TOTAL SHARES OF STOCK OWNED UP 120% IN PAST 12 MONTHS!

Collected the big six end of the month dividends today and closed out spreadsheet entries for the month of April.  At the end of each month, I like to check the same month's totals from the previous year to see how I'm doing.  Already posted about the 90% increase in monthly income for the month of April, compared to April of last year.  However, when I compared the spreadsheets with total number of shares owned, I was surprised and delighted to see number of shares up by a whopping 120% during the past 12 months!

The whole reason I launched my new stock purchase plan was to be more aggressive at accumulating stock.  Obviously, as a dividend investor, the more shares of stock you own the more dividend income you collect.  I developed this plan because I felt like I wasn't making much progress as far a building my current holdings.  Turns out that's not really the case, since I've more than doubled number of shares owned in the past year.  However, I'd like to keep the momentum going, so I'm sticking with the three year plan.  I've got an order in place to complete the 6th purchase from the list of 16 next Tuesday.  I'm taking advantage of extra income from overtime at work to accelerate my plan, so it looks like I may be able to complete all purchases within 2 years.  

After Tuesdays' stock purchase, the next major change in my investment portfolio is to open a Roth IRA.  Maxing out allowable contributions to my regular IRA is not the most tax efficient way for me to deploy investment income.  Since the tax deduction for contributions only impacts my tax return up to a certain point, it would be better for me to deploy the rest of my investment capital in a Roth IRA where I would owe no taxes on future income and capital gains.