Sabbatical

I'm going on a vacation out of the country, but I'll update if/when I can in a month or two.

November picked up a bit at the end after the selloff in October.  The big issues on the horizon are the economic summit in Argentina (i.e. Trump & Xi), and the jobs report on Friday.

I'll keep this short, since I'm in a bit of a hurry to start my vacation.

Dividends Received $244.08

FAST	$8.00
ETN	$6.60
O	$9.92
PG	$30.12
NNN	$35.50
MAIN	$10.34
HRL	$7.69
ABT	$4.76
OKE	$34.20
APD	$16.50
MA	$4.00
GIS	$26.95
T	$49.50

November Purchases:

OKE	2
TGT	20
TGT	3
ADM	3
IP	10
HD	3
IP	5
MAIN	56
QCOM	16

There were some good post-earnings deals for quality companies, especially QCOM & TGT.  MAIN became my largest holding thanks to my wife wanting to invest and putting up some money in our account.  She originally was looking for immediate income so I offered MAIN, but decided to let me reinvest (for now) her dividends from MAIN.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Downturn During a Scary Month

My net worth dropped this month to a level not seen since July, and so did everyone else's.  Anyways, I'm a few days late for this post due to a busy month, so let's get into it.

Dividends Received: $60.60

October is my "low" income month.  I'm not sure if I should do anything about it - two of the stocks are monthly payers, so I don't see how I would ever really get ahead.  I guess I could make it my goal to make sure my bills are just barely paid for in this month, which means everything over that on the other two months would be excess.  In that case, I have a ways to go!

October Purchases:

I started a position in ABBV, and now I am at 28 stocks.  I have all the sectors pretty much covered with what I want, so I think I will hold here for awhile.  My wife has been thinking about joining my son and I in the dividend investment realm, and will probably be purchasing just for monthly income starting this month.  I will probably track her investments separately, even though we will use the same account (so she can take advantage of the free trades).  IP has been dropping like a rock, despite having a great quarter, and WTR announced it will be buying Peoples Gas, which made it drop 10% as the shareholders digest that information.  Everything else I've been buying on dips.

I put my house up for sale last month, and it is currently in escrow (crossing fingers) to close early December.  I did this because the housing market is currently pretty good - along with the job market for potential buyers.  With mortgage rates on the rise, I didn't want to be trapped in a big house that I didn't really need anymore.  I have a feeling that the election in early November might have a negative impact on the economy sooner or later, so I wanted to be ready for any housing market bubbles popping.  I'll be "homeless" for a few months, but we have that taken care of already.  While it is tempting to drop all the house money into dividends for $1000+ a month instant income, I do realize that would be putting all my eggs in one basket, and while home equity buildup is slower (although it seems just as volatile sometimes), it is diversifying.

30 Days in September

Dividends Received: $189.33

WEC ENERGY GROUP INC	7.18
AQUA AMERICA INC	3.28
ARCHER DANIELS MIDLD	5.02
SOUTHERN COMPANY	26.39
TARGET CORP	8.95
CHEVRON CORP	14.55
JOHNSON AND JOHNSON	19.79
HOME DEPOT INC	12.35
OLD REPUB INTL CORP	16.76
MAIN STR CAP CORP	10.33
REALTY INCM CRP	9.92
INTL PAPER CO	9.02
MCDONALDS CORP	15.07
QUALCOMM INC	27.89
401k Taxable	10.01

Highlights this month included:

-The big Southern Vogtle fight.  This is now over, and the nuclear plant is going to continue being built with double (triple) the cost.  The payoff will be huge once it is finished, but this will be an anchor around this utility's neck for awhile.  I bought in once they decided.

-International Paper keeps sinking - I think I'll be buying this more as it dips until I'm full (just under 5% of my portfolio).

-Wanted to by ABBV but it hasn't had a pullback the week I was looking - so nickel and dimed some other nice prospects already in my portfolio.

-Been very busy with life this month, but still kept an eye on stocks.

