February 2020 Dividend Income: My Corona

Better than wine, flowers, or chocolates; February gave the sweet gift of dividends.  This being a mid-quarter month means that it was quite a big haul for me.  As such, let's get right to it and start logging the numbers.

AT&T (T): $1.11 Up $0.04 from last quarter due to DRIP and a dividend increase and up $0.09 from last year.

Sprague Resources (SRLP): $8.16 Up $0.30 from last quarter due to DRIP.  Year over year increase was $4.71 due to DRIP and shares bought.

AGNC: $0.17  Same as last month and last quarter.

Diversified Healthcare Trust (DHC); This used to be Senior Housing, but they went through some big overhaul and name change. In any event, the dividend clocked in at $0.16, which is the same as last quarter but down YoY due to share sales after a dividend cut.

Five Star Senior Living (FVE): $0.33   I...I don't own stock in this company.  I don't know where this came from.  I assume it's tied to the above re-tool, but it doesn't show up anywhere in my portfolio or on the projected earnings page.  Oh, it gets weirder.  If you look the company up, they aren't a dividend payer. There's no yield or ex-dividend date, it's all just lines indicating no payout.  It makes no sense, even though it did make me some cents.

Omega Healthcare (OHI): $2.19 Up $0.03 from last quarter from DRIP and a dividend increase. YoY increase was $0.17

Realty Income (O): $0.73 Up $0.02 from last month due to DRIP and a dividend increase.

Best Buy (BBY): $3.50.  This will be the last "wrong" month, as I now set this to reinvest, it should also allow for a bit of growth going forward.  I am going to miss the checks, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.

Hormel (HRL): $0.71 Up $0.28 from last quarter and up $0.29 from last year.  This is due to DRIP, a dividend increase, and a purchase.

Tanger Factory Outlets (SKT):  $1.48  Up $0.03 from last quarter due to DRIP

Kinder Morgan (KMI): $1.02  Up a penny from last quarter due to DRIP.

Paychex (PAYX): $1.29 Up a penny

Arconic (ARNC): $0.02 Same as before.

Westrock (WRK): $1.42 Up a penny from their last payment

Publix (non 401K): $0.30 same as last quarter.

Speaking of the 401K, Publix did also add $1.47 to that account.  That's a $0.26 increase from last quarter.

Another fund threw in $0.64, which is up $0.12 from last quarter.

The non-401K dividends clocked in at $22.59, which is only a slight increase from November.  Throwing in the 401K, though, brings it to $24.70.  Why, yes, that is another record month.

This month wasn't too active on the buying front.  Just an AT&T purchase that I had written about a few days ago.  With the market in a tailspin, deploying more capital would have been nice, but oh well.  DRIP is still in effect and the 401K is still funded so even though I'm not making any major moves, I'm still getting some benefit from that whole kerfluffle.

It's not fun watching the account value drop the way it is, but one of the perks to being a small time newbie investor is the fact that even though my portfolio has taken some hits, the losses haven't been huge. The fact that my portfolio is more dividend based also helps take some of the sting out.  It makes riding it out a bit easier.

On a somewhat related note, interest payments clocked in at $3.06, which is up a cent from last month.  With my having moved more money into the IRA's, I'm wondering if I should compartmentalize the liquid interest and the retirement interest like I do with the dividends.  It's something I might try out later on down the line, but it could be interesting to see. 

That about wraps things up.  It was a pretty big month, all things considered.  Had a record broken, some solid growth, a market swan dive, and even a mysterious anomaly to add some extra flavor to the proceedings.  What does the remainder of 2020 have in store? Only time will tell.

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














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Recent Buy: AT&T

It's been a while since I've made a stock purchase.  I've just been focusing capital in other areas and investing took a back seat.  With the market dropping big yesterday, I decided to go ahead and take advantage.  I did so by adding another share of AT&T to the portfolio.

It's not the biggest move, by any stretch, but I only had so much in my brokerage account at the time.  As a result, my maneuverability was somewhat limited. C'est la vie.  Wah wah.

It was a position I've been wanting to boost though.  It's one of the smaller ones in the portfolio despite being a strong company.  As such, I figured it was the better way to go.

The price came in a little under $40 (didn't average down this time around, but that's OK) and it boosted forward income by a little over $2.

The buy has been reflected in my portfolio post, which I have finally gotten around to updating.  The changes aren't as drastic as one would have hoped, but oh well.

