Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Monthly Review: April 2012

Here is a review of what happened in April:

Dividends: I received a total of $169.13 in dividends from the following stocks:
  • CNI: $6.37
  • GPC: $24.75
  • ITW: $14.40
  • KO: $15.30
  • MDT: $13.34
  • NVS: $56.47
  • PM: $38.50
This is my highest monthly total thus far this year, thanks in part to my annual dividend from NVS. I now have a year-to-date total of $454.50, which puts me 35.0% of the way toward my goal of receiving $1,300 in dividends for 2012. Thus, I am currently on track for meeting my dividend goal.

Dividend Increases: I was pleased to see dividend increases announced for three of my stocks (click on the stock to see my post about the increase):
  • CVX: 11.1% increase, $7.20 more in annual dividend income
  • JNJ: 7.0%, $5.60
  • PG: 7.0%, $7.40
At this point, 12 of my 22 dividend growth stocks have increased their dividends this year. (In case you're wondering why I have posted about only 9 dividend increases: CNI increased its dividend on the day I bought the stock, and HRL and T announced their dividend increases for 2012 back in late 2011.) The average increase has been 9.1%, which is great.

Savings: This month I saved $1,702 (58.3%) of my net income, which is my highest monthly total thus far this year. Quite frankly, I don't think I can do much better than that. It was nice to get over the 50% mark for the third month in a row. This results in year-to-date savings of $6,164, which puts me 51.4% of the way toward my goal of $12,000 in savings for 2012. Thus, I am ahead of schedule for meeting my savings goal.

Transactions: I bought just one stock this month (click on the transaction to see my post about it): This purchase will increase my annual dividend income by $30.00. I did not sell any stocks for the fourth consecutive month. My portfolio now has 22 stocks with a market value of $52,106.60 (including cash), which is a 4.1% increase over last month's value of $50,046.40. Most of the increase reflects the addition of new capital, but a sizable chunk came from dividends and capital gains.

Seeking Alpha: In April I started contributing articles to the investing website Seeking Alpha. The following three articles were published (click on each title to go to the article): I have found that writing these articles has helped to clarify my thinking about investing. In addition, the positive reactions to my articles from various commentators have motivated me to write more in the future. Another motivator is that I actually get paid for these articles based on the number of page views. In April I earned a total of $215.16, which was far beyond my expectations. (The amount is not included in this month's income because payments are made quarterly, so it will be reflected in my income for July.) It looks like writing about investing -- which is something I enjoy doing -- might be a good way to earn a bit of extra income.

Looking Ahead: I expect to receive less in dividends in May than I did in April, but that's okay. As we head into the summer months, my savings rate will take some major hits due to a few large annual and semi-annual expenses that will be incurred primarily in May and June. I will likely do some traveling to visit family and friends during the next few months (though I have not made definitive plans yet), which would result in additional expenses. Thus, my summer savings will not be great (at least when compared with my spring savings), but I can take solace in the fact that I have already made great progress toward my annual savings goal. Given that I may not have much new capital for investment this summer, I won't be making many purchases, but I will still likely be able to make one purchase per month.

12 comments:

  1. Congrats on the monthly total of dividends. You are well on your way to your goal. I need to add more payers in the Jan/April/July/Oct months. You have several in this group that I'd eventually like to start positions in, especially MDT.

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    Replies
    1. Hi austinbroker,

      Thanks! Excluding annual and semi-annual dividends, it turns out that I receive about the same amount of dividends each month. Going forward and assuming all my estimated dates are accurate, my projected amounts based on current dividend rates are:

      $118.66 (7 stocks) for Jan-Apr-Jul-Oct
      $114.30 (6 stocks) for Feb-May-Aug-Nov
      $121.10 (7 stocks) for Mar-Jun-Sep-Dec
      plus non-quarterly payments from 2 stocks.

      I hadn't planned for any kind of equality, but it's nice for it to naturally come out this way.

      Cheers,

      Deedubs

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  2. Wow I didn't know authors at Seeking Alpha are paid for submitting articles. That could be a nice source of extra income for you.

    I see you are ahead of schedule on your goals. Looks like 2012 will be a successful year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Compounding Income,

      Seeking Alpha has two types of articles: premium and regular. Premium articles are eligible for pay, but they must be exclusive to SA and authors must adhere to their terms of use. Regular articles are not eligible for pay, so they can be posted elsewhere online without any restrictions. My articles were all in the premium category. I don't know offhand how many articles tend to fall into each category.

      It does indeed look like 2012 will be a successful year for me. I think I'll achieve both my goals, although it's already clear that I'll reach my savings goal before my dividend goal.

      Cheers,

      Deedubs

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  3. Great stuff! You had another awesome month. Solid month of dividends and the dividend increases were pretty great across the board.

    That's great news on your success over on Seeking Alpha so far. I should look into that, as the blogging income has been severely disappointing so far. I don't blog for the money, but to see that the compensation averages out very poorly is sad.

    Congratulations on a wonderful April!

    Best wishes.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Dividend Mantra,

      Thanks! I agree, it was a very solid month. If only every month could be this good!

      I've thought about monetizing my blog (through Google AdSense), but I simply don't get enough traffic to make it worthwhile. I'm satisfied with the extra income from writing for SA.

      Cheers,

      Deedubs

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  4. Deedubs,

    Nice job in April and congratulations on your success over at SeekingAlpha. It looks like you will finish ahead of your goal for 2012...fantastic!

    Take care!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Dividend Fool,

      Thanks, I appreciate your kind words! I hope your year is going well, too.

      Cheers,

      Deedubs

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  5. Congrats on your articles, and your nice looking dividends...saving 58% of net pay is pretty amazing, I am at just 27% for the year of net pay, and I already have a reputation at work and with my gf of being a tight *** lol...

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    Replies
    1. Hi High Yield Soldier,

      Thanks for your comment! I am also amazed by the 58% savings in April. When I set my savings goal at the start of the year (which corresponds to a savings rate of 34%), I anticipated that I could probably do better than that, but I had no idea by how much. As mentioned in my post, my savings rate will be lower during the summer, but it should rebound in the fall.

      Your savings rate of 27% is very good. The way I look at it, we're both trouncing the average U.S. savings rate, which is less than 5%. (According to various government reports, it's averaging about 4% so far in 2012.) The more we save and invest now, the more it will pay off in the future.

      Cheers,

      Deedubs

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  6. Great month and having 12 out of 22 stocks increase dividends this year is amazing

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    Replies
    1. Hi Investment Road to Freedom,

      Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! It is certainly nice to see so many dividend increases by this time of the year.

      Cheers,

      Deedubs

      P.S. Sorry for the delayed reply; for some reason your post had been marked as spam and I didn't see it until now.

      Delete