October Review / November Preview, 2019

Roller coaster Gremlin here to review and look forward. My daughter was born less than a week ago, so my focus has been there entirely. On top of that she will need heart surgery, so its easy to imagine how that can weigh on a person. I do plan on scaling back my investments in my taxable account and closely monitoring costs.  My insurance should cover almost everything, but naturally the internet is full of horror stories where the industry fails the captive audience consumers... Might make for a fun / terrible article.

On a much more positive note, our final car loan was paid off, so massive success there.  So with all that said, how did I do?

October:

This month I made several stock purchases this month.

I brought in a total of $128.98 in dividends ($95.43 taxable, $23.25 Roth, and $10.30 IRA).  This is an increase from last year (95.72 total) by 34%.

In terms of dividend increases, I realized* three raises from the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM), and Realty Income (O).  The increases ranged from 0.2% to 3%. I have now realized 51 raises thus far this year.  I also realized one cut of approximately 33% by KHC.

Next month I will realize 7 raises from the American Express (AXP), My Employer (B**), Eaton Vance (EV), the Royal Bank of Canada (RY), Starbucks (SBUX), Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI), and Verizon (VZ).  The increases range from just about 1% to more than 17%.

* I only count increases when realized, because until that money is delivered any statements or declarations are simply conjecture.

November:

The mortgage continues and I am putting extra cash towards the principal monthly - not a huge number, but every little bit counts. Our debts currently outstrip our assets.  Outside of our house, we still have very low interest auto debt (1.5% for our car), which I am aiming to pay off by the end of the year.  I am coming for you next, Mortgage.

I will be doing rolling purchases going forward, but I will likely focus on retirement accounts as in case I need to deal with healthcare costs.

Next month should produce around $347 in dividends, which is a 17% YOY increase.

My portfolio page is currently up to date.

Hope everyone has a great November.
- Dividend Gremlin
- Long all stock tickers