Investing Update

As you noticed it has been a long time since I last posted.  Ever since Loyal3 closed its back in May I lost my primary method of buying shares of stock.  I guess thats the downside of not investing with a large brokerage as I learned the hard way.  I did not want to start using the Folio Investing platform that they planned to move to as it charged a $5 monthly charge.  Looking back it may have been the way to go.  Instead I sold all of my Loyal3 holdings and held it in cash.

I took many steps over the past few months getting closer to the core portfolio that I wanted. You can follow this link to see my current portfolio: Portfolio.  Life has also been very busy lately and I have realized I need to reevaluate my investing goals and set more realistic goals so that I do not need to reach back into my investment account to pay for large purchases.

Although my portfolio is much smaller than earlier in the year.  I have now began to work towards maxing out my 401(k), HSA, and Roth IRA (which I do not plan to show on this blog).  I have a portfolio yield of over 3.5% and come within a few hundred dollars of my projected dividend income from the beginning of the year despite using only half of the funds to get there.  I hope to post here and there if I make any changes until I can get this site back to where I want it and set my goals properly.  Until then lets enjoy this market ride up!

-TDM

Week 15: Fidelity & Robinhood - Recent Buys (SDIV & FUSEX)

April 10 - April 16

Auto-investment of $100 to my fidelity account and reinvestment of dividends earned in my robinhood account.  Working on getting SDIV holding to 100 shares.

Total Invested - $122.43

Commissions Paid - $0.00
Current Streak - 67 weeks*
Yearly Dividends Added - $3.28
Yield - 2.68%

*Paid Commissions fees on selling motifs but not on a purchase in over a year!

Full Disclosure: Long FUSEX, SDIV, ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Week 14: Fidelity - Recent Buys (FUSEX)

April 3 - April 9

This week features a reinvestment of my Fidelity dividend.

Total Invested - $19.41

Commissions Paid - $0.00
Current Streak - 66 weeks*
Yearly Dividends Added - $0.36
Yield - 1.84%

*Paid Commissions fees on selling motifs but not on a purchase in over a year!

Full Disclosure: Long FUSEX & ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Recent Sale: BX

I sold 100 shares of BX (Blackstone) for a total loss of $175.40.  This is a move I made for a few reasons.  One is due to working towards that "strong core portfolio."  The other is to avoid K-1's during tax season.  In the future, any partnership I invest in will be in a retirement account.  It's just not worth the hassle for me to wait for K-1s to come out and then attempt to understand everything in them.

My loss on the sale was $419 from which I received $243.75 in dividends in the past two years.  For a net loss of $175.40.  For those of you investing in partnerships you may know that this $243.75 is not all treated as as a dividend at all and rather treated as a withdrawal on the k-1 so in reality the gain/loss may vary from the $175.40.   This is something I will have to calculate when the 2017 K-1 is released next April. Although the dividends were solid and I see it as a great company in the long run.  It does not belong in my portfolio and not worth the administrative tasks for me personally.  I have about $3k in cash now to deploy when needed.  The volatility in my portfolio remains high as I patiently work towards having a strong core portfolio while growing my dividends.  This will definitely take a hit to my annual dividends, but I hope to deploy the money in a favorable manner into companies that don't affect my sleep at all.  Been a while since a sale, but happy with the move!

You can see my updated portfolio here.

Thanks again for stopping by!

Are you invested in any companies providing you K-1s? What are your thoughts?

Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net by suphakit73

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Week 13: No Purchases

March 27 - April 2

First time in a LONGGGGG time I have gone two consecutive weeks without a purchase. This marks 65 consecutive weeks without paying commissions on my purchases! 

Total Invested - $0

Commissions Paid - $0.00
Current Streak - 65 weeks*
Yearly Dividends Added - $0
Yield - 0%

*Paid Commissions fees on selling motifs but not on a purchase in over a year!

Full Disclosure: Long ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Week 12: No Purchases

March 20 - March 26

March is gearing up to be a pretty quiet month for me.  I had skipped my automatic investments for this week as I had deployed additional capital as I watched VFC and TGT drop in previous weeks.  This marks 64 consecutive weeks without paying commissions on my purchases! 

Total Invested - $0

Commissions Paid - $0.00
Current Streak - 64 weeks*
Yearly Dividends Added - $0
Yield - 0%

*Paid Commissions fees on selling motifs but not on a purchase in over a year!

