Today I hit $300,000

My portfolio today just barely slipped above $300,000 after today's Friday session. I'm sure this will likely drop back down next week due to market turbulence, but nevertheless it's a step in the right direction.

Thinking back when I started at $0, I remember how I was always browsing through all the various dividend and investing blogs with high 6 digit values and hoping I would someday be there. It's a very satisfying feeling now looking back and seeing that all my effort was not in vain.

My first $100,000 was back in April 2015. My second $100,000 was in May 2016. And the third on February 2017. This is all possible by saving and investing most of my take home pay, and watching the portfolio carry itself forward with dividends reinvested and upward earnings guidance. $100,000 is just a small drop in the bucket, but it is still a step forward in the right direction.

Charlie Munger had said in the past “The first $100,000 is a bitch”. After each $100k, the next $100k becomes progressively easier to reach. This is because the earlier achieved $100ks can now provide their own individual growth to one's future growth. When starting out for the first time, one must rely solely on one's saving rate which is a much slower process than compounding returns.

It's always good to invest earlier. The growth of dollars invested early will have a more profound impact than dollars invested later.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Name	Ticker	Sector	Value	Weight	Divies	Yield	S&P Fin	VL Fin	VL Safety
Altria Group Inc	MO	Staples	$47,872.98	15.95%	$1,600.80	3.3438%	A-	B+	2
Home Depot Inc	HD	Discret	$13,541.89	4.51%	$261.42	1.9305%	A	A++	1
Philip Morris International Inc	PM	Staples	$13,282.71	4.43%	$533.21	4.0143%	A	B++	2
Realty Income Corp	O	REIT	$11,875.13	3.96%	$494.39	4.1632%	BBB+	A	2
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	Health	$11,675.12	3.89%	$314.32	2.6922%	AAA	A++	1
Ross Stores Inc	ROST	Discret	$11,214.08	3.74%	$88.38	0.7881%	A-	A	2
Visa Inc	V	Financial	$11,048.51	3.68%	$83.40	0.7549%	A+	A++	1
Starbucks Corporation	SBUX	Discret	$10,570.10	3.52%	$165.91	1.5696%	A	A++	1
Kraft Heinz Co	KHC	Staples	$8,947.21	2.98%	$222.06	2.4819%	BBB-	A	2
PepsiCo	PEP	Staples	$8,313.45	2.77%	$231.48	2.7845%	A	A++	1
Kimberly-Clark	KMB	Staples	$8,280.92	2.76%	$243.69	2.9427%	A	A++	1
Becton Dickinson and Co	BDX	Health	$7,912.94	2.64%	$127.77	1.6147%	BBB+	A++	1
General Mills, Inc.	GIS	Staples	$7,653.34	2.55%	$248.05	3.2411%	BBB+	A+	1
McCormick & Company	MKC	Staples	$7,210.71	2.40%	$138.92	1.9266%	A-	A+	1
Church & Dwight	CHD	Staples	$6,996.10	2.33%	$101.37	1.4490%	BBB+	A+	1
3M Co	MMM	Industrial	$6,404.38	2.13%	$155.44	2.4270%	AA-	A++	1
Mastercard Inc	MA	Financial	$6,241.19	2.08%	$50.20	0.8043%	A	A++	1
The Coca-Cola Co	KO	Staples	$5,046.06	1.68%	$171.47	3.3981%	AA-	A++	1
Dominion Resources, Inc	D	Utilities	$4,381.10	1.46%	$179.35	4.0938%	BBB+	B++	2
Automatic Data Proc, Inc	ADP	Tech	$4,276.91	1.42%	$97.85	2.2878%	AA	A++	1
TJX Companies Inc	TJX	Discret	$4,166.93	1.39%	$56.19	1.3484%	A+	A++	1
McDonald's Corporation	MCD	Discret	$4,131.48	1.38%	$121.58	2.9428%	BBB+	A++	1
Air Products & Chemicals, Inc	APD	Materials	$3,988.48	1.33%	$107.12	2.6857%	A	A+	1
NextEra Energy Inc	NEE	Utilities	$3,836.25	1.28%	$105.29	2.7447%	A-	A	2
Xcel Energy Inc	XEL	Utilities	$3,807.87	1.27%	$123.33	3.2389%	A-	A+	1
Procter & Gamble Co	PG	Staples	$3,787.40	1.26%	$111.52	2.9444%	AA-	A++	1
Stryker Corporation	SYK	Health	$3,340.38	1.11%	$44.94	1.3455%	A	A++	1
AT&T Inc	T	Telecom	$3,082.47	1.03%	$145.65	4.7252%	BBB+	A++	1
Southern Co	SO	Utilities	$2,725.69	0.91%	$127.76	4.6872%	A-	A	2
Abbott Laboratories	ABT	Health	$2,673.09	0.89%	$63.40	2.3719%	BBB	A++	1
Colgate-Palmolive Co	CL	Staples	$2,550.73	0.85%	$55.30	2.1679%	AA-	A+	1
Medtronic plc	MDT	Health	$2,233.49	0.74%	$48.69	2.1800%	A	A++	1
Verizon Communications Inc	VZ	Telecom	$2,188.61	0.73%	$102.74	4.6942%	BBB+	A++	1
Clorox Co	CLX	Staples	$1,916.18	0.64%	$45.86	2.3931%	A-	B++	2
The J. M. Smucker Company	SJM	Staples	$1,874.25	0.62%	$41.37	2.2073%	BBB	A++	1
Bard (C.R.) Inc	BCR	Health	$1,754.10	0.58%	$7.53	0.4290%	A	A+	1
WEC Energy Group, Inc.	WEC	Utilities	$1,397.25	0.47%	$50.53	3.6161%	A-	A+	1
Aqua America Inc	WTR	Utilities	$945.22	0.31%	$24.08	2.5471%	A+	A	2
Misc	Type	………..	Partial Totals	Weight	Yrly Dividends	Avg Yield	…..832	…..9	…..82
Equity	Stocks		$263,144.71	87.67%	$6,892.33	2.6192%
Investable	US Dollars		$4,527.59	1.51%
House Fund Cash Savings	US Dollars		$27,992.63	9.33%
Miscellaneous	Assets		$4,505.25	1.50%
.	..	…	Equity + Misc	Weight	…..2	…..	…..222	…..2222	…..223
Total			$300,170.18	100.00%

