December 2016 Recap

Here are the dividends I received during December.

• XOM --- $92.95
• PFE --- $91.56
• BP --- $68.40
• RDS-B --- $65.80
• WFC --- $64.98
• GM --- $62.01
• KO --- $56.23
• SO --- $50.70
• TROW --- $40.60
• MSFT --- $32.18
• GILD --- $24.51
• TGT --- $24.21
• NEA --- $23.83
• FLOW --- $19.20
• MET --- $16.00
• EMR --- $14.40
• GS --- $7.83
• ESV --- $0.70

Total dividends received in my taxable account are $757.09.

Total net capital invested is $25,708.30 which raised my yearly dividends by around $1000.00.

Overall December was a really solid month! It's nice to finally get the dividend income back up to a respectable level. NEA actually made an interest payment on the 1st and 30th so I may not get a payment in January.

I'm really excited about the upcoming year and will continue working diligently to reconstruct my portfolio. I have 37 income producers starting out for next year and will likely add 5 to 10 more throughout the year. My primary focus will be to build existing positions whenever possible.

On a final note, I would like to say that I am missing Dividend Hustler! That guy has some serious game and provides a shitload of motivation! I hope he reappears sometime soon. The dividend community is better off with his presence whether he has a portfolio filled with dividend stocks or just stone cold cash!

Hustler, I hope you reappear during the 2017!!

In the mean time everyone, in all areas of their lives, should continue to.......see below in bright red!!

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Final 2016 Buy --- CSCO

Today I initiated a position in CSCO.

• CSCO:  115 shares @ $30.38 --- Yield  3.42

Total capital is $3500.25 and will add $119.60 to my yearly dividends. I haven't done the exact math, but this purchase gets me to $6,000 in forward dividends. I have owned CSCO in the past and am glad to add shares once again, even though at a much higher buy price. The yield and dividend growth have been strong in recent years and makes a great complement to my MSFT position!

Hopefully the next couple of months provide better opportunities to add to existing positions. If we could duplicate Jan/Feb of 2016 that would be wonderful. It's really kills me that BA was trading around a $100 earlier this year and now has a $5.68 annual dividend. I bought and sold shares earlier this year and I could have had a 5.5% YOC. Crazy. Same story with CMI and many other industrials.

Forward dividends are around $6000.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- NKE

Today I initiated a position in NKE.

• NKE: 40 shares @ $50.99 --- Yield  1.41%

Total capital invested is $2046.55 and will add $28.80 to my yearly dividends. I believe NKE was the  best performing DJIA stock in 2015 and is currently the worst performer in 2016. The payout ratio is low as is the yield, but I think the dividends will continue to grow quickly and will give a YOC of 3% within a few years.

Forward dividends are just under $5900.00. I will absolutely reach $6000 within the next couple of days.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- PFE

Today I added some more share to my PFE position

• PFE:  75 shares @ $32.56 --- Yield  3.93%

Total capital invested is $2448.94 and will increase my yearly dividends by $96. Buying Pfizer around 4% usually has worked out pretty well for me over the past few years. Right now I have approximately 383 shares, but 300 of them have a $32 covered call attached to them which expires next month.

Those share are earning a $1.28 premium so I will probably close out the option early and keep a $100 or so profit from the trade rather than risk losing the shares.

Anyway, I am now about $150 away from my year end goal of $6000 in forward dividends.

Forward dividends are around $5850..

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Final 2016 Lending Club Update

My LC portfolio value finally reached $10,000 a couple of weeks ago which prompted me to discontinue future contributions for now. I plan on letting things ride for a while and may continue building up my loan balances in a few months.

In the mean time, I do plan on reinvesting all the interest payments I receive.

I have been investing $25 at a time and now have 492 notes up from 421 notes last report. I am continuing to use the automated note selecting mechanism which lets the computer spread the capital across a variety different loan grades.

