JANUARY 2021 DIVIDEND INCREASES

 Oh boy!  It's a new year and with that comes the annual horde of Dividend increases.

I love baby Yoda btw....

These increases are exactly why I invest in...drumroll....dividend growth stocks.  The magic of compounding begins and my return on my investment will grow year after year.  Here's an example:

If you had bought one share of Coca-Cola (KO) in 1919 for the $40 opening price, because of splits over the years, you would now have 9,216 shares.  With each share paying $1.64 cents in dividends per year, You would receive $15,114.24 annually (or a cool $3,778.56 every three months).   That's a 37,785% annual dividend payout yield. Wow.  I just like 5%

So increases are the center of the dividend investor universe.  And traditionally, December through February is the center of the  dividend hike season.

This January was no exemption.   I received 8 increases adding $38.59 in my annual dividends. Might not sound like much, but it really snowballs.

The big winner was Air Products and Chemicals (APD) and their 11.9% increase and wintrust Financial (WTFC) with a 10.7% hike.   

On a NSFW sidenote, I started looking at WTFC because the ticker symbol kind of sounded like "what the fuck"  👀....  And so I bought them.  

Overall, I had a 5.2% hike in dividends from these companies.  That's good stuff.  

Here's the breakdown!

And February will come the motherlode!   See ya then!

JAN 2021 BUYS

 Jan 2021 will go down as one to remember when it comes to purchasing bits and pieces of companies.

My real cute dog is distracting me..

Anyhoo, to make a long story short, I invested $6,206.22 of saved up funds and got in on the ground floor of a few companies.  Also made a huge splash in a former holding that had a long record of being very stable and a huge dividend before COVID.  WHF.  My former largest holding.

Whitehorse Finance (WHF) righted the ship over this year and convinced me that I wanted a part of it again and their 10% dividend.  They do not increase the div, but also never cut it.   They rode out some major rough waters the made the dividend unsustainable.  They are back to having a decent payout ratio and making money.

 Another major purchase was getting a chunk of Comcast (CMCSA), and NetApp (NTAP).  

My new positions are not large, usually only one or two shares, but will make me want to increase as I see a small holding in comparison  to the rest of the companies.  That's what I did with Fifth Third Bank (FITB),  Snap On (SNA), and Steel Dynamics (STLD).  All have passed my stock screener of showing dividend increases, a low P/E, and a low dividend payout, giving room for this company to grow.  Here's my post about screening for stocks with a good value  Stock Screener

The result of my frenzied purchasing was investing $6,206.22 and increasing my annual dividend total by $359.85.   That resulted in a 5.8% yield on my purchases for the month.  Sweetness.  Someday I may actually enjoy the monies..

Well,  back to my dog now!

JANUARY 2021 DIVIDENDS

Just for being alive, I earned income from 25 companies! 

 Another way to put it:  These 25 companies are working for me and pay me because I am an owner.  

Sweet.

The grand total for January was $982.96.  That's an average of $39.32 per company.  Not bad.

The big payout this month was a special dividend from Old Republic International (ORI).   I love those special dividends.  Hopefully they will pay a special dividend sooner than the two years it took since the last one.

I also began seeing a dividend from some of my newer holdings, like Comcast (CMCSA), and Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ).  I'm motivated to make those payouts larger than $10 each.  

Here's the breakdown.   

OH, and I saw Bernie Sanders in Leavenworth, WA.  See him?

 

 

2021 GOAL UPDATE - JAN 2021

 Well well well.  That month flew by.  And was a good month.  The fog and gloom that was 2020 is drifting further away with each day.  

Our dog sums it up best.  Just kick back and take it all in!.   Like my kid is doing in my Neon Zen Office.

January also means I have new goals for the year.   Last month I posted about it here:  2021 Goals.  

I made some amazing progress especially financially.   Here goes.

FINANCIAL GOALS

1. Add $10,000 to my investment account.   Half way there in one month!  $5,000 down, $5K to go.
2. See my dividend income increase by 10% from 2020.  Now that we are through the main evil of COVID, I think this is doable.  In 2020, my div income was $13,620.30.   I need to need to see it go up $1,362.03 this year.   After one month, I am up $186.99.   I need to average $113 er month, so I am ahead of the game.
3. Save $8,000 for bills in 2021.  25% of the way there in one month. 
4. Fulfill my goal of buying the equivalent in shares of what I spent in 2020 at the following: Knocked it out of the park!  Met my goals for Costco, Home Depot, Mcdonalds, Starbucks, Kroger, and  AT&T.  (the leftovers will go towards 2022)  I just need to focus on Target (TGT)

PERSONAL GOALS

1. Go to Hawaii for 10 or more days.  I need beach.  I guarantee I will book this as soon as we are vaccinated.
2. Exercise more.   Walk 10,000 steps per day.  So far, I am averaging 6,000 steps per day. 
3. Drop about 30 lbs.  I am at 204 lb this morning of 1/1/21.  My doctor wants me to slim down.  My pants do too.  It's made my blood pressure creep up.  At 5'7", I need to be much lighter.  The walking will help.  So will goal # 4....  I am at 199 today.  Down 5 lbs in one month.  Good start.
4. 
   
   Eat very little sugar.  I cut out all snacks and high carb foods.  Have not eaten more than 30g of carbs per day.  
5. Sell off more of my record collection.   I am out of room.   Still getting more.  Can't help it.  but I do have some to sell.
6. Make more music and release an album..   made a cool song last week - inspired by industrial music of the 90's, I came up with this: (and the amazing title) Gordon Ramsay Goes To Jury Duty  
7. Work on front yard garden.  A very rainy month, so I let it go.  But I did order a bunch of perennial herbs to surround the blueberries I am putting there.

Good month and will pat myself on the back.  But I will not start sucking my own dick just because I had a good 1/12th of a year.   This is a marathon.