May 2015 Recap

Well another month is in the books and it has certainly been action-packed to say the least. Multiple birthdays, Mother's Days, graduations, massive flooding, six state road trips, and as always long work weeks kept me busy throughout the month. A lot of months tend to blur together and it is nice to have unique events/experiences to break the dull monotony that sometimes takes hold in my life. I also bought my wife a 2002 Pontiac Trans Am WS-6 that is totally BADASS! This is not an investment although she thinks it's a great investment. Actually I dig it as well even though the only time I will get to drive it is when it need gas. :-)

On the investment front things were relatively uneventful. I still managed to add a little to my passive income this month. After adding a record amount of cash in April, I tapered things back in May and contributed under $1000 not counting dividend reinvestments. I also received my first Adsense payment which is a nice complement to my dividend and interest income. Finally, I sold a BBL 55 call option that seems unlikely to be exercised before it expires in September.

I am really looking forward to what lies ahead in June. It should be a great dividend month and I am looking forward to continue volatility in the markets. I hope everyone has a great summer and I hope each of you stays relentless in your pursuit of FI. I know I will regardless of market conditions.

My current forward passive income is hovering around $16,500 and would love to go ahead and just blow past $17,000.


Anyway, here is the summary of my passive income for May.

Dividends/Interest

• AHITX --- $257.17
• HCP --- $186.45
• T --- $174.99
• KMI -- $112.68
• PG --- $82.43
• APU -- $70.83
• VZ --- $65.88
• CAT --- $50.23
• CLX --- $39.98
• PAYX --- $35.32
• TIS --- $35.00

Total taxable investment income is $1110.96.

Other non employment income is $114.25 from AdSense.

Total passive income is $1225.21.


New capital invested

• NEA --- $4754.69
• WPC --- $1763.75
• XOM --- $1050
• SO --- $750
• JNJ --- $500
• BP --- $500
• PG --- $300
• KO --- $300
• WMT -- $250
• CAIBX --- ($9231.00)

Total capital invested is $937.44.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Weekly Sharebuilder Purchases

Houston is a mess today! At least the multi-year drought should be over. :-)


Here are my automatic investments for this week.

• SO:  5.83 shares @ $42.88 --- Yield  5.06%
• XOM:  2.92 shares @ $85.69 --- Yield  3.41%
• WMT:  3.32 shares @ $75.34 --- Yield  2.60%

Total capital invested is $750 ($250 in each company). The combined yield of these purchases is 3.69% and will add $27.67 to my yearly dividends.


Also, here is the purchase from last week (5/19).

• JNJ:  1.96 shares @ $103.76 --- Yield  2.89%   ($5.78 added to my yearly dividends.)

Well I really enjoyed getting out of the hamster wheel for a week and spending time with my extended family. I don't take much time off from work, so when I do I really appreciate decompressing and just living. Right now I am back at work, full throttle ready to make and invest money to continue building my own dreams!

It looks like I got a break today with the markets retreating a bit. Energy, utilities, REITs, and bonds are looking very interesting to me right now.

I just noticed Shell is close to $60 a share. I may make a larger purchase today.

Companies on my radar for next week include RDS-b, BBL, XOM, BP, CVX, SO, WMT, GM and PM.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Blog Stats & My First Google Payment

Today I received my first ever payment from Google. Obviously this is NOT a dividend payment since GOOG doesn't pay dividends. Instead it is my first Adsense payment and it is a whopping $114.25.

I first decided to include ads on the blog around Christmas 2014, so it took about four months to qualify for the first $100 payment. Realistically I could have probably collected aluminum cans and made more money. However, that would require actual work so I probably would have bailed on the idea pretty quickly.

Also here is the latest info on my blog courtesy of Blogger. I started using Google Analytics about a month ago, but I haven't figured out a way to cut and paste a nice clean graph yet.

According to Blogger, April's page views came in at 27,856. As I have mentioned in the past, the Blogger pageview count seems much higher than the actual count. This turns out to be the case as you can see below in the May MTD pageview count comparison.


May 01 through May 21

Blogger pageviews --- 18,378
Google Analytics pageviews --- 13,697

So as you can see, the difference is almost 4700 and that is for only three weeks.

Again, the graph below is from Blogger, but it is the only graph that I can cut and paste....and Yes I am sure there is probably some way that I could export an Excel spreadsheet or Google Docs spreadsheet. Actually I'm not sure that I could do this, but I'm sure many of you probably could. Actually who cares if I can or can't export a graph. Cutting and pasting the Blogger graph works for me and will continue to work for me.