September Purchases:

Southern Company (SO)	10
ONEOK (OKE)	14
International Paper (IP)	4
Fastenal Company (FAST)	5

     I'm trying to determine how real estate is a comparable investment to dividend stocks.  I'd rather pour money into a REIT than get minimal gains after owning a house for almost two decades.  I understand location is key, and the 2007 bubble set many back, but seriously, I've gotten better gains on my dividend stocks in 18 months than almost 20 years with my house, not to mention all the repairs/improvements.  I'd almost rather let someone else deal with the problems and costs of a house and liquidate my house into dividend stocks, except that wouldn't be too diverse now would it?  And the work of owning rental properties vs. buy dividend stocks... sheesh real estate is too much of a headache.  I *may* buy a future vacation rental, then rent it out while travelling the world... or maybe just get a Winnebago.

     September is historically the worst month for stocks, so this one wasn't so bad.  But does this mean the selloff will happen in October for tax harvesting?  Or in November after the midterm elections?  Who can say.... Let's hope for the best!

Big Changes

A lot has happened in my personal life the past month - much of it is a blur, but without going into details I am moving large amounts of money around.  One example is the fact that my employer's 401k is kind of a two-edged sword.  The ETFs they let me invest in do garner interest, but the interest just DRIPs back into the ETF.  It was a little annoying for the brokerage account to not let me at least direct the dividends.  However, on the upside, I could purchase my company's stock in my 401k and receive the dividends as taxable income into my bank account, which I can then feed back into my taxable brokerage account.  I had quite a bit of cash on hand in my 401k in case of a flash crash, but decided to just drop it (about 15%) into the company stock.  A little much, but I don't put anymore money into my 401k, so it will more or less stay at that point without help from me.  This did add over $1k into my taxable and I should be getting those dividends ($250) on a quarterly basis very soon.  So my dividend meter increased by quite a lot at this point.  I haven't yet decided if I want to graph it as part of my taxable brokerage account holdings.  While it is deceptive to have that much income unattributed to my stock picks, it's share of my taxable portfolio isn't something I need to know when I buy stocks that aren't from my employer (hope that makes sense).

After dropping Compass (CMP) as one of my materials stocks for freezing their dividend, I decided to add International Paper (IP) as my second pick for that sector (after APD).  I also purchased my second energy stock Oneok (OKE).  Both were at good times to buy.  After I start a position with another health related stock, I will be at 28.

I like being able to buy 1 or 2 shares depending on if the stock is low for the day, and if I have any cash leftover from dividends received.

Dividends Received: 192.39

Date	Type	Descriptio		Amount ($)
08/22/18	Dividend	FASTENAL CO CASH DIV ON 15 SHS REC 07/25/18 P...		6.00
08/17/18	Dividend	***EATON CORPORATION PLC CASH DIV ON 10 SHS R...		6.60
08/15/18	Dividend	REALTY INCOME CORP CASH DIV ON 45 SHS REC 08/...		9.90
08/15/18	Dividend	PROCTER & GAMBLE CO CASH DIV ON 42 SHS REC 07...		30.12
08/15/18	Dividend	NATIONAL RETAIL PROPERTIES INCCASH DIV ON 71 ...		35.50
08/15/18	Dividend	MAIN STREET CAPITAL CORPORATION CASH DIV ON 5...		10.07
08/15/18	Dividend	HORMEL FOODS CORP CASH DIV ON 41 SHS REC 07/1...		7.69
08/15/18	Dividend	ABBOTT LABORATORIES CASH DIV ON 17 SHS REC 07...		4.76
08/13/18	Dividend	AIR PRODUCTS & CHEMICALS INC CASH DIV ON 13 S...		14.30
08/09/18	Dividend	MASTERCARD INCORPORATED CASH DIV ON 16 SHS RE...		4.00
08/01/18	Dividend	GENERAL MILLS INC CASH DIV ON 55 SHS REC 07/1...		26.95
08/01/18	Dividend	AT&T INC CASH DIV ON 73 SHS REC 07/10/18 PAY ...		36.50

August Purchases:
Aqua America - 1
International Paper - 15
Kimberly Clark - 1
Oneok - 26
Southern - 4
Air Products - 2

Southern's nuclear plants are in doubt, and I suppose we will know more after the end of September.  It's share price should continue to dwindle because of this uncertainty, but after the news, I may look to load up.  They are a utility, and always have decent cash flow, so I think abandoning the nuclear project, though expensive, wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for the company.  We will see if I am right.

