Sunday, February 28, 2016

Bi-Weekly Investment Activity - Stock Buys, Dividends, TSP

Hello everyone,

Thanks so much for stopping by and the continued support.   I've had a pretty mild two weeks when it comes to investing (this post has some carry over from last week's activity), but I'm still plugging away with my weekly and monthly purchases.  This past two weeks has seen several of my monthly purchases executed, such as Proctor & Gamble, Lockheed Martin and the Walt Disney Company.  In addition, I've made several small buys to add to existing positions, such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Target and Bank of Nova Scotia.   In addition to my dividend growth portfolio, I contributed to my work sponsored 401k type Thrift Savings Plan, which is further detailed below.  I had a few dividends roll in, nothing spectacular, but man I love seeing them pop up in the account.  Lastly, I had some passive income coming in from my rental property.   Overall, not too shabby!  While I'd love to throw a few thousand in weekly, it's not practical for me, so I'll keep at it one buck at a time.  

Purchases:
Special Agent Dividend's Dividend Growth Portfolio

The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $30
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $20
Target Corp. (TGT) $20
The Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $10
Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) $60
ConocoPhillips (COP) $25 and $60
Proctor & Gamble Company (PG) $55
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $48.81
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) $40.25

Total invested $369.06

Retirement Account
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) 401k Employee Plan
C Fund - $298 invested 
S Fund - $105 invested
I Fund - $95 invested 

Total invested $498

Dividends:
Kinder Morgan (KMI) $5.75 reinvested for .39 shares
Proctor & Gamble (PG) $8.03 for reinvested for .098651 shares
Realty Income (O)  $1.99

Total dividends received $15.77

Other Passive Income: 
Rental Property:  I received $1300 in payment for my rental house, which netted approximately $300 after mortgage payment and management expenses.  

Summary: 
Overall, in the past two weeks, I put $867.06 in fresh new capital to work with my investments.   
I had some passive income rolling in thanks to dividends and my rental property, which is what this journey is all about.   I'll be following up this post with my monthly activity, so be looking for that in the next day or so.  Thanks for stopping by and for the support!   

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Weekly Activity - Stock Purchases, Dividends, Passive Income

Hello everyone,

Once again, thanks for stopping by and supporting my investing journey.   Of note, I'm having some issues with my comments section, as I cannot post replies from my Apple devices.  I'm not sure what is going on but I cannot post a comment to my fellow bloggers using Google Blogger either.   This post will detail my weekly activity, as I had several small purchases to add to existing portfolio holdings, a Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) contribution, dividends received and, lastly, income generated from my rental property.   

Purchases:
Special Agent Dividend's Dividend Growth Portfolio
The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $30
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $20
Target Corp. (TGT) $20
The Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $10
Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) $65
ConocoPhillips (COP) $25

Total invested $170

Retirement Account
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) 401k Employee Plan
C Fund - $298 invested 
S Fund - $105 invested
I Fund - $95 invested 

Total invested $498

Dividends:
Kinder Morgan (KMI) $5.75 reinvested for .39 shares
Proctor & Gamble (PG) $8.03 for reinvested for .098651 shares
Realty Income (O)  $1.99

Total dividends received $15.77

Other Passive Income: 
Rental Property:  I received $1300 in payment for my rental house, which netted approximately $300 after mortgage payment and management expenses.  This continues to be a great investment property, as I could substantially raise my rental rate but will not until my current tenant leaves.  Great tenants > tad more money.  

Summary: 
Another week is in the books and I managed to add to my snowball of investments.  I continued with my small investment strategy to build my core holdings.   I plan on making a few more small buys this week and hoping for some more turmoil in the market to get some discounted prices.   Once again, thanks for stopping by and for the support!   

