On Friday 1st Feb, Vodafone PLC paid out its Feb 2019 Dividend.
€0.0484 (4.2252716p) a share.
The total number of voting rights in Vodafone is 26,720,396,036
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/VOD/13955383.html
thus:
26,720,396,036 x £0.04.2252716 = £1,129,009,305
that is £1.129 Billion
http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=10097
that is 9.5% yield….
Yes, 9.5%
Another month, guess what, take a lucky guess, it is the same old story, HM Government, spends more money than it receives via taxes and duties. Another deficit month, thus to bridge the gap, needs to borrow on the bond market.
In January 2019 , the HM Government had to borrow money to meet the difference between tax revenues and public sector expenditure. The term for this is The PSNCR: The Public Sector Net Cash Requirement.
There were “only” 3 auctions of Gilts (UK Government Bonds) by the UK Debt Management Office http://www.dmo.gov.uk/ to raise cash for HM Treasury:-
08-Jan-2019 1 5/8% Treasury Gilt 2028 £2,563.8700 Million
17-Jan-2019 1% Treasury Gilt 2024 £2,799.4030 Million
22-Jan-2019 1¾% Treasury Gilt 2037 £2,012.4980 Million
When you add the cash raised:-
(£2,563.8700 Million + £2,799.4030 Million + £2,012.4980 Million) = £7,375.77 Million
£7,375.77 Million = £7.37577 Billion
On another way of looking at it, is in the 31 days in January, HM Government borrowed:-
£238 million each day for the 31 days.
We are fortunate, while the global banking and financial markets still has the confidence in HM Government to buy the Gilts (Lend money to the UK), the budget deficit keeps rising. What is also alarming, is the dates these bond mature, 2024, 2028 and 2037. All long term borrowings, we are mortgaging our futures, but at least “We Are In It Together….”
Venezuela, has the world’s largest proven oil reserves – even bigger than Saudi Arabia – but it is rapidly running out of money to prospect for crude and pump it out of the ground.
In the late 1990s, Venezuela was producing more than three million barrels of oil per day. Output today is hovering above the one million mark
The proven oil reserves in Venezuela are recognized as the largest in the world, totaling 297 billion barrels of oil, which equate to 4.72×1010 m3.
$15,000 in 1976 invested in a Vanguard S&P500 Index Fund, in 2019 was worth $903,000
Watch it at 20mins and 01 Seconds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLgn_kVKjCE
5 year low: £12.40
5 year high:£19.76
This is a very important lesson, about the collapse of Venezuela, and the toxic mix of bad politics, idealism, money and power. A government, forcing the state oil company (PDVSA = one of the top ten largest companies in the world, that few have heard of…)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDVSA
to bank roll the economy, handover its oil profits to the state, as the state owned PDVSA, and in the time Hugo Chavez was in power….PDVSA handover $1.3 Trillion in just over a decade, to the government, and with that money the government wasted it…..and that also resulted in PDVSA NOT able to invest in its own company, and now you have a spiral, where PDVSA oil’s output is falling due to lack of investment (too generous to the government, so effectively cut into the muscle and arteries of PDVSA) and now Venezuela is dying, a nation with oil reserves larger that Saudi.
The perils of popular politics, and lethal communism.
Index funds are passive investment vehicles, they track the whole index.
e.g. $10,000 (a lot of money) invested in the US Stockmarket, the Standard & Poors 500 Index in 1942.
today, that $10,000 investment, on 11th March 1942 (the date that Warren Buffett bought his first stock) would be worth…..
$51,000,000
Yes, $10,000 dollars turned into $51 MILLION dollars.
Index funds are beautiful.
The Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity Fund is a open-ended investment company provides exposure to global equities via 10 underlying index-tracking funds
www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk
The Fund will seek to achieve its investment objective predominantly through investment in passive, index tracking collective investment schemes.
It’s holdings are:-
Vanguard FTSE Dev Wld ex UK Eq Idx Acc 19.42 % of the fund
Vanguard FTSE U.K. All Shr Idx UT Acc 19.40 % of the fund
Vanguard US Equity Index Acc 19.16 % of the fund
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF 12.91 % of the fund
Vanguard FTSE Dev Eurp ex UK Eq Idx Acc 8.26 % of the fund
Vanguard Emerg Mkts Stk Idx GBP Acc 7.93 % of the fund
Vanguard Japan Stock Index GBP Acc 4.85 % of the fund
Vanguard FTSE 100 ETF 4.66 % of the fund
Vanguard Pac ex-Jpn Stk Idx GBP Acc 2.37 % of the fund
Vanguard FTSE 250 ETF 1.04 % of the fund
Geographical breakdown:-
United States 45.78 %
United Kingdom 22.72 %
Eurozone 7.83 %
Japan 6.83 %
Tomorrow, Monday 4th Feb 2019, British Telecommunications Group PLC, the world’s most progressive and dynamic telecoms and media corporation pays out its half yearly dividend.
It is paying tomorrow, 4.62p
https://www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Shareholders/Dividends/index.htm
The total number of voting rights in BT Group plc is 9,922,793,546
https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/uk/bt/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=1470&newsid=1220219
Thus:-
9,922,793,546 x 4.62p = £458,433,061.80
That is £458million.
http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=10025&action=
6.6% yield. Delicious.