Third straight month of increasing dividend income
I feel like I’d be doing myself – and my readers – a disservice if I didn’t start pumping out monthly portfolio updates. So, here we are … starting with September.
Not only is it a great way to catch up with the dividends and purchases from the month that was, but it’s a great way to track progress over time. When it comes to investing, nothing happens overnight. It’ll be nice to look back on these in a year or two to see how things have changed.
This is the first monthly update I’ve had and my third full month working on what I hope will become a $1,000,000 portfolio in the next 20-30 years. I have 50 positions, five from each of the 10 sectors other than real estate (gotta diversify, kids). So, five from Communication Services, five from Financials, five from Healthcare, etc.
I earned $1.88 in dividend income my first month (July), $6.87 the second (August) and now, thanks to a more complete pile of positions, I’m happy to say I’ve nearly quadrupled August’s total in September.
This month’s dividends
Like I said, I nearly quadrupled August’s total, ballooning my dividend income from the aforementioned $6.87 to $23.52. I was paid by four different companies in August. September, though, saw 20 different companies send a little cash my way. Little, of course, is the operative word, but a dividend is a dividend. They’re small now, but that’s the point of these monthly updates. If I stick with the process, the $0.46 I earned for owning one share of Microsoft, for example, could be hundreds or even thousands 20 years down the road. Anyway, here’s the list of dividends I received in the last month:
| PSX | $0.90 |
| UPS | $0.96 |
| DFS | $0.44 |
| BA | $2.06 |
| VMC | $0.31 |
| AEP | $0.67 |
| CVX | $1.19 |
| XOM | $0.87 |
| JNJ | $2.85 |
| MSFT | $0.46 |
| COST | $0.65 |
| EPR | $0.38 |
| STAG | $0.12 |
| NEE | $1.25 |
| LEA | $3.75 |
| BLK | $3.30 |
| HAL | $0.18 |
| PSA | $2.00 |
| NKE | $0.22 |
| PEP | $0.96 |
There you have it – $23.52 from 20 different companies.
This month’s purchases
I made quite a few purchases this month. Not many value buys, but I’m happy I was able to add to positions I wanted to add to … like Starbucks, AT&T and Chase. Sometimes, when you have a 20-30 year timeline, it doesn’t seem to matter whether or not you’re buying low. Sometimes, just buying period is all I’m after.
| SBUX | 9 shares ($823.53) |
| ABBV | 1 share ($69.15) |
| ATVI | 1 share ($54.60) |
| T | 15 shares ($564.28) |
| KR | 1 share ($24.58) |
| PFE | 2 shares ($73.85) |
| CVS | 2 shares ($127.30) |
| MSFT | 1 share ($140.94) |
| JPM | 16 shares ($1,885.24 |
Don’t get used to me shelling out quite as much cash on a monthly basis, but it was fun to be able to do this time around. I had some money left over from the Chase account I was using for investing before I started fresh a few months back. It’s also early in my march, so I’m always looking to build up a few select positions in order to kinda get the ball rolling a little bit. Now that I’ve done that, I might only spend a couple hundred in a given month depending on what’s going on with the market and my life outside of it.
The 16 shares of Chase, coupled with the two I already owned, make up my biggest position as of this post. The ex-dividend date is coming up in a day or so, too, so I’ll be looking at $16.20 in dividends in October from Chase alone.
March with me
Looking to get started? Start with Robinhood: http://share.robinhood.com/benjams352
Like the Facebook Page: @marchtowardamillion
Follow along on Twitter: @marchtoward1mil
Follow along on Instagram: @marchtoward1mil