Monday, February 15, 2016

Bi-Weekly Investment and Dividend Activity

Hello everyone,

Thank you for stopping by and checking out another blog post.  With my renewed focus (available time) on this blog, I feel I should update it on a very frequent basis to update everyone and keep me actively involved.   As I detailed in my portfolio update, I'm an advocate of a type of routine investing.   I've been investing, mostly small amounts, pretty much on a weekly basis for the past year and a half.   I do try to save for larger purchases as well, along with my monthly purchases of my core holdings of my portfolio.  This has enabled me to build my portfolio steadily, albeit slow, over time and diversify my holdings.  I'm not trying to time the market, but essentially dollar cost average my core holdings and look for the best value for stocks on my watch list.  The past two weeks haven't been exactly busy for me with my investing, but I did have a few automatic purchases go through and  contributed to my retirement account.   Overall, in this two week period, I was able to invest a total of $960.57 and received a total of $22.94 in dividends.   $948.42 was in fresh capital, with the rest coming from a DRIP from my Apple (AAPL) dividend reinvestment.    Here is the meat and potatoes of my investments and dividends for the past two weeks:

Dividends:

Apple Inc. (AAPL) - $12.15

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) - $10.79

DGI Investments:

Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) - $69 invested for .928185 shares

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) - $50 invested for .936499 shares

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) - $30 invested for .3239 shares

Bank of America Corporation (BAC) - $305.42 invested for 25 shares

* BAC was a new partial position I added to my portfolio.  I plan to add to it as the price is depressed and eventually reach a full position.


TSP Retirement 401k Investments:

Thrift Savings Plan (TSP):  $494 invested, with a allocation of 59% to the C Fund, 21% to the S Fund and 20% to the I Fund.

Summary:

Overall, a decent few weeks with a total of $960.57 invested among 5 positions and my 401k index funds.  I would love to have a few grand to toss in the market right now, but every dime counts, so I'm slowly putting in as much as I can to build my positions.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day and the Week Ahead

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day.  I hope each of you are able to spend the day with a loved one(s).   My wife and I plan on taking our girls to a movie to spend some time together.   I'm sure it will be an experience with a two year old in tow but I'm hoping it turns out ok (fingers crossed).

In other news, I have a few stocks that I'm interested in adding too this coming week.  Particularly, I'd like to add some to my Walt Disney (DIS) position, and really hoping the price stays at $90 or below. I'll probably take another look at Bank of America (BAC) and try to add a little there to my new tiny position I just started last week.  On the dividend front, I have three companies paying out this week, which are:  Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI), Realty Income Corp. (O) and the Proctor & Gamble Co. (PG).  I have KMI and PG set to DRIP the dividend and O will just accumulate into my available funds.

I have another post completed that I should get posted this evening or tomorrow.   That post will detail my past two weeks activity.   As always, thanks for stopping by and supporting my little blog.  Happy Valentine's Day!!

Friday, February 12, 2016

Special Agent Dividend's Portfolio Update





Hello everyone,


I really appreciate the support of my little blog, as I document my investing journey.   I'm a firm advocate of continual investing, as small amounts can really add up over time.   I've only been investing as a dividend growth investor for about a year and a half and already can see the benefits of the small amounts continually invested over time.   As of today, my dividend growth portfolio sits at $17,898.98.   While not much, it is substantial amount more than I had just a mere year and a half ago.  In addition, that little pot is also producing $722.24 in yearly income through dividends.   I'm pretty happy with the progress that has been made and fully plan to rev up my investing in the coming months and years.  My portfolio sits at 21 positions currently and I'm actively trying to buy small amounts here and there to increase shares and/or add new positions as opportunities arise.   In addition to my dividend growth portfolio, I also have an IRA account and a 401k type plan, the Thrift Savings Plan or TSP, through my employer.    I invest a substantial amount of my available capital in the TSP to reap the benefits of the employer match and for it's inherent tax benefits.   My overall amount invested in those accounts are around $70,000, as they have been beaten up quite heavily in this market.   However, I'm in it for the long haul, so I just see it has a prime opportunity to buy low and watch it grow over time.  I'll provide more updates on my TSP and/or IRA accounts in separate blog posts.   Thank you so much for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment.  


