DIVIDENDS AND INTEREST FOR MY RETIREMENT ACCOUNT

Collected the first FDIC insured interest payment on the cash balance in my IRA account.  My investment company started offering the FDIC account option since money market rates have been so pitiful and I signed up for it right away.  As expected, the payment was nothing to get excited about, but it's that much more than I had.

Also collected dividends from SPY and CPB.  Reinvested the dividend in Campbell's Soup and kept the cash from SPY.  I believe these are the last two payments I'll get for the month of October.  Looking forward to the payouts in November from my holdings in energy limited partnerships.  I sold a large portion of my holdings in the partnerships to reduce exposure and collect on some of the capital gains, almost wish I'd held on to a few more units.  The cash payouts have been great!!!  But that's water under the bridge.  Don't plan on selling my remaining shares/units.  As it stands, I have taken all my initial investment, plus a substantial profit out of the 3 energy partnerships I have left.  So anything I collect now is icing on the cake.

ADJUSTING MY INVESTMENT STRATEGY

While revising my investment plan at the first of this year, I wanted to cut investment costs while increasing stakes in some of my long term holdings. At the same time, I set a goal to increase cash holdings as well. To attain both goals, I instructed my investment company to re-invest dividends on 6 of my top long term investments and had them pay the dividends from the other 22 stocks in my regular portfolio to my money market account.

By doing this, I'll be increasing my stakes in the my top 6 long term holdings, while keeping investment costs low. (My investment company charges no commissions for re-invested dividends). This still leaves me with an income stream of dividend payments from 8 to 12 stocks each month. The dividends from those stocks will build cash holdings in my money market account, with or without any additional money invested on my part.

I do plan to invest additional funds in some of the energy partnerships. I've been doing quite well with those as far as price appreciation and dividend income. Considering energy prices are still relatively low, I would expect these investments to do quite well as the overall economy begins to recover and energy prices go up.