Anyway, I haven't posted much this month, so I will not be reaching new highs. My MTD Adsense total right now is only about $12. Like I mentioned above, it takes a hell of a lot of page views to earn any real money. If I ever reach $50 in a month, it will be a miracle.






I hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Gone Fishing

On vacation this week. I will be buying $200 worth of JNJ tomorrow. Will be back next week.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Bond Purchase: NEA

It has been over a year since I have added any bonds to my portfolio. Over $130k in stock investments with no bond action. While I love dividends, I also love interest and tax free interest at my current income level (ie 33% top tax rate) is even better.

The yield is somewhere in the 6% range and will add around $287.70 to my yearly interest income.


Action: Buy
Symbol: NEA
Description: NUVEEN TAX FREE ADV MUN FD
Quantity*: 350 shares
Execution time: 05-13-2015 10:47 ET
Price: $13.5649714286
Total Commissions & Charges: $6.95 
Total Transaction Amount: $4754.69
Trade Settlement Date: 05-18-2015 

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Weekly Sharebuilder Purchases

Here are my automatic investments for this week.

• WPC:  7.88 shares @ $63.46 --- Yield  6.00%
• BP:  11.69 shares @ $42.78 --- Yield  5.61%
• SO:  11.52 shares @ $43.37 --- Yield  5.00%
• XOM:  5.73 shares @ $87.26 --- Yield  3.35%

Total capital invested today is $2000 ($500 in each company). The combined yield on these purchases is 4.99% and will add $99.80 to my yearly dividends.

Gotta love how the market plummets at the open and then my buys go through near the days high. :-(


Mutual Fund Sale

• CAIBX --- 150 shares @ $61.54 --- Yield  approx. 3.9%

This transaction took place on Friday and I received $9231 this morning. This sale will reduce my yearly dividends by approximately $360.93.


With a variety of expenses coming at me during the next couple of weeks, I will not reinvest everything right away. With that said, the way the market is bouncing around today, I might still pick up a position or two before the end of business today. We'll see.

Sectors that look interesting right now include interest rate sensitive names within REITs, utilities, and telecoms. Some energy sector and consumer names also look appealing. In particular I am watching HCP, WPC, SO, T, WMT, PG, XOM, GM, and JNJ. On the more speculative side, I am also watching TIS and NOV.

REITs are really taking it on the chin right now similar to the way oil companies did six months ago. It's really exciting to watch things play out. Stay alert!

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

CLX raises dividend 4.05% --- New yield is 2.88%

Today Clorox announced that it is raising its quarterly dividend from $.74 to $.77 a share. This is a 4.05% increase and the new yield is 2.88%.

The record date is July 22nd and the pay date is August 7th.

Since I currently own 54.45 shares, my yearly dividends will increase by $6.53.

While I was hoping for a larger increase, 4% is not surprising especially after the 3% increase from Procter last month.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

BBL Covered Call

Today I sold a covered BBL call. The summary of the trade is copied and pasted below.


BBL Covered Call

Action: Sell to open
Description: BBL SEP 18 2015 55.00 CALL
Quantity*: -1 contracts
Execution time: 05-11-2015 10:19 ET
Price: $0.98
Total Commissions & Charges: $7.70
Total Transaction Amount: $90.30
Trade Settlement Date: 05-12-2015 

I should receive a September BBL dividend for about $205 (assuming I still own all of my shares). With the share price hovering around $48, I think this is a pretty solid short term options trade. If I retain the shares, this is a nice way to add 44% to my BBL dividend income in September.


Here are some other covered calls that are still open.

GM Covered Call

Action: Sell to open
Description: GM JAN 15 2016 40.00 CALL
Quantity*: -1 contracts
Execution time: 04-27-2015 15:07 ET
Price: $0.98
Total Commissions & Charges: $7.70
Total Transaction Amount: $90.30
Trade Settlement Date: 04-28-2015 


BP Covered Call

Action: Sell to open
Description: BP JAN 15 2016 47.00 CALL
Quantity*: -1 contracts
Execution time: 04-09-2015 11:35 ET
Price: $0.76
Total Commissions & Charges: $7.70
Total Transaction Amount: $68.30
Trade Settlement Date: 04-10-2015 


VZ Covered Call

Action: Sell to open
Description: VZ JAN 15 2016 50.00 CALL
Quantity*: -1 contracts
Execution time: 04-09-2015 12:24 ET
Price: $1.75
Total Commissions & Charges: $7.70
Total Transaction Amount: $167.30
Trade Settlement Date: 04-10-2015

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

April 2015 Income and Expenses

The amounts below are cash amounts and are net of taxes, insurance, 401k contributions, HSA, etc. In other words, the amounts are what get deposited and withdrawn from my accounts.

