Saturday, January 30, 2016

Jan 2016 Dividends & Purchases




Well after totally dismantling my portfolio over the last quarter of 2015, the result have finally showed themselves in a very big way this month. :-( I had one lone company (WMT) and my municipal bond fund (NEA) pay me this month. Total dividend income was a whopping $42.98.

On the flip side I was extremely active with purchases this month. I added $32496.23 in new capital which increases my yearly dividends by $1377.51.

It definitely feels a bit strange going from $18,500 in forward dividends to receiving less than $50.00 this month. On the other hand, it feels pretty damn good sitting on a ton of cash right now.

I have no idea what lies ahead in February. I could invest another $30,000 into the market, invest $0, or just sell everything again. It's a bit crazy. While I loved buying a lot of great companies this month, the economy in Houston is a bit shaky right now. Focusing on both business and trying to pay attention to the market is a bit taxing. When I took a break from buying I actually stopped paying attention to the markets for the most part. It was kind of relaxing actually. January provided great opportunities to buy companies, but it was a bit exhausting. Maybe I should just buy shares of XOM, JNJ, PG, and KO every month. I don't know. We'll see how it goes.

Dividends and purchases are shown below...








Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Recent Buy --- TUP & BA






Today I added to my Boeing position and created a new position in Tupperware.


  • TUP:  38 shares @ $43.20 --- Yield  6.30%
  • BA:  13 shares @ $117.40 --- Yield  3.71%

Total capital invested is $3181.70. The combined yield on these purchases is 5.03% and will add $160.04 to my yearly dividends. This is my second purchase of BA this month, Industrial companies continue to take it on the chin. TUP, on the other hand, should be considered relatively defensive if we are in fact heading towards a recession. Gotta store those leftovers during hard times...Lol

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Friday, January 22, 2016

Recent Buys --- UNP & AXP






Here are my final purchases for this week.

  • UNP:  22 shares @ $68.92 --- Yield  3.20%
  • AXP:  28 shares @ $54.82 --- Yield  2.12%


Total capital invested is $3065.10. The combined yield on these purchases is 2.64% and will add $80.88 to my yearly dividends. 

This should conclude my purchases for this week and maybe even this month. AXP is taking a beating today and I have been interested in picking up shares for a while. I will just nibble here and add more if it drifts down into the $40s.

UNP, like all the railroads, is still under heavy selling pressure and this marks my second purchase this month. Choo Choo!!!


DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Pound the Rock --- CMI, DOV, & JNJ
















Here are three new additions to my fledgling dividend pipeline...


  • CMI:  19 shares @ $80.90 --- Yield  4.85%
  • DOV:  30 shares @ $51.86 --- Yield  3.24%
  • JNJ:  16 shares @ $95.77 --- Yield  3.13%


To be honest, I had my hand on the trigger with COP, BBL, and CAT. I don't think anyone can fully appreciate how difficult it was to refrain from grabbing those three this morning. Who knows, maybe tomorrow....:-)

Total capital invested is $4646.07. The combined yield on these purchases 3.72% is and will add $172.88 to my yearly dividends.

FORWARD DIVIDENDS

Depending on how the oil companies perform, I should be around $2600.00 in my taxable account.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Friday, January 15, 2016

Whistling past the graveyard --- WPC, IBM, ADM, UL, & AAPL












Here are my final purchases for the week.

  • WPC: 28 shares @ $55.87 --- Yield  6.87%
  • IBM:  12 shares @ $129.92 --- Yield  4.00% 
  • ADM:  48 shares @ $31.46 --- Yield  3.56%
  • UL:  38 shares @ $39.97 --- Yield  3.40%
  • AAPL:  16 shares @ $96.83 --- Yield  2.15%

Total capital invested is $7736.37. The combined yield on these purchases is 3.99% and will add $308.64 to my yearly dividends.


Week 2 for the year is ending a lot like week 1. It is a very crazy environment right now! I'm not sure, but IBM in the 4% range may be an all time high yield (for now). I have never owned AAPL shares before so I am glad to start a new position under $100.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY


Wednesday, January 13, 2016

A few more buys --- BNS, GM, & MMM






Here we go again.