Moving Day

Time for the July update, but first...  I'm moving to my new broker!  Nine days of frozen securities as they drop off the stock POD and move me to 30 free trades a month (and some cash)!  July was a great month for me capital gains-wise, and some pretty good increases (FAST had their second div increase this year!) as the Q2 results are all better than expected.

Meanwhile, my last opportunity to purchase before moving was a bust.  Mainly because I had nothing on sale.  The only two stocks of mine that are under water are General Mills (GIS) and AT&T (T), and I am overweight on those.  So I decided to hold my cash until after the move.  I was looking to round out my two energy buys with Occidental Petroleum (OXY) but that, also, is too expensive.  Hard times for DGIers everywhere :)

I've been reading Adam Smith's ponderous tome "The Wealth of Nations" on my audible app, and it has many interesting tidbits.  I only mention this, because once I finish it, I'll start researching my business startup so I can "ROBS" my 401k, which I mentioned last month.

Dividends Received: $59.31 (the low month)

Date	Type	Description (show categories)	Amount ($)
07/20/18	Dividend	XCEL ENERGY INC COMMON STOCK CASH DIV ON 43 SHS REC 06/15/18...	16.34
07/16/18	Dividend	MAIN STREET CAPITAL CORPORATION CASH DIV ON 53 SHS REC 06/29...	10.07
07/13/18	Dividend	REALTY INCOME CORP CASH DIV ON 45 SHS REC 07/02/18 PAY 07/13...	9.90
07/03/18	Dividend	KIMBERLY CLARK CORP CASH DIV ON 23 SHS REC 06/08/18 PAY 07/0...	23.00

July Purchases:

Date	Type	Description (show categories)
07/17/18	Bought	26 of T
07/03/18	Bought	40 of ORI
07/02/18	Bought	22 of T

GIS and CMP are currently a "Hold" for me, as they have frozen their dividends.  I did tax harvest GIS this month.

401k Escape Plan

This past week a co-worker, knowing I regretted investing in my 401k, turned my world upside down.  He told me about ROBS (Roll-Over for Business Startups).  Essentially, if I leave my current employer, I would be able to start or buy a business, roll over my 401k into my business's 401k plan, issue shares from my business, and then walla, fund my business without being taxed or penalized.  So - if I start a bed and breakfast or vacation rental business, I could buy/build a vacation home, deck it out with all the latest furnishings with extras (car for picking up vacationers?) fund it with my 401k, then rent it out (when I'm not staying there).  The IRS overlooks this manipulation of your 401k because you are starting a business so hopefully a) paying taxes b) employing people and c) they are paying taxes.  I still have a lot of research to do, but here's a brief overview: https://fitsmallbusiness.com/set-up-a-robs/ Suddenly my dream of retiring early is much closer.  I just need to pick a business and set up a business plan ready to go in the possibility I leave my current employer for one reason or another.

June was a bit of a humdrum month, but a few times this month I only had 2 stocks on sale.  On sale meaning that they have dropped 5% or more below the price I paid for them.  Staples are showing a bit of strength, and the domestic stocks are growing (for now) thanks to the tradewar.  I may tax harvest GIS into T, and then buy some ORI to help balance my growing portfolio.  I am getting closer to the 50k milestone and looking forward to free trades every month!

This is my most profitable dividend month yet, which is good, because the next month is pretty lean:

