Monthly Review: April 2013

At the beginning of April I visited the city where I will be moving this summer so that I could find a place to live. I managed to find a great apartment with a reasonable rent and a lot of amenities. The rent is slightly higher than where I currently live, but my new place will provide a higher-quality living experience, which is something I have desired.

Not much happened in terms of investing activity in April because I have temporarily suspended new capital investment, as discussed in a previous post. However, considering the limited selection of attractively valued dividend growth stocks out there right now, I feel a bit relieved that I don't have to make any buying decisions for a while. That said, here is a review of what happened in April:

Dividends: I received a total of $184.97 in dividends from the following stocks:

• CNI: $7.19
• GPC: $26.88
• ITW: $15.20
• KO: $16.80
• MDT: $14.30
• NVS: $55.20
• PM: $42.50
• UNP: $6.90

This represents a 9.4% increase compared with the same month a year ago. I expected only a modest increase because most of the stocks I have purchased over the past several months do not pay dividends on a Jan-Apr-Jul-Oct schedule. Thus, most of the year-over-year increase reflects organic growth from dividend increases. My year-to-date dividend total is now $660.91 and my forward 12-month dividend total is $2,412.60.

Dividend Increases: I was pleased to see dividend increases announced for four stocks (click on each stock to see my post about the increase):

• PG: 7.0% increase, $7.92 more in annual dividend income
• KMI: 2.7%, $3.60
• CVX: 11.1%, $8.00
• JNJ: 8.2%, $7.00

I am satisfied with all these dividend increases. In the case of KMI, it was the second increase in 2013, bringing its overall increase for the year up to 5.6%. Thus far this year, there have been dividend increases for 17 of the 28 stocks in my portfolio. The mean increase has been 9.6%.

Savings: This month I saved $1,510 (51.9%) of my net job income, which is essentially identical to what I saved in the previous month. The number excludes selected expenses associated with my apartment-seeking trip that will be reimbursed by my new employer. It also excludes the tax refund I received at the beginning of the month and my Q1 income from Seeking Alpha. Thus far this year, my mean monthly savings has been $1,464 (50.3%).

Transactions: None

Portfolio: My portfolio (taxable account and Roth IRA together) currently consists of 28 stocks and has a market value of $84,861.32 (including cash), which is a 3.2% increase over last month's value. As in March, I did not add any new capital in April, so the increase is completely due to capital gains and dividends. Interestingly, I noticed that I have an unrealized capital gain on every single stock in my portfolio.

Seeking Alpha: This month I published one new article on the investing website Seeking Alpha:

• A Real Dividend Growth Machine: Q1 2013 Review

I was stunned to see the article get over 20,000 page views, which is more than any of my previous articles. I earned $253.02 from page views in April, which is my highest monthly total yet. My year-to-date total is $686.97, which already matches my year-end total of $686.81 for 2012! It is great to earn this kind of income from occasional investment writing.

Looking Ahead: In May I will see a larger year-over-year increase in dividends than I did in April. I am anticipating announcements of dividend increases from only INTC and VOD; the latter should be announcing its second semi-annual dividend for 2013. My savings rate will probably be similar to what it has been in recent months. I do not anticipate making any stock transactions, unless the market rally continues and one of my stocks gets extremely overvalued. A few stocks I hold are already moderately overvalued, but not to the extent where I feel I need to take any action. Thus, I will likely remain on the sidelines and just continue monitoring earnings reports and other events.