Just collected 15 dividend payments for the last day of May! Total dividend income is up a whopping 100% over May of 2016! I was very pleased to see that during the first five months of this year, I have added 20% more shares than the total shares owned at the end of 2013. 2013 was the year I began rebuilding my investment portfolio, so I'm very pleased with the progress I've made in the past 4 years. Still a long way to go before I retire, but things are looking good so far.
I'm expecting good things for the month of June, with it's 39 dividend payments. I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty confident of doubling monthly income, compared to last year, once again in June. So far I've only had one month with less than a 100% increase and it came in close to doubling. Just got to keep things moving forward for the rest of the year.
Collected my first dividend payment from ORA, but it looks like I got in too late to collect the upcoming dividend from INTC. I'll most likely have to wait until September to collect from Intel. But it's nice to see they've raised their dividend once again, starting in June. It's always a good sign when they have a history of raising dividends and plenty of income to continue doing so.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
INCREASED PORTFOLIO VALUE OVER 10% IN MAY 2017!
As I await the big end of the month dividend payouts, I'm pleased to report, through a combination of cash investments and reinvested dividends, I was able to increase the overall value of my portfolio by over 10% in the month of May! Average monthly dividend income increased by 8%, keeping me on track to double dividend income again this year! Although I've had a few setbacks, in the form of dividend cuts, I'm very pleased with the overall performance of my investments for the first 5 months of 2017.
Don't have any big plans for the month of June. Would like to complete the purchase of shares of MAIN for my ROTH account. This would add an additional 14 dividend payments per year, bring my total up to 421, or 1.15 dividends per day. When reinvesting dividends, frequency of payout boosts yields, so I'm always happy to increase the number of times I get paid per year. I plan on following up the MAIN purchase by adding a stake in GUT to my taxable account and buying shares of SPLV for my IRA. Those two purchases would add another 24 dividends per year, for a grand total of 445! The rest of the year, I'll concentrate on building positions in some of the individual stocks I own.
Don't have any big plans for the month of June. Would like to complete the purchase of shares of MAIN for my ROTH account. This would add an additional 14 dividend payments per year, bring my total up to 421, or 1.15 dividends per day. When reinvesting dividends, frequency of payout boosts yields, so I'm always happy to increase the number of times I get paid per year. I plan on following up the MAIN purchase by adding a stake in GUT to my taxable account and buying shares of SPLV for my IRA. Those two purchases would add another 24 dividends per year, for a grand total of 445! The rest of the year, I'll concentrate on building positions in some of the individual stocks I own.
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
TOTAL NUMBER OF DIVIDEND PAYMENTS PER YEAR UP TO 407!
The purchase of shares in INTC and AEG Tuesday, brought the total number of dividend payments I receive per year up to 407! While the stakes in Intel and Aegon will only raise average monthly income by a little over 1%, I think they'll both make good long term investments. I'm a little iffy about AEG, but since they're the parent company of TransAmerica, who manages my 401k, I bought some shares for the dividend to recapture some of the fees they charge me for managing my account.
The market started of great yesterday, but ended up not doing much. Today it looks like the trend is mostly down. I kind of expect that this time of year, so I'll be keeping a close eye out for bargains as share prices drop. Right now I've got my automatic purchase plans set to add to CNP for my taxable account, I'm buying more SPHD for my IRA and I'm purchase shares of MAIN for my Roth IRA. The addition of MAIN will add another 14 dividend payments per year, bringing my annual total to 421! Not sure how soon these purchases will go through, it depends on available cash, but I plan on buying MAIN first.
I diverted some of my dividends to cash to help pay for upcoming purchases, but with the price of stocks going down, I want to take advantage of reinvesting dividends to add to my positions at the lower prices. With the Fed's set to raise interest rates, I decided the best dividends to convert to cash were from the bond funds. My thinking behind this is that an increase in interest rates will drive bond fund shares lower, at least temporarily, so might as well take the cash for now.