Dividends Received: $177.21

Date	Type	Description (show categories)	Amount ($)
06/01/18	Dividend	WEC ENERGY GROUP INC CASH DIV ON 13 SHS REC 05/14/18 PAY 06/...	7.18
06/01/18	Dividend	AQUA AMERICA INC CASH DIV ON 14 SHS REC 05/18/18 PAY 06/01/1...	2.87
06/06/18	Dividend	SOUTHERN CO CASH DIV ON 40 SHS REC 05/21/18 PAY 06/06/18	24.00
06/07/18	Dividend	ARCHER-DANIELS-MIDLAND CO CASH DIV ON 15 SHS REC 05/17/18 PA...	5.03
06/11/18	Dividend	TARGET CORP CASH DIV ON 14 SHS REC 05/16/18 PAY 06/10/18	8.68
06/11/18	Dividend	CHEVRON CORPORATION CASH DIV ON 13 SHS REC 05/18/18 PAY 06/1...	14.56
06/12/18	Dividend	JOHNSON & JOHNSON CASH DIV ON 15 SHS REC 05/29/18 PAY 06/12/...	13.50
06/14/18	Dividend	HOME DEPOT INC CASH DIV ON 12 SHS REC 05/31/18 PAY 06/14/18	12.36
06/15/18	Dividend	REALTY INCOME CORP CASH DIV ON 45 SHS REC 06/01/18 PAY 06/15...	9.88
06/15/18	Dividend	OLD REPUBLIC INTL CORP CASH DIV ON 46 SHS REC 06/05/18 PAY 0...	8.97
06/15/18	Dividend	MAIN STREET CAPITAL CORPORATION CASH DIV ON 35 SHS REC 05/21...	6.65
06/15/18	Dividend	COMPASS MINERALS INTL INC CASH DIV ON 11 SHS REC 06/01/18 PA...	7.92
06/18/18	Dividend	MCDONALDS CORP CASH DIV ON 13 SHS REC 06/04/18 PAY 06/18/18	13.13
06/20/18	Dividend	QUALCOMM INC CASH DIV ON 45 SHS REC 05/30/18 PAY 06/20/18	27.90
06/26/18	Dividend	MAIN STREET CAPITAL CORPORATION CASH DIV ON 53 SHS REC 06/19...	14.58

June Purchases:
KMB - 8
JNJ - 7

According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, July ranks among the best months of the year for both the Dow and the S&P 500, although the results are notably worse for the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 — the two gauges that have generally been holding up the best of late.  Hope July keeps its rep!

May Portfolio Update

May was a pretty good month.  I had two stocks flirt with "Gold Status" only to dip back down, but they are on their way to making it permanent.  Home Depot (HD) and Chevron (CVX) are two excellent stocks well on their way to achieving gold status in my portfolio.

I received my largest dividend disbursement ever in a month, $153.06.  I am making, on average, $137 a month.  Compared to a year ago at $15 a month.  Of course, I had only invested $6k at that time, and mostly in low yielding stocks, as opposed to 44.5k today.  My next goal is to hit 50k, then move that to Merrill Edge for 30 free trades a month!

I tax harvested AT&T, and moved that over to MAIN for a higher yield.  I will always tax harvest for a higher yield, and since AT&T yield-on-cost already is high, MAIN is the only one higher.  It wasn't enough to take it out of the purple category (10% loss), but AT&T is now underweight and ripe for purchasing in late June.  I'll be keeping a close eye on the DOJ ruling to determine when to buy.  I may be harvesting GIS next month.  It makes more sense for me to take my harvest losses this year as I am working to get below the expected tax bracket I will be hovering above.  I give a lot to tax-deductible charities (10% of gross), but my portfolio can definitely help out with this as I re-position my holdings for the future while increasing my annual income.  Tax harvesting is really beneficial to dividend growth investors.

I completed my industrial sector purchases by buying Eaton Corporation (ETN).  They are an American-born company, that switched their HQ to Ireland, so it is considered an international stock.  As long as they continue to prove that they are a reliable dividend payer, I'll continue to hold them.  The negative about having international stocks is that they are usually late to report dividend tax information to my broker, who in turn delivers them late to me, so I need to re-file over a few dollars.  I guess I won't mind as much when it is a couple hundred dollars, but I am an early filer (don't want scammers to steal any returns I might have).

I removed my watchlist from my holdings spreadsheet, as I have enough opportunities in my own portfolio to keep me busy at the moment.  If I am overweight on all stock sales, or if I receive a windfall, I will consider increasing my holdings.  I am currently lacking in the energy department, but that sector is a little too volatile at the moment, so I don't mind sitting it out.

Dividends Received:
AT&T (T)                     34.50
General Mills (GIS)     24.50
Mastercard (MA)           4.00
Air Products (APD)     14.30
Abbot Labs (ABT)         4.76
Hormel (HRL)                7.69
Main Street (MAIN)       6.65
National Retail (NNN)  20.43
Procter & Gamble (PG) 20.80
Realty Income (O)           9.88
Fastenal (FAST)              5.55

May Purchases:
NNN          28
ETN            10
PG               13
MAIN         18
GIS              19

June should be slow and steady, with a possible influx of cash at the end of July, and definitely in August.

April Portfolio Update

My portfolio cuts both ways, but both sides are still making money!