Recent buy: PG

I have purchased 15 shares of PG in my 401k account today. This totals around $1354 invested. PG yields around 3% right now, meaning I will earn an extra $41 a year in dividends from this investment.


-YD

January 2017 Portfolio Summary

Here is January's post. Excuse the grammar mistakes as I typed this really quickly while in a hotel.

January 2017 was overall a good run for my portfolio. I have appreciated decent "paper" gains. I accumulated a lot of cash this month and invested more into PM and MO on January 19. January was also a record dividend paying month for me, as I was able to get $809. All of those proceeds were reinvested to the respective dividend paying companies. The dollar has been weakening in 2017 which helps the multinational US companies that I hold in my portfolio like PM, CL, PG, and KO. A strong dollar makes American companies less competitive overseas because their products cost more than their international counterparts. Bringing back dollars to the states is also hurt by a strong dollar since less dollars can be received for a Yen or Euro.

The S&P500 has been moving higher and higher on the hopes that Trump will enact favorable policies for big business; these include repatriation of overseas cash, lower corporate tax rates, and stimulus spending to move the economy forward. All of these will help many of the companies that I hold as their taxes are in the 35% range, and several hold extremely large cash hordes overseas. The repatriation of cash will help companies buyback stock, do acquisitions, increase dividends, or reinvest into efficiency improvements or R&D. These will all help share prices.

Crude oil prices have stabilized relatively speaking compared to the past. There has been a big increase in valuations for integrated oil, pipelines, and industrials due to favorable Trump energy policies and stimulus rhetoric. I would say at this time, I wish I held more cyclicals in energy and industrials since those have benefited a lot from the Trump rally. However, I will keep with my financial plan in investing in stable defensive non-cyclical businesses since that will help me get through good times and bad times. Cyclicals only are "stars" during a rising tide.

