February Review / March Preview, 2017

Oscars Gremlin here to talk about this past month and the future.  I am glad the 'award' season is basically over, because it is annoying to hear about them all the time from people or the media.  This year I was a victim of circumstance and had to watch some of these shows.  I long for the day when we see an award show broadcast for engineering and science beyond the Nobel Prizes.  I would like some categories like 'best new building', 'most innovative green technology', or even 'coolest new species'.  Anyways I digress, February is where the year starts to pick up the pace (and temperature, where the hell did winter go?!).  Everything is now busy, and I'm not even an accountant.

February:

This past month in Loyal3 I added 4 shares of VF Corp. (VFC) and 1 share of Target (TGT) for a combined total of $275.  Both have been showing market weakness, and they are venerable stocks I desire in my portfolio.  TGT has in particular been beaten down in the market.  Snap Decision Investors (I call them that) have noted politics, earnings, and leadership as a reason for short term demise and a reason to stay away long term.  This line of reasoning shocks me.  Do people not think that TGT will pull a WalMart (WMT) and scoop up websites like Jet.com, and expand  their online footprint?  Also with political the stuff, times are always changing and people barely can keep up with yesterday's news... good luck with remembering what happened a year ago.  So I am happy to say I got some good prices there.

Last month I brought in a total of $225.94 in dividends ($20.51 taxable, $64.7 Roth, and $140.73 IRA).  This is an increase from last year ($67.59 total) by 234%.  The IRA being added into the equation really blows this month out of the water

In terms of dividend increases, I realized six this month from Realty Income (O), Abbott Labs (ABT), AT&T (T), CVS Health Corp (CVS), Welltower (HCN), and Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI).  Raises were between less than 1% and 4.5%.  Thus far for 2017, I have realized 9 dividend increases!  Consistency is the name of this game.

Next month I will realize six raises, from Dunkin Donuts (DNKN), Eaton Corp. (ETN), Waste Management (WM), Prudential (PRU), Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM), and 3M (MMM).  The increases range from around 2% to more than 9% .

March:

Our only remaining debt is extremely low interest auto loans.  Looking ahead, I will be to saving a solid amount of cash.  This is related to the fact that my wife and I will look to get a house sometime in the next (few) year(s).  I want to go in with a decent down payment to make sure we get what we want.

I hope to post more than one time next month... But we will see, March and April are already slated to be busy.

Next month should produce around $258 in dividends, which is a 131% YOY increase, most of which is attributable to my new IRA.  Things are coming together nicely.

My portfolio page is currently up to date.

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