July 2019 Dividend Income: Holla at Your Boy! I Gets Money!

July has passed us by and August is upon us.  As such, it is time to look back at what dividends came in over the past four-ish weeks.  Let's do it.


Best Buy(BBY) : $3.50            up $0.35 from last year due to dividend increase.
Iron Mountain (IRM): $1.83   up $1.22 from last quarter due to new shares bought and a bit of DRIP
AGNC: $0.16                          same as last month
Franklin Resources (BEN): $0.52    same as last quarter
Realty Income (O): $0.70      up a penny!
Armanino (AMNF): $0.28    same as last quarter

That brings our sub-total up to $6.99.  That's an $0.85 increase from last year.  Not nearly as impressive as last month's but it's still going in the right direction.  Barnes and Noble changing their payout month threw things off pretty hard, as that is one of my portfolio's heavy hitters, but what can you do?

The 401K threw in an extra $0.42 cents, which is up $0.07 from last quarter.

Thus the grand dividend total is $7.41, which is $1.27 higher than last year

Interest payments clocked in at $3.26, which is up $0.08 from last month and up $2.68 from last year.

I made two stock purchases this month.  I added two shares of Westrock (WRK) and 3 shares of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers (SKT).  The latter is a dividend aristocrat, and a fairly cheap one at that (the best kind.)

There was one other stock related event that occurred this month.  It turns out I had some unclaimed property.  Looking into it, I discovered that it was Disney stock. This was originally Marvel stock that I had received back in high school (after Best Buy but well before Barnes and Noble).  Me being into comics, it was a logical pick.  When Disney bought Marvel, it got sucked up.  I think there were forms that I never got around to filling out and because of that, said stock ended up in Maryland's possession.  After years of laying dormant, I cashed it in and I got a nice check for about $670 dollars.  Not enough to make any major moves, but a nice bump nonetheless.  Technically, part of that (about $250) was dividends.  I could have included that above, but it would have REALLY thrown the numbers off going forward, so I'm just keeping it separate.     I did consider re-buying Disney stock (I intend to do this at some point regardless.) Just throwing it into the IRA was also an option.  Instead, I'm just parsing it out gradually.

And with that, I think that wraps things up.  The month could have been better as far as growth was concerned, but it certainly could have been worse.  I did add some fairly strong names to the portfolio and the unclaimed property gave the month a pretty good kick as well.  As we all know, though, the mid-quarter months are the ones where my portfolio really kicks into high gear* so August's entry will definitely be a fun one. 

                           "stock dividend" by CreditDebitPro is licensed under CC BY 2.0 


















Click here to become a Swagbucks member

June 2019 Dividend Income: Year One

Hard as it may be to believe, we are one year into this little stock trek.  It really doesn't feel like that much time has passed since I first started this little endeavor, but that's the way it is sometimes.  This means that I'll be able to not only look at quarterly growth from here on out, but also year over year (or YoY).  With all that being said, let's get on with the numbers.

Kroger (KR): $0.84.- Double from last quarter due to purchasing more shares.
AGNC: $0.16 - Down $0.02 from last month due to dividend cut.
CenturyLink (CTL): $0.26 - Up a penny due to reinvested dividends
Realty Income (O): $0.69 - Same as last month.
Wendy's (WEN): $0.70 - Up $0.40 due to new shares purchased
Flower's Foods (FL): $0.96 - Up $0.60 for both QoQ and YoY.  This was a result of new shares, DRIP, and a dividend increase.

That brings the subtotal to $3.61.  Yeah, that YoY number increase is tenfold.  I'm pretty pleased with it.

But wait!  We still have the 401K to take into consideration.  Sadly, still no $8.00 dividend like in December, I suppose it's meant to be like a holiday present.  Still, the retirement account did bring in an additional $0.77, which is a $0.40 increase from last quarter.

That brings the grand total to $4.38.  Compared to the $0.36 total from the first entry, it's a decent jump; though could you imagine if I had May's numbers this month?  That would've been amazing, but oh well.

Bank interest brought in a commendable $3.18.  It isn't as impressive as some of the increases listed above, but it's not too shabby all things considered.

June was a light purchase month.  I only added three shares of Kinder Morgan (KMI) to the portfolio.  It did boost the forward income by three bucks, so there's that.

