Wednesday, September 30, 2015

September Review / October Preview, 2015

Reviewer Gremlin here to talk about September.  It has been a busy month indeed with a lot of continued work travel and more writing on here than usual.  That of course is wedged in between everything else in my life.  Thankfully, the NFL has started and my fantasy teams are doing well, plus BPL is going on, but I've only been able to pay cursory attention to these. 

Naturally life threw a curve my way and my wife and I had to get another vehicle because her's was at the end of an illustrious 15 year life.  We downsized her car from large SUV to small / efficient SUV, but we will owe on her car for a few years still unlike the previously paid off one.  We both drive to work (and I sometimes for it), though there are long term plans to cut this mileage down by huge margins.  This brings me to excellent news though, my wife has started her new job.  A job that doubles her prior salary, and we are done with graduate school (without loans of which to speak)!  So going forward a lot more opportunities will be realized in investing and saving.  That plus we are consolidating our bank accounts, so debts will be paid and investments will grow faster.  Exciting times...

Investment wise I was able to put $429 to work in Loyal3 over the course of last month. 

September:

Last month I brought in a total of $79.91 in dividends ($62.20 taxable , $17.71 Roth), slightly more than expected.  This is a increase from last year ($62.87 total) by 27.1%.  That is pretty sweet.  

In terms of dividend increases, I realized two this month; Kellogg's (K) with a 2% increase and Target (TGT) with a 7.6% increase.  Of the two, TGT impacts me the most with holdings in both my Loyal3 and Roth accounts. Two new raises were reported, the standard Realty Income (O) increase by a small percentage and Microsoft (MSFT), who added a crushing 16.1% increase to their dividend.  That last one was delightful to read.

No new positions were added in any account, but I was able to put $429 to work in Loyal3 over the course of last month.  I have also been adding cash to my standard and Roth accounts, with the aim of making at least 1 more big move before years end.  I expect work will have me traveling more, so I will continue to use extra cash from that to fuel Loyal3 purchases and buff up my investment accounts.

Side note; over the last two months my 401K and investment balances are down.  Considering the market's volatility, it is not surprising nor disappointing.  All it signals to me is that future money will go the extra distance over time.

October:

Our only long term debts are our cars, which will continue though I plan to pay mine off as fast as possible.  I have already gotten ahead on my monthly payments and that will not stop.  My wife's car will receive this attention after mine is finished.  My work life looks to have me traveling a little bit again this month, but luckily I will be home the rest of the time.  I hope to have a review of a local  brewery sometime soon, as that has gotten sidetracked by my travels.  Though I still have 1 more review of beers from my last set of travels to post.

Next month should produce around $74 in dividends, which is a 5% year-over-year increase.  I expect to realize one raise next month from O.  On the Loyal3 side, I plan to attack some of my smaller positions with menace - and grow those dividend checks!

Hope everyone has a great October!
- Dividend Gremlin
- Long K, TGT, O, and MSFT

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your dividend income for September. Nice increase as well. I guess between the fresh capital and dividend increases you are well on your way. Look forward to seeing where you deploy your October cash. Keep adding as much as you can to that L3 account and elsewhere. It will be interesting to see how the last quarter will finish off in terms of your total 2015 dividends.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DivHut,

      Thanks for the comment. I plan to continue putting new cash to work, and now we have a bigger reserve to draw from and pay our debts in advance. I've already started attacking my Loyal3 account, picking up what I can to finish or push positions to greater heights.
      - Gremlin

      Delete