JANUARY 2021 DIVIDEND INCREASES

 Oh boy!  It's a new year and with that comes the annual horde of Dividend increases.

I love baby Yoda btw....

These increases are exactly why I invest in...drumroll....dividend growth stocks.  The magic of compounding begins and my return on my investment will grow year after year.  Here's an example:

If you had bought one share of Coca-Cola (KO) in 1919 for the $40 opening price, because of splits over the years, you would now have 9,216 shares.  With each share paying $1.64 cents in dividends per year, You would receive $15,114.24 annually (or a cool $3,778.56 every three months).   That's a 37,785% annual dividend payout yield. Wow.  I just like 5%

So increases are the center of the dividend investor universe.  And traditionally, December through February is the center of the  dividend hike season.

This January was no exemption.   I received 8 increases adding $38.59 in my annual dividends. Might not sound like much, but it really snowballs.

The big winner was Air Products and Chemicals (APD) and their 11.9% increase and wintrust Financial (WTFC) with a 10.7% hike.   

On a NSFW sidenote, I started looking at WTFC because the ticker symbol kind of sounded like "what the fuck"  👀....  And so I bought them.  

Overall, I had a 5.2% hike in dividends from these companies.  That's good stuff.  

Here's the breakdown!

And February will come the motherlode!   See ya then!

JAN 2021 BUYS

 Jan 2021 will go down as one to remember when it comes to purchasing bits and pieces of companies.

My real cute dog is distracting me..

Anyhoo, to make a long story short, I invested $6,206.22 of saved up funds and got in on the ground floor of a few companies.  Also made a huge splash in a former holding that had a long record of being very stable and a huge dividend before COVID.  WHF.  My former largest holding.

Whitehorse Finance (WHF) righted the ship over this year and convinced me that I wanted a part of it again and their 10% dividend.  They do not increase the div, but also never cut it.   They rode out some major rough waters the made the dividend unsustainable.  They are back to having a decent payout ratio and making money.

 Another major purchase was getting a chunk of Comcast (CMCSA), and NetApp (NTAP).  

My new positions are not large, usually only one or two shares, but will make me want to increase as I see a small holding in comparison  to the rest of the companies.  That's what I did with Fifth Third Bank (FITB),  Snap On (SNA), and Steel Dynamics (STLD).  All have passed my stock screener of showing dividend increases, a low P/E, and a low dividend payout, giving room for this company to grow.  Here's my post about screening for stocks with a good value  Stock Screener

The result of my frenzied purchasing was investing $6,206.22 and increasing my annual dividend total by $359.85.   That resulted in a 5.8% yield on my purchases for the month.  Sweetness.  Someday I may actually enjoy the monies..

Well,  back to my dog now!

JANUARY 2021 DIVIDENDS

Just for being alive, I earned income from 25 companies! 

 Another way to put it:  These 25 companies are working for me and pay me because I am an owner.  

Sweet.

The grand total for January was $982.96.  That's an average of $39.32 per company.  Not bad.

The big payout this month was a special dividend from Old Republic International (ORI).   I love those special dividends.  Hopefully they will pay a special dividend sooner than the two years it took since the last one.

I also began seeing a dividend from some of my newer holdings, like Comcast (CMCSA), and Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ).  I'm motivated to make those payouts larger than $10 each.  

Here's the breakdown.   

OH, and I saw Bernie Sanders in Leavenworth, WA.  See him?

 

 

2021 GOAL UPDATE - JAN 2021

 Well well well.  That month flew by.  And was a good month.  The fog and gloom that was 2020 is drifting further away with each day.  

Our dog sums it up best.  Just kick back and take it all in!.   Like my kid is doing in my Neon Zen Office.

January also means I have new goals for the year.   Last month I posted about it here:  2021 Goals.  

I made some amazing progress especially financially.   Here goes.

