Dividends: I received a total of $88.74 in dividends from the following stocks:
- GPC $22.50
- ITW $14.40
- MDT $13.34
- PM $38.50
Dividend Increases: A dividend increase was announced for only one of my stocks: NSC is increasing its dividend by 9.3%.
Savings: I saved a total of $1360 for investment, which is quite a bit higher than I anticipated. As I mentioned in my Goals for 2012 post, this will be the first year that I keep track of exactly how much I save each month. If I can keep up this monthly savings rate for the rest of the year, then I will easily surpass my goal of saving $12000 (an average of $1000 per month) for investment. I am now 11.3% of the way toward that goal.
Transactions: I made no transactions during the first half of the month, but I started deploying cash in the second half. I ended up buying 4 stocks: 60 shares of ADM, 20 shares of CNI, 15 shares of NSC, and 20 shares of GD. The NSC purchase added to my existing position, whereas ADM, CNI, and GD were new positions. Collectively, these purchases will increase by annual dividend income by $137.80. I did not sell any stocks this month. My portfolio now has a total of 19 stocks and a market value of $44672.67 (including cash).
Looking Ahead: February will be a similar month in terms of dividends because I will receive them from 4 stocks (ABT, GIS, PG, and T; GD would have been included had I purchased it before the ex-dividend date). I do not foresee any unusual expenses in February, so I am going to try to beat the amount I saved in January. Based on the cash currently in my brokerage account and the pending addition of new funds, I will likely be able to make 2 purchases in February.
Overall, I think this was a good start to the new year. I hope your investing is also going well!
Update #1 (February 2): I erroneously included the dividends from GIS and T in January's total, but those dividends were officially paid on February 1. I have made the necessary corrections in this post and elsewhere.
Update #2 (February 24): My savings amount has been corrected to exclude some savings from December that had previously been included in January's total.
Great job man. You picked up some high quality names to add to your portfolio, one announced a dividend increase, and you saved a large chunk of change from your income. That's the true way to build long-term wealth. That's exactly the same way I'm doing it.
ReplyDeleteOne minor quibble however, is that T did not pay a dividend in January. They paid on Feb. 1...which was yesterday.
A fine month. If every month was that good, you'd be sitting pretty in a short period of time.
Best wishes.
Hi DM,
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is the way to build long-term wealth.
Thanks for pointing out my error in counting the dividend from T (and also GIS, it turns out) in January's total. Yahoo Finance had listed the payment date as January 31 and the money actually appeared in my brokerage account on that day, but now I see that the official payment date in my account is listed as February 1, which is consistent with the date on each company's website. A bit confusing, but it is all sorted out now. I have updated my blog to reflect the correction.
Cheers,
Deedubs