Wednesday, December 31, 2014

COLLECTED LAST TWO DIVIDEND PAYMENTS FOR 2014

Collected the last two dividend payments for 2014 today!  Ended the year ahead of schedule on dividend income.  My goal was to double income every year for 10 years.  This year was more than double 2013, so I'm a little ahead of schedule for 2015.  

The two dividends today from AOD and EGAS also made December the best month of the year as far as total dollars collected.  Not sure whether the dividend from EGAS was for this month or January 2015, but they paid it today so I'm counting it on 2014.  Either way, total dividend income was still above my target level.  This is just the second year, so I expect it to be relatively easy to double income for at least the next 3 years.  After that it will take greater cash investments on my part instead of relying on reinvested dividends alone.  

Had to work today and will be working early tomorrow morning, so I won't be celebrating New Year's Eve.  But I'm planning a traditional New Year's Day dinner for tomorrow evening.  Could use some good luck in the new year.

Monday, December 29, 2014

CLM AND CRF REVERSE STOCK SPLIT COMPLETED

Still disillusioned by the 1 for 4 reverse stock split of CLM and CRF even though I think it could be better for both in the long run.  However, I've decided not to throw good money after bad and will be taking future dividends in cash.  I'll hold my positions for now and see how they perform going forward.

For the new year, I've decided to beef up my investments with mostly dividend aristocrats.  I've put in an order to purchase shares of Aflac, which brings me back up to a 20 stock portfolio.  I already hold stakes in other dividend aristocrats like AT&T, so I'll be adding to those positions throughout 2015.

To give monthly cash flow a boost, I'm purchasing more shares of NCZ, even though rising interest rates in 2015 doesn't bode well for bond funds.  I'll be looking for growth from individual stocks and not stock or bond funds.

2015 promises to be an exciting new year.  With gas prices down, I intend to take full advantage of fuel savings to add to my investments as much as I possibly can.  Hope everyone has a great new year!

Friday, December 26, 2014

COMPLETED PURCHASE OF CLNY AND PDLI!

The Tuesday before Christmas I completed purchase of stakes in CLNY and PDLI.  Should see dividend income from CLNY starting in January, of course I plan on reinvesting the dividends to increase the number of shares owned.  I was impressed by the fact that both stocks have performed better in the short time I've held them than some of the stocks I held all year.  Due to poor performance from stock and bond funds in my portfolio, the overall performance for 2014 was lackluster to say the least.  Am looking forward to doing much better in 2015.

To that end, I plan to beef up individual stock holdings and take dividends from stock and bond funds in cash.  I've always been of the opinion that most individual investors would do much better to invest in stocks instead of mutual funds.  I purchased stakes in the funds I own now for the monthly dividends when I set up my new portfolio.  The idea being the cash flow would help rebuild the stock portion of my investments.  Now I've reached the point where I'll no longer reinvest dividends in the mutual funds.  Instead I'll divert those to cash and use the cash to build up shares in current holdings of individual stocks and purchase any new stocks, like the two above.  While I might not see such rapid growth in dividend income as I have the past two years, I believe I'll be much better positioned for growth and future dividend income.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!  I sure did.  I'd like to again wish everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

MERRY CHRISTMAS!



HERE'S WISHING EVERYONE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

JUMPSTARTING 2015 DIVIDEND INCOME!

It's the end of the year, finished my Christmas shopping, paid off another bill and decided to put some cash savings to work early to get a head start on my 2015 investment plan.  To accomplish that, I purchased a stake in PDLI (a pharmaceutical company) and next week I'll be buying a stake in CLNY (a real estate investment and finance company).  Dividends from the two stocks will boost monthly dividend income by over 5% in 2015!  I'm looking to boost annual dividend income by 100% for the third year in a row.  As long as current earned income remains the same, I should have additional money to invest this year on top of reinvested dividends.  Should easily be able to reach my goal of doubling dividend income.  Since I'll get my first dividend from CLNY next month, January's income will be up 90+% over January 2014!  Not a bad way to start the year.

Monday, December 15, 2014

CRUDE OIL, HOW LOW CAN IT GO?

There seems to be a lot of hoopla over the price of crude oil.  As the price drops, the stock market has dropped along with it.  Seems like a lot of people are concerned about how oil prices will affect future growth.  I can remember oil prices being as low as $39 a barrel and there was a lot of concern over it at that time too.  Guess what, everything turned out just fine and it will this time too.  Sure maybe some of the weaker players in the oil business will go under, but that's the name of the game.  Certainly no reason to panic and flee the stock market in general.

I'm kind of excited about the whole thing myself.  Prices are dropping, so it's cheaper to buy quality stocks I'd like to own.  Lower gas prices at the pump mean it's easier for me to come up with the money to buy the stocks.  Reduced costs to business such as utility companies, trucking companies, waste management, UPS or anyone else who would benefit from lower fuel costs, means it will be much easier for these companies to make a profit.  As far as I'm concerned, now's the time to ramp up buying, selectively of course.  I want bargain prices on income producing stocks with a history of increasing dividends.  That's what the plan is for 2015, adding some dividend aristocrats to my portfolio and boosting positions in some of my current holdings.  Have no plans to sell anything, but I'll be buying as much as I can afford while the prices are low.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

COLLECTED DIVIDENDS FROM LLY AND CNP!

