DIVIDEND PORTFOLIO LOOKING GOOD FOR 2018!

Although I can't say with any certainty what the new year holds for the stock market, as long as I'm not faced with a lot of dividend cuts, my portfolio should do quite well in 2018.  A quick projection of future income shows that simply reinvesting dividends will produce a 10% gain in monthly dividend income by the end of 2018!  While that's exciting in itself, I'll most likely be adding additional cash to current holdings, boosting income substantially throughout the year.  A downturn in the market would allow me to purchase more shares with available cash, so I'm not fretting too much should that occur.

To kick off the new year, I'll see two new streams of dividend income in January from NLY and AGNC.  I'm still holding positions in MRK, PFE and VZ which I bought in the hopes of generating some capital gains.  While I'm ahead on PFE and VZ I'm waiting to see if they'll gain a little more in price before I sell.  In the mean time, I'm enjoying the quarterly dividends from holding the three stocks.  Unless I can get a substantial amount of profit from selling, I may just hold on to these three stocks.

Still waiting to see what happens with my strategy of following the inside traders on CCUR and PSEC.  Both are paying great dividends right now, so even if the company insiders who bought up bunches of shares were wrong and the stocks don't show dramatic price increases, I'll still benefit from the dividends.  I'd like to see the share prices rise enough for me to sell enough shares to pull all my money out and keep the remaining shares to collect the dividends.  We'll see how it goes.

Looks like December 2017 will be the new record month for dividend income.  While I still have the end of the month dividends to collect, it's pretty much in the bag.  Not really a surprise here, since December usually sets the new record every year with all the special payouts. 

BOOSTING DIVIDEND INCOME OVER 5% WITH CHRISTMAS BONUS!

It has been my habit to invest at least half of any bonuses I receive from work and this year's Christmas bonus is no exception.  With half the money I receive from my Christmas bonus, I've decided to purchase stakes in AGNC, JPS and GLAD.  All three pay monthly dividends, with AGNC generating the highest amount.  By adding these three stocks to my portfolio, I'll boost monthly dividend income over 5%!  It will be like getting an additional "bonus" every month of the year!  What better way to kick off the new year than to give yourself a raise.

Speaking of the new year, I've seen a lot of speculation floating around the internet about a market downturn in 2018.  While it wouldn't surprise me much, I do have a contingency plan in place should it occur.  For now, I'm reinvesting all dividends, but should the market go into a dive, I'll divert all dividend payments to cash.  When things start to level off, I'll dive back in and invest the accumulated cash at the lower prices.  Could turn out to be a great opportunity to pick up future income at a much lower price.  

WHY I BOUGHT NLY

Sold my shares of QCOM last week and used the profits to purchase shares of NLY.  While it's still just a quarterly dividend, I'll earn nearly 3 times as much in dividends as I was earning with the same amount of money invested in QCOM.  According to NASDAQ. com, NLY pays a quarterly dividend of 30 cents per share, which works out to a yield of 10.17% on their recent price of $11.93 per share.  They reported earnings of $2.50 per share, way more than enough to cover their $1.20 per year in dividends.  Their current price to earnings is a very low 4.79.  While Annaly Capital Mortgage may not be right for everyone's portfolio, with these numbers, I'm more than willing to add it to mine.  I'll collect my first dividend in January 2018!  Great way to kick off the new year.  

Should our company pay a Christmas bonus this year, I also hope to add shares of AGNC, JPS and GLAD, before the end of December.  This will bring my total number of dividend payments per year to a staggering 516!  Should this all work out, my goal for the remainder of 2018 will be to build positions in current holdings, increasing monthly cash flow as rapidly as possible.