FINANCIAL GOALS

1. Add $10,000 to my investment account.   Half way there in one month!  $5,000 down, $5K to go.
2. See my dividend income increase by 10% from 2020.  Now that we are through the main evil of COVID, I think this is doable.  In 2020, my div income was $13,620.30.   I need to need to see it go up $1,362.03 this year.   After one month, I am up $186.99.   I need to average $113 er month, so I am ahead of the game.
3. Save $8,000 for bills in 2021.  25% of the way there in one month. 
4. Fulfill my goal of buying the equivalent in shares of what I spent in 2020 at the following: Knocked it out of the park!  Met my goals for Costco, Home Depot, Mcdonalds, Starbucks, Kroger, and  AT&T.  (the leftovers will go towards 2022)  I just need to focus on Target (TGT)

PERSONAL GOALS

1. Go to Hawaii for 10 or more days.  I need beach.  I guarantee I will book this as soon as we are vaccinated.
2. Exercise more.   Walk 10,000 steps per day.  So far, I am averaging 6,000 steps per day. 
3. Drop about 30 lbs.  I am at 204 lb this morning of 1/1/21.  My doctor wants me to slim down.  My pants do too.  It's made my blood pressure creep up.  At 5'7", I need to be much lighter.  The walking will help.  So will goal # 4....  I am at 199 today.  Down 5 lbs in one month.  Good start.
4. 
   
   Eat very little sugar.  I cut out all snacks and high carb foods.  Have not eaten more than 30g of carbs per day.  
5. Sell off more of my record collection.   I am out of room.   Still getting more.  Can't help it.  but I do have some to sell.
6. Make more music and release an album..   made a cool song last week - inspired by industrial music of the 90's, I came up with this: (and the amazing title) Gordon Ramsay Goes To Jury Duty  
7. Work on front yard garden.  A very rainy month, so I let it go.  But I did order a bunch of perennial herbs to surround the blueberries I am putting there.

Good month and will pat myself on the back.  But I will not start sucking my own dick just because I had a good 1/12th of a year.   This is a marathon.  

UPDATED WATCH LIST AND PORTFOLIO

 It's been a while since I've posted an active watch list and current portfolio  So I just updated what I am looking at towards purchasing and what I would like to increase a stash of!

It a comes down to a decent dividend, a record of growing that dividend, a decent payout ratio so there's room to grow and not be forced to cut the dividend, a good P/E ratio to avoid buying an overpriced company, and a record of growth overall as a company (EPS).

Recently the EPS has been looking wonky, so I choose to ignore what 2020 looks like in comparison to 2019.

To see my portfolio, please go here:  PORTFOLIO

Here's the link to the page I keep this at.  WATCH LIST.

Here's the watch list:

Any questions or comments?  Please comment below!

DECEMBER 2020 DIVIDENDS

 Welcome to 2021.  Super stoked we are no longer in 2020 and my football team is in the playoffs!  

And my kid like to startle the bejeezus out of me with stuff like this:

Best of all, December was a fun month for earning some passive income.  My March/June/September/December dividend months are always busy.   I see 44 companies pay out on these months.

I earned a total of $1542.22 in those 44 payments.

Here's the summary:

My big haul was a special dividend from Costco (COST) of $10 per share.  They tend to do this every other year or so and really makes up for the lower yield. Someday their dividend increases will be truly fat.  At least I hope.

The other winer for me was the Vanguard exchange traded fund VYM.   Gotten into it starting late this summer, and is a great go-to when I'm indecisive about buying shares.  This fund is chock full of dividend Aristocrats and contains more than half of my holdings.  It's like the greatest his of my portfolio!   I try to buy at least 4 every month.   Here's a great piece about why VYM is so awesome Why I’m Investing $500 Weekly with Vanguard ETFs.     

Now it's January and looking at another month with a special dividend that will blow the doors off from ORI.

Thoughts?  Please comment below

DECEMBER 2020 BUYS

December was one of my more exciting months in a long time when it comes to making some buys for my portfolio.  

41 transactions in total.

The final tally at the end of the month was that I added $1,304.04 to my investments and gained $360.54 in annual dividends.  Taking profits and reinvesting resulted in getting a 27.4% return on my new money.

Took some profits.  Closed out on companies I was sick of holding.  Got into a few companies I had been waiting to get into.  Reintroduced myself to one of my former major holdings.   Lets go through these one by one after the chart...