Day job (take home pay) --- $12238.93
Dividends/Interest --- $885.04
Options income --- $181.10

Total net income --- $13305.07

Expenses --- $8519.89

Savings $4785.18 --- Rate  35.97%


My day job income drifted down once again on a month over month basis. I think some of my income is being impacted with the lower energy prices. While Houston is much more economically diversified now than say in 1980, lower oil prices still make people a little nervous around here.

Once again, dividends were very solid in April and I also received my first ever option income from a GE call that I opened and closed within two weeks. I don't plan on day trading with options going forward. In fact what few options I sell will be out of the money calls. I don't anticipate making more that $400-$600 a year with this strategy. My real intentions are to accumulate income producing assets, not day trade.

Expenses were a bit high this month. I don't like making excuses for large one time items, but in this case I had to write a $6150.00 check to the IRS. Actually "real expenses" would have been only $2369.89. This marks the second month in a row that my living expenses for the month were less than $3000.00.  Also this is the first month that my expenses would have been less than $2500.00.  Again, the cash that actually flowed out of my account was $8519.89. Still seeing my living expenses below $3000.00 is very encouraging.

May Outlook

It is a good thing that I managed to keep things under check for the last two months because I will be hit with a few higher expenditures this month. Mother's day for two mothers, graduation presents, and a vacation will on my agenda for May. Is there a month that doesn't involve some kind of holiday, birthday, or graduation?? Oh well such is life.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Stock bought: WPC....again

Well I like to report things in real time....so here we go.

• 20 shares @ $62.84 --- Yield  6.06%

Total capital invested is $1263.75. This purchase will increase my yearly dividends by $76.20. I now have a total of 40 shares of WPC.

Weekly Sharebuilder Purchases

Here are my automatic investments for this week.

• PG:  3.74 shares @ $80.04 --- Yield  3.31%
• XOM:  3.34 shares @ $89.76 --- Yield  3.25%
• KO:  7.33 shares @ $40.95  --- Yield  3.22%
• JNJ:  3.01 shares @ $99.51 --- Yield  3.01%

Total capital invested is $1200 ($300 in each company). The combined yield on this week's purchases is 3.20% and will add $38.37 to my yearly dividends.

I felt like adding to few timeless companies that should pay me dividends for decades to come. It's not too often that you can catch all four of these companies yielding over 3% at the same time. Really I could spend the next several year making these same purchases over and over and would end up doing very well. Unfortunately, that is far too logical and boring for me.

Oil continues to rebound so I will probably just add a few shares here and there for now. REITs and utilities are currently feeling no love so I will likely add to positions in HCP, WPC, and SO as they continue to drop. I just noticed HCP dipped below $40 this morning. I love investing in sectors that are getting clobbered. Short term pain for long term gain!

Stocks on my radar for next week include WMT, T, PG, SO, HCP, WPC, JNJ, and PM.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

April 2015 Recap

 

 

 

Another month is in the books and my dividend snowball continues to grow. At one point in time I dreamed of reaching $1000 worth of dividends in a quarter. Now I am looking forward to the day where I receive at least $1000 in every month.

 

I also continued dismantling my mutual fund holdings, added to several of my positions, and even added a few new soldiers to my dividend army. This month also marks the first time I received dividends from TD which I purchased back in January.

Thanks to some heavy investing and a lot of dividend increases I reached a new milestone of $16,000 in forward passive income. Looking back over the last 4 years of  tireless saving and investing is amazing. There has been no shortage of triumphs and pitfalls along the way. One constant theme throughout the march up the mountain has been relentless forward progress. I love every second of the journey!

Here is the summary of my passive income for April 2015.

 

Dividends/interest

• AHITX:  $259.21
• PM:  $208.54
• GE:  $99.46
• MO:  $78.00
• KO:  $67.87
• CSCO:  $50.40
• TD: 46.31
• KRFT:  $41.25
• BAX:  $34.00

Total passive income received during the month of April is $885.04

Other non employment income received: GE Option Premium $181.10

So even if I didn't spend one second at work last month I would have made $1066.14.
 

 

New Capital Invested

 

• JNJ --- $5714.40
• HCP --- $5014.55
• SO --- $2739.50
• WMT --- $2485.95
• TIS --- $2336.95
• PG --- $2293.70
• WPC --- $1276.55
• RDS-b --- $250.00
• BBL --- $250
• CAT --- $200
• XOM --- $200
• CAIBX --- ($3000.00)
• AHITX --- ($3000.00)

Total new capital invested in April is $16761.60.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY