THIS WEEK'S DIVIDENDS

The first full week of April proved to be good for dividend payments.  Between my IRA and my taxable account I collected dividends from Westar Energy (WR), Universal Insurance (UVE), Reynolds American (RAI) and Telstra (TLSYY).  I received 5 payments from the 4 stocks since I hold shares of UVE in both accounts.

The money from dividends will help pay for this months stock purchases.  For my taxable account I'll be purchasing a stake in Aberdeen Chile Fund (CH) with a dividend yield of 10.37%.  I also plan to purchase shares in Ship Finance International (SFL) with a current yield of 8.12%.  April's purchases for my IRA account will include AllianceBernstein Global High Income bond fund (AWF) yielding 8.05% and Enerplus Corp (ERF) with a current dividend yield of 10.47%.  The goal of this month's purchases is to raise total average yield on investments in both accounts and to increase total number of dividend payments by 32 payments per year.  Two of this month's purchases pay monthly dividends while the other 2 pay quarterly.  This serves a two fold purpose, increasing monthly cash flows and giving me a jump start on reaching my goal of 365 dividend payments per year.

This will bring my total number of payments per year to 168.  Only 197 dividends to go! 

MARKET SELL OFF GOOD FOR MY STOCK PURCHASE PLAN

The news media is buzzing with doom and gloom over today's drop in the stock market.  More European woes, a bad auction for Spanish debt, ADP reporting less new jobs, the Fed bowing out of another round of quantitative easing, it all sounds like too much for the market to handle. 

However, this works out great for me!  I'm making at least 4 new stock purchases this month.  I've decided to put off my purchase of CLX, for my IRA account, in favor of a couple of high yield issues, one paying monthly dividends.  I'm also planning to add two high yield stocks to my taxable account, one quarterly payer and one monthly payer.  The drop in stock prices couldn't have come at a better time for me.  With the completion of the above purchases I will boost my number of dividend payments by 32 per year (12 x 2 + 2x4).  I'm currently receiving 136 dividend payments per year.  Adding 32 more payments with this month's purchases will give me a total of 168 dividends, meaning I'll only have to get an additional 197 payments to reach a dividend for each day of the year.  This may sound like a lot, but it would only take 16 more monthly dividend payers plus 2 quarterly paying stocks to exceed my goal.  

All this will be a lot easier if the stock market prices are down.  So rather than doom and gloom, I'm excited about a pullback in stock prices.  Once my dividend a day cash machine is in place, I'll be looking forward to a rebound. 

PAYMENTS FROM UTILITY PORTFOLIO

Not long ago I wrote about adding utilities to my portfolio.  I've owned shares of CNP and Great Plains Energy for quite some time now.  However, with a goal towards increasing monthly cash flows and evening out monthly dividend payments, I decided to beef up my portfolio with high quality utility stocks. I've added Duke Energy (DUK), Wisconsin Energy (WEC) and Northeast Utilities.  With the dividend payment from Northeast (NU) in the month of March, I will have received payments from all three investments.  With these investments paying off each quarter, my next move will be to add shares in 3 additional utility companies paying in different quarters.  This will boost monthly dividends paid to my portfolio for each month of the year.  In the end I'll be collecting the same number of dividend payments each month.  Then it's really just a matter of boosting my holdings through dividend re investments and additional cash contributions to reach the ultimate goal of replacing my monthly from work.

As long as my health holds out, I plan to work at least another 10 years, so I've got quite a bit of time to build on my investments.  I'm already seeing the benefits of monthly income from dividends by the additional freedoms this allows.  I no longer have to work as much as I used to, or make as much from my job, to maintain my lifestyle.  Probably the best benefit of all is not worrying so much about money,  since I know that even when big expenses arise unexpectedly, the cash machine I've created from dividend stocks will eventually put me back in the black.