James Hendrickson, Author at Dinks Finance

About James Hendrickson

James Hendrickson is an internet entrepreneur, blogging junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.

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Is Ark7 Safe?

Posted on November 27, 2023 - 8:24 pm by James Hendrickson

Amidst declining real wages and decade-high interest rates, you might be contemplating entry into real estate. One avenue worth exploring is through crowdfunded real estate platforms, with Ark7 being a notable example. If you are considering investing in real estate through Ark7, you need to know whether it is a trustworthy investment opportunity.

In this article, we will take a look at Ark7, evaluate its safety, and give you an overview of what you need to know to make a good decision.

What is Ark7?

Ark7 is a real estate investment platform that allows investors to invest in commercial and residential properties from as low as $20.

The process involves investors acquiring shares in the properties available on the platform. Subsequently, Ark7 handles property management and other administrative responsibilities. By pooling investment dollars from various investors, the platform acquires properties and distributes shares to its investors.

Is Ark7 Safe?

The short answer is: Yes, Ark7 is mostly safe.

Ark7 is SEC-regulated and follows all legal requirements. The company provides investors with a high degree of transparency on their investment, including their percentage ownership of the underlying property, rental income, financial reports, and maintenance costs. Investors can also track their investment progress through the platform’s dashboard. Here is Ark7 SEC’s filing:

Ark7 SEC filings — Ark7 SEC Filings, Accessed 11/27/2023.

Ark7 also does a good job screening which opportunities to include in their platform. For example, the platform only invests in properties with strong cash flow potential and avoids those with high risk or low return. In addition, the platform uses an experienced property manager that can help mitigate risks.

Ark7 is relatively safe, but it is also subject to all sorts of risks. These include interest rate changes, risk of regulatory change, market fluctuations, or other changes.

What Are the Benefits of Investing in Ark7?

Author’s Ark7 account.

One of the benefits of using Ark7 is its low minimum investment requirement. Investors can start investing for as low as $20, which makes it an accessible investment opportunity for those who are cash-constrained. Another advantage is that investors don’t have to worry about management tasks; Ark7 takes care of everything. Investors receive monthly rental income and have the opportunity to make a profit when the property is sold.

But, the real advantage of Ark7 is its ability for investors to implement a geographically targeted investment approach.

Unlike competitors such as Fundrise, Ark7’s offerings are highly specific — you invest in specific properties in specific cities. If you believe that a specific geographic area may appreciate in value more quickly than others, Ark7 will allow you to make targeted investments to capture that appreciation.

Ark7 has offerings in many, but not all U.S. cities.

Investors can also opt to invest in commercial properties like shopping centers, office buildings, and even industrial properties. Residential assets such as single-family homes, duplexes, and multi-family buildings are also available.

Lastly, if you are thinking about signing up – you can do it here.

Wrapping This Up

In conclusion, is Ark7 safe? Yes, it is. It is a trustworthy platform that allows investors to invest in real estate with reasonable risk. With its SEC-regulated status, transparency, low investment minimums, and geographic focus, it is a good investment opportunity for cash-constrained real estate investors. As with any investment, there are risks involved that investors need to be aware of, but with proper due diligence and research, Ark7 can provide a solid investment opportunity.

Grow Your Wealth Fast — Learn To Pick Stocks For Maximum Profit

Posted on November 19, 2023 - 6:40 am by James Hendrickson 1

There are thousands of stocks to choose from, and investors can pick any company they want. Are you looking to increase your wealth through investing, but not sure how to pick stocks that will bring in the biggest profits? With stock markets nowadays offering so many options, it can be difficult trying to make smart investment decisions. It’s important that investors have a clear understanding of what factors should influence their decision-making process when picking stocks for maximum profit. If you are looking to execute sales directly, visiting Share Sales Direct can provide you with valuable insights and tools. This platform facilitates the direct sale of shares, allowing you to bypass traditional brokerage firms and reduce transaction costs. In this blog post, we’ll go over some key points on how to evaluate potential investments.

Here are some considerations that may help you select stocks that are going to perform well.

