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.