Here is a snapshot of my current positions with the Special Agent Dividend Portfolio: 




Company Shares Market Value Market Weight Yield Quarterly Dividend / Share Annual Dividend
AAPL 23.4769   $2,206.59 12.33% 2.21% 0.52 $48.83
TGT 7.655   $535.47 2.99% 3.20% 0.56 $17.15
KO 15.2868   $658.86 3.68% 3.06% 0.33 $20.18
GE 11   $310.75 1.74% 3.26% 0.23 $10.12
WMT 4.2199   $279.27 1.56% 2.96% 0.49 $8.27
MCD 4.1472   $487.71 2.72% 3.03% 0.89 $14.76
LMT 5.890494   $1,213.91 6.78% 3.20% 1.65 $38.88
COP 20.467653   $673.18 3.76% 3.04% 0.25 $20.47
VZ 20.038293   $1,004.12 5.61% 4.51% 0.565 $45.29
XOM 20.537182   $1,663.72 9.30% 3.60% 0.73 $59.97
PG 12.793916   $1,036.05 5.79% 3.27% 0.6629 $33.92
DIS 15.2131   $1,386.52 7.75% 1.56% 0.355 $21.60
F 94.508   $1,091.57 6.10% 5.19% 0.15 $56.70
BP 61.363   $1,780.75 9.95% 8.27% 0.6 $147.27
UL 10.2055   $438.84 2.45% 3.20% 0.3435 $14.02
BBL 22.475   $455.57 2.55% 12.23% 0.62 $55.74
BNS 27   $1,052.46 5.88% 5.44% 0.53 $57.24
O 10   $604.80 3.38% 3.94% 0.5955 $23.82
BAC 25   $298.75 1.67% 1.67% 0.05 $5.00
KMI 46   $688.16 3.84% 3.34% 0.125 $23.00
SOUHY 8   $31.92 0.18% 0.00% 0 $0.00
Total Value $17,898.98 4.04% Est Annual Dividend $722.24

Monday, February 8, 2016

Recent Buy: Bank of America BAC

Hello everyone,

I wanted to write a new post detailing a new position to my growing, albeit slow, portfolio.   With the market being pretty much in complete disarray lately, I think it is a good time to add new companies to my portfolio to diversify my holdings and increase my dividend income.   Today, I initiated a small position with Bank of America Corporation, BAC.  I've been wanted to add BAC for some time and finally had some extra cash to nibble into a position.   I only purchased 24 shares of BAC at $12.25 per share for an overall cost of $294, as I did not incur any trading fees with the purchase.  I'll continue to purchase shares here and there to add to my holding.  BAC represents only my second company within the financial sector, which will add to my The Bank of Nova Scotia, BNS, holding within financials.  Thank you for taking the time to stop by and I'm working on a post to detail my portfolio growth since the last update.  

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Update - Dividend Growth Investing

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the continued support of my journey to financial freedom, as I'm slowly building my portfolio.  I am very sorry for my lack of updates, as I moved across the country due to a career transfer.  With that, and my hectic family schedule, I've seriously neglected my site.  But, not my investing, rest assured.   I'm plugging away week by week, as I try to buy small amounts in my core holdings.   I continue to focus my investing on high quality companies that will provide a steady income stream eventually to supplement my retirement.   As of now, I'm reinvesting my dividends either by DRIP or selectively with my other holdings.  In addition, I partcipate with my work sponsored Thrift Savings Plan ( TSP ), which is essentially a 401k type plan.   I invest at least 5% of my income on a bi-weekly basis to ensure I receive the maximum match of 5% through my employer.     While I plan to substantially grow my dividend growth portfolio and my Thrift Savings Plan retirement account, I also have an investment rental property that provides a steady source of monthly income.  I'm contemplating of adding more properties in the future, but would like to grow my stock portfolio first.  

Well, I'm really excited to start this blog back up and continue to support our investing community on here.  I've been following the other blogs religiously, but had to take a back seat on actively contributing until I was settled with my move and transition.   I will be uploading an update on my portfolio in a separate post, which will detail all my holdings and give you some insight of where I stand since my last update.  Thanks so much for following along and I look forward to interacting with all of you.