1) Name Recognition & Personal Experience:

One way to get an edge is to buy stock in companies with brand recognized for quality and which you have personal knowledge of. For example, if you enjoy traveling and you stay at the well known hotel chain Marriott International Inc., and you feel their service and customer experience is good, you might consider buying their share.

The advantage of personal experience is you have an on the ground sense of whether a business is growing or not. In the case of Marriott, you can tell if there are people in the lobbies and cars in the parking lot. Leveraging your personal experience is an idea utilized by professional money managers. For example, Peter Lynch made the idea popular in his famous book One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Stock Market. Famed stock picker Jim Kramer has also historically done on the ground research on the stocks he’s bought.

2) Profitability and Price-performance:

If you want to pick stocks for maximum profit, buy companies that have a three-year history of growth in both profitability and price.

Regarding the first point, the company really needs to be profitable. How can you tell? Well, this means it should be 1) pre-tax cash flow positive and 2) needs to have grown both its earnings per share and its post-tax profits in the past three years beyond what could be expected due to inflation. About this second point, we like to see that the price of the stock will move in tandem with its growth in profitability.

If the company is profitable, but its share price hasn’t gone anywhere in years, like Microsoft under Steve Ballmer, then it makes sense to consider other alternatives. The main idea here is that price follows earnings. The more profit a company makes the more valuable it should be, all things being equal.

3) Balance Sheet Health:

The total debt to assets ratio should be less than .5, meaning there should be 50 cents of debt, or less, for every dollar of assets. This is a must. Companies are like people, debt slows their ability to be competitive and to react to changing market conditions. Debt also reduces a company’s ability to be profitable by increasing interest expenses it needs to pay.

4) Dividends:

Your investment should make at least a small dividend payment. All things being equal, the bigger the dividend the better, provided the payments are sustainable.

Dividends do several things:

They force company management to make good decisions. If managers know they’ll need to make a dividend payment, they’ll allocate their resources in the most efficient manner.
Dividends are a signal of good corporate governance. Company managers can always fiddle with accounting tricks to create nominal improvements in margins, but its a lot harder to fake dividend payments. Either the money is there or it’s not.
Dividends provide you a source of income, so you’ll get cash payments in addition to any appreciation of the stock you own.
Dividends mean share price increases. All things being equal, dividend-paying stocks tend to outperform non-dividend paying stocks by a small margin. This is largely because their earnings are better than non-dividend stocks.

5) Smart Money Buys The Stock:

Commercially available free services such as Yahoo Finance will tell you what percentage of a company is owned by institutional investors. When selecting stocks for maximum profit, look for institutional ownership from organizations you think are smart. A note of caution here – if a company is part of an index such as the S&P 500 or the Russell 2000, then index funds will buy the stock regardless of what they think of the company. So what’s important here is which institutional investors are buying the fund. If a well regarded management company such as Dodge and Cox is buying the shares, that’s a favorable indicator.

6) Other Factors:

Of course, a ton of other factors are important; price, analysts ratings, capitalization size, industry, etc.

When its all said and done, examine the total picture and make a subjective judgment based on these criteria.

Here are more great articles on the topic of wealth building:

Nine Ways To Make Extra Money
The Pros And Cons Of Mutual Funds
What Building Seven Streams Of Passive Income Really Looks Like
Yes, You Can Buy An Oil Well

If you liked this article, please share it on social media!

Image source: Free Thinkers.

How Much Is 600,000 Pennies In Dollars?

Posted on November 3, 2023 - 6:25 pm by James Hendrickson

When I was a child used to read the Duck Tales comics, which was the story of Donald Duck and his family. Donald’s Uncle, Scrooge, was a billionaire with massive money bin full of coins that he’d go swimming in. This got me thinking, how much would it take to fill up his money bin – probably a lot. And, what kind of coins would do it – probably a lot. I’m thinking 600,000 in pennies. And how much is 600,000 pennies In dollars, anyways?

The answer is: 600,000 pennies is $6,000 dollars.

How Much Is 600,000 Pennies Worth?

Doing the math is pretty simple.

As part of the coinage act of 1792 congress set the value of a dollar at 100 pennies (here). So, you simply divide 600,000 by 100 to get the number of dollars. Or, 600,000 / 100. This gives you $6,000.

