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.