My portfolio has decided to either be profitable or not.  With half in the red, and half in the black, my stocks are chaotic and confused lately.  Good earnings reports and stocks go down, or up.  They can't make up their minds.  Many commentators say it is due to high expectations, but I think the longs just don't have any more money, and the shorts have too much and are creating this flux.  I think this is obvious from the DJIA not sure where it wants to go.  Anyways, I will just keep buying the deals and increasing my income.  Like a good profiteer in a war, I will make money from both sides.

My net worth for my 401k has increased thanks to paying off my 401k home loan, but no thanks to the market.  I opened a Brokeragelink account, and was disappointed to find I could only buy ETFs with my 401k money.  Oh well, I dropped 100 shares into each sector with cash on hand, and we will see how that pans out.

Dividends Received:

XEL	$16.34
MAIN	$6.65
O	$9.88
PM	$17.12
KMB	$5.00

April Purchases:

QCOM	16
SO	15
PG	12

The irony is that I told a friend 2-3 weeks ago that hardly anything in my portfolio was on sale.  A week later and half my portfolio was on sale.  Well, unless something jumps out as a great deal, I won't be adding any new stocks anytime soon. 

May will also be the anniversary of when I started my portfolio.  I may be doing some tax harvesting to increase annual dividend income and reduce taxes (trying to keep out of a tax bracket I will most likely hit this year).  Also, when I hit 50k, I may be moving to a different broker that offers free trades at that level.  This will be advantageous to buy smaller lots, catch ex-dividend dates, and put my dividends to work immediately when I get them.  Stay tuned.

The Big Drop Didn't Happen

When I was young and owned a Tandy 1000 EX and a 1200 baud modem, I would dial up into a BBS and play a popular game called "TradeWars".  Recent news brings up these old, fond memories.

My son and I were stockpiling cash for a possible tradewar, but it seems like it is fizzling out.  Regardless, I decided to highlight in light purple the stocks in my portfolio that are free and clear of China.  Cramer recently listed the sectors and some stocks that he considered safe in a tradewar:

1) Telcos (VZ)
2) Mall based retailers & apparel (I consider this a bit weak -MLD)
3) Cloud Kings
4) Cell Towers (AMT)
5) Health Insurers & Hospitals (ANTM, HUM, CNC, UNH, THC, HCA)
6) Domestic Oils (MRO, HES, PXD, APC)
7) Oil Refiners (MPC, VLO, HFC)
8) REITs
9) Utilities
10) Restaurants (EAT, WEN, SONC)
11) Brokerage Stocks
12) Cybersecurity (FEYE)
13) US Biz Helpers (ADP, CTAS)
14) Homebuilders
15) Military (RTN, HRS, NOC, LMT)

My son was set to buy up some Chili's stock with EAT, but after the tradewar fizzled, he opted for Verizon (VZ).  He has no irons in the Telecom fire, so he decided to snag it. 

I, on the other hand, decided to shore up some Procter & Gamble (PG) after their recent dividend increase.  They are one of the few stocks I don't have a 5% stake in and looks healthy from the fundamentals, and I need to average down my price on it.  Another stock I bought more shares of was Southern (SO), which also looks good going into earnings season.  They will be reporting out their dividend increase next week, so here's hoping.  The next purchase on my list will be NNN (provided the interest rates rise) with a possibility of PDCO for a new position.

In the meantime, I paid off my 401k home loan this month, which cranks up my net worth (not reported here), and allows me to increase my biweekly donations to my dividend retirement.  I have some cash still on hand, but I really don't wish to buy any stocks that can't report out good in this current economic environment.  In fact, if any of my stocks report out poorly, I may need to give them a second look.  The exception is GIS which already acquired massive debt, so I don't expect too many good surprises from them.  Everyone else better take off!

March Portfolio Update: A lot of Lion, a Little Lamb

My total net worth actually is $400 less than last month, which includes money added and gains on the last day.  For the most part, my portfolio outperformed the DJIA, but I haven't figured out how to graph that yet with my brokerage.  April will be a big month for purchases, so I'm hoping things stay low key (or drop) for a few more weeks...