So, how many dollars is 600,000 pennies? It’s $6,000.

Here Are Some Interesting Facts About Pennies:

1) Pennies were historically made out of 100% copper. However, modern pennies are mostly made out of Zinc. Only 2.5% of a modern penny is copper.

2) Before 1850 pennies were made out of copper from Cornwall, England. After 1950 the mint used copper from Michigan.

3) Per Wikipedia, pennies used to be much larger. For example in 1857 the penny was about the size of a Susan B Anthony dollar. Pre 1857 pennies looked about like this:

4) Modern pennies weigh about 2.5 grams. Thus, 600,000 pennies weigh about 1.5 million grams. This translates to 3,306 pounds and 14.9 ounces.

5) There are 84,480 pennies in each mile. This is because 16 pennies laid side by side constitute 12 inches, or one foot. And since there are 5,280 feet in one mile, that gives us, 16 * 5,260, or 84,480 pennies in a mile.

7) Unlike other coins, pennies have smooth edges.

8) Due to changing commodity prices, sometimes the value of the copper in pre 1982 US pennies is worth more than its face value. However, melting down pennies is against USTreasury regulations and could get you into trouble. Here are the regulations if you want to read them yourself => here.

9) The official U.S. Mint’s name for the penny is the “cent”. The official name from the U.S. Treasury is a “one cent piece”. The colloquial term “penny” is not an official US government designation.

10) The most valuable pennies are wheat pennies from 1943 and 1944. Some of these have a very high value for collectors. For example, the 1943 D Lincoln Wheat Cent Bronze/Copper shown below, has a price tag of over $2,000,000.

1943-d-copper-lincoln-wheat-cent

By way of a conclusion, pennies are great for talking about compound interest. Saving Advice has a great article that asks if you’d rather have a million dollars or a penny doubled every day for 30 days. Hint: you want choose the penny doubling every day for thirty days. At the end of the 30 days you’d have $5.36 Million.

For More Great Dinks Articles Read These:

Need Some Extra Money? We Got Your List => Here

Here Are Ten Factors Affecting Your Wealth

Need Some Passive Income? Consider Getting Into Fractional Real Estate.

The Five Signs of Financial Fraud

Posted on October 29, 2023 - 11:36 am by James Hendrickson

If you are concerned that your financial advisor might be a thief, you should check out this.

With 11 books under his belt, Fisher is a prolific author and as chairman of Fisher Investments, he’s on the Forbes list of America’s richest 400 people. The video was filmed when Fisher was a guest speaker at Humboldt State University in California. It outlines his thinking on how you can identify scammers in the money management industry. According to Fisher, these are the five signs of financial fraud.

The Five Signs of Financial Fraud

1. They combine decision making and custody of assets. That is, the same person who holds the money makes the decisions. All criminals do this, but its not necessary proof positive of crime. Many legitimate hedge funds do this too.

2. Returns are always too good to be true. All great investors have bad years. In contrast, scammers offer high and smooth returns.

3. Scammers use complicated or confusing concepts to explain investing results. Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff talked about “split strike conversions”, and NFL scammer Kurt Wright used the terms “capitalizing volume metrically”. The use of these complex mysterious terms discourages questions.

4. They market unimportant symbols related to exclusivity/prestige. Thieves often have photographs with politicians and celebrities. They also build impressive false biographies or personas. In some cases, scammers will own expensive jewelry or high profile assets like cars or sports teams. These are used to manage the scammer’s image and lure victims into giving them money.

5. They discourage due diligence. Fraudsters often deflect questions and avoid transparency. Legitimate people will answer questions and provide good service.

Fisher also argues it is harder to spot a fraudster today as society has become more mobile. This means that most people don’t have good background information on potential investment professionals. Flashy lifestyles and photographs with movie stars are not a good basis for investing. Instead, you need to ask the right questions and exercise due diligence.

That’s nice, so what?

Here is the takeaway. If your broker shows the five signs of financial fraud, you can check up on him or her. Go to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) website or you can visit the Securities and Exchange Division’s Investment Advisor Public Disclosure webpage. Both of these will let you examine the track record of your advisor – and hopefully prevent you from getting ripped off.

