August Review / September Preview, 2016

Getting back to business Gremlin here.  So this past month I started a new job.  One that I already know will have a measure of interest significantly greater than my last job.  It will involve some travel, in fact I've already been out on one trip to Kansas City, but not the life robbing travel I had before.  Also the money is way better, which is the key thing.  This month somewhat normal investing and debt squashing activities will resume.  Next month those will be ratcheted up in intensity.  No I did not build a gaggle of wealth in my 20s, but I am going to make up for that right now.

August:

I bought no new stock of any sort, but much financial reading was done.

Last month I brought in a total of $95.21 in dividends ($36.50 taxable, $58.71 Roth).  This is an increase from last year ($67.45 total) by 41.6%.  The march forward is truly accelerating.

In terms of dividend increases, I realized one this month from from Discover Financial (DFS), which was really cool because I expected to have none.  The raise was around 7%. 

Next month I will realize four dividend increases.  They will be from Hershey's (HSY), Kellogg's (K), Realty Income (O), and Target (TGT).  The increases range from around 1% to above 7%. Thus far for 2016, I have realized 21 dividend increases.  Boom.

September:

Things are about to get exciting.  To start, sometime between October and November I will clear out my wife's student loans.  Since last December (when I first looked into this) we have plowed $7.2k into her debt and now just $1.25k remains.  Its a drop in the damn bucket.  This reinforces my belief, along with my extra salary that my car can be paid off by the end of next year.  On top of that more money coming in means more investing.  Its exciting times to be sure.

Next month should produce around $114 in dividends, which is a 43% YOY increase.  I will almost have made as much already as I did last year.  On top of that due to my work change I have some extra retirement money to play with; my 401k is being migrated as we speak to a new Sep IRA with my broker.  That is about $31k, and once that comes online my dividends overall will rocket up (though I will not count them towards my goals until next year).  .

My portfolio page is currently up to date.

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