2014 PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE IN REVIEW

According to year end projections, 2014 has been a great year for my investments!  Total portfolio value increased by over 25%, total number of shares owned increased over 30% and dividend income is up over 100%!  Not bad at all, especially considering the financial setbacks I had back in July that forced me to sell some shares to make ends meet.  I'm most excited about the increase in dividend income, more than double the amount received in 2013!  I don't attribute this to any special brilliance on my part, it was more a matter of having a plan and sticking to it.  

The best performing stock for the year was UVE, with and increase of 249%, not counting reinvested dividends!  In an earlier post I mentioned that I'd sold enough shares of UVE to pull out all my original cash investment, even so the stock remains one of my largest holdings.  Other solid performers include GE, LLY, NYCB, RRD, HWBK and MACK.  Dollar wise, my top ten holdings include UVE, GE, LLY, NYCB, HWBK, RRD, CLM, CRF, NCZ and PHK.  

Individual stocks did quite well during the year whereas stock and bond funds in my portfolio did poorly.  However, I purchased the funds for their monthly dividend income which held up quite well, so it's not all bad news.  I'll be looking to replace the poor performing funds with low cost index funds in the coming year.  Most likely I'll stop reinvesting dividends in these funds and divert the payments to cash balances to purchase new funds.  I'm working on my 2015 investment plan now.