Monthly Review: May 2012

I returned this week from a road trip to visit some friends (I had a great time), so I am now able to post a review of what happened in May:

Dividends: I received a total of $114.30 in dividends from the following stocks:

• ABT: $22.95
• GD: $10.20
• GIS: $21.35
• HRL: $7.50
• PG: $28.10
• T: $24.20

This was a pretty good month for dividends. I was happy to get my first dividends from GD and HRL, which are positions I started in January and April, respectively. I now have a year-to-date total of $568.80, which puts me 43.8% of the way toward my goal of receiving $1,300 in dividends for 2012.

Dividend Increases: I was pleased to see a dividend increase announced for one of my stocks (click on the stock to see my post about the increase):

• VOD: 7.0% increase (amount in USD to be determined)

At this point, 13 of my 22 dividend growth stocks have increased their dividends this year.

Savings: This month I saved $1,226 (42.0%) of my net income, which is my lowest monthly total thus far this year. I mentioned in my monthly review for April that I anticipated my savings rate would take a hit in May due to some large annual expenses and travel costs. This results in year-to-date savings of $7,390, which puts me 61.6% of the way toward my goal of $12,000 in savings for 2012.

Transactions: I bought two stocks this month (click on the transactions to see my posts about them):

• 15 shares of MCD
• 50 shares of VOD

These purchases will increase my annual dividend income by about $115 (the exact amount of the VOD dividends will depend on the exchange rate). I did not sell any stocks for the fifth consecutive month. My portfolio has 22 stocks with a market value of $51,861.12 (including cash), which is a 0.5% decrease compared with last month's value of $52,106.60. Even though I added new capital in May, my portfolio was dragged down amid the broad decline in the stock market.

Seeking Alpha: I published only one new article on the investing website Seeking Alpha (click on the title to go to the article):

• Dividend Growth Investing: The Role Of Diversification

Surprisingly, this turned out to be my most popular article thus far, in terms of both page views and comments. In May I earned a total of $122.19 from this article and additional page views of my previous articles. Payments are made on a quarterly basis and my Q2 total (to be paid in July) is currently $337.35.

Looking Ahead: I expect to receive more in dividends in June than I did in May, which will be nice. My savings rate will take a bigger hit in June than in May as I deal with some remaining annual and semi-annual expenses. Even though I will have limited new capital for investment, I still think I will be able to make one purchase per month.