LinkedIn, the Ultimate Social Network

I constantly read articles about which social network is the best.  The best and most well known is of course Facebook which is credited with starting the social network trend that is so pervasive these days.  However, there are other social networks out there.  Google+ is one such network, and people can argue all day over which one is better.  Google+ does not really contribute much to the Google mother ship right now whereas Facebook's entire business is social media, and they are under extreme pressure to figure out how it can be monetized and provide maximized shareholder value :) now that they are a public company.

Out of all these social networks one that has golden potential, but I don't hear much about is LinkedIn.  Maybe its because people can't gossip about someone posting scandalous pictures on LinkedIn at the water cooler because no one would be stupid enough to do that ( No should on Facebook either, but that is another story) , but no one really talks about LinkedIn much.  I think they definitely have work to do on their site to improve the social experience, but it is a gold mine just waiting to happen in terms of both opportunities and ideas.  LinkedIn is the premier site when it comes to connecting with your business peers online and also looking for job opportunities.  Recently I have noticed more their push into social interaction with social groups and now people can also follow well known business leaders who post onto LinkedIn.  LinkedIn has a market valuation of 16 billion and change with a P/E ratio of 817.14 according to the latest I pulled from Google Finance.  Contrast with Facebook which has a P/E ration of 1846.  Facebook is valued more on the market but LinkedIn generates .19 per share versus Facebook's .1.  I am not going to delve into more of the financials here.  I think both sites have huge potential, but I think LinkedIn has a better story for growth and sustained increasing earnings going forward.  Facebook still needs to monetize mobile and figure out how to get casual users to pay for their  services whereas LinkedIn currently charges for their professional job seeking services.  I also think LinkedIn provides a great service for professionals to get together and trade ideas, and I can argue good  network connections on LinkedIn will pay off in the future more than the random person you will connect to on Facebook.

Look forward to more on my analysis of LinkedIn as I continue to use their site and become more involved in the community there.

Dividend Investing Tax Rates

Fortunately, the existing dividend tax rate of 15 percent was preserved for most Americans under that $400,000/$450,000 threshold (single/married respectively).  It makes dividend investing one of the cheapest financial instruments to pay taxes for and more profitable than most simple savings instruments.  Pick a non-volatile dividend stock paying at least 3 percent and you're set at a flat 15 percent versus whatever savings you might have that would be taxed at your normal marginal income tax rates.  This is a sweet spot for those middle income players that don't qualify for all the federal government tax kickbacks and for those who are under the $400,000/$450,000 threshold.  In fact that new high end group is still just 20 percent versus their now increased marginal income tax rate.  And corporations are now flush with cash from hoarding it the past few years so a lot of good companies will either invest it growing your stock or just hoarding cash and still increasing their dividend payout.  Enjoy the good times!