Full Disclosure: Long ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Week 11: Loyal3 & Robinhood - Recent Buys (SDIV, BUD, TGT, VFC)

March 13 - March 19

Unfortunately, I have not had as much time as I used to due to other commitments so my next posts may be pretty short, just summarizing buys and dividends.  This marks 63 consecutive weeks without paying commissions on my purchases! 

Slow and Steady! .

Total Invested - $321.19

Commissions Paid - $0.00
Current Streak - 63 weeks*
Yearly Dividends Added - $12.18
Yield - 3.79%

*Paid Commissions fees on selling motifs but not on a purchase in over a year!

Full Disclosure: Long SDIV, BUD, TGT, VFC, ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Portfolio Value: February

Here is my February portfolio growth.  

Please see the chart below for the updated chart with my portfolio value:

My portfolio value grew from $28,448 from 2/2/17 to $36,895 on 3/1/17.  As a reminder, the dip was due to me selling the majority of my FUSEX mutual fund and reallocating some of the money to invest in Fundrise, which I did not previously show in my portfolio.  This large increase is due mostly to my inclusion of a $6,000 investment in Fundrise.  In total, I invested $7,395.28 in February and the rest of the growth ($1,051.53) is due to appreciation.

Slow and Steady!

Cheers,

The Dividend Mogul

February Dividend Income

I have collected $64.41 in dividend income so far this year!  This month I received income from FOUR different sources. This is fewer than January but I am not discouraged because I see great the great strides I have made in my investing journey. Compared to to 2016 my dividends in February decreased by 7.8%.  This is due to the volatility in the BX dividend paid - so will be staying away from this one for a little while.  In fact, I would actually like to close this position at some point so that I can stop having to file K-1s for it (previously I did not take into account the additional tax work necessary from this small investment).  STILL just like every month - my portfolio is definitely not yet where I want it to be, but I continue to follow the right track as you can see from my February purchases.  I am happy however to announce that Fundrise has started an automatic dividend reinvestment program.  SO, I will test this out and see what it leads to. 

** See more charts below thanks to my friend at Two Investing.  If you have not visited his site yet, I strongly recommend you do so. I found his Dividend Spreadsheet extremely useful.  The Screenshots below are from his workbook, which give a good overview of the direction I am headed in.

I appreciate everyone who has viewed and commented on my blog.  As always, I strongly encourage you to comment even if you are just messaging that you have visited.  I'd like to hear your thoughts and views.

Full Disclosure: Long ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Week 10: Loyal3 & Robinhood - Recent Buys (SDIV & MSFT)

March 6 - March 12

My investment for week 10 of 2017 included SDIV and MSFT.  The yield this week was 2.91% compared to 3.55% week 9.  I contributed to MSFT since Loyal3 does not have an option to automatically reinvest dividends, the minimum investment is $10, and it had recently paid me a dividend of about $8. The yield is lower this week as I cInvested in MSFT.  The amount of yearly dividends added ($3.12) is higher than the previous $18.46 as the yield and amount invested is much lower.  This marks 62 consecutive weeks without paying commissions on my purchases! 

Slow and Steady! ... and for this week very slow and steady! 

Total Invested - $107.28

Commissions Paid - $0.00
Current Streak - 62 weeks*
Yearly Dividends Added - $3.12
Yield - 3.12%

*Paid Commissions fees on selling motifs but not on a purchase in over a year!

Full Disclosure: Long SDIV, MSFT, & ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

Do you automatically reinvest your dividends, or do you prefer to build up cash and invest it as you find undervalued companies?

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

February Buys

Consistently investing small amount while paying no commission fees has been a great strategy for me so far.  Still working on getting out of some positions and building my dividend portfolio.   February was another great month!

Using Fidelity, Loyal 3, and Robinhood, I invested $1,395.28 in February vs $4,105.95 in January which gave me a total yield of 4.77% vs 4.01% in January.  The past two months have been great for getting my portfolio yield higher (only stands at 2.8%), but its a move in the right direction with purchases of quality companies.  These purchases have added $65.49 to my yearly dividend vs $164.79 the month prior.  Smaller addition is due to investing much less in February.  It has also been 60 weeks without paying a commission fee!  Look forward to a great end to the first quarter!

What do you think of my Feburary?  

Thanks for stopping by!  

Full Disclosure: Long FUSEX, SDIV, TGT, UL, VFC, ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

$1,000 Milestone!

