Dividend Investing - Month 12

With a new month starting, I get the chance to see how the new average monthly dividend is coming along.  It looks like the portfolio is now averaging $63.27 monthly!  Compared to month 11, I'm noting an 11.56% increase! 

Since new purchases occur in $500 intervals, the $63.27 will really help make it easier for me to accumulate the capital needed for future purchases. 

The increase in the dividend was the result of WMT increasing their dividend by 20%, and my switch from UHT to PER. 

One thing I never mentioned on my post about the stock switch is the fact that an initial $500 investment grew over the last year and now results in about $100 annual dividend payment.  PER may be a risky oil play for many individual investors, but when I factor in my yield on cost with the original UHT investment, I'm getting over 20% for my money now.

Dividend Investing - Month 11

The first of the month managed to sneak up on me.  Lets see, the new average monthly dividend is now 56.56!  Compared to last month's calculation, this is an increase of  13.46%.  Simply amazing!  There are a few factors which contributed to the huge dividend increase this month.

The sale of ABT freed up some capital to work with, so I opened a small position with NRP.  NRP has been stomped on since Obama's re-election night.  Democrats hate coal, and due to the mild winter we've experienced so far coal use has declined.  When following the conference call from NSC's earnings report, they have been hauling less coal as well.  The share price has been down 25% since I have been following it and I believe it was attractively valued at the time of purchase, even considering the risk.

UHT announced an 8.7% dividend increase.  Dividend increases are always good.  The only problem I have had with UHT so far is it has been a slow-growth dividend, and after purchasing this last year at 42$/share I have never found a re-entry point to cost-average down my shares.

 The last big factor for the dividend increase was the DRIP of RSO's dividend.   Although I feel RSO is my riskiest position in my portfolio, it has offered me the greatest return so far.  The company is solid, and I don't need to monitor the business model as much as I do the interest rates.  Even though this REIT has the best spread in its class, it will still take a big hit when rates rise up.  I'm projecting late 2014 to mid 2015 until this happens.




Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing - Month 10

Another wild month with the markets!   Times have been tough with the 'fiscal cliff' dragging on without a solution.  Politicians stepped it up and temporarily struck a deal today, sending the DOW up over 300 points.  I say temporary because in 2 months a deal must be made regarding the country's debt ceiling and its spending...

Politics aside, Abbot Labs has just completed its split with Abbvie.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  70% of Abbvie's income is generated by its main drug Humira, whos patents run out in a couple years....  It also appears Abbvies dividend may be a much higher than that of ABT...


$49.85 is the new average monthly dividend!  I look forward to breaking 50 dollars a month to kick off 2013!  From the prior month, a 1.4% increase was experienced with the dividend.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing - Month 9

The dividend investing account has been idle for the past month according to plan.  Going from $48.91 to $49.16 only was a .51% increase, but any increase is welcome at this point.

This month we had the 'roller-coaster' effect in the stock market with the election results.  Solid companies had tanked in price, only to recover within a week.  It is comforting to know sustainable dividends continue flowing~ even when there is turmoil in the share prices.  During the new year I will be more involved with this blog when I am done building our house.


Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Election Night and the Dividend Investing Portfolio

Tonight is the night of the 2012 election.  It is important push politics aside and focus on things we can control, like our portfolios.  Dividend Mantra just posted Ignore the Noise  for those who may have difficulty in doing this.

Regardless of who wins, there are 3 forces that will minimize the growth of the dividend investing portfolio until early 2013.  They are as follows:

1)Free capital will be used to develop my newest property.  I must put family first and we need a decent roof over our heads, as this will not be a rental investment.

2)My goal of paying off my student loan (only debt that is non-real-estate) by March of 2013 is going to be very difficult and I would really like to make that happen.

3)The fiscal cliff.  There may be troubling times ahead for our economy if politicians let us fall over the fiscal cliff.   If new legislation does not take place, taxpayers will see an increase of 2-5k increase in taxes next year.  The country will also face 600 billion dollar combination of tax increases and harsh spending cuts.

The future is bright for the dividend investing portfolio.  The fiscal cliff is the only reason mentioned that will have an effect on Mr. Market.  And out of it I think there will be excellent stock valuations for future purchases.  The purchases, will be more frequent and larger in size, due to the fact that I will have plenty of free capital once my home is complete and my student loan is paid off.




Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.  