Right now as you can see above, my current return is 5.50% after all defaults and past due loans have been written down.This is a significant drop from previous months. Obviously this happens when defaults start to rise and hopefully this is a temporary phenomenon. I would like to hope that the Christmas holidays are partially to blame as families can become pretty strapped this time of the year. 

Also, my monthly payments have increased to approximately $384.


2016 Net Annualized Returns

July --- 6.77%
August  --- 6.33%
September --- 6.65%
October --- 6.76%
December --- 5.50%

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- OHI

Today I initiated a small position in OHI.

• OHI:  80 shares @ $30.24 --- Yield  8.07%

Total capital invested is $2425.99 and will add $195.20 to my yearly dividends.

I have done a good job of avoiding high yielders this year, but I just glanced at my sector allocations and noticed the following.

• Consumer Defensive --- 21.47%
• Healthcare --- 17.28%
• Consumer Cyclical --- 14.94%
• Energy --- 11.14%

As you can see, this year's portfolio is definitely less volatile than in past years. I'll continue add value regardless of sector and quite honestly energy companies came through for me this year so I am glad that I kept them within my much smaller portfolio. I'm probably finished adding REITs for a while, but would love to double this position around $25.

Forward dividend are around $5750.

Next week will have some more big moves as well. 

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- HCP

Today I added to my HCP position

• HCP:  100 shares @ $28.95 --- Yield  5.11%

Total capital invested is $2901.45 and will add $148.to my yearly dividends. This brings my share count to just over 309 shares.

I am also watching O and OHI on the REIT front. Other stocks I continue to watch include NKE, CSCO, PG, GIS, GE, and JNJ.

Forward dividends are around $5550.


DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- VFC

Well, the buying streak continues...

• VFC:  80 shares @ $54.33 --- Yield  3.09%

Total capital invested is $4353.35 and will increase my dividends by $134.40.  

Forward dividends are around $5400.00.  Technically my dividends combined with my Lending Club net interest, puts me at $6k already, but I would like to see the dividends get to $6k as well!!

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- MDT

I initiated a position in MDT today.

• MDT:  60 shares @ $72.38 --- Yield  2.38%

Total capital invested is $4349.63 and will increase my dividends by $103.20. 

The yield isn't overly impressive, but with only a 37% payout ratio there is plenty of room for future growth. Also there is over 35 years of dividend growth history. Pretty impressive!!

The DJIA is now just 25 points away from 20,000. What an amazing year!!

Forward dividends are around $5250.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buys --- TUP & KMB

Today I added shares to some existing positions.

• TUP:  30 shares @ $52.98 --- Yield  5.13%
• KMB:  20 shares @ $114.86 --- Yield  3.20%

Total capital invested is $3900.50. The purchases have a combined yield of 3.98% and will add $155.20 to my yearly dividends.

Forward dividends are around $5150.00. 

I'm still shooting for 6k by the end of the year. It will be difficult to reach especially with the DOW sniffing 20k. I would like to add a REIT,  but O and OHI have spiked recently. Most likely I'll have to stay with other out of favor names which include NKE, MDT, DEO, ABT, NEA, KO, and the two listed above. I'm sure a surprise stock or two will surface as well.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

November 2016 Income & 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) --- $11020.03
Dividends/Interest ---  $174.60

Total net income --- $11194

Expenses --- $8415 (Taken from Mint)

Savings  $2779.63 --- Rate  24.83%

November was a fairly uneventful month from a business view. The election was certainly exciting and I think business spiked a bit on the promise of a brighter future. The stock market definitely spiked as did my net worth.

This post is a cash flow document and as you can see I spent too much money and am glad the bulk of the Christmas expenses are behind me!

December has been unusually slow so far, which is highly unusual. Hopefully the next two weeks pick up and we can end the year on a high note. Also, I have had quite a few doctor's bills hit this month as well and the expenses will once again be elevated.

Even though the year is not quite over, I am already trying to come up with new strategies for expense control/reduction. I know, I know, I know.....a pair of scissors to the credit card is a pretty effective plan. Hell that may be my single best strategy!


DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Sell --- FLO

I just had a $20 limit order executed and I sold my entire position of FLO today.

• FLO:  120 shares @ $20.01 --- Yield  3.2%

Total proceeds from this transaction are $2393.65 and my yearly dividends will be reduced by $76.80.

I originally purchased the shares back in September for $14.62 and I planned on adding to the position, but as many stocks have done over the past couple of months the shares got away from me. When the yield was in 4.5% range, FLO seemed like a steal, but now it's just another 3% yielder and quite frankly I am happy to take the 37% gain and redeploy into another better quality 3% yielder.

Forward dividends are back around 5k. I have some work to do in the next few weeks.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

GS exchanged for JNJ --- DJIA 19500 (WOW)

Today I sold my GS position and initiated a position in JNJ.

• GS:  12.05 shares @ $235.04 --- Yield  1.11%
• JNJ:  27 shares @ $110.62 --- Yield  2.89%

Total new capital invested is only $168.84, but will raise my net yearly dividends will increase by $55.07 since the difference in yields is so large between the two companies.

Rational:

I bought GS a few months back at $141 and a 2% yield and it is now almost $100 a share higher with a 1.1% yield. It has been a while since I have sold a position and really didn't want to. I must admit seeing a 63% in a just a few months combined with a 1% yield made the decision much easier.

Also I have been trying to create a more traditional DGI portfolio and JNJ fits within with that strategy much better than GS. I am closely watching massive gains in M, MET, and GM as well. These companies are some of my biggest gainers in recent months and I may slowly drop them as well and look for other DG companies. I will most likely keep GM because of its high yield and strong earnings growth.

JNJ is not cheap, but is cheaper. It may get even cheaper which is fine with me. 3% and 7-10% yearly dividend growth is awesome! 

Forward dividends are $5100.

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November 2016 Recap

Here is the summary of the dividends I received in my taxable account.

• HCP --- $76.41
• VZ --- $29.71
• ABT --- $26.15
• TIS --- $21.00
• AAPL --- $14.33
• NEA --- $7.54

Total dividend income received for November is $175.14

I'm really pleased with November's results and other than HCP, most of the income is fairly evenly distributed. 

I was down just a bit when compared to August's result, however most of that can be attributed to the HCP cut. These things happen and the only thing to do is move on and keep adding to the portfolio and replacing the lost income..

I was also able to contribute $18537.17 to the portfolio.  These new contributions will add an additional $700.36 to my forward dividends.

During the month of December I will be looking to add to current positions as well as adding a few small dogs of the dow companies (PG, CSCO, GE, KO, and VZ are amazing companies).

Forward dividends are around $5000.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Getting Defensive --- KO

I had a limit order filled today and added another 50 shares of KO.

• KO:  50 shares @ $39.99 --- Yield  3.50%

Total capital invested is $2006.45 and will add an additional $70 to my yearly dividends. 

This purchase pushes me just over 210 shares. Adding KO add a 3.5% yield is never a bad idea!

In other news, I am SERIOUSLY considering selling my GS shares that I bought several months ago at $140 and I see the shares are currently over $220. Other non traditional dividend companies I own that I might dump are M, MET, and GM. They are all way up off their lows and I am up 30-60% in the last few months. 

I don't normally look at precious metals, but they have been totally destroyed during the last few months and might be a nice speculative play. 

Just a few things on my mind.... :-)

Forward dividends are $5050.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Final November Buy --- PM

Today I added PM to my dividend portfolio.

• PM --- 50 shares @ $88.59 --- Yield  4.70%

Total capital invested is $4436.33 and will add $208 to my yearly dividends.

Last year I owned over 200 shares of PM and sold out I believe around this price at the end of the year. This is an interesting company that feels like it should trade around $100, but just as easily could fall down to $75. I have a hard time understanding it's perpetual "little brother" status compared to MO. I'm glad that I own shares of both companies once again and look forward to the January dividends.