January 2017 Dividends Received

I started 2017 with a large set of dividend checks from my portfolio of companies. This month by far is the largest in terms of dividends received, largely because of my weighting in Altria and Philip Morris. All dividends were reinvested except Nike (NKE) since that is no longer in my portfolio due to 2016 tax loss harvesting.

I have three accounts currently: my main taxable account, my Roth IRA which doesn't have very much, and my employer's 401k. If I were to leave my employer, I would transfer the 401k funds into a Traditional IRA and have it stored in my preferred broker. My employer's self directed brokerage does not offer very good service and the interface is terrible, but at least they let me buy individual stocks instead of restricting me to only index funds.

I received a meager $15 of interest this month because of my House down-payment cash fund held in a 1.05% savings account :)  I can use that to buy two hamburgers.

Ticker	Total	Taxable	Roth IRA	401k
MO	$341.35	$267.71	$29.28	$44.36
PM	$117.41	$86.92		$30.49
PEP	$57.46	$33.21		$24.25
KMB	$57.32	$36.93		$20.39
RAI	$45.48	$45.48
O	$39.46		$32.37	$7.09
MKC	$34.55	$15.19		$19.36
XEL	$30.58	$30.58
ADP	$24.33	$24.33
NKE	$22.97	$22.97
Interest	$15.53	$15.53
MDT	$12.10			$12.10
SYK	$11.22	$7.39		$3.83
	$809.76	$586.24	$61.65	$161.87

The graph indicates my monthly dividend moving average is slowly climbing upwards. Eventually these payments will allow me to pay for my living costs so I no longer have to worry too much about having a job to survive. When my passive income starts crossing my monthly living expenses, that will be my turning point to financial independence. In the mean time, I am trying to funnel as much money as I can from my paycheck to passive income generating sources.

January, April, July, and October are my largest dividend paying months. In a given quarter, certain months will receive substantially more than other months because of the way I weighted my portfolio. I try to look at my income on a quarterly moving average basis instead of a monthly basis to tune out the noise.

Check my Dividend Calendar page to see how much dollars I plan to receive going forward for each month of the year.

Recent buy: PM & MO

Today I bought:
14 shares PM: $1318
84 shares MO: $5835

The RAI shares were sold today to purchase the MO shares. Since RAI is being bought out, I wanted to replace a US based tobacco company with another US based tobacco.

PM shares were done in my retirement account. I believe PM in the future will be able to grow faster than domestic US tobacco. It is only because of the temporary headwinds due to the strong dollar that PM is lagging behind MO.

These two company purchases will yield for me $264 a year in dividends.

Next purchase thoughts

For my next purchase I am considering adding more to my higher yielding companies. Since my contribution in 2017 will be less since most of my money is being put into a savings account for a down payment, I want to get more dividends for every dollar invested.

 

Recently, BTI has announced that they will purchase Reynolds American (RAI). I hold some shares in RAI and they have run up quite a bit due to this takeover. I am very sad to see my RAI shares go and I do not have an intention to hold BTI because BTI is a British company that pays dividends in pounds. I want all my dividends paid in dollars since foreign currency exchange rates can affect the dividends received from BTI. Also BTI pays their dividends biannually and the amount paid in the first half is always substantially more than the second half. I prefer the American company's norm of quarterly US Dollar payments with one quarter being increased every year.

The sell of my RAI shares will likely be used to purchase MO + PM. I am still debating if I should buy only PM or only MO. RAI yields now only 3.19% after all the price appreciation. MO yields 3.56% and PM yields 4.50% so the trade from RAI to MO and/or PM will be small bump in yield. I currently have around $5700 in RAI. My positions in MO and PM are much larger at $39,100 and $10,500 respectively. I have so far profited quite well from my shares in MO and PM.

There are suspicions that PM may purchase MO. BTI's purchase of RAI now makes BTI the largest tobacco company in the world. PM may likely join in so that it can continue to be the dominant force in the world's tobacco economy. To merge or not, I will let the management at MO and PM decide since they have a very impressive track record of making decisions that best benefit shareholder wealth.