For more, you might enjoy our articles on:

Are the Madoff Family Members Innocent Victims of Willing Accomplices?
More Fallout from the Madoff Disaster
The 20 Most Famous Pyramid Schemes
There Are The Signs Of A Fake Rich Person

Away Days Brewing: Beer, Bonds and Community Investing For The Win

Posted on October 27, 2023 - 10:12 pm by James Hendrickson

I don’t usually recommend individual passive income investments here on dinksfinance, but there is one I wanted to share with dinks readers.

Here is some context: I’ve been investing in small business bonds through a marketplace called SMBX (SMall Business eXchange), which screens small businesses and helps them issue bonds. We’ve covered them pretty extensively here, and here.

Away Days Brewing

Well, last week I was reviewing the site and I saw a small business here in Portland, Oregon, that I thought looked promising. Its a brewery called Away Days Brewing. So, I saw the place was local. Then I called a friend and went to visit. I was pretty impressed. The brewery was clean, full of customers, the beer tasted good, and the staff seemed happy. I chatted with the bartender who basically corroborated the information that was in Away Days bond prospectus.

In any case, they are issuing about $350,000 worth of bonds, at 10.5%. Here is the image from their bond offering on SMBX.

Away Days Home Brewing

You can find the actual bond paperwork on SMBX’s website, here.

I put something like $560 dollars into the offering. This should give about $12 in terms of monthly principle and interest payments, so its a nice little addition to my passive income streams. Once the offering closes, payments should start in about 30 days.

What’s Great About This?

One thing I like about SMBX is that it makes investing more concrete. Most of the time when I invest in stocks, the returns are basically numbers on digital screen. With an investment like Away Days Brewing, its nice to see the business actually working – that is watching the beer get poured and people paying the brewery. So, I can see their financial activity is actually backed up by real economic activity. This is something that has been missing from the stock and crypto markets.

If you get a chance, you should have a look at Away Days Brewing’s offering. You can find it on SMBX here.

SMBX and Communities

While I’m on the topic…

I’m not a huge fan of the concept of system racism – it often gets used a political and sociological cudgel by special interest groups. However, its abundantly clear that the bigger banks systematically disfavor African American owned businesses. This tends to starve these communities of capital and helps keep them poor. I like SMBX because its crowdfunded model means that capital is provided by local communities, not by huge institutions. Crowdfunding also means that bond payments are made to local people, not to the big banks, whose executives hog the returns.

So, the SMBX model is much better at distributing capital to local communities and in particular communities of color.

For more great money making ideas, read these:

Our List Of Top Ways To Make Extra Money
Want A Lucrative Side Gig – Buy An Oil Well
Stacking Cash, Some Free And Low Cost Ways To Make Extra Money

Eight Ways To Eat For Less And Save Like A Champion

Posted on October 26, 2023 - 5:26 am by James Hendrickson 14

eat for less, frugal eating, frugal grocery

Everyone needs to eat, but eating doesn’t have to break the bank. One of the easiest expenses to reduce is the amount you spend on food. Reducing your grocery bill may mean eating more homemade food, but it generally means that you have more money in your pocket and better control of your diet and your finances. Here are eight sure-fire ways to cut down on the amount you spend on food.

1. Buy the house brands.

The last time we went shopping we picked up a 1 lb of Safeway brand peanut butter – it was like a buck cheaper than the Smuckers brand on the shelf above it. Always check the unit price to compare sales as well.

2. Make bulk meals.

If you double the recipe and store the extra half, you’ll be less tempted to buy prepared food or get take out. After all, you’ll just need to pop your leftovers in the microwave to get fed. This can be great especially for lunches – for example check out this posting over at Cleverdude.com. This guy managed to make a months worth of sandwiches for something like $6.99. Brilliant. There are also lots of brilliant recipes to turn one meal into another from the left overs.

3. Buy in bulk.

You can shave a few bucks off your budget if you buy in bulk. This is especially true for staples like toilet paper, toothbrushes & toothpaste, liquor (if you want to go full alcoholic), rice, batteries, light bulbs, bread, meat (you gotta freeze it) and batteries. It doesn’t make sense to purchase perishables like fresh vegetables, berries or flour that can go bad, but it does make sense to freeze these items at the peak of their season or to buy frozen fruit/veg.