It's crazy to think we're entering the third trimester of Q1 2020.  Where does the time go?  Anyway, things are coming along and momentum should pick up as we move further into the year.  We'll see how things play out, though.

                                            "Buy" by Got Credit is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

















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'Let's Get It Right' Special Edition

Don't let the title fool you.  This isn't an older episode that's been remastered and had three minutes of new content spliced in.

'Son of Batman' Movie Review

You can read my review of the film here.



                                                






Pros


- Solid action sequences peppered throughout the film

- Manages to make Damian more sympathetic and fleshed out when he easily could have been a detriment to the viewer

- Using Deathstroke as a main antagonist worked really well, as his feud with (admittedly a different) Robin made a nice nod to the cartoon and his status as rival/heir to Ra's made sense while doing something different with the character.



Cons

- Not enough Nightwing

- Voice acting and script are clunky early on, though thankfully, this gets better as the movie goes forward

- Your mileage may vary on the ninja man-bats.  Yes, that did happen in the comics and if you like the goofier comic stuff, it won't bother you.  If you like your Batman grounded in reality, this could be a deal-breaker for you.



Overall

Due to the fact that this centered on Damian and the aforementioned early faults with voice acting and script, I was skeptical about this one.  It did, however, manage to win me over.  There's plenty of action and each sequence is impressive in its own right.  





                    




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'Let's Get It Right' Episode 9: NFL FA, NBA Playoff Picture

Dungeons and Dragons Essentials: Heroes of the Fallen Lands

You can read my review here.












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'Let's Get It Right' Episode 8: NBA Edition

January 2020 Dividend Income: We Must Protect This House

2020 is off and running.  A month has already come and gone, but that just means it's time to log the dividends of the past month.  Let's get to it.

Iron Mountain (IRM): $1.93   Up $0.06 from last quarter due to DRIP and a dividend increase.
Pepsi (PEP): $0.96   Same as last time
Franklin Resources (BEN): $1.91  Up $0.60 due to a dividend increase and DRIP
AGNC: $0.17  Same as last time
Bed, Bath, and Beyond (BBBY): $0.69  Up a penny due to DRIP
Realty Income (O): $0.71   Same as last month 
Armanino Foods (AMNF): $0.28  Same as last quarter


This brings the sub-total up to $6.65.  It's up $0.68 from last quarter, but down compared to last year.

The 401K threw in $0.46, which is down 4 cents from last quarter, but up $0.30 from last year.

This brings the grand dividend total to $7.11, up $0.64 from last quarter, but down when looking at the YOY numbers.  That is largely due to the Best Buy fluke.

Speaking of, I've got good news for those who have been flummoxed by the randomness of that particular payer. Whilst visiting family for the holidays, I went rummaging through some old papers and found a way to get my Best Buy account sorted out.  So now, they have my current residential info and I set that dividend to reinvest.  As such, not only will the pay schedule normalize going forward, but we'll also be seeing a bit more momentum added to the dividend snowball. I am going to miss those checks, but I can change it back (and even do a DRIP/payment split apparently, which is kind of cool) later on down the line.

Interest payments clocked in at $3.05, which is down from December.  I chalk this up to the fact that I have started moving money from my online savings account into the IRA's.  It's a lateral move, at face value, but given the way compounding works, it actually results in a small step back, as you can see.  The way I figure, the Roth is giving me tax free growth and the deposits in the traditional IRA are going to give me a bigger tax return (I'm still working on the 2019 contributions at this point), so I think this strategy will work out to my benefit in the long term.

No buys this month.  I said that investing was going to be light early on and it proved true here.  I'm viewing the IRA contributions as my "moves" for the month.  I was able to increase my 401K contribution, though.  My employer had originally set the limit an associate could contribute to 10% of their income, which is what I was doing, but this year they upped the contribution limit to 30%...which I can't do...yet.  My brain fought itself pretty hard on this one.  There was a lengthy internal back and forth of

   "Do it!"
   "Can't"
   "Do it!"
   "Can't!"
   "DOO IIIT!!!"
   "CAAAANN'T!!!"



Ultimately, I didn't, though it is a goal for me to get myself to the point where I can.  As of now, it's at 11%, a small increase, but I am at least taking advantage of the bigger window.

Overall, this wasn't a shabby way to start off the new year.  There was decent growth due to DRIP, as well as a few dividend increases.  It may not have been a blow out and there were some decreased numbers peppered throughout, but pieces are being moved into place so that, going forward, things can progress much more effectively.

           


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















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