It's turning out to be a very Happy Holiday season, with 2 more dividend payments rolling in from LLY and CNP.  I have both stocks set to automatically reinvest, so I've purchased more shares of two of my core holdings.  Ely Lilly and Company has been one of the stellar performers in my IRA account, up over 61% since my initial investment!  Centerpoint Energy is more of an income play, with a dividend yield of 4.19% and their increased dividend payout in 2014.  

The next dividend should be from UVE on December 15th, including a special dividend of 15 cents per share on top of the regular dividend of 10 cents per share.  My shares of UVE are up over 276% since my initial investment.  Definitely plan on holding on to this one for the long haul.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

PROJECTED DIVIDEND INCOME FOR JANUARY 2015 UP 89% OVER PREVIOUS YEAR!

Wow, if I needed further proof that my investment plan is working, I just calculated the dividend payments for January 2015 and compared it to January 2014.  Dividend income will be up a whopping 89%!  Even with the setbacks I experienced mid year 2014 and a couple of poorly performing picks, monthly income still jumped.  It will be interesting to see how February through December 2015 compare to 2014.

Things are looking up.  Just made the final payment on a personal loan, added to cash savings and beefed up cash balances in both investment accounts.  It would be great if I could start the new year off with a better job!

UVE TO PAY SPECIAL DIVIDEND IN DECEMBER!

Once again UVE has announced a special dividend for shareholders of record as of 12/05/2014.  In addition to their regular dividend of 10 cents per share, each shareholder will receive a special dividend of 15 cents per share, payable December 15, 2014!

I'm especially excited with this stock since it's one of my "free stocks."  I purchased a stake in UVE quite some time ago and sold enough shares after the price rose to take out all my original cash investment, essentially making the remaining shares free.  Since then I've reinvested all dividends to let the money ride and have been quite happy with their performance.  The stock has a current target price of $22 per share, but I have no plans to sell at any price.  As long as the dividend continues, this will be one of my core holdings.  I've made money on UVE several times in the past, buying low and selling high, but I've always been pleased with the dividends.  No matter what happens, at this point I've made so much profit from this stock that I could lose all of my current investment and I'd still be ahead.

Monday, December 1, 2014

DIVIDEND INCOME PROJECTIONS FOR 2015 LOOK GREAT!

Just finished a review of the spreadsheets I use to track my investments and am pleased to report that dividend income for 2014 will be up 100% over 2013!  While that in itself is reason to celebrate, I used current data to project increases in dividend income for next year.  

This is what I came up with:

GE income up 1%, NYCB up 5%, LLY up 3%, EMN stays the same, UVE down 20% (due to sale of stock), CNP up 1%, RRD up 3%, CLM up 20%, HWBK up 2%, T up 2%, EGAS up 30%, AOD up 1%, MFC up 1%, CRF up 15%, WFC up 8%, NCZ up 22%, PHK up 50% and PSEC up 10%.

This is not my projection of the stocks performance, but a projection of increased dividend income based on the year end dividends from each stock multiplied by 12 months of 2015.  Of course this does not take in to account possible dividend cuts or increases and does not allow for dividend re-investments, so the total increases would likely be higher than the above projections.  This only applies to my personal portfolio.  I am very excited about the prospects for significant gains in monthly cash flow in 2015!  At this point I'm not attempting to project total gains in dividend income, although based on the above, I think I should easily be able to double dividend income again in 2015.

DECEMBER KICKS OFF WITH 5 DIVIDEND PAYMENTS!

It's the first of the month and December is off to a great start with 5 dividend payments!  It was a little bit of a bummer to see some of my share prices were down a bit, but then I realized the reinvested dividends purchased more shares and the dividend yield on those shares is higher.  It's most gratifying to see money generated month after month with no additional work on my part.  I purchased the shares and they do the work for me.

It's bound to be a happy holiday season, with 10 more dividends to come before the month is over.  Not exactly sure when the reverse stock split on CLM and CRF kicks in, but I'm taking that whole situation in stride.  I'm looking at it as an opportunity to move on to bigger and better things.  I'll keep my stakes in both funds, collect the cash from fractional shares and reinvest in new stocks or funds to generate additional monthly cash flow.

Just got a semi-annual report from NCZ, I'll have to look that over.  I think they're  a pretty sound investment, not likely to return buckets of money, but a steady earner.  Speaking of buckets of money, UVE up 249% since my initial investment!  Wish I'd bought more.  Actually I did, but I've bought and sold the stock several times for a nice return each time.  So I guess I really wish I'd held on to more of the shares I've sold.   But I'm pretty happy with them all the same.