TOOK PROFITS:  Took some Apple profits (AAPL) .  I was over 125% in equity gain.  I do love them and are a solid stock to hold onto, I took the profits to get some shares that give a better dividend return.  I will start buying them again in late March.

CLOSED OUT:   Closed out on my gas companies.  Got rid of Chevron (CVX) and Phillips 66 (PSX).  I see them as mired in a world where we are heading away from gas and oil consumption.  Covid has reduced commutes and I believe is a new normal.  Yes, they had nice dividends, but were in no position to increase them in the foreseeable future.  Bye bye.  Not feeling a bit of remorse.

I also closed out on Wal Mart (WMT).  I prefer owning Target, and I did not care for the way they pay out dividends.  Announce 4 payments once a year and have them pay in an odd pattern.   So I took their profits also.

NEW BUYS:   Comcast (CMCSA).  Been waiting far too long to get a position with Comcast.  

                         AIG Insurance (AIG)  Another patiently waiting on my watch list.

                         Lockheed Martin (LMT) Yet another that sat on my watch list forever.

                         Netapp (NTAP).  A tech company that has was a good value IMO.

                         Seagate Technology (STX). Another tech company I wanted to pull a trigger on.

                         Smuckers (SJM).  I honestly do not know why I did not own this years ago.

All of these companies passed my stock screener test: STOCK SCREENER(or at least got real close).  They all have a decent P/E ratio in the low 20's and below.  They all have a good track record of incresing their dividends.  They all have a dividend payout ratio of 60% and under, so they have room to grow and also room to take a financial hit without affecting the dividend.  And they all have a good track record of earnings per share growth (at least before COVID).  The pandemic puts that metric on pause.

REINTRODUCTION:   Back in early august, I wrote about how I jettisoned one of my biggest holdings, Whitehorse Finance (WHF), a business development company that I owned from their early days.  They had always paid out about 10% annually in dividends and I took full advantage of that for a solid 6 years.  

During the Pandemic, they took a major hit.  I wrote about it here: JULY 2020 BUYS, SELLS AND MAJOR CHANGES - PART 1

Their payout ratio (normally in a safe range) spiked up to 947%.  Their P/E also leaped up to 64.5.  If they did not right the ship, both the dividend and their stock price would have taken a major hit.  I had already experienced that with some REITs in 2019 and was not about to see my largest holding collapse.

Well, they righted the ship.  currently, their P/E is at 8.67. And their payout ratio is back down to about 90%.    

The cost of my protection from possible failure of WHF was a $450 dividend payout in Q4 and about $1 per share.  A small price to pay for the security of not losing $17K had they gone tits up.

OTHER BUYS:   I also increased my holdings in Kroger (KR), Western Union (WU), AT&T (T) of course, Robert Half (RHI), and Starbucks (SBUX).

To sum this up:  This was one fun month in investing and like where I am at more than ever.

DECEMBER 2020 DIVIDEND INCREASES

 Always a shorter post, but a very important part of my investing strategy - dividend increases.

Just to lengthen this post, here's my sugar cookie art skill.  

A rabid squirrel that just gave birth and is carrying its bloody newborn....

So here's a summary:

Amgen (AMGN) passed out a 10% dividend increase!   BAM!

Realty Income (O) did their regular quarterly .2% increase and AES upped theirs  by 5%.

This added $24.41 to my annual dividends.  

In January, I'll be looking for an increase from Kimberly Clark (KMB), Intel (INTC), Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM), and Air Products and Chemicals (APD).  

And I think my portfolio is safe from any more dividend cuts!  

2020 GOAL SUMMARY & 2021 GOALS

 We made it! The longest, most frustrating year is over.  2020 can go suck some eggs.   

