July Review / August Preview, 2016

Back from vacation Gremlin here to talk about July and the next few months.   So vacation was great, I went to the UK and Italy and saw a lot of cool stuff.  I will put together a post on that soon, just been lazy of late.  I watched the end of the Euros over there and was happy to see CR7 and Portugal win (why? because he is a good player, and its nice to see a new team win, especially from a smaller nation).  Though, Iceland winning would have been cooler.

Now the focus is on my new job, which starts in less than two weeks.  In the mean time I will be wrapping up my current position.  One thing I will note is that my pay schedule will change from once every two weeks to monthly, which sucks.  This will mean cash is tight for a brief period, however my salary increase will really start to fit in quickly, and debts will be punished.

July:

I was able to put $90 and purchased a new share of YUM stock.  It was a small purchase, and I did not feel like it warranted any posting.

Last month I brought in a total of $84.98 in dividends ($65.47 taxable, $19.51 Roth).  This is an increase from last year ($77.69 total) by 9.4%.  Not a bad increase, but it could have been higher had I held onto Chubb stock, but I am happy with my decisions concerning that situation earlier this year.  Those transactions have given my DFS and AMP stock.

In terms of dividend increases, I realized two this month from from Realty Income (O) and CIBC (CM).  The raises ranged from 0.5% to 2.5% (local currency). 

Next month I will realize no dividend increases. Thus far for 2016, I have realized 20 dividend increases.  Boom.

August:

Our only long term debts are our cars and my wife's student loans, and her loan won't last the year.  With my new job rapidly approaching there will be a brief hiatus on putting extra cash towards debts, until I start getting paid.  Once that happens, all bets are off and I will be crushing debts with this extra cash.

Next month should produce around $91 in dividends, which is a 35% YOY increase.  Investing wise this will be a bare bones month or two.  Once my pay period becomes more regular, watch out debt, watch out.

My portfolio page is currently up to date.

Hope everyone has a great August!
- Dividend Gremlin
- Long all stock tickers mentioned

June Review / July Preview, 2016

Summer Gremlin here to talk about June and July.   In less than a week I will be traveling to Europe, and I am very excited.  I have also accepted a new job offer.  Things are really starting to pick up steam in my day to day life.  The goal for the second half of the year is to really annihilate some debt and begin grooming my financial situation towards a house or kids or both.  Such is life.

June:

I was able to put $275 to work in Loyal3 over the course of last month.  I added no new Loyal3 positions this month. I did add a new position in Abbott Labs (ABT) in my Roth account using a free buy to seize the day as much as possible on the Brexit news.

Last month I brought in a total of $116.44 in dividends ($77.13 taxable, $39.31 Roth).  This is an increase from last year ($67.80 total) by 71.7%.  These amounts and the increase is as expected.  This is officially now my biggest month ever, which is really cool.

In terms of dividend increases, I realized four this month from Pepsi Co (PEP), Unilever (UL), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), and Exxon Mobile (XOM).  The raises ranged from 2.4% to 15%.  Overall this is fairly successful growth.  Those are my favorite kind of raises.

Next month I will realize two dividend increases: CIBC (CM) and Realty Income (O).  The increases range from 0.5% 2.3%.

Thus far for 2016, I have realized 18 dividend increases, and after July it will be 20 total.  Boom.

July:

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 1 year 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 $85 in dividends, which is a 10% YOY increase.  On the Loyal3 front I will probably invest $200 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, especially as we head into summer.

My portfolio page is currently up to date.

Hope everyone has a great July!
- Dividend Gremlin
- Long all stock tickers mentioned