FEBRUARY 2021 DIVIDEND INCREASES

 Yeah, I'm running late getting this out.   Been a busy month, so I am not sorry... Easter is on its way.

  So let's cut to the chase.   

I gots me some dividend increases in February!   Quite a nice month seeing $109.79 being added to my annual dividend income.  

The whole point of this investment strategy is to see the companies I own in my portfolio increase their payout to their shareholders at a pace that beats inflation.  

currently the US inflation rate for 2021 is at around 2.24%.   Last month, that rate of increase from the companies that announced a div hike averaged 5.52%.   Doubling the inflation rate.  

If I can hold this pattern throughout my whole portfolio, my income will snowball into something real substantial.

Here's the breakdown:

The hike with the biggest impact was T. Rowe Price (TROW) with their 20% increase.  Wow.  Robert Half International (RHI) and Home Depot (HD) were also very welcome.  

March has not been at quite the blazing pace as January or February, but Oracle (ORCL) announced a 33% increase.  So I am really eager to see the final results.

Until then...

FEBRUARY 2021 BUYS

Before I get into my February stock purchase post, I want to celebrate my mom getting her first COVID Vaccine shot today!  Took a lot of searching and some help from a vaccine angel!   Yay!  Here's the post-shot 15 minute wait area.

It was a very active month in February for shopping for some solid companies that will pay me dividends.  

I was eager to gain more of a return and decided to harvest some profits from Williams-Sonoma (WSM), which was over a 120% gain, take the funds and invest in companies that had a larger yield than the one I just sold.  

This allowed me to take the $2,356.63 and take the $38.16 annual dividend hit and turn it into a $142.65 annual dividend.  BAM!

One of my additions this month was a beginning entry in Snap-On  (SNA), one that has been sitting on my watch list for most of the past 2 years.  They were still passing my stock screener:  

• Low P/E ratio.  A sign that the company is at a good valuation at the moment.  SNA is at 19.08.  I don't want to overpay for my shares.
• Good dividend payout ratio.  SNA come in at a 43% ratio, which is wonderful.  When a company is around 50% dividend payout, it means they want to not only share their profits with their stock holders, but also have room to grow the company, grow the dividend, or cover the dividend when falling on hard times.    SNA fits the bill
• A track record of increasing the dividend.  Over the past 5 years, they have increased the dividend by 15%.  That's inflation beating
• Lage company.  Not a major factor, but I want a market capitalization of over $3 billion.  Larger companies that have good fundamentals seem to not fail very often...  SNA is a 11.8 billion dollar company.

So I purchased 7 shares at $182 each, costing me $1275.  This will earn a $34.44 annual dividend.  

Other larger purchases were Smuckers (SJM),  Lockheed-Martin (LMT), Steel Dynamics (STLD) and Netapp (NTAP).  All of these pass my screener, so I went shopping!

My BIG purchase was 45 shares of Onemain Holdings (OMF).   I was triggered by their second large special dividend in 6 months.  They had announced a ginormous $3.50 special dividend to go on top of their normal $.45 regular div payout.  I could not resist.  This is the 4th special dividend since late 2019.  

They love paying their share holders!  

My other large purchase was my formerly favorite holding, Whitehorse Finance (WHF) and their nearly 10% dividend.  They have not risen the dividend, but their payouts allow me to purchase other companies that do. 

In summary, I bought $8,881.21 of shares overall in February.   

This increases my annual dividend payouts by $548.29.  That's a 6.17% return.   Not too shabby.  One of my best months of investment ever.

Here's the breakdown....  

Until next month, stay safe!

FEBRUARY 2021 DIVIDENDS

Welcome to March.  2021 is going by at light speed.  2020 seemed to take forever.  

In the February blur of a month, we got to enjoy a weekend with a foot of snow.   

...which melted after 2 days.  

Also had a great butternut squash with mushroom and sage lasagne.   

And then there were dividends.  Getting paid for surviving another month.   The key to a future retirement!   

This month I received 29 dividends totalling $1,397.03    That was a 59.7% increase over 2019's $874.83.

My patience is beginning to pay off after all of the past efforts of dropping high yield REITs that slowly cut dividends and were losing value.

Here's the breakdown:

 My BIG haul was a special dividend of $395 from OMF.  Amazingly, this was their 2nd special dividend of the year and was quite the doozy.  Normally they pay a $0.45 dividend per share.   This was a $3.95 per share payout.   BAM

I also got my quarterly payment from AT&T and their 7% dividend.  One of the cornerstones of my portfolio that I plan on holding on to forever.  

This month's payment is the result of patient investment of dividend growth stocks.  Investing in solid companies that have a track record of beating inflation AND increasing the dividend more than the inflation rate also.   A win win. 

And it's motivation to work on getting another 59% increase.  It's March and I want to keep the ball rolling.  I can't wait to see the results!

Until then.....check ya later......