Annual Income:

Dividends Received:  March is another high yielding month

Symbol	Amount
HD	12.36
O	9.86
ORI	8.97
MCD	13.13
MAIN	6.65
CMP	7.92
JNJ	12.6
ADM	5.03
TGT	8.68
CVX	14.56
SO	14.5
WEC	7.18
WTR	2.87

Total               124.31

March Purchases:

QCOM - 29

GIS - 25

KMB - 10

I just bought KMB on Tuesday, right before it started heading back up to where I originally bought it a few months ago.  I doubled down on GIS after short-selling PM (I'm off cigarettes!).  I was in with Kroger for a day, then went with QCOM ("the biggest drama queen on Wall St.").  Target and Kroger seem to be getting along together quite well lately, so we will see if I don't end up having a part of Kroger anyway.  

YD was right, the first annual $1k is difficult, and i even had a head start with the 20k initial.  I'm hoping to see $2k quite soon.  I'm also looking forward to a few more dividend increases in April.  April is historically the best month in the market, but we will see if it keeps the title.

Kroger in, Kroger out, Qualcomm in

Last week I had been watching and waiting for WalMart to drop.  It wouldn't.  Everybody and their mother says "Buy WalMart", but it has never quite hit the level I wanted it to be at before buying in.  So I look at similar grocery-type staples, and Kroger had just announced their (less than expected) quarterly results.  I figure if I can find the floor on this one, I might get a good yield.

Well, Friday morning I see the inflation report on Drudge, and I surmise that the market will take off.  I pull the trigger on Kroger, and sure enough I made some money by the end of the day.  Over the weekend, and listening to Cramer, I realized a few things.  Kroger is in the most competitive sector out there right now - groceries.  Everyone has a hand in groceries:  WalMart, Target, Amazon, even Kohl's will!!  Add that to the list of grocery stores that already exist.

But that is not what pushed me over the "Sell" edge.  It was the unions.  I am from a big union state, I see what they do to inflation, bottom lines, even new, innovative stores.  Working in tech made me think that unions were just for railroads and truck drivers.  After all, WalMart kept the unions out.  And then I find out that Kroger has unions.  That was enough for me.  I sold bright and early Monday morning with a tiny profit.  I refuse to invest in anything grocery going forward, the margins are too thin!

Meanwhile, the Qualcomm/Broadcom
deal was nixed.  After QCOM flew up out of reach in November when the merger talk started happening, I largely ignored it.  However, when the deal was nixed, QCOM started dropping pretty hard, being on Yahoo's loser list 2 days in a row.  When it stopped falling on Wednesday, and everything else was falling, I realized it hit the bottom and bought 29 shares at 3.9% yield!  So I guess I get to be part of the silicon valley NASDAQ drama as I now have a part of Qualcomm.  I'm glad my other tech company is MasterCard, which will be a solid player against the volatility of Qualcomm and its ilk.  As for now, I have my tech quota (2) so I am done with tech.  Until I fill all of my other quotas, I may take a look at tech again, but if I do it will be a long time from now.

I am glad that my net worth has popped back above what it was at the end of January - the February drop will be forever immortalized in my spreadsheets!  I'm counting down to 5 weeks when I will be making some (positive) financial changes through a hard-earned windfall.  It will still be a few weeks after that before the effects will be seen, but it should help boost my investing and bring me closer to my goals.

Great Article on "The Highest Quality Dividend Growth Stocks"

I came across an article here, which may or may not be available depending on when you read this.  Basically, the author used a set of standards to rate all of the stocks on David Fish's CCC list.  He used these stringent criteria:

He did not record any stocks that scored lower than 4 in each category.  That being said, let's see how mine turned out!

The 20 Point Crew:  These stocks are the golden standard.  Only 11 made the cut, of these I own:
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Proctor & Gamble (PG)
also, the ones on my shortlist watchlist were
WalMart (WMT)
Merck (MRK)

The 19 Point Crew: A bigger list overall, but of mine...
Chevron (CVX)
Home Depot (HD)
MasterCard (MA)
shortlist watchlist:
Exxon (XOM)

The 18 Point Crew:
Fastenal (FAST) - I found this gem from personal research, so good on me!
Kimberley Clark (KMB)
No watchlisters...

and....
The 17 Point Crew:
WEC Energy (WEC)
Xcel Energy (XEL)
Again, no watchlisters.

The 16 pointers had QCOM on it, which is on my watchlist, but nothing else.