  • BNS:  40 shares @ $37.33  Yield  5.41%
  • GM:  50 shares @ $30.24  Yield  5.03%
  • MMM:  11 shares @ $139.86  Yield  2.95%

Total capital invested is $4564.51. The combined yield of these purchases is 4.43% and will add $202.12 to my yearly dividends.

Note:

GM raised its dividend 5.55% earlier today from $.36 to $.38 per quarter. They also gave earnings guidance of $5.25 and $.5.75 for this year. I have owned shares of GM over the last few years and continue to think they are undervalued.

BNS is now trading at April 2009 levels....enough said. Falling knives are everywhere!


DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Monday, January 11, 2016

More "Toe dipping" --- CAT, TD, & BA








Today I continued adding to the castle walls, picking up shares of CAT, TD, & BA.


  • CAT:  25 shares @ $61.44 --- Yield  5.01%
  • TD:  45 shaes @ $35.94 --- Yield  4.26%
  • BA:  12 shares @ $129.91 --- Yield 3.36% 
Total capital invested is $4733.09.  The combined yield is 4.19%  and will add $198.51 to my yearly dividends.

I was also watching GM, BBL (I know I know!!...fight the urge), and CMI.

Eventually we will have an up day this year. I do like the buying opportunities though.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Let the GRIND begin again...








Divorce can be a real motherfucker. 

At the end of July I made the very difficult decision to make a major change in my life. I walked out the front door of my house (paid for) and decided to take a new path in life.

I had been going back and forth in my mind for months about whether this was the best choice for me. Here I am over five months later and I still feel like I made the right move even though it has been incredibly difficult for a number of reasons (emotional and financial).  There have been a few times in the past where my wife and I temporarily split, but none ever felt this final. In fact, this is the first time that I made the decision to leave and therefore I knew we would be done for good. In the past shewas the one who would move out for a month or two, but always made her way back. The fact that, in the past, it was relatively easy for her to bail out should have been a warning sign. In any case, I always welcomed her back. This time when I left things got a bit rougher.

During the first few months after I left I had the "pleasure" of staying at my parents house. I would have rented an apartment, but since she was eventually planning on moving out of the house I decided a short stay with the folks would be OK.  Unfortunately she took over two months getting her affairs in order so I was in a holding pattern until I good get back to my house. I should have just got the apartment.


Life with the folks

While I have the kindest, most generous parents in the world, living with them had its challenges. Other than a couple of summers during college, I have not lived at home since I was a kid.  My folks are both in their late 70s, so they have some "routines" that can be frustrating. First of all, August and September are damn hot here in Houston. Hell it was 82 here on Christmas day this year!! Speaking of 82, that is where the thermostat stays year round in their house.

One night early on I was tossing and turning, sweating my ass off so I lowered the AC down to a downright frigid 75 (haha). The next morning as I headed out to make breakfast I noticed both of my parents were sitting in their recliners wearing sweats with heavy blankets over them. LOL Just think if I turned it down to 68 like I normally do. Anyway between climate issues and very irregular eating habits, I found myself immersed in my job working even longer hours than usual. Work, unfortunately was my new safe haven....sigh

Working more has always been my best escape practice. When the "Shit hits the fan" I just immerse myself in more work. I have been trying to alter this mentality, yet I keep going back to this mindset. Work, work, work.

Unfortunately between my new found freedom and my less than desirable living arrangement, I started spending more time out with the guys drinking too much. That's a whole different subject that I will steer clear of for now.

Without a doubt I will always be grateful for the parents' hospitality, but I was very relieved when she finally moved out of my house and I was able to start putting the pieces of  my life back together. This happened around the first week of October.


Echo Chamber here I come

In the spring of 2003 I removed the carpet from most of the rooms in my house and installed tile flooring. It was a huge job and have really enjoyed how much easier it is to keep clean.

I also noticed how when all the furniture is removed is sounds like I am yelling over the Grand Canyon. I guess I should be thankful for small blessings. She did leave me one recliner and a 31" TV. As for everything else, it was GONE! Well maybe not everything, she did leave a few of the tattered towels and some mismatched dishes too. LOL

In other words, I felt like I was back in college, except there was no bed. During one six month separation about 10 years ago I actually slept on my sofa with two small dogs. Unfortunately she gave that sofa away to my next door neighbor a couple of years ago when we purchased new furniture. It was the first piece of furniture I purchased when I graduated college. It's still next door at my neighbors...rats!