A sucky 2020 did not mean I could ignore the goals I had to to accomplish.   Last year, I posted them online to keep me accountable.   Well,  let's see how I did:

FINANCIAL GOALS

1. Add $5,000 to my investment account.  DONE  
2. See my dividend income increase by 10% from 2019.  NOPE.  SHUFFLING SHARES AROUND IN 2020 AFTER DIVIDEND CUTS DID NOT BODE WELL.  -6% BUT IN A MUSCH BETTER PLACE MOVING FORWARD.
3. Increase my holdings by 5 companies. Not just add to my current holdings, but have 100 companies to earn dividends from.  DONE
4. Save $16,000 for bills in 2021: Property Tax, Home Insurance, Auto Insurance, Car Tabs, Water Bill, Electric Bill, Gas Bill, Internet, Phone Bill, TV Costs.   That's $43 per day.  I want to be a year ahead. Then in 2021 and beyond, I can put more into the market once I am ahead.  SAVED $8,000.  CHANGED MY GOAL TO $8K AND PUT THE REST IN THE MARKET AND REPLACED A CAR.  GOT TO $8K
5. Fulfill my goal of buying the equivalent in shares of what I spent in 2019 at Costco, Target, Apple Store, Home Depot, Starbucks, and AT&T.  DONE OTHER THAN APPLE STORE SINCE I ALSO CHANGED THE TARGET COMPANIES.  SEE CHART BELOW

PERSONAL GOALS

1. Take a spring road trip.  Yellowstone would be ideal.  DID THE REDWOOD FOREST IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.  COVID REALLY MESSED UP PLANS.
2. Exercise more.   I was doing well until my right knee and left achilles acted up.  Fell out of routine.   DID SO FOR 9 MONTHS BUT FELL OFF AS WEATHER TURNED AND SHOULDER WENT ON THE FRITZ
3. Drop about 20 lbs.   LET'S JUST TALK ABOUT THIS LATER.  THE COVID 15 IS REAL.
4. Drink more green tea.  DONE
5. Sell off some of my record collection.   It was a long term goal to sell eventually.  Well, I have run out of room.  I think I would rather sell than keep some of the ones I rarely listen to.  SOLD A FEW, AND FOR SOME GOOD PRICES.  BUT ALSO ADDED ABOUT 50 LPS
6. Improve piano skills and improve guitar skills.  PIANO YES, GUITAR NOT REALLY.
7. Blog more.  I HAD A LIFE, SO I FAILED ON THIS.
8. Enjoy more oysters like these.  KIND OF DID!

Now 2021 is upon us.   Here are my goals:  

FINANCIAL GOALS

1. Add $10,000 to my investment account.   This will be easy
2. See my dividend income increase by 10% from 2020.  Now that we are through the main evil of COVID, I think this is doable
3. Save $8,000 for bills in 2021.  That's $21 per day. 
4. Fulfill my goal of buying the equivalent in shares of what I spent in 2020 at the following:

I am in fact a bit ahead of the game on some of these companies.  I will update next month.

PERSONAL GOALS

1. Go to Hawaii for 10 or more days.  I need beach
2. Exercise more.   Walk 10,000 steps per day
3. Drop about 30 lbs.  I am at 204 lb this morning of 1/1/21.  My doctor wants me to slim down.  My pants do too.  It's made my blood pressure creep up.  At 5'7", I need to be much lighter.  The walking will help.  So will goal # 4....
4. Eat very little sugar.
5. Sell off more of my record collection.   I am out of room
6. Make more music and release an album.
7. Work on front yard garden.

Let's see how this shapes up...

MOTHER OF ALL THRIFT STORE FINDS

 As many of you already know, my main hobby is collecting vinyl records.  How Gen X of me..   Through garage sales, junk stores, used bins at record shops, and collectable editions through stores, I have amassed over 3,500 records.  

Every once in a while, I come across a great find.  Like "Hey Hey what Can I Do" by Led Zeppelin for 25 cents.   Or the rare Blue Note 78s I found at a thrift store   Early Blue Note 78.   

This past weekend was the Mother of All Thrift Store Finds.  Another Blue Note discovery.   

We went to the thrift store looking for joke gifts for Christmas.  This also requires a stop by the old records for sale.  I wanted to pick up any old records in decent shape to add to my hoarde.  Especially jazz.  I'm lacking in good jazz records

Sitting there among the ruined andy Williams album and multiple Barbara Streisand records was a nice copy of Cannonball Adderley's "Somethin' Else" on blue Note records.  Vinyl looked fairly clean.  And was extra heavy and thick, so I knew it was an old copy.   Picked that up along with a Stan Getz and a Charlie Parker compilation.  