Buy apples, oranges, or other bagged fruit while in season and on sale. If you eat it regularly, salsa is a great one to buy in bulk, the price is about a third in a large container versus a medium one. Also buy in bulk when items you frequently buy are on sale. This can help a lot with cereals, breads, soups, and the like.

4. Pack a lunch instead of eating out.

If you are still working outside of your home, pack a lunch. Eating out is hugely expensive over time. For example, if you spend 10 bucks a day eating out, after a month you’ll have spent $200 bucks. After three months, you’ll have spent $600 dollars, or $2,400 a year. Even if you make lunches twice a week you’ll save an estimated $960 a year! Need some lunch ideas? Soups, either homemade or healthy canned versions are very cost-effective. Do it yourself salads save a lot also. I have a friend who brings a bag of spinach to the office and then adds in berries, nuts, and protein. Hummus with veggies to dip can make a great healthy and filling meal as well. The options are endless and you’ll probably be happier not forking over cash everyday for lunch.

5. Minimize prepared foods.

Fried chicken, frozen meals and deli macaroni and cheese all taste great, but they also carry a price premium. According to a study in Family Medicine Magazine, the cost per calorie for a convenience diet was 24% higher than for a healthy diet (1). Salad dressings are another great one to skip on. Making your own is easy and much, much cheaper. One good secret ingredient hack is to add red chili pepper flakes (the kind you use on pizza) with oil and vinegar. Adding a bit of onion dip mix to oil and vinegar is also very tasty and easy. Once you make your own dressing you’ll never want to go back.

6. Clip coupons.

Although coupon clipping is falling a bit of out of favor as the economy goes electronic (here), some people really good at saving money by using coupons. I typically use a few key coupons on each shopping trip, only on items I buy in any case, and likely shaves about $5 a month off my grocery bill. Its not a lot, but the savings add up over time.

Pro-tip: if you forget to bring your paper coupons to the grocery store, all is not lost. Come back the next day and bring your receipt and your coupon. Usually the customer service people will give you a credit or cash for the coupon.

7. Save money on alcohol.

If you enjoy an occasional libation, consider drinking less or buying less expensive beer, wine, or liquor. For example, some good craft beers go for pretty cheap (clicky) and you can always find good values on wine for under $15 dollars. You are better off sipping on your happy hour beverage than having several and then splurging to eat whatever. It is best to use a budget mentality when consuming, considering whether it is worth the value. Often times you are better off without the next drink.

8. Buy only what you need.

We all know it is easy to waste money on unused foods. Be honest with yourself about what you will and won’t eat. Consider what your plans are for the week, whether you will be going out of town soon, etc. Use what you have, eat your way through your freezer and dry goods. If you are looking at a full pantry and simply can’t find anything to eat, challenge yourself to come up with something. Shop with a list and don’t fall for unnecessary items. Coordinate menu items to reduce the need for excess specialty items. Shop the perimeter of the store and avoid isles you don’t need things on.

Case in point – I bought about 128 of these cans of Campbells soup at my local Kroger a year ago. The cans were on sale for 10 cents each. That was an unbeatable deal that I couldn’t pass up.

ambells soup for 10 cents

The only thing is I bought way more than I needed, so I ended up giving away most of the cans to a soup kitchen.

Saving money on groceries is actually easier than it seems. It takes mindful and a bit of discipline, but your bank account (and likely waist line) will thank you for it.

Happy shopping!

For more on this read:

Nine Sustainable Frugality Tactics To Make Your Budget Sing

Frugal Tip Of The Day – Don’t Order Drinks

Yes, You Can Eat Peanut Butter and Jelly Every Day

The Pros and Cons of Investing in Mutual Funds

Posted on October 25, 2023 - 2:15 am by James Hendrickson 9

investing in mutual funds, mutual funds tips, mutual funds investment
Akin to baskets of investments, mutual funds pool money from many individual and institutional investors to buy and sell a variety of securities. (more…)

Why Guns Are Not a Good Investment

Posted on October 24, 2023 - 1:02 pm by James Hendrickson 18

As you probably know, Americans love guns. Since the dawn of our country firearms have played prominent roles in politics and society. Currently half of American households own a gun and many others advocate the rights of the individual to bear arms*. While firearms are a hugely controversial political and social issue, the focus of this posting is purely on the impact of firearms ownership for personal finance. From a strictly monetary standpoint, firearms are NOT a good pecuniary investment.

