Lending Club Update

This is my first Lending Club update this year and will probably only make the updates quarterly.

At the end of December, I was sitting just under $10,000 in loans and have not made any additional contributions since. As you can see, my balance has climbed to $10,137 during the first quarter of 2017. I am reinvesting all interest payments and if I realize similar returns throughout the year, my ending loan balance will be around $10,500.

This return is lower than I had anticipated, but about what you would expect from a utility stock. Also 5.57% is much better than bank interest for sure. NO FDIC however!!

I've been a little quiet on the dividend investing front and will be making bigger moves in April now that my taxes are done. I'm looking to be around $8500 in forward dividends by May 1!!

February 2017 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 In other words, the amounts are what get deposited and withdrawn from my accounts.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) --- $9633.76
Dividends/Interest ---  $170.01

Total net income --- $9803.77

Expenses --- $3994 (Taken from Mint)

Savings  $ --- Rate  59.26%

THAT is more like it!!! I went from a -59% savings rate in January to a 59% in February!!

How did I do that?? I spent less...

In all seriousness, I took a piece of paper and wrote the number $4,000 on the top and then numbers 1-28 below. Each day I listed each and every single expense throughout the month and told my girlfriend that when the total reaches $4,000 be prepared to eat whatever is in the pantry.....This is NO FUCKING joke.

I'm not going to say things went super smoothly, but I noticed when pizza was desired we found take out specials for $6.99 not high dollar gourmet shit totalling $50. The crock pot was dusted off and used exhaustively. When we hit the pub, we to Molly's and took advantage of Big Beer Thursdays. $3 for a big ass mug of draft beer. That was a bitch on my end cause I love bottled beer! Like I said, this was a sacrifice for all parties involved including me!!

March is starting off a little rocky as we have a birthday party seemingly every Saturday and Sunday this month! No problem. We are going to regroup and tighten things up at the halfway mark!!

Also my girl's insurance career is starting to take off so I'm really excited about that for her. Empire building is in progress!!

By any means necessary!

Recent Buy --- OHI

Today I doubled my OHI position.

• OHI:  80 shares @ $31.20 --- Yield  7.95%

Total capital invested is $2502.94 and will add $198.40 to my yearly dividends. So far this year I have done a pretty good job of adding to positions I already own. I am going to try and continue this strategy, but I would like to add a food company as well. GIS has been looking better recently and I would consider jumping back into FLO as well. In the mean time, I have plenty of choices within my portfolio to add to.

Other companies that I am considering this month include QCOM, XOM, KO, and GILD.

Forward dividends are around $7650.00.

QCOM raises dividend 7.55% --- New yield is 4.02%

Today QCOM announced that it will be raising its quarterly dividend from $.53 to $.57. This represents a 7.55% increase and brings the yield above 4%

QCOM is already scheduled to pay a $.53 dividend later this month, so I assume the new dividend payout will begin in June.

Since I currently own 45 shares, my yearly dividends will increase by $7.20.

2017 Dividend raises

• OHI:  1.64% --- $3.20
• KMB:  5.43% --- $8.03
• GILD:  10.64% --- $10.49
• CSCO:  11.54% --- $13.92
• TROW:  5.56% --- $9.09
• KO:  5.71% --- $20.96
• QCOM:  7.5% --- $7.20

Total yearly dividend increase is $72.89.

February 2017 Recap

Here are the dividends I received during February.

• OHI --- $49.60
• VZ --- $29.52
• ABT --- $26.83
• PG --- $20.09
• NEA --- $16.32
• AAPL --- $14.40
• BMY --- $13.65

Total dividends received in my taxable account are $170.01.

New capital invested last month was $12544.33 and this increased my yearly dividends by $513.70.

I'm really pleased with February's outcome mainly because during last February and May I received $0 dividends. Also despite HCP paying in March, my February dividends are only $4 less than November 2016.

I continued my seed planting activities and am well on my way to achieving $10k in forward dividends by year end.

DOW 21,000 --- TGT Purchase

Wow the market is on FIRE today up 300 points and TGT is still falling....

• TGT:  40 shares @ $57.68 --- Yield  4.16%

Total capital invested is $2314.07 and will add $96.00 to my yearly dividends.

It's been 3 weeks since I have made a purchase and have really been scratching my head trying to find something to buy... PM @ $110, AAPL @ $140, BA @ $184, JPM @ $93, or maybe the prison REIT GEO @ $49 (I believe this has tripled from $16 during the last few months lmao).  Crazy shit!

No...fortunately Target is bumbling and stumbling it's way back down the mountain and now yields a ridiculous 4%. Amazon and Walmart are punishing this company right now, but TGT usually adapts and overcomes its trials. We'll see.

My share count now exceeds 120 and I'll probably hold off adding more unless God forbid it falls into the 40s and start yielding 5% :-)

Forward dividends are around $7400.00