Cody, managing director of the Baker Retailing Initiative at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Condition me to pay full price? Good luck!
…

I was just about to write a post on how my Cornerstone (CLM: chart, Y!) stock was getting top heavy when it took a nose dive.

The share price has been climbing steadily, but only until recently has the NAV turned North. In fact, CLM is trading at a 63% premium to the NAV, which is actually starting to turn investors away in light of the healthy 11% return paid monthly.

Luckily, this recent drop in the price is becoming more and more predictable. Every month about this time, the stock takes a hit in advance of the ex-distribution …

Thanks to a tip from David C., it appears that Sogo Invest has carved out their own little niche in the blogosphere.

With Sogo President William Yeh and Alex Kravets (content developer) as authors, Sogo is sure to get some great feedback from their site.

William was more than receptive to the response generated from my initial interview post, and it appears that customer requests have not been taken lightly!

Good luck with your blog guys!

SogoInvest Blog