Wednesday, July 31, 2013

July Recap

Usually investing is smooth sailing; unfortunately July was pretty rough.  Storm clouds of doubt started brewing around two of my positions: LINE & INTC.  Linn reported it is the subject of an informal SEC inquiry while Intel decided to throw me for a loop and freeze the dividend.  Not only that, but I utterly failed in my goal of putting new capital to work this month.  I find it extremely difficult to be excited about stocks at the moment.  The markets are near all time highs :(  The thing is, if you don't purchase equities where else are you going to go?  Even with markedly higher valuations, dividend stocks still seem to be the best option for income investors.  I kind of feel our hand is forced.

I will be experimenting with Google AdSense for the next couple months to see if it's worth bogging down the load time of my site.  Early results tell me pages load at approximately the same speed, and there is a small amount of money to be made. 

DOW: 15,500 /// S&P 500: 1,686 /// 10-YR BOND: 2.59%

New Purchases:
none

Sales:
none

Dividends Received: $317.14
Baxter (BAX) $10.78
Coca-Cola (KO) $31.64
iShares Emr Mkt Bnd (EMB) $2.64
Illinois Tool Works (ITW) $11.02
Kraft Foods (KRFT) $13.50
Philip Morris (PM) $66.30
Corporate Office Properties series L (OFC-PL) $22.58
Exchange Income Corp (EIFZF) $17.17
Linn Energy (LINE) $24.16
Realty Income series F (O-PF) $6.76
W.P. Carey (WPC) $19.32
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) $36.19
LTC Properties (LTC) $26.06
Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) $29.10

Dividend Increases:
1) COP: $.66 to $.69 per quarter.  $7.20 annual income
2) KMI: $.38 to $.40 per quarter.  $9.36
3) NSC: $50 to $.52 per quarter. $4.56

New Deposits:
$550 to taxable account.  I'll have a new budget in place in the near future and will post it.

Lending Club:
Added $25.  One loan paid off early, still no defaults.  I noticed the interest I gain on new investments is now lower than a month or two ago.  Drat.

Other:
none

12 comments:

  1. One of the great things about dividend growth investing is that, despite a "rough" month in which there were no purchases or sales, you still pulled in over $300 in dividends. It's nice to have your portfolio working for you even during difficult times.

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    1. Yes good point. In reality raking in 300 bucks for doing nothing is pretty awesome. Nobody else I work with saves anything, let alone has a passive income stream in place. I cannot talk investing at work, it's why I enjoy interacting with like minded bloggers.

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  2. CI - I suspect you are not alone. I was sailing along with my chest puffed out when Microsoft got whacked to the tune of about 10% a few weeks back, followed up yesterday and today by Potash (which I only recently purchased) getting hammered to the tune of a 25% drop in two days (and it may not be over yet). As icing on the cake, picked up Digital Realty Trust for what I thought was a nice price of $59 on Monday, and by today it had shed about 7%. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings...

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    Replies
    1. I read a little about Potash, that situation is pretty brutal. Months like July is why they say diversification is the only free lunch in investing. I shutter at the thought of a concentrated portfolio.

      Some bad news here, a freeze there. No matter. The plan is still in place and everything is still on track.

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  3. Should of sold INTC, that think is acting like crap.

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  4. CI,

    Nice month. You still pulled in a very hefty tally of dividends there! Some of those preferreds are doing some heavy lifting for you. An "inactive" month and you still pulled down about a week of work for someone on minimum wage.

    I wouldn't worry too much about the paper losses. It's all about the income, after all. However, these are the times you will want to review your thesis and double check the fundamentals and see if everything is still aligned.

    Best wishes!

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    Replies
    1. Actually on paper July was one of the best months ever. The gains were staggering (something like $4500), and more than I make in a month. Alas I do not base success on capital gains or total return. It could all evaporate next week... but I'll take it if it happens!

      Yeah preferreds are nice for income, but as you know they do not offer inflation protection. The $30 or so I received from fixed income positions was most welcome, but not as significant as it might seem. I look forward to the day when I'm just as likely to buy a bond or preferred stock as a common stock. That day is likely many years into the future however. I'm not sure I want to lock in long term rates with preferreds in a significant manner until they are trading under par/interest rates go up.

      Thanks for the support and good advise!

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  5. Looks like a nice month. I like your dividend income and I wish I have it myself in a single account. I can't wait when those dividends grow so they start contribute significantly to the deposits. That's when that snowball starts rolling!

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    1. Thanks Martin. I failed to reinvest last month, but I'm confident I'll do a purchase in August. I plan to sell Boardwalk Pipeline shortly and will then use the proceeds to purchase Realty Income. I'm going to buy enough of something else so that my annual income doesn't decrease.

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  6. No new capital and you still brought in $300+ in dividends and got 3 raises. That's the beauty of dividend growth investing right there. Keep up the good work.

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