Well, I wasn’t planning to take a year off from my income oriented investing blog, but I’ve made so few changes to my portfolio during the past year that I just kind of fell out of the habit. But now it’s time to sharpen my investing focus and actively manage my portfolio again, which means (hopefully) I’ll have a few insights worth sharing here.

During the past year, I set aside most of my available cash for a yet to be realized condo remodeling project. Fretting about the possibility of further stock price declines, I put some cash in TIPS rather than hazarding the money on stocks.

Market timing is a fool’s errand, of course, but I’m comfortable making some purchases.

Today, I added to my stake in Organon, a provider of women’s health care products. The company is a spinoff from Merck, one of my most successful long-term holdings. It was a bit of an impulse move. I’ve grown tired of thinking about the purchase power of my remodeling cash being slowly eroded away by inflation. A wiser me might have waited until the company releases earnings next Thursday. But the stock (OGN) got some love from Barron’s recently. And with a PE ratio below 7 and a dividend payout of nearly 5%, I decided to scoop up some more shares. It seems like the most attractively priced stock in my dividend portfolio at the moment, and it made sense from a portfolio balancing perspective.

When earnings come out next week, I’ll learn if my choice was prescient or hasty.

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