March, Review / April, 2016 Preview

Spring Gremlin here to talk about March. Another amazing month under my belt for sure.  First I have started biking to work.  The reason for the start was threefold.  1 - To save costs, 2 - to prove I could / get a workout on the way to work, and 3 - Because of this.  I rely much of the time on DC's Metro to get to work, so once that notice was issued I hopped on my bike and made it work.  At the moment Metro is even talking about long term line maintenance, which will lead to shutdowns.  Plus the weather is good. All three reasons are definitely good, and anytime cash gets returned to my pocket is great.  Right now, I only bike 2-3 days per week, but in the summer time pending weather, no reason I can't make it more.

Second, my taxes were also polished off last month.  Due to my wife's new job I had assumed we'd owe a little.  I could not have been more wrong.  We got a whopping tax return, and as it came to be understood that my wife paid a bunch more in taxes than before, hence we accidentally overpaid.  Its hard to be mad though, as that chunk of change will be split nicely between debts and investments.  Our tax returns can be described as a windfall, one that will be put to good use despite our mistake otherwise.

Third, I booked flights and part of our summer trip to Europe.  We will be visiting friends who moved there.  My wife is very excited.  Our round-trip tickets cost $366, which reflects only fees and taxes, as all of our flights were purchased using points.  When the time comes I will post "what was done" in reference to our booking.  It will have to wait until after the trip, which will have to wait until July.

March:

I was able to put $490 to work in Loyal3 over the course of last month, so that was nice.  I added no new positions this month, and just built upon existing positions.

Last month I brought in a total of $111.86 in dividends ($83.93 taxable , $27.93 Roth).  This is an increase from last year ($73.37 total) by 52.46%.  I had expected this amount, and its pretty delightful.  In fact this is the most I have ever brought in via dividends.  These numbers were aided by my purchase of Eaton (ETN) and pushed higher than I expected by getting a small dividend from Pepsi Co (PEP) at the end of the month (Loyal3 usually is behind the dividend pay date).

In terms of dividend increases, I realized three this month from ETN, Dunkin Brands (DNKN), and Waste Management (WM).  Each was above 4%, which pleases me.  Those are my favorite kind of raises, the ones my money earns for me.

Next month I will realize 6 dividend increases: Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM), Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS), Coke Cola (KO), Realty Income (O), and Walmart (WMT). That is a great beginning to the quarter.  Of those positions only BNS and WMT are new or relatively new.

Thus far for 2016, I have realized 6 dividend increases, and after April it will be 12 total.  This is what a snowball looks like in the early game.

April:

Our only long term debts are our cars and my wife's student loans, and her loan won't last the year.  I will continue next month to throw some extra money at her student loans and my car.  If we paid her student loans at the minimum rate it would take around 2.1 years to finish otherwise.  I have already gotten ahead on my monthly payments on my car and that will not stop as well.  Her student loan should be finished around September or October, if everything else remains constant.

Next month should produce around $82 in dividends, which is a 9.75% YOY increase.  On the Loyal3 front I will probably invest $400 on existing positions.  I am trying to pump up our safety net savings a little bit on the side as well, which is the reason for the slight edging down of Loyal3 investing.

My portfolio page is currently up to date.

Hope everyone has a great April!
- Dividend Gremlin
- Long all stocks tickers mentioned