My 401k will also have some funds for my next purchase. There is around $1360 in cash. It's not a large amount but I will put this money to work soon. My first choice is Realty Income (O) which recently announced a healthy 4% dividend increase from $0.2025 to $0.2105 (this is very large for a monthly dividend paying REIT). O has pulled back recently. Alternatively I am also thinking of just adding more into MO and PM although MO is quite expensive now. PEP, KMB, CL, and MKC have also pulled back and are high quality companies that I like to add to. The first two are possible choices since they yield over 3% and the latter two are not too high yielding so I have less interest for them.

I have largely ignored the Industrials, Energy, and Materials sectors at this time since they have run up quite a lot. Utilities do yield higher but they haven't pulled back enough for me considering the interest rates will be continuously increasing going forward. Tech has run up a lot and I largely ignore tech in my portfolio.

December 2016 Portfolio Summary (Year End)

Happy new years fellow investors. A few days ago marked the beginning of 2017. I took a few days to look over what happened in 2016 and how I did. This post will summarize what my results were and what my future plans for 2017 are.

Summary

The S&P500 surprisingly rallied very hard towards the end of the year. This year we had a lot of action from the crash in oil prices to Brexit to Trump becoming the president elect. After the Brexit event, markets took a tumble as seen in the notch around the end of June 2016. The markets however quickly recovered to new highs. After the Trump victory, world markets including the US took a nose dive. However that dip was short lived, similar to Brexit and the market continued to make new highs.

After Trump got elected, the dollar climbed to new highs. Interest rates rose. The Federal Reserve raised rates in December and suggested more to come in 2017. All in all, a lot of action. Below are graphs of several indices.

What all these events indicate is that one needs to stay the course and tune out the noise. If one sold on the lows after Brexit fears or Trump fears, then one would have missed on a lot of potential gains (plus dividends). It's all about the dividend and dividend safety. As long as the payout can be maintained, one should be worried more about how that dividend can increase in the future. Daily market price fluctuations should be tuned out. At the end of the day, companies that can generate cash to pay dividend checks and have the earnings growth to increase such dividends year after year will experience increases in share price. One must be patient as the increase in dividends are not normally instantly followed by an increase in share price. However, in the long run investors will eventually push the price up of companies that steadily maintain and increase their payouts with good financial credit ratings to back the dividend up.

December 2016 Dividends Received

December 2016 was a good quarter for dividends. There are a lot of companies that I hold that pay in December. I got $588 this month across my 3 accounts. Top payers are Johnson & Johnson, Home Depot, Kraft Heinz, Coca Cola, and Dominion Resources. I reinvested all my dividends this month.

Slowly but steadily the dividends are increasing. 12 months ago, I was only able to receive $335 in dividends for December 2015.

For the new year of 2017, I am expecting my dividend accumulation to stay relatively flat because most of my cash is going towards a down payment. I need a place to live with a constant living cost since my rent keeps increasing, so I'm deciding to take a year to stabilize my housing which will momentarily hurt my dividend growth. That down payment cash will sit in a savings account earning a measly 1.05% yield.

The only cash I will be investing in will be in my 401k retirement account which will be roughly around $2700 every 2 months. Nevertheless, I predict that each of my holdings will increasing their dividends by some amount in 2017, and I hope to average 8% dividend increases across my entire portfolio.

Ticker	Total	Taxable	Roth IRA	401k
JNJ	$78.02	$73.04		$4.98
HD	$65.27	$16.28		$48.99
KHC	$55.13	$55.13
KO	$42.51	$42.51
D	$41.18	$5.62		$35.56
MMM	$38.62	$38.62
O	$32.18		$32.18
SO	$31.56	$31.56
SBUX	$30.48	$22.23		$8.25
MCD	$30.16	$30.16
NEE	$26.13	$26.13
BDX	$22.69	$22.69
V	$20.80	$15.02		$5.78
CHD	$20.16	$9.12		$11.04
ROST	$16.36	$16.36
TJX	$14.00	$14.00
WEC	$11.92	$11.92
WTR	$5.94	$5.94
SJM	$5.68	$5.68
	$588.79	$442.01	$32.18	$114.60

-YD