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!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.