Forward dividends are now around $5000. 6K by year end?? Well of course that is going to happen. I do hate buying into new all time highs seemingly every month. 

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

October 2016 Income & 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) --- $13692.23
Dividends/Interest ---  $162.59

Total net income --- $13854.82

Expenses --- $7143 (Taken from Mint)

Savings  $6711.82 --- Rate  48.44%

October was a challenging business month. The start was very slow, but eventually things picked up and it turned out to my best income month of the year. That was somewhat surprising considering all the national election buzz. My savings amount total was within in $1 of last month which is a strange coincidence. The net result is that my savings rate checked in again just below the 50% mark.

Even though my expenses were up a bit, some of that can be attributed to early knee surgery bills. There are thousands more on the horizon as the amounts from the various professionals and rehab facilities are tallied. Strangely enough none have been billed to me yet. They are coming though, no doubt about it!!

November is humming along both on the job front and the expense front. Christmas is going to break the bank, but at least we have most of the presents purchased.....I hope.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- GILD All time market highs!!

Today I added to my GILD position.

• GILD:  27 shares @ $74.97 --- Yield  2.51%

Total capital invested is $2031.09 and will add $50.76 to my yearly dividends. 

It's amazing how the market continues to hit all time high after all time high. The DJIA, S&P 500, and NASDAQ are all hitting new highs today.

I remember thinking the S&P 500 was way too high when it was trading around 1400 a few years back in 2013. Now we are inches away from 2200.

It just goes to show how powerful and unpredictable market forces are and that waiting for that ever elusive 20% pullback can result in a missed 80% surge! 

The good news is there are still sectors that are deep in correction territory and GILD happens fall smack dab in the middle of one!

Forward dividends are $4750.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- NEA

Today I added more tax free munis fund to my portfolio.

• NEA:  150 shares @ $13.19 --- Yield  6.22% (Tax exempt)

Total capital invested is 1985.90 and will add $123 to my yearly dividends.

High yielding stocks aren't the only thing under pressure recently, munis are experiencing some major pain as well. NEA reached a peak of about $15.25 a few months back and has fallen over 15% since bringings it's tax free yield up over 6%. For me that is the equivalent of a 9% REIT or a 7.5% qualified dividend stock. I'm in at this level and will gladly add more shares if it continues its decent.

There is certainly more than one way to skin a cat and munis are a great complement to my dividend and lending club portfolios.

PM, T, VZ, SO, CLX, CL, GILD and NKE are in my sights as well.

Forward dividends are around $4700.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

October 2016 Lending Club Update

Once again, I am a little late posting this update. These numbers reflect yesterday's balances and interest payments received. Pretty boring and consistent which I like.

I have been investing $25 at a time and now have 421 notes up from 375 notes last report. I am continuing to use the automated note selecting mechanism which lets the computer spread the capital across a variety different loan grades.

Right now as you can see above, my current return is 6.76% after all defaults and past due loans have been written down.This return continues to closely mirror the predicted 6.68% return under the Platform Mix. Also, my monthly payments have increased to approximately $328.

As my loan portfolio continues to increase both in value and number of notes outstanding, my returns are becoming less volatile and a bit more predictable. It looks like I will be in the 6-7%.

In the early months, I have seen the returns as high as 9% and as low as 3%. I'll be more than satified at the 7% level. That is what could be expected from a typical REIT and slightly higher than most utilities.

I will continue to invest $200 a week until I reached $10,000. At that point I will probably continue investing new capital, but may stick with higher credit borrowers.


2016 Net Annualized Returns

July --- 6.77%
August  --- 6.33%
September --- 6.65%
October --- 6.76%

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- UL DJIA All time high!!

Today I initiated a position in UL.

• UL:  100 shares @ $39.87 --- Yield  3.51%

Total capital invested is $3993.60 and will increase my yearly dividends by $140.00.