The market started of great yesterday, but ended up not doing much. Today it looks like the trend is mostly down. I kind of expect that this time of year, so I'll be keeping a close eye out for bargains as share prices drop. Right now I've got my automatic purchase plans set to add to CNP for my taxable account, I'm buying more SPHD for my IRA and I'm purchase shares of MAIN for my Roth IRA. The addition of MAIN will add another 14 dividend payments per year, bringing my annual total to 421! Not sure how soon these purchases will go through, it depends on available cash, but I plan on buying MAIN first.
I diverted some of my dividends to cash to help pay for upcoming purchases, but with the price of stocks going down, I want to take advantage of reinvesting dividends to add to my positions at the lower prices. With the Fed's set to raise interest rates, I decided the best dividends to convert to cash were from the bond funds. My thinking behind this is that an increase in interest rates will drive bond fund shares lower, at least temporarily, so might as well take the cash for now.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
BOOSTING MONTHLY DIVIDEND INCOME ANOTHER 2%!
Just completed my big stock purchase of ORA, CCD, SPHD and QCOM to boost monthly dividend income by 10%, but I'm not resting on my laurels. I've decided I can squeeze out enough cash this month to also purchase additional shares of AGD which will increase monthly dividends by another 2%! I've put off the purchase of JNJ until later in the year, when I have more available cash. May divert some dividend income to cash to help pay for JNJ shares. I'd like to buy as big a stake as possible and am hoping to catch it at a better price in June or July. Have to wait and see how that goes.
With the latest stock purchases, my total number of dividend payments per year has increased to 401! That's 401 dividend "paydays" each year. More than one per day! JNJ will add another 4 dividends per year for a grand total of 405. I have no plans to add additional stocks once I've reached that point, since I've already surpassed my goal of a dividend per day. I'll be concentrating on growing positions in currently owned stocks to increase monthly income.
At this point, I have to say this new portfolio I started 4 years ago has far exceeded my expectations. I now make almost as much in dividends in one month as I made for the entire year of 2013! How exciting is that? It continually amazes me how quickly monthly cash flow is increasing. I certainly feel like I made the right decision in 2013 to concentrate on dividend paying stocks in rebuilding my investments. It's paid off remarkably well. Now it's practically taken on a life of it's own, with reinvested dividends continually increasing monthly income and building nice cash balances as well.
With the latest stock purchases, my total number of dividend payments per year has increased to 401! That's 401 dividend "paydays" each year. More than one per day! JNJ will add another 4 dividends per year for a grand total of 405. I have no plans to add additional stocks once I've reached that point, since I've already surpassed my goal of a dividend per day. I'll be concentrating on growing positions in currently owned stocks to increase monthly income.
At this point, I have to say this new portfolio I started 4 years ago has far exceeded my expectations. I now make almost as much in dividends in one month as I made for the entire year of 2013! How exciting is that? It continually amazes me how quickly monthly cash flow is increasing. I certainly feel like I made the right decision in 2013 to concentrate on dividend paying stocks in rebuilding my investments. It's paid off remarkably well. Now it's practically taken on a life of it's own, with reinvested dividends continually increasing monthly income and building nice cash balances as well.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
BIG 10% JUMP IN DIVIDEND INCOME IN MAY 2017!
May 2017 kicked off with great cash inflows to my portfolio from first of the month dividends and additional cash investments! I'm excited about planned stock purchases this month, using cash received from my employee of the year bonus and savings. I'll be adding more shares to my stake in CCD, will buy a stake in SPHD for the ROTH account and complete purchases of ORA and JNJ shares as well. This will give me at least a 10% jump in average monthly dividend income! Pretty exciting to have such a big increase in a single month!
The month of April 2017 showed a little less than a 100% increase in dividend income over April 2016, breaking my winning streak of 100%+ gains for this year. While a little disappointing, it only fell short by a little over $1, so I'm still pretty happy with the results. As I've said in previous posts, I don't expect these outsized gains in dividend income to continue indefinitely. As balances in my accounts increase, it will become more difficult to add enough extra cash to keep doubling annual dividend income. Although I most likely will see income double again this year.
