As a self-funded retiree, I have only three paydays a year: when BHP pays its dividends twice a year, and when the Tax Office refunds me some of BHP's franking credits. Today was BHP's second payday and we celebrated it with a nice lunch at our favourite Thai restaurant followed by a couple of glasses of Chateau de Cardboard at the local club.
Of course, no day in the Bay is complete without a quick visit to my favourite op-shop where I picked up the above two titles. They were only a couple of dollars each, and after pensioner's discount just $2.80 for the lot. How could I pass them up? Why, I may even get around to reading them! Not that I pay much attention to those stockmarket soothsayers, as I'm pretty much rusted on to my BHP shares which have been paying me a steady dividend for more than two decades already.
To top it all off, BHP shares put on a good performance today, going up by 3.5% on rising copper prices, to $41.67, which is still a long way off from their $50-price tag when iron ore was selling at $220 a ton just a few years ago. With China's economy losing steam and the Simandou project in Guinea in West Africa gearing up production, we'll never see those days again and I should've sold out, but that's hindsight for you.
Barring dinner and the 7 o'clock evening news, that's it after another day in the life of - well, I'm just glad my name isn't Ivan Denisovich.