Guns are financial liabilities. By this, I mean two things. First, guns often depreciate in value after they are bought. Second, owning a gun often obligates one to purchase a number of other things as well. For example, if you own a firearm, you might need to pay for:

1) Higher insurance premiums
2) Costs for ammunition and accessories
3) Costs for security, safes, trigger guards and the like
4) Fees or expenditures for target shooting

Some of these expenditures can be quite hefty. For example, a large gun safe can cost several hundred dollars. The cost of even a modest amount of ammunition can easily run upwards of $50 or more – especially considering current prices.

Generally speaking, if you are interested in building wealth, you should be putting your money into investments that will improve your financial bottom line, NOT buying guns or other depreciating assets.

*Click here for more from wikipedia.

And incidentally if you are reading this because you actually want to find a firearm that will appreciate in value, Dinks isn’t the best site for that. Instead you should check out Sharp Shooter Society. They have plenty of firearms reviews, including which 380 Pistol is best, and others.

How Much Is A Million Pennies Worth?

Posted on October 23, 2023 - 5:00 pm by James Hendrickson 2

A while back I read a story about a local Lions club that was asking for pennies for charity. They wanted to raise something like 1 million pennies to help a little league rebuild its ballpark. The club was asking for pennies because they aren’t worth much and people are willing to donate them (here). So…It got me thinking. How much is a million pennies worth, really?

The answer is: a million pennies is $10,000 dollars.

How Much Is A Million Pennies Worth?

The math is pretty simple.

Per the coinage act of 1792, each US dollar is worth 100 pennies (clicky). So, you simply divide 1 million by 100 to get the number of dollars. Or, 1,000,000 / 100. This gives you $10,000.

So, how many dollars is one million pennies? Its $10,000.

Here Are Some Fun Facts About Pennies:

1) Pennies are made out of 2.5% copper, with the rest made out of Zinc.

2) Between 1828 and 1848, pennies were made out of copper from Cornwall, England. After 1850 the mint used copper ore from Michigan.

3) Per Wikipedia, pennies used to be much larger. For example in 1857 the penny was about the size of a Susan B Anthony dollar.

4) Each penny weighs about 2.5 grams. Thus, a million pennies weigh about 2.5 million grams. This translates to 5,511 pounds.

5) Pennies are 1.52 millimeters thick. If you stacked a million pennies on top of each other, they’d be about .94 miles tall.

6) Pennies have smooth edges.

7) Due to changing commodity prices, sometimes the value of the copper in US pennies is worth more than its face value. But, don’t think you can find a bunch of pure copper pennies and melt them down. Per the Federal Register, this is against treasury regulations and could get you into hot water (click here if you want to read the regs yourself).

8) The most valuable penny you might find in circulation today is the 1983 double die reverse. The word “double die” refers to an error in the minting process whereby the coin is struck twice. This causes the coin’s design to slightly overlap. For the 1983 pennies, the error is on the back where it says “ONE CENT”. Here is an image of what this looks like:

1983 penny double die reverse — Image source: Ebay.com

9) There are lots of pennies. There are about 130 billion pennies currently in circulation. In 2020 the Mint produced about 4.4 billion pennies.

By way of a conclusion, pennies are great for talking about compound interest. Dividend Power has a great article that talks about what happens when you double a penny every day for 30 days. Hint: In effect it says that compound interest is so powerful that at the end of 30 days you’ll have more than $5.3 million dollars…

For More Great Dinks Articles Read These:

Got a Half Million Spare Dollars? Why not buy an oil well?

Here Are Ten Factors Affecting Your Wealth

Building Wealth On $600 Per Month – Yes, You Can Do It