Looks like I bought shares of VZ at just the wrong time, since they've not done well after announcing the huge loss of subscibers. I could have gotten the shares a lot cheaper if I'd waited a week or two. Still, I think they're a solid long term holding, so I'm not fretting too much. I can always average down cost of shares by purchasing more shares when the price bottoms out.
As the year progresses, I'll be looking to boost dividend income through purchases of more shares in some of the higher paying monthly dividend stocks. I'll also be looking to add to my stakes in some of my individual stock holdings. I'm expecting to see a slow down in the market around the end of June through the month of July and possibly into August as the summer vacation season kicks in and people are busy with other things. This hasn't always proved to be the case, but does seem to happen quite often, so I like to watch things closely that time of year and pick up as many bargains as I can.
The month of April 2017 showed a little less than a 100% increase in dividend income over April 2016, breaking my winning streak of 100%+ gains for this year. While a little disappointing, it only fell short by a little over $1, so I'm still pretty happy with the results. As I've said in previous posts, I don't expect these outsized gains in dividend income to continue indefinitely. As balances in my accounts increase, it will become more difficult to add enough extra cash to keep doubling annual dividend income. Although I most likely will see income double again this year.
Looks like I bought shares of VZ at just the wrong time, since they've not done well after announcing the huge loss of subscibers. I could have gotten the shares a lot cheaper if I'd waited a week or two. Still, I think they're a solid long term holding, so I'm not fretting too much. I can always average down cost of shares by purchasing more shares when the price bottoms out.
As the year progresses, I'll be looking to boost dividend income through purchases of more shares in some of the higher paying monthly dividend stocks. I'll also be looking to add to my stakes in some of my individual stock holdings. I'm expecting to see a slow down in the market around the end of June through the month of July and possibly into August as the summer vacation season kicks in and people are busy with other things. This hasn't always proved to be the case, but does seem to happen quite often, so I like to watch things closely that time of year and pick up as many bargains as I can.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
REINVESTING DIVIDENDS
Just read an interesting article by Warren Buffett on dividends. He explained Berkshire's policy on dividends, specifically why they do not pay a dividend and how you could generate "dividend like" income by selling a percentage of shares each year. A very interesting article. However, it did not answer my question on whether or not Berkshire reinvests dividends they receive on additional shares of stock or do they keep the cash to reinvest elsewhere.
Generally I choose to reinvest all dividends in additional shares of stock. However, at times it seems contraindicated to do so. Say you own a large block of stock in a company paying out nice dividends. Perhaps you bought the shares at a very low price, as I did with UVE. Now the price is up 100 - 200%, do you still reinvest dividends? Doing so increases your cost basis, since you're buying new shares at the much higher price. If you choose to continue holding the stock as I have with UVE, it would seem prudent to take the dividends in cash. (In this case, I'm still reinvesting in UVE.)
I mentioned in a post not long ago my strategy for avoiding total losses by taking cash dividends on some of the high risk stocks or funds. When you collect the dividends in cash, even if the stock price goes to zero, you don't have a total loss because you've still got the cash. So if you take that a little further, the cash you collect from some of your more questionable investments can be used to help purchase more shares of core stocks for your portfolio. I've used this many times, collecting cash dividends from current holdings to help pay for new investments or additional shares of low volatility stocks with increasing dividends. I figure this way I'm still reinvesting dividends, just not always in the stocks that paid them.
At any rate, I must be doing something right. My monthly dividend income continues to increase every month, even though I've had some holdings cut their payouts. I always hate to see dividend cuts, but as long as the return is still acceptable and cutting the dividend seems to be the right thing for them to do, I don't mind holding on to these shares. If they stop paying dividends, I sell immediately. I don't want any stocks unless they pay some kind of dividend.
Generally I choose to reinvest all dividends in additional shares of stock. However, at times it seems contraindicated to do so. Say you own a large block of stock in a company paying out nice dividends. Perhaps you bought the shares at a very low price, as I did with UVE. Now the price is up 100 - 200%, do you still reinvest dividends? Doing so increases your cost basis, since you're buying new shares at the much higher price. If you choose to continue holding the stock as I have with UVE, it would seem prudent to take the dividends in cash. (In this case, I'm still reinvesting in UVE.)