Even though the markets and my portfolio continues to surge to new all time highs, there are still pockets of value out there. 

UL has fallen about $10 a share in the last month or so and so I took advantage of what I think is a pretty good yield and entry point. Other companies I am watching closely include PM, MO, VZ, T, OHI, HCP, NKE, and DEO. Most of these names are being left for dead. The best part is I have little or no position in most of them.

On the other side of the spectrum WFC, M, GS, MET, TROW, EMR, PFE, and GILD look really stretched. GS might be my first sell in a very long time as I am up about $60 a share in this position and the yield has really plummeted.

Forward dividends are around $4540.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- TIS & KMB

Today I add to my TIS position and initiated a position in KMB.

• TIS:  75 shares @ $24.30 --- Yield  5.76%
• KMB:  20 shares @ $112.37 --- Yield  3.27%

Total capital invested is $4083.80 and the combined yield is 4.37%. These purchases will add an additional $178.60.

It's nice to see some defensive names finally coming back to more reasonable levels. In addition to above companies, I am closely watching SBUX, NKE, DEO, ABBV, VZ, T, CLX, MCD, OHI, and HCP even after the dividend cut.

Speaking of the HCP dividend cut, my forward dividends are now $4350.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

October 2016 Recap

Here is the summary of the dividends I received in my taxable account.

• DEO --- $53.54
• M --- $37.75
• KO --- $28.00
• TUP --- $20.40
• VIAB --- $16.00
• NEA --- $6.90

Total dividends received for October are $162.59.

Well after laying goose eggs in April and July, I finally kicked down the door (LIKE THE WORLD CHAMPION CHICAGO CUBS!!!!), and earned some money to start the fourth quarter.  As always, I reinvested all the dividends back into the companies paying them.

As you can see I also added $5893.98 in fresh new capital which increased my forward dividends by $225.00. 

I would love to have added more, but I had to under ACL surgery last month and obviously was preoccupied with that whole situation....and will be for months to come no doubt!!

Anyway I love the results from last month and hope to tickle $5000 in forward dividends by year end. We'll see how it goes.

Forward dividends are around $4300.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

September 2016 Income & 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) --- $12907.95
Dividends/Interest ---  $535.72

Total net income --- $13443.67

Expenses --- $6733 (Taken from Mint)

Savings  $6710.67 --- Rate  49.94%

After hitting a record low savings rating in August, I bounced backed nicely saving 50% of my income for the month. Expenses were still on the high side, but my income was my highest amount so far for 2016.

Considering I prepaid a 4 day cruise last month, I feel really good about last month and will continue to work on my daily living expenses, I have noticed a trend this year that "one-time" anomalies are becoming monthly occurrences so I better tighten things up.

My day job income was outstanding last month which was surprising considering the election is so close. October will not be as kind as we are tracking for our worst month of the year. Make hay while the sun shines I guess.

It also feels good seeing some real progress from the passive income front. I probably should start reporting my interest income from Lending Club as well. I might hit the $100 mark in October.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

September 2016 Lending Club Update

I'm a couple of weeks late uploading my Lending Club Summary. These numbers reflect yesterday's balances and interest payments received. Pretty boring and consistent which I like.

I have been investing $25 at a time and now have 375 notes up from 310 notes last report.  I am continuing to use the automated note selecting mechanism which lets the computer spread the capital across a variety different loan grades.

Right now as you can see above, my current return is 6.65% after all defaults and past due loans have been written down.This return closely mirrors the predicted 6.68% return under the Platform Mix. Also, my monthly payments have increased to approximately $294.

The returns continue to bounce around like a pinball as notes are written down when they become past due. If and when the notes are made current, the return adjusts upward as expected.

As mentioned last update, I have seen the returns as high as 9% and as low as 3%. It tends to stay around 7% most of the time.

I will continue to invest $200 a week until I reached $10,000. At that point I will probably continue investing new capital, but may stick with higher credit borrowers.