Dividend Investing - Month 8

The dividend investing portfolio has reached $48.91 for the average monthly dividend.  This is a solid 5.67% gain over the previous month.  There are two reasons for this gain:

1 - Aflac (AFL) increased its dividend by 6.1%.  Even at $50.94/share, this stock still carries an RRR value of 11.86.  With the low payout ratio of 23%, we still  have room to for this dividend to continue growing!

2 - Resource Capital (RSO) paid out another dividend.  RSO is still the top-yielding stock of the dividend investing portfolio.  And it continues to have less of an impact on the total portfolio, since free funds are being used to purchase other high quality companies.  RSO has been in the portfolio since the beginning and it continues to better itself with each passing quarter.  As long as its earnings continue to supports its dividend, and interest rate hikes remain unlikely, I will keep RSO.  I want to avoid over-exposure to single stocks and segments of the markets.


Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets. 

Dividend Investing - Month 7

The month of September provided a 1.55% increase in avg. monthly dividend gain.  Although its a small gain, it is STILL a gain!  I also keep in mind that I get a whopping 2-4% max. increase in my salary ONCE a year with my day job. 

At this point in time, I am still concentrating my efforts on debt reduction.  High payout ratios for our dividend stocks are not sustainable and usually end in tragedy.  I think the same about me with my personal debt.  If I lose my job and am still forced to make interest payments on loans, what will my payout ratio become?  I don't even want to think of the figures.

A few stocks I will be following for October, MCD, INTC and NSC.




Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing - Month 6

The average monthly dividend payment experienced a significant increase this month.   A 16.77% jump was the result of making a quick sale and investing the proceeds into other companies.

I have been good so far at separating my emotions from the facts and focusing on the RRR values of my positions.  As mentioned in my previous post, the RRR value of WMT just couldn't cut it anymore, and I had no problem dropping this position and picking up new ones to take its place. 

I figured my emotions wouldn't get in the way of the transactions but sometimes you just never know.

Using my RRR theory about evaluating stocks, price gets pushed to the side and allows me to focus on the long term benefits of my positions.  This is the average monthly dividend payments!  Watching stock prices constantly rise and fall make me dizzy, while watching these payments consistently rise gives me hope for the future.  But do remember, higher stock prices lead to lower RRR values ~ which will help you sell when stock prices go up.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing and Politics - How will it affect you?

It was recently announced that Mitt Romney's Vice President pick is Paul Ryan.  For those who don't know, Paul Ryan places a HUGE emphasis on fixing our country's fiscal crisis.  If elected, 2 major changes to our tax code could take place and have great impacts on our investing strategies.


1)Ryan "promotes saving by eliminating taxes on interest, capital gains, and dividends; also eliminates the death tax." He believes that double-taxation on the American people is unfair.  Period.

2)Ryan "wishes to replace the corporate income tax – currently the second highest in the industrialized world – with a border-adjustable business consumption tax of 8.5 percent. This new rate is roughly half that of the rest of the industrialized world."

What impact would this have on the way we invest?  Let me dwell on the first point.  No taxes on dividends?  Awesome- more money we can keep and continually re-invest for greater compounding returns.  Not capital gains taxes?  Great when stocks go up we can sell and keep all profits and invest into stocks with lower p/e ratios or discounted stocks etc.  We would also be able to sell our rental properties and use all of the profits to invest in cheaper rentals as well, without worrying about our profits being taken by the government.

Now with the second point... Current corporate tax rates sit around 39.2%, putting the United States rate just below Japans 39.7%.  Now imagine how much more profitable companies can be if they had their tax rates slashed by over 30%...  This provides a lot more room for growth of our dividends and capital, which again, wouldn't be taxed.   =)


If Romney and Ryan make it to the white house, how do you think your investment strategy will change?  If Obama and Biden are re-elected, will your strategy change as well?

Dividend Investing - Month 5

July was a great month for dividend investing.  The Fed has just announced that the economy is sluggish, with unemployment being stuck at 8+% now for quite some time (this of course was no surprise). They reassured the media that interest rates will remain near 0% through 2014, which in my opinion further reduces risk in bonds and REIT stocks.

Speaking of REITs, RSO had a conference call that provided positive information for investors.  The company has maintained a .5% vacancy rate and has increased profits and net income for the recent quarter, further justifying the sustainability of their great dividend.

Overall the monthly dividend is now sitting at $38.08 per month and climbing.  A very welcome 7.63% increase over the previous month.

 Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing - Month 4

Another solid month of dividend investing for June.  Shares of Wal-Mart have been steadily climbing toward their all-time high, while the rest of the pack has remained stable.  Since share price really isn't that important to the portfolio, lets focus on the dividends:

The monthly dividend average has increased to $35.28, a 5.06% jump for the month!  In future months, I am projecting double digit dividend % increases. We will see if this occurs and I will explain my future purchases.   



Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing - Month 3

Aside from Wal-Mart shareholders meeting, a rather quiet month for the dividend re-investment portfolio.  The average monthly dividend is now  $33.58, which is about a 7% increase over the previous month.  I feel this is rather low but any increase will be appreciated.  Due to hardware failure of my laptop and long hours at work, there will be no fancy excel charts this month.



Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing - Month 2

April was a good month with decent dividend growth. The portfolio experienced a 13.61% increase in the average monthly dividend!  Very exciting, I'm also happy that my REIR investing technique has been helpful in keeping me within reach of my goal: to be debt free (except mortgages) within a year. 

To continue the balance adjustment of the portfolio I liquidated a few shares of Wal-Mart (WMT) and now had some free cash for a good purchase.  About a week later the stock tumbled a bit from the accusations of the "Mexico Scandal."  I got lucky in 2 ways:  1-prevented a big hit on my portfolio value and 2-since I have shares purchased regularly they are now discounted =).

I decided to give Aflac (AFL) a green light, watched it drop 1-2%  daily until a purchase was made just under 41$ per share.  Once earnings were reported, the stock shot up 7+% shortly after.  Again, I got lucky.


Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets. 

Dividend Investing - Month 1

The transformation of the dividend investment portfolio has been a slow one.  Until significant dividends start flowing into the account, the changes from week to week will always be minimal.  For this reason, I will provide updates here on a monthly basis.  The data from the weekly updates will continue to be displayed.  Any major changes inside and outside the portfolio will be available too.

When I first began the dividend investing portfolio, RSO was my first purchase.  This represented 100% of the portfolio for some time.  It now represents 70.4% of the portfolio.  This will continuously decrease as I balance the portfolio out and add some future trades.  The average dividend payment this month will be $27.54.  Were a bit off from the $2000 goal, but this is a good starting point.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.  

Dividend Investing Week 5

Another stable week in the markets.  The weekly dividend estimate remains at $6.31. I am still determined to put emphasis on REIR step 2 of my strategy, so I will have additional funding for the dividend investing.

I made a solid contribution toward my student loan this week, reducing the balance by 4.31%.  Normally a monthly payment reduces the principle by .76%.  So this was a huge gain for both me and the dividend portfolio.  Since this is the last big debt holding me back from contributing to the portfolio, its only a matter of time before things get going.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets. 

Dividend Investing Week 4

The average weekly dividend has crossed the 6$ mark.  This increase is attributed to the extra shares in WMT.  Until actual dividends are distributed I believe this portfolio will linger in the 6 dollar range for some time.  For now, I plan on putting an emphasis toward step 2 of my REIR strategy.  That is, eliminating debt.

I believe reducing  debt will eliminate a lot of risk with my personal finance situation.  And at the same time, give me the chance to invest huge amounts of money that otherwise would keep flowing to the banks.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing Week 3

The dividend investing portfolio has not changed much this week.  Both the average weekly dividend and the value of the portfolio have remained maintained their levels since the last update.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing Week 2

A couple quick trades made and the dividend portfolio begins to evolve.

Instead of using Open Office, data was fed to Microsoft Excel.  This resulted higher quality graphs.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.

Dividend Investing Week 1

Dividend Investing.

REIR step 3 involves investing with good information.  Aside from real estate, dividend investing can generate some serious cash-flow.

Companies often pay out a portion of their profits to investors in the form of dividends.  This is great because regardless of stock price fluctuations, we can still make money just by owning a stock and holding onto it!  I want my readers to check out "Pulling Ourselves Up Financially" and see how beneficial it can be to track your holdings.  I have been following this blog for some time now, and would like integrate its idea of the 'weekly update' into this blog.  This will be a great opportunity to give my readers a view of the evolution of my dividend portfolio, while giving me a chance to monitor my progress too.

This is a rough idea of how I would like to present my data.   Yes this is very rough indeed, but the presentation will improve as the portfolio improves.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial planner, advisor, or accountant. The financial actions mentioned were only suited for my own risk tolerance, strategy, and ideas. Copying another's financial moves can lead to large losses. Each person needs to do their due diligence in researching and planning their own actions in the financial markets.