Now,
Stocks on these lists yielding high that I might want to look into:
Pfizer, IBM, AEP & Pinnacle West.  I decided to replace Smuckers (didn't make the cut) with Pinnacle West.  I have enough staples in my portfolio, and shortlist that I think this one would be fine.  Although I am a bit utility heavy as well.  We will see what happens during my tax harvest season.

Note:  These are Dividend Growth Stocks, not Growth stocks.  Hence I don't buy them all.  I need a little growth mixed in (ABT, MA, TGT, FAST).

February Portfolio Update

Since tracking my net worth since May of '17, this is my first month where my total net worth (which I do not track on this blog) went down.  I decided this would be a good time to start posting my progress per month so I can look back on it.  Why not start with a down month?  Next month will be better, right?  Right?

Annually, I am currently making:

Dividends Received
February is one of the higher yielding months.

Ticker	Divs
T	34.50
GIS	6.86
MA	4.00
APD	12.35
ABT	4.76
HRL	7.69
MAIN	2.85
NNN	14.25
PG	6.90
O	7.67
FAST	5.55
Total	107.38

February purchases:

XEL - 19

MAIN - 20

NNN - 13

O - 10

PG - 7

GIS - 11

I made a decision to move or get off the fence on General Mills (GIS) after their expensive purchase of Blue Buffalo.  The yield is good, however the growth is slow, debt is high, and possibly the dividend will be frozen until 2020.  However, it is a staple.  I don't expect much growth from staples in a healthy economy, so I decided to stick with them for now, adding to my position.

I have a lot of deals in my own portfolio, while keeping one eye on my watchlist short list, particularly WMT, which is still a tad too expensive.  I feel like I should obtain deals in my own portfolio before adding to a new position, i.e. buy some more O.  Now that tax reform has passed, I don't know if we will continue to see as much of an upward trend, despite it is Q2 when the tax law makes its impact known.  I am preparing for choppy waters by being more conservative and averaging down my portfolio in preparation for tax harvesting, which will begin after May for me.  However, if WMT hits the low 80s....

My other indicators will be at the other links, as usual.

Correction Over, P&G Purchase

Looks like the correction is over.  😥 This is the "Disappointed but relieved" emoji.  I am disappointed I couldn't take more advantage of it, but relieved it was only a correction, or VIX cover, or interest rates, or whatever.  Now it looks like back to business as usual.

I only added about 3k into it when it happened.  I have plenty of dry powder waiting for an all-out crash, but will pull a bit more from the stash if we have another correction.

Most of the purple and pink (companies that are -10% and -5% respectively) in my portfolio are gone.  Only the REITs persist due to interest rates rising, and they seem to have found somewhat of a floor.  This probably means I will be buying them on the slide down until I am overweight.  In May or June, I will be able to start tax harvesting.  I actually have a loss carryover from last year (I did mention my OLD stocks were stinkers), but I may have a hard time finding many stocks that apply.  Right now, Philip Morris will be the first to go.  Nothing against smokers, but you can see my previous blog on tobacco stocks for my take on them.  That will probably net me only a negative 300-400 dollars.  I bought some of O at $57 (glad I didn't buy in at $70), and that lot will probably be sold if the interest rates keep rising.

Right now I aim to harvest by shifting the money from a bad stock price, into something with a comparable or higher yield.  If I did this today, PM would probably be shuffled into CMP or SO (Compass has fallen on rough times due to city salt stockpiles), while O would probably end up in MAIN.  PM and O have *very* good yields, so they have a tough time finding something that meets or beats.

My higher yield stocks have the highest market volatility, compared to my lower yield stocks which are quite sturdy (MasterCard rounding out the bottom with excellent returns).

Oh yeah, PG: 7 more shares after a nice drop.

Recent Purchases: O & NNN

10 shares of O
13 shares of NNN

O is still hovering around -10% in my portfolio, but now real estate outweighs staples in source income.  I will be looking to a staple for my next purchase.  There are a few good prospects, but I'm going to wait a bit while the floor makes itself more apparent in that sector.

Enjoy the ride!

Dividend Investor's Dream

The pullback finally happened!  And while I'm glad it did, I wish I had more money on the sidelines.  The main issue is getting money into my brokerage fast enough (thank goodness for photo check deposit!).  I dropped some in Monday, which was available this morning, and I also dropped some in late last night which showed up midday today.  I was able to purchase:

20 shares of MAIN (right before it took off)
19 shares of XEL (came back a little, but still pretty flat).

