June Review / July Preview, 2017

Sweaty Gremlin here to talk about last month and look forward to the next.  June was a busy month, I turned 32, my wife and I found and made an offer on a house, which was accepted, I was in a wedding, and on and on.  Now we face the prospect of our rent payments becoming mortgage payments, so we can build some equity.   Now I can literally talk about the situation on the 'home front' and mean it.

On the work front I got to travel a little bit, and it is likely I will be required to do so again soon.  The projects I support like to do visits and tests in the summer months.  Traveling for work is not always ideal, but looking on the bright side, I rack up points, and all my required expenses are covered for those days - so I save some of my money.  

June:

This past month I did not make any new investments.  I have the cash on hand, but I did not see any stocks I wanted to purchase, also there is my whole housing situation.

Last month I brought in a total of $294.87 in dividends ($101.16 taxable, $61.80 Roth, and $131.91 IRA).  This is an increase from last year ($116.44 total) by 153%. The IRA money does it again, destroying a prior month.

In terms of dividend increases, I realized four this month from Pepsico (PEP), Unilever (UL), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), and Exxon Mobile (XOM).  Raises were between 2% to more than 8%.  Thus far for 2017, I have realized 29 dividend increases!

Next month I will realize one raise, Realty Income (O).  The increase is approximately 0.2% - the 4th from O this year.

July:

At the moment we only have low interest auto loans, in terms of realized debt.  This past month I covered my net-worth, which be very much in flux in the coming months.  This month we anticipate closing on a house, which will set us back a little bit [about a metric ton], but allow for a longer term building of wealth.  Owning our house has been a long time coming, and it is the smarter long term financial move.  However, it did impact stock purchases as I have held back potential Roth IRA and taxable purchases in case the cash is needed in the short term.  I will likely make the Roth move in July, but sit on the other cash until at least August.

Next month should produce around $71 in dividends, which is a 8% YOY decrease, which is  attributable to Kraft-Heinz (KHC) switching its payout month.

My portfolio page is currently up to date.

Hope everyone has a great July, get some sun and some fireworks!
- Dividend Gremlin
- Long all stock tickers mentioned