Like I previously mentioned,  I work quite a few hours and have been hanging out with old and new friends. Despite not having any furniture, I have actually gotten rid of more stuff and have yet to add anything new. I do have a new sofa with power recliners coming next week. :-) That is going to be so sweet!!

Most of the crap that I have thrown out is stuff that I told her was junk that she refused to get rid of. I did wait until the divorce was final before I threw threw those things out. I didn't want anything else added to the divorce decree with overinflated values. :-)

Getting rid of old seldom used items was somewhat therapeutic. Especially if you can destroy a few things like Peter and the boys in OFFICE SPACE. :-)

Like I said before I am getting a sofa next week because I really need more seating and people who come over are starting to give me strange looks. If I was 25 with no furniture it would probably be ok. Now that I am 44, it is just plain silly especially since I have the means to furnish the place.


Net worth fallout

I'm not gonna lie, my net worth took a pretty sizable hit. I won't get into specifics, but obviously I had to liquidate a large portion of my holdings. Once I sold off enough stocks for the settlement I went ahead and sold off most of the rest as well. The portfolio was lopsided and quite honestly I just wanted to have the cash for psychological reasons. Also I just didn't have the desire to focus on investing too much at the time. Hopefully I will fully regain my enthusiasm this year.

The good news is I have my house back and still have a pretty decent nest egg. More importantly I have joy in my life and am eager to start building my future again.

In all honestly when I made the decision to start a new life last summer I asked myself the question "If you have to give up everything in order to gain this freedom are you prepared to do so?" The answer was and still is YES! Obviously it would have been impossible for one party to get everything especially when there are no kids involved. It did feel like I was getting screwed during the process, but I'm sure she felt the same way. Even worse, lawyers were involved and got a shitload of my money. Such is life I guess.

As I said, I would have gladly started over again from scratch. I have done it in the past and it's really not that scary. If I were 65 and penniless that might be a different story. Who knows? maybe not.

As you can see by my Dividend Spreadsheet Tab my yearly dividends are pretty fucked up right now. I own only a handful of energy companies right now. I did start adding a few new positions this past week, but I am back at the base of the mountain....that is for sure!


Onward and Upward

I believe self pity, like excuses is for losers! I know it's a brash and in-your-face statement, yet it is how I feel. I refuse to dwell on dead yesterdays and unborn tomorrows. Other than sharing this post so that some of you can see the events that altered my financial picture, I refuse to blame anyone or lament over recent events in my life.

I also know that I am behind my goals and soon will go into full BEAST MODE and get my shit together again. Bet the fucking farm on it!

Stay tuned!


DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Friday, January 8, 2016

One more buy --- EMR




Today I purchased shares of EMR.

  • EMR:  35 shares @ $44.03  Yield  4.36% (initial position)

Total capital invested is $1548.00 and will add $67.20 to my yearly dividends.

It really feels good to re-enter the game even though its on a smaller level than in previous years. Since I stopped investing making the weekly purchases several months ago I no longer get to make the $1 trades so I will be buying in larger blocks than before. I did like the convenience of the automatic purchases, but I will survive making them manually.

In other news the DJIA is already down 6.19% in 2016. WOW!!! That is a huge drop.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Recent Buy --- Shell





Today I added to my Shell position.


  • RDS-b:  38 shares @ $39.85  Yield  9.43% (OK, we'll go with that for now.)

Total capital invested is $1521.25 and will add $142.88 to my yearly dividends. Talk about price compression. My share count is now around 157. At one point late last year, I had over 200 shares, but had 100 called away from me at $50. It's amazing how much this stock has fallen.

I went ahead and stayed with a smaller purchase this time. Hell it may be in the $20s before too long.
I also noticed BBL almost dropped into the $18s today. Crazy world!!!

After this week's ($3,000 worth of purchases), I have 13% (mostly oil companies) invested in the market with 87% in cash. 


DEFY MEDIOCRITY


Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The long climb begins (again) --- UNP Purchase




Today I (re) initiated a position in Union Pacific.