While the numbers weren't quite as impressive as May's, the growth on display more than makes up for it.  There were quite a few figures that doubled.  A lot of it was due to last month's spree, but I'll take it in any event.

2019 is officially half over and the investing journey enters year 2.  It should definitely be interesting to see how things progress.

"stock dividend" by CreditDebitPro is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

Click here to become a Swagbucks member

May 2019 Dividend Income: Revenge! The Time is Now!!!

And just like that, May is down for the count.  Time really does fly.  In any event, it's time to log the dividends, like ya do.  Let's get to it.

Sprague Resources (SRLP): $3.58 - Up $0.13 from last quarter as a result of dividend reinvestment.  Better yet, the price seems to have stabilized.  I had this nagging feeling that this would be the next dividend cut, but they have a few years of increases behind them, and it's remained steady; so, here's hoping.

Omega Healthcare (OHI): $2.05 - Up $0.03 also from dividend reinvestment.

Paychex (PAYX): $1.26 - Up $0.13 from both reinvestment and a dividend increase.  That's right, an increase, not a cut.  The number went up, not down.

Hormel (HRL): $0.42 - Same as before.

Realty Income (O): $0.69 - Same as last month.   I may have to add some shares to this one and give it a boost in the near future.

AT&T (T): $1.04 - Up $0.02 from reinvested dividends

Senior Housing (SNH): $0.15, down big from the last round, due to both the previously mentioned dividend cut and subsequent share sales.

AGNC: $0.18 - A relative newcomer, I know that this number is going to be dropping a bit, but it won't be that devastating all things considered.

Arconic (ARNC): $0.02 - The yield and payout ratio on this one are quite low.  I think it has potential. However, at this point, the yield is actually too low.  As such, I can't really justify pumping more money into this just yet.  On the plus side, this should be a safe one for the time being.

Barnes and Noble (BKS): $2.99 - Up another $0.07 compared to their last payout due to dividend reinvestment.

Publix: I received $1.02 from Publix this month.  Interestingly, only $0.30 came in to my regular checking account, while the other $0.72 came courtesy of the 401K.  I was unsure of how to go about presenting that, but this straight forward approach worked pretty well.  I actually surprised myself with that one.

Speaking of the 401K, it also threw in another $0.37 in dividend revenue courtesy of one of the other funds.

That brings the non 401K dividend total to $12.68.  With the 401K numbers thrown in, we get a grand total of $13.77.

Is that an all time record? I think that's an all time record.  Go me.

Interest payments clocked in at $2.72.  It's a decent increase compared to last month's, but it was no match for the dividends this go around.

With the first few months of the year dedicated to saving up for the car down payment and April being a rebuilding month, I haven't really been able to build the portfolio as much as I would have liked.  I hadn't even been able to make my trademark "work annoyed me" purchases (you'd be surprised what a necessary cathartic agent that becomes.)  On top of that, I got hit with an inordinate amount of dividend cuts.  You could have made a drinking game out of it. It was bordering on parody. Suffice it to say, I was nettled...super nettled.

As such, I decided to come out swinging this month.  I didn't actually add any new positions.  Instead, I reinforced already existing ones.  I bought 3 shares of Flowers Foods (FLO), 3 shares of Kroger (KR), 4 shares of Wendy's (WEN), and 2 shares of Iron Mountain (IRM).  I wanted to add another share or two of Publix, but I didn't get around to it, maybe later this year.

That looks like a lot, but as far as capital deployed, it really wasn't all that much, especially compared to say that or that.  I'll get there one day.  In any event, the purchases did give my forward income a much needed boost, so it did accomplish its goal.  It should also get the snowball rolling faster than if I had just added another batch of small positions to the roster.

All in all, I'm very happy with this month's results.  Broke a record, there were no cuts, juiced up the portfolio a good bit; not too shabby all things considered.  Hopefully, there's more months like this.  I don't have a punny way to close out this post like I did last time so.....

"stock dividend" by CreditDebitPro is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

Click here to become a Swagbucks member

April 2019 Dividend Income: Recoup

April has come to a close, which means that it's time, once again, to log the dividends.  Let's do it.