Once I got home, I looked up my Cannonball Adderley on Discogs.   The first release had these qualities:

• West 63 street address and no ® and a "micorgroove" on the labels
• Deep groove on both sides
• no "Inc." after Blue note on the address on the back cover and printed in Serif font
• "P" for Plastylite Recording plant etched on run out.
• RVG stamped on the run out

Well how about that.... This copy had ALL of these. Wha?  This was a first release of this record!   And in VG condition for the vinyl.  The cover is in G condition, a bit worn on the back and bit smudgy on the front.  but not bad for a record from 1958.

This record cost me $1.95.   This sells for around $600 in this condition.   What an absolute monumental find.  I don't think I will ever find a more collectable record.  OF course, I thought that the last time I found some Blue Notes...

I will keep it and listen to it for a while.  If I find a nice clean reissue, I will then sell.    IMO it's one of the best jazz albums ever made and right up my alley.   Sometimes you just get lucky.

Here's a track from this release.   Awesome!

NOVEMBER 2020 DIVIDENDS

December is here!  Less than 1/12 of this year is left, thankfully.  In 26 days, we can kiss this year goodbye and never look back!

And right after Thanksgiving, it was time to pull out the Christmas decorations.  The dog does not really like her Santa outfit.

Meanwhile, I  earned some dividends.  32 companies paid me a total of $1,035.51.  This is a 13.03% year to year gain from the $916 I got in 2019.  After the big shuffles I have gone through over the past 15 months, seeing a gain like that was truly satisfying and motivating to improve on that number in 2021.

The big ones are AT&T (T) and their monster 7% dividend and Omega Healthcare (OHI), a healthcare REIT (one of my few REITs now), also with a 7% dividend.

Here's the breakdown:

NOVEMBER 2020 BUYS

Welcome to the Holiday Season!   My favorite time of the year.  Hope you are all staying safe out there on Panet Poison.

Snow started falling and got to go up to the mountain pass here an play in a fresh 18" of snow that fell the night before

Picked up a few greal albums recently.  This one here is maybe the best album I had never heard until a few weeks ago.  Dadawah - "Peace and Love", a Nyabinghi rhythm LP from 1974. Very sublime and exploratory.  Only four tracks on the LP, but they improvise into this crazy bass and drum Nyabinghi rhythm form of reggae meets the blues meets psychedelia and experiencing the rapture...  They may have smoked some of their sacrament..

What really makes it stand out is the lack of a rhythm guitar and the addition of a minimal echoing piano that really ties it all together.  This is one of the most spiritual, haunting roots reggae albums that could possibly be ever made.  Just re-issued this fall.

Oh, and I traded some shares.....  

Harvested a tiny bit of profit just so I can pick up a couple of Costco (COST) shares after they announced their special $10 dividend.  This is not their first special Dividend. 

I did get out of a smal position in Delek Holdings (DK) after they ended their dividend. I'd rather have my money in something that will pay me back so I can sit on it and get paid for breathing...

I also snagged 3 more shares of Vanguard's VYM, which I plan to do on a regular basis. It's a perfect mix of all of the dividend growth companies I already invest in.

The other major purchases, not really major, but at least over $100, was some more Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Target (TGT).  Both are pretty much recession proof companies that are not going to go tits up any time soon.

In summary, I added $1,063 of new money and increased my annual dividend by $39.26.  That's a payout ratio of 3.69% on the investment.  And should grow.

Check out the details

NOVEMBER 2020 DIVIDEND INCREASES

'Tis the season of dividend increases! Fa la la la la....

November, December, and January have been the months I used to see the most dividend increase.  Now 2020 is one hell of a strange year.   But at least it started well this October.   

I received 5 dividend increases over the past month.  The whopper was the 17.9% increase by Aflac (AFL).  

Overall, I received an extra $35.27 in dividends per year.   That's the name of the game, Dividend growth..

In December, I'm expecting increases from AT&T (T), Pfizer (PFE) and Amgen (AMGN).  I'l keep my fingers crossed.