  • UNP:  20 shares @ $74.66 --- Yield  2.95%

Total capital invested is $1500.15 and will add $44 to my yearly dividends.

Call Option Purchase --- WMT





On 12/31/2015 I made one final purchase for the year. I know most bloggers (including myself) sell covered calls and puts on companies they would like to own. I took a different path and purchased a $62.50 WMT Jan 20 2017 call.

My thought process was pretty simple and certainly not scientific. While I have used the Dogs of the Dow (highest yield dow stocks) strategy many times to pick up under performing companies I modified this strategy a bit with this purchase.

It is true that WMT has fallen out of favor, but I made this call purchase decision based on the notion that WMT was the absolute worst performing Dow stock last year. Reversion to the mean and all that mumbo jumbo.

When I purchased the call for $3.58 including commision WMT was trading in the $61-62 range. This purchase gives me the option buy 100 shares of a great company during the next year or so. Right now WMT is trading between around $63.50 so I could sell the option for around $5.00 and pick up a little over $130 for a 5 day trade. To put things in perspective, a WMT shareholder would have to own 100 shares of WMT (around $6300) for an entire year to collect $196 (under 3%)in dividends. Options can provide some serious leverage to your income. I invested $358 and have earned (on paper right now) about a 35% return in only 5 days.

I probably will keep the option open as I wouldn't mind owning the shares, but I just don't want to buy them right now.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

December 2015 Dividends --- TIMBER


Here are the dividends I received in December.


  • BP --- $181.24
  • RDS-b --- $98.58
  • CVX --- $91.46
  • TGT --- $81.20
  • JNJ --- $76.41
  • IBM --- $67.64
  • XOM --- $61.69
  • PFE --- $53.54
  • SO --- $48.95
  • KO --- $37.74
  • UL --- $33.85
  • AFL --- $27.47
  • ESV -- $25.11
  • NEA --- $24.01
  • UNP --- $15.60
  • AHITX --- $7.18

Total taxable passive income is $931.67. 


Note:

December 2014 passive income was $2298.32....this was the first major (50%+) YOY drop.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Monday, January 4, 2016

November 2015 Dividends --- The SLIDE continues


Here are the dividends I received in November.


  • T --- $175.48
  • HCP --- $129.95
  • KMI --- $128.73
  • CAT --- $105.60
  • PG --- $91.43
  • VZ --- $80.48
  • APU --- $73.64
  • AHITX --- $57.70
  • KHC --- $43.13
  • CLX --- $42.16
  • PAYX --- $42.04
  • TIS --- $36.06
  • NEA --- $22.31

Total taxable passive income is $1028.71.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Sunday, January 3, 2016

October 2015 Dividends---The SLIDE begins


Here is the passive income I received during October.


  • PM --- $218.35
  • AHITX --- $126.56
  • GE --- $100.49
  • MO --- $84.75
  • KO --- $77.03
  • WPC --- $73.85
  • CSCO --- $50.40
  • TD --- $42.70
  • BAX --- $23.49
  • NEA --- $22.21
  • BXLT --- $4.61

Total taxable passive income is $824.44.

DEFY MEDIOCRITY

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Catch up post --- September 2015 Dividends




I am definitely a few months late getting this update posted. This was my highest divided total ever and will not be seen again for many years. It was awesome nonetheless. I will post October, November, and December's results in the next few days.


  • CAIBX --- $414.06
  • BBL --- $344.26
  • BP --- $179.26
  • AHITX --- $158.41
  • RDSb --- $157.04
  • CVX --- $101.32
  • GM --- $92.29
  • DLR --- $85.00
  • TGT --- $81.20
  • DVY --- $65.23
  • MAT --- $62.70
  • JNJ --- $62.66
  • XOM --- $61.07
  • PFE --- $53.07
  • MCD --- $52.01
  • IBM --- $50.61
  • SO --- $48.33
  • MSFT --- $46.50
  • ESV --- $39.89
  • NOV --- $38.67
  • AFL --- $26.13
  • NEA --- $22.80
  • WMT --- $18.44
  • PEP --- $15.93
  • UNP --- $15.50
  • WM --- $9.93

Total taxable passive income for September was $2302.38.


DEFY MEDIOCRITY