Iron Mountain (IRM): $0.61
Franklin Resources (BEN): $0.52
Armanino Foods (AMNF): $0.28
Realty Income (O): $0.69

This brings the sub-total to $2.10

Both Best Buy and Barnes and Noble seem to have pushed their dividend to May.  As a result, the grand total is significantly less than last quarter.  I'm alright with that, though my mid-quarter months were already my biggest anyway, but it should make next month's report more fun to write.

Armanino upped their dividend a bit, which is always welcome.  I think Realty had an increase as well, though it's hard to tell with that one at this point.

The 401K threw in an extra $0.36, bringing the grand total to $2.46.

Interest payments came in at $2.49.  That's right.  Interest scores its first win with this post.  I'm not averse to it happening more frequently (gotta keep things interesting, right?) but we'll see how things play out.

While my Publix purchase from last month did finally go through, I didn't make any stock purchases this month.  I know a lot of DGI folk didn't, due to rising stock prices, but for me, I was just more focused on beefing up my bank accounts and regaining ground on this year's saving challenges. I'm not caught up quite yet, but things are getting back on track.

There was, however, a stock sale (all but one share as I did with CenturyLink) as Senior Housing (SNH) cut their dividend....Excuse me a moment.

*Deep breath*

#%##! @%^&!  #%&&!   %#@^! &*#!!  #^&*!  $@%^!  #@%%#!

3.....2....1

Serenity now.

I'm OK.

Oh, and AGNC announced a cut.  I'm not sweating this one too much.  I knew going in that it was iffy; it's why I only bought one share.  It's only 8 cents a year, so whatever.  The timing, however, is hilarious.  It holds steady for over a year and it decides to drop the second I stick my toe in the water, ridiculous.

This has given me an idea regarding my investing strategy.  We know that I have a tendency to buy stock when work annoys me.  I haven't been able to as of late, but I'm looking to remedy that in the months to come.  In any event, I think I might start adding dividend cut purchases for extra retaliatory passive income.  Naturally, the purchase would be in ANOTHER company, but it should mitigate the sting a bit.  I have a feeling both Armanino and Barnes and Noble are going to be the go-to's with this, given the low price tag, but we'll see what happens when it happens.

That about wraps things up for this month.  Nothing too special, but that's bound to happen from time to time.  Will things be more impressive next month?  They May.

"stock dividend" by CreditDebitPro is licensed under CC BY 2.0 














Click here to become a Swagbucks member

March 2019 Dividend Income: It Was the Lease I Could Do

Another month is down, which means it's time to once again look at the dividends. As there isn't a moment to lose, I say we just get right to it.

Flowers Foods (FLO): $0.36 same as last quarter.  I'm thinking I might add a few shares to this position in the near future, the stagnation with that figure is starting to bug me.

Kroger (KR): $0.42.  This is another one that may be getting a boost depending on how things go.

Realty Income (O): $0.68, yay, up 2 cents.

Wendy's (WEN): $0.30, up 4 cents due to the dividend increase and a bit of DRIP.

CenturyLink (CTL): $0.25. Were it not for the dividend cut and share sales, this number would have been higher. Thankfully, I had just bought the shares in December, so that didn't really effect the quarterly numbers as much as I had feared that it would.

That brings the total up to $2.01, which is up $0.31 from last quarter.  Not mind blowing, but not bad either.

The real disappointment comes from the 401K.  After December's numbers, I was looking forward to seeing what another three months of contributions were going to do.  Sadly, it seems a couple of those funds are either bi-annual or annual payers, as the account only pulled in $0.37.

This brings the grand dividend total to $2.38.

Interest income clocked in at $2.25.  Once again, the 401K was able to eke out the win for the dividend camp, but the margin was much narrower.  If the portfolio doesn't straighten up and fly right, they could come out with a loss one of these months.

This month's stock purchase was a share of AGNC.  I would've liked to do more, but I had a car transaction to take care of.  I was actually a little wary of this one in all honesty.  The yield is a tad high, they had some cuts a couple of years back and a few articles warned against it.  Conversely, the dividend has held steady for over a year now and they are a monthly payer.  Ultimately, the allure of having another one was too good to pass up.  I doubt I'll build much on this one, but DRIP is set up, so it should add to the snowball, provided things don't tank.

