Saturday, May 31, 2014

WELLS FARGO INCREASES DIVIDEND 16.7%!

Collected my June dividend from Wells Fargo a couple of days early and was surprised to see a nice increase from 30 cents to 35 cents per share!  This represents a 16.7% increase over their payout from the last quarter.  Several stocks in my portfolio have raised dividends by substantial amounts this year and it has not only increased overall yield but has boosted monthly cash flow as well.  I'm expecting to see even more increases as the year goes on.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

WHY I HOLD TWICE AS MANY INDIVIDUAL STOCKS AS MUTUAL FUNDS IN MY DIVIDEND PORTFOLIO

When I set out to rebuild my investment portfolio, I decided to add monthly dividend paying mutual funds to speed up compounding and boost monthly cash flows from dividends.  However, I've said before that although I'm a dividend investor I think it's wise to take advantage of all income opportunities the stock market has to offer.  Since I decided to limit my portfolio to around 20 different stocks, I've purchased positions in 7 funds and 14 individual stocks.  

Why twice the number of stocks as mutual funds?  While the majority of dividend income I'm collecting right now comes from funds, only 2 out of 7 funds are in the black as far as gains in share price goes.  Compare that to 11 out of 14 stocks showing gains of anywhere from 5% to over 200% and it becomes clear why I chose to hold twice the number of stocks.  While I collect dividends on all the individual stocks I've counted above, should I decide to sell I can also collect on the capital gains.  At times I've chosen to pull out all my original cash investment and keep the remaining stocks in which I have none of my own money invested.  So I'm able to redeploy the original cash to build my portfolio and boost dividend income.  At other times I've chosen to sell out my entire position and reinvest the money elsewhere when holding the stock for dividends would take several years to collect the amount of money I'd collect in capital gains from the sale.

You never want to limit yourself, take advantage of all the opportunities you've familiarized yourself with to build your investments.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

SECOND QUARTER DIVIDEND INCOME UP 30%!

Dividend income for the second month of the second quarter (May) is up 30% over second month of the first quarter (Feb) of 2014!  While increased monthly cash flow was not unexpected, it's a nice surprise to see such a fantastic increase.  The month of June should be even better since it will be the first month I'll receive 20 dividend payments in a single month.  Haven't calculated the projected amount, I'd prefer to watch the money roll in and add it up then.

Stocks rebounded today, a trend I'm not expecting to continue, at least not in the short term.  While I'm not seeing evidence of a major correction, I do expect the market to cool through the summer months.  It's a holiday weekend and people are gearing up for summer festivities, so they'll be spending less time actively trading in the stock market.  


Friday, May 9, 2014

BOOSTED MONTHLY DIVIDENDS 8% FOR THIRD QUARTER 2014!

Just put in an order today to purchase additional shares of
CRF for my taxable account.  The new shares will begin paying
dividends in June, boosting monthly dividend income by
another 8%!  This is in addition to the dividends from NCZ
and AOD which also start in June.

The 8% boost in third quarter earnings means that I’ll have 3
months to boost income another 12% to meet my goal of
increasing dividend income by 20% each quarter.  I’ve
exceeded my goal in each of the first two quarters and I’m very
hopeful of doing the same in the third quarter.  With lower
utility costs for the spring and summer months and a few more
work hours, I should be able to come up with extra money to
invest.  I’ll also be on the lookout for special situations like the
one I took advantage of this past quarter, when I sold enough
shares to pull out my original investment in UVE and
reinvested the money in monthly dividend payers.

Was able to increase my stake in CRF with money received
from advertising on my blog from infolinks.  I’ve been with
infolinks for quite some time now and have been quite satisfied
with the program.  It’s nice to know the money I’ve earned so
far will continue to grow through monthly dividends paid on
CRF stock.

The month of June will be the first 20 dividend month!  With
20 dividends, it will also be the best month for dividend income
in 2014.  While I expected this to be a good year for my
investments, I had no idea just how good it would be.

Friday, May 2, 2014

MACK IS IN THE BLACK!

The only speculative stock I hold (does not pay dividends) is finally showing a small gain.  While my reasons for purchasing shares of this pharmaceutical company are still valid, I had hope for a better showing before now.  But sometimes you just have to wait for a good thing.  Can't always have a quick turnaround of cash.

That being said, my dividend stocks are doing quite well.  The dividends I collected on the first day of May beat out the entire month of 2013 by 10% and I will still collect another 7 dividends before the end of the month!  Most of the largest payments are still to come, so I'm expecting a nice increase in cash flow over last year.  

Purchased new stake in NCZ too late to collect dividend for May, but will collect for the new shares in June along with AOD.  The combined income will increase monthly cash flow by 10%, so I'm pretty excited about that.  I was checking my spreadsheets to see what kind of increases I'm getting from reinvested dividend payments.  Some of the monthly payers are increasing by 2.1% per month, just from the reinvested dividends!  That's the magic of compounding at work.  The spreadsheets I created to track dividend income make it easy to calculate returns, so I'm really liking the new system I've come up with for tracking investment performance.  It's simple and easy to keep up with and makes the whole process of investing more exciting. 

Thursday, May 1, 2014

STARTING THE MONTH OF MAY WITH 5 DIVIDEND PAYMENTS!

The month of May kicked off with 5 dividend payments on May 1st!  What a nice way to get the month off to a good start.  I learned today that I also missed the ex-dividend date on the new shares of NCZ that I purchased last month, so I'll only be getting 12 dividends this month instead of 14.  I'll start collecting on the new shares of NCZ and AOD in June, so I'm expecting a total of 20 dividend payments next month!  Definitely something to look forward to.