My First Double

Upon checking my portfolio this morning, I noticed that I had my first double -- a stock with an unrealized capital gain of 100%:

The stock is Illinois Tool Works (ITW), a diversified machinery company that is a Dividend Champion. My one and only purchase of ITW occurred in November 2011 when I was in the process of transitioning to a 100% dividend growth stock portfolio. At the time, I doubt I would have predicted that ITW would be my first two-bagger, but I am happy that it has performed well in terms of dividend growth and total return.

A Real Dividend Growth Machine: Q1 2014 Review

A new article of mine has been published on the investing website Seeking Alpha. The article is entitled A Real Dividend Growth Machine: Q1 2014 Review and it provides a review of my dividend growth investing progress in the first quarter of 2014.

I hope this quarterly review provides my blog readers with a decent update of my investing over the past few months. My job continues to absorb much of my time, but I am making good progress at work in terms of both research and teaching, so I think it is time well spent. Unfortunately, little time is left over for other activities, such as investing. As indicated by my review, I continue to build and maintain my portfolio, and I also keep up with company news, earnings reports, and dividend increases. However, I have had to cut back almost entirely on blogging and commenting activity, though I do continue to visit other investors' blogs periodically to stay updated on their progress.

I hope everyone is off to a good start with their investing in 2014!