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to quickly point out a milestone that I reached!  I am now expecting OVER $1,000 in dividends over the next year.  This comes just around my 1 year anniversary of starting this blog.  When I started blogging I was at about $600.  Although the growth is only $400 over the past year, I have made great strides in my portfolio and continue to transition into having a core dividend portfolio which will pay me for a long time.  This blog has truly been a great way for me to stay disciplined with my investing and has helped me research companies that our fellow DGI's are investing in. It's always great to see a new company pop up that I have never heard of.  Thanks everyone for your help and support!  My next milestone will be at $2,000!  Let's see how long this takes... #SlowandSteady

Cheers!
TDM

Full Disclosure: LONG ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

How long did it take you to get to your first $1,000?

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Week 9: Loyal3 & Fidelity - Recent Buys (BUD, AAPL, FUSEX, SBUX, TGT)

February 27 - March 5

My investment for week 9 of 2017 included BUD, AAPL, FUSEX, SBUX, and TGT.  The yield this week was 3.55% compared to 3.48% week 7 (remember I'm skipping last week as I had no purchases).  I also contributed to SBUX and AAPL since Loyal3 does not have an option to automatically reinvest dividends and the minimum investment is $10. The yield is higher this week as I continued to invest in TGT at a lower price and initiated a new position in BUD.  Both BUD and TGT have yields over 3% and were far off their 52 week highs, which led me to these purchases.  The amount of yearly dividends added ($18.46) is higher than the previous $15.67 as the yield is higher and more money was invested.  This marks 61 consecutive weeks without paying commissions on my purchases! As always- Slow and Steady. 

Total Invested - $520.00

Commissions Paid - $0.00
Current Streak - 61 weeks*
Yearly Dividends Added - $18.46
Yield - 3.55%

*Paid Commissions fees on selling motifs but not on a purchase in over a year!

Full Disclosure: Long BUD, AAPL, FUSEX, SBUX, TGT, ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

What are your thoughts on BUD?  Do you own this company? Why or why not?

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

February Dividend Increases

I have now been working towards creating a dividend portfolio for a year and happy to announce some of my positions which have announced dividend increases!

In total, I had 3 dividend increases TROW, WMT, and PEP.  Of the three, the WMT increase is pretty small and not very impressive.  Regardless, its great to see increases without even lifting a finger.  The beauty of investing in dividend stocks! Slow and Steady.

Full Disclosure: TROW, WMT, PEP, ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

How many increases did you have this month?  What do you think of the WMT increase?

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Week 8: STREAK HITS 60 WEEKS WITHOUT COMMISSION FEES!

February 20- February 26

Wow - first week in a long time without a single purchase.  My automatic buys usually work like clockwork, but I saw the price drop in Target and VFC in the previous week.  I was able to allocate more money there by skipping a biweekly investment in FUSEX this week.  Weird posting about not purchasing, but this extend my streak to 60 weeks!  Next week, I will compare my buys with week 7 for consistency.

Total Invested - $0

Commissions Paid - $0.00
Current Streak - 60 weeks*
Yearly Dividends Added - $0
Yield - 0%

*Paid Commissions fees on selling motifs but not on a purchase in over a year!

Full Disclosure: TGT, VFC, FUSEX, ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

Since you began as an investor what is the longest you have gone without a trade?

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.

Week 7: Loyal3 - Recent Buys (TGT & VFC)

February 13 - February 19

My investment for week 7 of 2017 included TGT and VFC.  The yield this week was 3.48% compared to 6.07% last week.  The yield is lower this week because last week included SDIV, yet it is still a yield I am happy with. Both Target and VF Corp have yields over 3% and were not close to their 52 week highs, which led me to these purchases.  The amount of yearly dividends added ($15.67) is lower than last weeks $42.21 as the yield is lower and less money was invested.  This marks 59 consecutive weeks without paying commissions on my purchases! Slow and Steady. 

Total Invested - $450.00

Commissions Paid - $0.00
Current Streak - 59 weeks*
Yearly Dividends Added - $15.67
Yield - 3.48%

*Paid Commissions fees on selling motifs but not on a purchase in over a year!

Full Disclosure: Long TGT, VFC, ALL HOLDINGS IN MY PORTFOLIO

What are your thoughts on TGT and VFC?  Do you own these? Why or why not?

I'm not an investment professional or a licensed financial advisor. This blog represents my personal views and decisions, which may not be appropriate for other investors. Please use common sense or consult with an investment professional before investing your money. I am not responsible for the outcomes of your decisions, nor am I responsible for the comments posted by readers or the contents of any linked websites. This blog should viewed for educational or entertainment purposes only.