2016 Net Annualized Returns

July --- 6.77%
August  --- 6.33%
September --- 6.65%

Recent Buy --- BMY

Today I decided to initiate a position in BMY.

• BMY:  35 shares @ $49.96 --- Yield  3.04%

Total capital invested is $1755.48 and this purchase will increase my yearly dividends by $53.20.

While the markets keep marching up towards the sky, BMY is actually down about 35% from $77 in June to the high 40s during the last 3 months. I told myself if the price hit $50 I would jump into a small position.

This company may require some patience as it has fallen hard through all kinds of resistance levels. I am planning on being a long term investor and will gladly add more if the price falls further. I actually feel really good about several of my recent investments. It's not often that your portfolio value surges up while companies you are underweight in drop in value. That is an awesome combination!!

I was close to adding T or NEA (muni bond fund) also. I will continue to watch these two along with other utilities/telcos as well as tobacco stocks like PM and MO.

Forward dividends are $4300.00

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buys --- SO & MO

Today I added so high yielders to my portfolio.

• SO:  40 shares @ $49.53 --- Yield  4.52%
• MO:  35 shares @ $61.24 --- Yield  3.98%

Total capital invested is $4138.50 and the combined yield is 4.15%. These purchases will increase my yearly dividends by $171.80.

I already own 50 shares of SO and I thought the recent pullback would be a nice time to add a few more shares.

While I didn't have MO in my portfolio this year, I have owned shares in the past. It's hard to say if the shares are cheap, but I do know that this company rarely gives excellent buying opportunities. In fact, both the price and dividends appear to go straight up over time. If the yield gets close to 5%, I could see myself adding 200 shares immediately.

I was also closely watching T, VZ, and GIS. I would love to add shares all of these companies to my portfolio. On the lower yielding side of the pond, NKE and GILD are looking interesting.

Forward dividends are around $4250.

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September 2016 Recap

The dividends photo is a tight squeeze so I'll manually type the summary below as well.

Here is the summary of the dividends I received in my taxable account.

• PFE --- $90.78
• XOM --- $77.30
• BP --- $67.18
• RDS-b --- $65.80
• GM --- $61.29
• WFC --- $51.30
• MSFT --- $29.52
• SO --- $28.00
• TGT --- $24.00
• TROW --- $12.42
• GILD --- $11.75
• GS --- $7.80
• NEA --- $6.88
• ESV --- $1.70

Total dividends received for September are $535.72.

September was a fantastic month for dividends and the investments from earlier months are starting to pay off....literally.  As always, I reinvested all the dividends back into the companies paying them.

As you can see I also added $18,419.83 in fresh new capital which increased my forward dividends by$584.88. 

The fourth quarter of this year should be really solid and I can't wait to continue adding more shares of great companies.

Forward dividends are around $4050.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

XOM covered call closed

Yesterday afternoon I decided to close out my covered XOM call. The details can be seen above.

Originally I sold a $90 XOM call and received a $237.30 premium. Since Exxon was trading around $82 yesterday and I had essentially earned 72% of the premium after subtracting all fees, I decided to buy back the call for $67.70.

This left me with a net profit of $169.60.  Not too bad especially when combined with the $336 ESV call profit also shown in the picture above.

XOM has traded as high as $96 this year which put me "upside down" on this trade most of the year. For a while I was concerned that I might have to sell the shares at $90.00, but the shares came back down and I decided to take the option profit and remove the possibility of losing the shares.

I was extremely fortunate with my timing as XOM is trading up about $3.50 today at a price of about $86.50. Most likely all of the option profit would have vanished with today's price action.

I am tempted to resell another call and start the process all over again.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy ---- More KO

Today I added shares to my KO position.

• KO:  40 shares @ $42.02 --- Yield  3.33%

Total capital invested is $1687.75 and this purchase will add $56.00 to my yearly dividends.

My KO share count is now 160 spinning off $224 of dividends for me. I will probably add to other companies going forward since this is becoming one of my larger positions.