I also kinda/sorta bought a share of Publix stock.  I say kinda/sorta because this isn't a publicly traded company.  As such, I couldn't just log on to a site, click some buttons and be done with it.  No, I had to print out a form, write a check, and mail it.  Even though I sent it out in the middle of March, the transaction still hasn't gone through.  I read it takes a while, but I'd like to see that get added in to the mix sooner rather than later.

On other fronts, I got a car.  My original plan was to buy used, preferably a Ford Fusion (you know, for the Dragon Ball references.)

Instead, I ended up leasing a Honda Civic.  Now, the financially savvy might be shaking your head at this.  I know Dave Ramsey doesn't like the lease.  Now that I think about it, I don't think Suze Orman does either.  I had that going through my head, no doubt; but ultimately, the down payment was a lot less than I expected to pay (helps that tax, tags, registration etc were included) and the monthly payment was about the same as I expected to pay.  On top of that, I got a better car than I would have been able to on my budget.  As such, I'm calling it a win.

Added bonus, I don't have to deal with that old "pay off the loan early or invest" debate.  I just pay the bill and that's that.  I'll likely buy later on down the line, but right now, this fits my needs very well.

2019 is just racing by.  There's still a lot that needs to be done and apparently not as much time as you'd think to do it.  It's going to be an interesting nine months to say the least.



                                           




"stock dividend" by CreditDebitPro is licensed under CC BY 2.0 













Click here to become a Swagbucks member

February 2019 Dividend Income: Kisama

And just like that, another month of 2019 is over and done with.  While it is the shortest month of the year, it still feels like it flew by.  In contrast, the month provided no shortage of dividends.  As such, let's get into them, shall we?

Sprague Resources (SRLP) paid $3.45, which was up 11 cents from last quarter.  This stock used to be one of the stronger performers as far as market value was concerned.  Lately, though, it's been in a downward spiral.  It seems like it's been down, and down big, every day for a while.  It's annoying, but as the dividend hasn't budged, I figure I might as well put up with it.

Omega Healthcare (OHI) paid out $2.02, up 4 cents from last quarter.

Paychex (PAYX) paid $1.13, up a penny.

Hormel (HRL) paid $0.42, which is up 4 cents from last time.

Realty Income (O) paid its monthly installment of $0.68, one cent higher than last month's.

All of the aforementioned increases were due to reinvested dividends.

I also had some new payers, AT&T (T) paid $1.02 and Senior Housing (SNH) paid $1.17.

You'll likely notice a name missing.  HCLP is (perhaps conspicuously) absent, it turns out that after slashing their dividend, they went ahead and suspended it.  Note that a dividend payment hadn't even been made between the two announcements, rendering the initial call quite pointless.  This also made my initial expectation of one more dividend too optimistic.   I was willing to wait it out at first, but after the suspension, I sold my shares.  A cut, I can deal with, but if there's no dividend than there's really no point to holding on to it.

Speaking of, HCLP's successor, CenturyLink decided to follow suit and cut their dividend.  From what I've read, they still have decent cash flow, but they are choosing to focus on debt repayment.  Rather than wait like I did with HCLP, I sold two of my three shares.  DRIP is still enabled, so if things do turn around, I've still got a small, growing piece.  If it doesn't turn around, at least the damage will be minimalized.

I keep hearing about how dividend cuts are rare.  Suffice it to say, having two occur in my still fledgling portfolio in rapid succession was vexing, to say the least.

It's not all doom and gloom, however.  Wendy's announced a fairly sizable dividend increase this month.  My position there isn't huge, but it was still a nice morale boost.

All in all, I received $9.89 in dividends.  HCLP managed to screw me again and kept me from breaking the double digit barrier...as far as the taxable account goes.  Thankfully, the 401K brought in $0.43 worth of dividends, bringing the grand total to $10.32.  Considering my last breach was a fluke, it would have been nice if the taxable account had been able to hit the mark on its own, but this is better than nothing.  Next quarter should see me accomplish that goal, provided there aren't any other potholes in the road ahead.

I made two stock purchases this month.  I bought one share of Arconic (ARNC) and one share of Iron Mountain (IRM).  The first was financed through the money gained from the HCLP sale.  I would have liked to do more, but with the car down payment looming, I've reduced the amount of money I have set to transfer both to the brokerage account and to my online checking account in order to build up more liquid capital.  Once that's taken care of, things should start to return to normal, but I am not looking forward to that financial incursion.

Speaking of checking accounts, I got $2.31 in interest. A 30 cent uptick isn't bad.  I wouldn't expect too much of a hike next month for the reason listed above.  For now, though, I can't complain.

I can, however, gripe about taxes.  I filed my return and actually owed the IRS more than they had already taken.  It was just $150, so it's not a devastating hit, but it is a vexing one.  I was kind of hoping to use the refund to help cover the cost of the vehicle, but no dice.  In turn, I opened up a traditional IRA CD/Savings account two-fer to go with the Roths.  Between having more "pre-tax" money going into retirement savings and the fact that I'm now making charitable contributions, this should be a one time occurrence. It does give me extra incentive to put as much money away as possible to avoid a repeat.  Oh, I also threw Andrew Yang's campaign $5.  I do want to see him make it to the debate, but, to be honest, it was also somewhat retaliatory in nature.  I do that.

This month was bumpier than I would have liked.  Still, progress was made.  With the impending car purchase, I wouldn't be surprised if this next month was also on the rough side.  Hopefully, once that's over and done with, the waters of 2019 become much smoother.


                                         




"stock dividend" by CreditDebitPro is licensed under CC BY 2.0 
















Click here to become a Swagbucks member

January 2019 Dividend Income: Triple D's

Double digit dividends, baby!  OK, it's not the most illustrious milestone, but I think it's something.  From what I've read, hitting markers like this is what keeps you motivated; so let's just go with it.  On a completely random note, how is January done already?  It honestly seems like the year just started and we're already a month in, craziness.  Enough rambling, on with the numbers.

Best Buy (BBY) dropped $6.30 on me this month.  It's weird.  The company didn't split and I didn't buy any new shares.  I just got two checks.  Was it a holiday thing?  Maybe they want to take a cue from Realty and up the dividend frequency, who knows?  Either way, I'll take it.

Armanino Foods (AMNF) paid $0.25, which is up from last quarter.  This was due to purchasing more shares not too long ago.

Realty Income (O) paid $0.67.  That's up a whole penny from last month.  Both DRIP and a dividend increase played a part in this.  Given my small position at this point, the overall effect isn't much, but it's better than nothing.

Barnes and Noble (BKS) paid $2.92, up $0.07.  That increase is due entirely to dividend reinvestment.  The low price and the (relatively) large position in my portfolio make this one of the faster growers.  As this is the company with the most personal stake for me, I'm OK with that; though I am working on balancing things out as far as position weight goes.

All in all, the portfolio brought in $10.14 in income.  Granted, it's a total fluke due to the Best Buy anomaly, but Jimmy wants to crack corn; I don't care.

As per usual, the 401K did kick in a little something, something.  Sadly, it's nowhere near as impressive as last month.  $0.16 in dividends came in through this, bringing the grand total to an even $10.30.

Bank interest delivered $2.01.  That's sort of a milestone in its own right.  It's up $0.40 from last month, so the trajectory is still looking pretty good.

I made two additions to the portfolio this month.  The first was 2 shares of AT&T (T).

The second was 2 shares of Franklin Resources (BEN....get it?)  Both are dividend aristocrats and both were fairly easy on the wallet.  They'll make good additions I think.

The latter purchase was actually scheduled for February, but I made it a couple of days early, because why not?  Does this mean that February will go without a stock purchase?  On the one hand, I'd say it's unlikely, but it would give the cash a chance to accumulate a little.  We'll have to see.

DRIP is enabled on AT&T, but I have to wait a couple of more days before I can do the same with Franklin.

There actually was another portfolio related move done in the past 4 weeks, but as it's more pertinent to next month's post, I'll save it.  I'd cite this as some kind of sequel hook, but if you follow me on Twitter, you already know what it is.

All in all, not a bad start to the new year.  There's still a lot of work to do, though.  Normally, I'd say 11 months is plenty of time, but the way January went, it might not be as much time as we think.  In any event, onward and upward...tally ho and all that.

"stock dividend" by CreditDebitPro is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

Click here to become a Swagbucks member