Both stocks were +10% underwater in my portfolio, but now only the REITs are (well, O as of right now, NNN is close).  I decided to go with MAIN first, as the bank stocks are set to bounce back after the spanking Wells Fargo got from Yellen.  Then XEL, and this was a tough decision, but I decided to go with XEL over the REITs in the afternoon trading because I'm betting on a good quarter for earnings, and because Utilities seem to be getting closer to the floor (at least until the next rate hike).  XEL was also a pick by YD a month ago, and I got it for $5 cheaper than he did.  I am getting more money in by tomorrow, so I will see about the REITs then.  Depending on how the market acts tomorrow, will decide if I deposit more money in the account for Thursday (and Friday) purchases.

It has been a roller coaster, but a fun one!  I'm still ahead on my gains, but I *did* lose more than half of the gains I had accumulated.  This plus my 401k put a dent into my net worth, but I'm optimistic about it bouncing back by the end of the month.  My annual income jumped about $87 with the above purchases, and will probably round out to $100 extra per year with tomorrow's purchases.  We will have to see what Yellen's replacement does to an already jittery market.  I feel bad for any people who finally decided to jump in during January, I'm sure they were discouraged, but then, they took over a year to do it.  I'm lucky I started in May, though I started late as well.  However, if you have been sitting on the fence, now is a good time to jump into some dividend stocks.  Yields have pumped up quite a bit!

Buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Recent Purchase: 5 shares of KMB

There are some good buying opportunities as of yesterday.  KMB wasn't on my short list, but I needed to get consumer staples on top of my portfolio again.  I was going to purchase PG or GIS, but due to its recent dividend increase, Kimberly Clark Corp (KMB) had the best yield.  While I'm not a big believer in their toilet paper market futures (wait 'til America discovers the bidet), diapers and depends may never go out of style.  Not to mention Kleenex in this flu season.  I dropped TDS from my T-Com watchlist and put KMB in its place.  I should now own enough high yielding staples to re-invest in for awhile.  Wal-Mart is still on my radar, but it needs to drop quite a bit before I'll buy in.  At market close today I will update my charts.  I recently added linear trendlines to a few graphs, to help me predict, or work towards, my future goals.  Right now they show the $2k div mark to hit sometime mid-September, and barring any hardship, I'll try to make that happen sooner.

ORI has been a pleasant surprise, one of the few stocks positive these last few days, and for quite a bit since the short selloff after the bonus dividend cutoff date.  There's a lot to be confident about all around going into the first quarter of the new tax year.  I expect some good buys in healthcare after Bezos threatens to buy something up, and with the president's goal to reduce prescription drugs (may not be a coincidence he mentioned this).

Now that my staples are on top again, I can look at some other possibilities.  The REITs (O, NNN) are high on my list, along with MAIN, both due to interest rates.  Healthcare is next depending on what happens, and of course utilities are still offering some nice buys.  I am also keeping my eye on Alaska Air to finish out my 2 industrials, as it has been downgraded.  I would like to get a better yield on that one. 

Earnings season always reveals some great buys.

Goal Reached!

This is my current annual income, after purchasing 29 shares of ORI and 13 shares of SO.

Having reached my goal with the purchase of ORI, I decided to double-down on SO.  I know the P/E is not acceptable using my criteria, nor is the payout ratio, but I also know that SO is only out of favor because of redistribution in the utility sector, and that SO benefits greatly from the Trump tax cuts.  I also know that YD sold all his SO (I'm assuming for the tax harvesting) and dropped it into AT&T.  This is speculation on my part, I think the yield is worth the risk, despite SO's nuclear infrastructure, which would have occurred with or without the tax cuts.  I think that there are safer options out there, but I am chasing the yield so I can fit the part of the somewhat desperate mid-life investor :)

I would really like to spend next week's investment on O, since REITs are currently sinking due to rising interest rates, but I do plan to hold onto my requirement of keeping staples the largest part of my portfolio.  I am keeping an eye on P&G after their loss from earnings, but will also be watching the possible ADM/Bunge merger, earnings for my other staples, and the possible addition of Wal-Mart or Smuckers.  

I will be updating my charts today, and will take some time later to comment further.  I've been busy the past 3 weeks and need to research some things and digest it.