TGT is also looking pretty attractive here around $67 and I'm still thinking about initiating a position in MO as well. JNJ, MCD, and PG are also noticeably absent from my portfolio. They will start showing up eventually.

Forward dividends are now around $4050.00.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

9 Day ESV Call Option Trade

I decided to buy 15 $7.00 ESV Oct 21 2016 Calls a couple of weeks ago and closed the position last week.

Basically I bought 5 $7.00 Calls at $.55 and then an additional 10 Calls at $.50 for a total of 15 Calls at a total investment of $800.15. I held the calls for a little over a week and then dumped them at $.75 for a net proceed of $1136.80.

For this 9 days worth of work I picked up a net $336.65 in profit. This is my first option transaction since I excercised a $32 call option to purchase 100 shares of M back in July.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- More TROW

Today I had my $65.99 limit order filled.

• TROW:  28 shares @ $65.99 --- Yield  3.27%

Total capital invested is $1854.67 and will add $60.48 to my yearly dividends. This increases my share count to 73. One more purchase should bring me up to 100 shares.

I am also watching MO very closely and would love to add shares. I last purchased MO in 2013 for about $30 and it is now more than double that amount. Thanks to some outstanding dividend raises, the yield is still close to 4%. What a machine!

Forward dividends still holding around $4k after the VIAB dividend cut.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Dividend Beasts --- XOM & KO

Today I added to two monster businesses in my portfolio.

• XOM:  20 shares @ $83.89 --- Yield  3.58%
• KO:  40 shares @ $42.42 --- Yield  3.30%

Total capital invested is $3388.44 and the combined yield is 3.42% and will add $116 to my yearly dividends.

Two bread and butter companies that are dividend creating machines. These will be cornerstones in my portfolio for decades to come. 

Milestone 

$4000 forward dividends. Nowhere near my all time high of $18k reached last year, but I am on the hunt and will be aggressively adding to my forward dividend total.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

August 2016 Income & 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) --- $11890
Dividends/Interest ---  $185

Total net income --- $12075

Expenses --- $10806 (Taken from Mint)

Savings  $1269 --- Rate  10.51%  (DOUBLE OUCH!!)


What in the hell happened?? What didn't is the better question!

First the good news! I had my best income month of the year and even better I hit the payroll tax limit in July so I got to keep an extra 6% or so which helped increase my take home pay. Business is also booming in September, so hopefully most of Houston's woes are behind us.

Now for the expenses....The biggest expense can be seen in the picture above. While it is true that I prepaid all the hotel and theme park related expenses a few months ago, that as many know was just the beginning.

Since we took a road trip, additional hotel, gas, and food expenses were incurred. On the way back to Houston, we hit the Baton Rouge floods and had to take shelter which added another few hundred to the expense totals.

Those were the small expenses. If you think you are going to take a trip to Disney World with two kids and get out cheap, you really need to pull your head out of your ass!! Mickey and his crew are very well trained at extracting every penny they can out of your pockets. LOL  I have been to theme parks before, but nothing compares to DW. Literally every major ride ends inside a gift shop! I spent so much money on photo packages, Mickey ears, t-shirts, backpacks, and a ton of other cool shit.

On top of the onslaught of merchandise, the payment method was always a quick easy scan of my DW bracelet which might as well be a portal which connects my bank account to their cash registers.

All in all, it was a fantastic month and the memories will last a lifetime! The whole experience is another reason I recently started to accumulate Disney stock. They have one of the best run companies I have ever seen and create an insane experience for everyone who visits!!

Other notable expenses included a new refrigerator ($1800), yearly homeowners insurance, 6 month auto insurance, and back to school expenses. The month was a perfect storm of expenses, unfortunately I've hit several of these storms already this year. Oh well, life is about the living and I have had some of the best adventures this year.

I can't wait to go back in a few years...

There is a big world out there and I want to see as much of it as possible!

DEFY MEDIOCRITY