I mentioned in a post not long ago my strategy for avoiding total losses by taking cash dividends on some of the high risk stocks or funds. When you collect the dividends in cash, even if the stock price goes to zero, you don't have a total loss because you've still got the cash. So if you take that a little further, the cash you collect from some of your more questionable investments can be used to help purchase more shares of core stocks for your portfolio. I've used this many times, collecting cash dividends from current holdings to help pay for new investments or additional shares of low volatility stocks with increasing dividends. I figure this way I'm still reinvesting dividends, just not always in the stocks that paid them.
At any rate, I must be doing something right. My monthly dividend income continues to increase every month, even though I've had some holdings cut their payouts. I always hate to see dividend cuts, but as long as the return is still acceptable and cutting the dividend seems to be the right thing for them to do, I don't mind holding on to these shares. If they stop paying dividends, I sell immediately. I don't want any stocks unless they pay some kind of dividend.
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
401k BALANCE RISING RAPIDLY!
While my 401k account through work is still the smallest of my 4 investment accounts, the balance is rising rapidly in comparison! This is mostly attributable to the twice monthly deposits from payroll as the return on investments is only around 3% so far. However, since the majority of this money is coming from money I would have been paying in taxes, I'm quite pleased with the result. Within the next two years, it's quite possible the 401k balance could surpass that of my taxable investment account and may even come close to matching my IRA balance! Pretty amazing considering I just opened the account last year.
Also amazing is the progress I've made with the Roth IRA account. I opened the account in June of last year and it is now the largest of my 4 investment accounts. This is mostly due to cash contributions, but I have also transferred some investment cash and dividends from my taxable account to the Roth to reduce taxable income and increase non-taxable income. It's working out quite well. Monthly dividend income from the Roth account now far exceeds that from the taxable account and is rapidly gaining on the regular IRA's returns!
Although 2017 has been a remarkable year for my investments so far, it has not been without it's setbacks. I have had a couple of dividend reductions, mostly from the bond funds. But this wasn't entirely unexpected and the dividend yields on these funds are still high enough that I have no plans to sell my shares. Unrealized returns on the value of my stocks has been pretty lackluster all around. The 401k has a higher return on share prices than my other 3 accounts combined and it's only 3.99% to date. However, I've taken measures to boost capital gains in the future and since I'm investing for dividend income, I'm not overly concerned about whether the stocks go up in price. In fact, since I'm purchasing more shares all the time, through re-invested dividends and additional cash purchases, I'm kind of happy to see the prices drop occasionally, so I can pick up some bargains.
Looks like I just need to stick with the plan for the rest of the year and 2017 will turn out to be another good year investment wise.
Also amazing is the progress I've made with the Roth IRA account. I opened the account in June of last year and it is now the largest of my 4 investment accounts. This is mostly due to cash contributions, but I have also transferred some investment cash and dividends from my taxable account to the Roth to reduce taxable income and increase non-taxable income. It's working out quite well. Monthly dividend income from the Roth account now far exceeds that from the taxable account and is rapidly gaining on the regular IRA's returns!
Although 2017 has been a remarkable year for my investments so far, it has not been without it's setbacks. I have had a couple of dividend reductions, mostly from the bond funds. But this wasn't entirely unexpected and the dividend yields on these funds are still high enough that I have no plans to sell my shares. Unrealized returns on the value of my stocks has been pretty lackluster all around. The 401k has a higher return on share prices than my other 3 accounts combined and it's only 3.99% to date. However, I've taken measures to boost capital gains in the future and since I'm investing for dividend income, I'm not overly concerned about whether the stocks go up in price. In fact, since I'm purchasing more shares all the time, through re-invested dividends and additional cash purchases, I'm kind of happy to see the prices drop occasionally, so I can pick up some bargains.
Looks like I just need to stick with the plan for the rest of the year and 2017 will turn out to be another good year investment wise.
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