Seeking the Dividends

I'm a bit late on this report, but better late than never. August was a good month, so I'm happy to report on my results. Taxable Accounts: Abbott Labs (ABT) - $9.10 Amerigas (APU) - $24.00 Apple (AAPL) - $3.99 AT&T (T) - $13.12 Prospect Capital (PSEC) - $18.97 Verizon (VZ) - $1.13 Taxable Account Total: $70.31 Roth IRA Account: Abbott Labs (ABT) - $6.50 TD Bank (TD) - $9.26 Roth IRA Total: $15.76 Overall Total Dividend Income for August 2016: $86.07 Forward 12-month Projected Dividend Income: $1,193.07 My Thoughts: This was a nice bounce-back month for me, as July was the low month of the last quarter. Buying shares of ABT while below $40/share definitely paid off, and it is a joy to see the dividends growing. It was also good to see a TD Bank dividend shortly after starting a position (just before the Ex-Dividend date). For some perspective, let's take a look at my dividend history: Month 2014 2015 2016 January $14.38 $14.42 February $49...

My intention is to regularly update this post with my current portfolio as I add/remove positions from it. Also, I'll focus on my non-401(k) investments. With my 401(k), I only have a limited pool of index funds to choose from, and have set up an allocation that works for my age and risk tolerance. Anyway, on to my current portfolio of taxable accounts and Roth IRA: Non-401(k) Portfolio as of 8/18/16: Company Symbol Total Shares % Portfolio Taxable Acct Shares Roth IRA Shares Abbott Labs ABT 60.145 9.25% 35 25.145 Amerigas APU 25.528 4.07% 25.528 0 Apple AAPL 7 2.65% 7 0 AT&T T 27.334 3.92% 27.334 0 Cardinal Health CAH 24 6.86% 11 13 Cisco Systems CSCO 19 2.01% 19 0 Company Stock 60.74 6.08% 60.74 0 Cummins CMI 8 3.50% 8 0 Emerson Electric EMR 8 1.52% 8 0 Flower Foods FLO 67 3.52% 67 0 Intel INTC 11 1.33% 11 0 iShares Large Cap S&P 500 ETF IVV 11 8.39% 0 11 iShares Small Cap S&P 500 ETF IJR 7 2.98% 0 7 New Residential NRZ 39 1.90% 39 0 Omega Health...

My feelings while engaging in investing, seem to exist on the spectrum between these two extremes: Regret I've only been investing outside of my 401(k) for a couple years. Once I started (a year before turning 40), and began understanding what I was doing, my initial feelings, beyond the initial excitement of "getting in the game", were feelings of regret. I was virtually kicking myself multiple times for starting this so late. First off, by this time I could have had a much bigger portfolio, paying much higher in dividends by now, if I had started upon employment after college. I might even be close to that early retirement number by now. Second, I think of all the money up to this point that was spent on nonsense that is either gone down the drain, or tied up in things that are sitting in my place of residence that I no longer use (my girlfriend and I will be soon starting a de-cluttering activity for my place to rid myself of such items). Now, I understand ...

It's been a while since I summarized my recent transactions, so I'll do that here, and the list is longer than usual, as I am including all transactions since my last recent transactions post. This is a combination of new positions opened, as well as adding to existing positions. There were no sells for this period, so these are all adds to my portfolio. New positions: FLO: Flower Foods . SureDividend opened my eyes to this one, as it had not previously been on my radar. I had been on the lookout for adding companies in slower changing industries (to where moat sizes do not change overnight, such as what may occur within the technology industry), and it turns out that you'll find few slower changing industries than bread, as Flower Foods is a company specializing in bakery products. They are also looking to incorporate healthier organic foods into their products, which is a plus for me. Most of the metrics looked very favorable (P/E less than 20 and comparing well to ...

So just like that we're into another month, August, so that means it's time to look back on progress made in the previous month. So for July 2016, let's look at the numbers: Taxable Accounts: Viacom (VIAB) 7/1/16 - $6.40 Cardinal Health (CAH) 7/15/16 - $3.59 Prospect Capital (PSEC) 7/21/16 - $18.76 Cisco Systems (CSCO) 7/27/16 - $4.68 New Residential (NRZ) 7/29/16 - $17.94 Taxable Account Total: $51.37 Roth IRA Account: I received no dividends from my Roth IRA holdings, although I was expecting to get a payment from one of my newer holdings, Toronto - Dominion Bank (TD) on 7/31. According to Dividend.com and a few other sources, the ex-dividend date was 7/6/16, the record date was 7/8/16, and the payment date was 7/31/16.  On 7/5/16, I purchased 22 shares of TD, so I figured I was in line to receive my TD dividend for July, but nothing has appeared as of yet. I'm hoping it will show up in the first week of August (not sure if there is some delay since it is ...

Normally I would just be posting about my recent buys, but this time I had a sell in there, with my buys. After much inner debate with myself, I decided to sell some shares of my company stock, as when compared with the companies I research and decide to buy stock in, there really is no comparison, as without the 15% discount, I would not normally be a buyer of my company stock. Thus, I decided to sell 50 shares and use the proceeds to fund my Roth IRA as well as my taxable Robinhood account. This in addition to my normal contributions at the end of my pay periods, investing the surplus resulted in the following additions to my portfolios Below are my buys. For Robinhood buys, I try to take advantage of the lack of commission fees, so these buys are more common (usually weekly), and so the quantities are typically lower than adding to my TD Ameritrade Taxable account, or my Roth IRA (which charge $9.99 per trade). CSCO - Cisco Cisco has been accused of being "Old Tech"...