Dividend Income: November

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. With the arrival of December comes the monthly honor and duty of counting up the dividends received over the past month and recapping the movement that got us here. That being said, overall, the month was a pretty decent month in relation to others. Here's a quick recap of our payers.

• AT&T - T - $14.88
• YUM Brands - YUM - $3.57
• Abbvie - ABBV - $5.70
• STAG Industrial - STAG - $1.74
• Total: $25.89
• Total Dividends for 2016: $269.08

I know it doesn't look like much in the grand scheme of the portfolio but it looks like a lot to me because it shows the building block style of investing. Only a year ago I was looking at less than $100 total dividends for the entire year (it was actually only barely over $50. That means that this year alone has already completely shattered last year's results. If I can continue that trend, the additional investment income that dividends provide start to become a snowball that rolls itself.

With kids on the horizon, it's important for me and my wife to put away as much as possible right now so it's locked in during the months/years that it will be even harder to find the additional income to invest. Although we have yet to be successful in having kids, it's an almost certainty in the near future and I would be an idiot to not prepare ahead of time for that life adjustment. Anyway, that's all I've got for today.

Dividend Income: July

It's the beginning of another month and that means that it's time to tally the dividend payments from the previous month. All in all, it was a great month. I find that pretty much any time there is a payment incoming from AT&T (T), I can expect a fairly decent payment. It definitely helps boost the confidence moving forward that the strategy of dividend investing is a good strategy.

Where it may still not seem like a whole lot at a total of $28.25 for a whole month of dividends, it actually is a big enough amount to do something with. Hell, for a good portion of my portfolio, the stock price per share is less than that. That means that this last month provided for me the opportunity to add even one more share (theoretically) to the portfolio. With one more share there comes one more payment of dividends that further propels the snow ball forward.

I also want to remind myself with another month past that it is important to not bench mark your portfolio based on other investor's portfolios. Even though this can sometimes be a great motivator for future success, it can also give an unfair view of things as investing in dividends can be a very skewed curve when graphed out. The more dividend payments coming in, the faster the trend line goes up so it does not accurately represent a slow and steady trend upwards but more an increasing stream that will eventually become a roaring river. I just have to keep my eye on the prize moving forward and have faith that the small stream of income I've built will eventually pick up more and more speed. Anyways, here is the breakdown for the month:

July Dividend Income

RAI - Reynolds American Inc. - $5.88

STAG - STAG Industrial - $1.74

GE - General Electric - $5.75

T - AT&T - $14.88

Total July Dividends: $28.25

Dividend Income: May

Another month has come and gone and now it's time to collect the dividend payments that were made to my account in the month of May. All in all, it's been a great month for dividend income. My key player, AT&T (T) has made a payment and some of my other holdings have as well. I was also able to make a great collection of new buys that supplemented income in the future.

Unfortunately however, May did hold a sell off. It was only one but it's very unfortunately whenever even one needs to happen. As you all know, I like to hold my stocks as long as possible (forever if possible) but sometimes it's just not possible. The sell off was of course the sell off of Kohl's (KSS) as it had not even mildly performed as I would hope and there numbers were showing that it did not seem that would be changing any time soon.

This did come with the chance to buy new holdings. In the Month of May I was able to purchase three new holdings - RAI, LB, and GME. Granted, I never thought in a million years that I would be adding GME but it came at a time where I had been proven wrong. The company appears to be doing much better than my initial take on them and I have high hopes for them in the future. With all of this being said, let's compile the dividends for May and see how it all stacks up.

STAG: $1.74

ABBV: $5.70

YUM: $3.22

T: $14.88

Total for May 2016: $25.54

Total for 2016: $96.21

Unfortunately it just wasn't enough to break the $100 total for the year but it's still on track to do very well for the total of 2016. With a few big payments coming next month, there is almost no way that the portfolio won't break $100 for the year by the end of next month. Moving forward, I hope to continue making great stock choices, collecting dividends, and x'ing out any companies that decide that they know better what to do with their money than to pay dividends.

Weekly Wrap Up

What a week it has been. I managed to acquire two great companies, post quite a few paid articles on Seeking Alpha, and I also managed to come in above budget to provide that much more steam into the portfolio. That means that it's ultimately time to look back and see how I feel about it all now that it's all said and done. Let's first look at the articles that were posted on Seeking Alpha:

Hold GameStop - Unclaimed Future Opportunities

AT&T: The Future Is Here

Home Depot: The DIY Dividend King

All in all, I'm happy with the articles that I've posted this last week on Seeking Alpha. I was able to have the chance to have articles on three big companies that I really enjoyed taking a look at. GameStop (GME) was ultimately a hold while AT&T (T) and Home Depot (HD) were buys. At this time, if you've already looked at my portfolio, I only own AT&T but in the future I plan to pick up HD if I can get in on a great price for it. The company has such strong fundamentals and it's ingrained so perfectly into the American household that it would be hard to topple it. As for GameStop (GME), I'll be holding off for awhile. Their core business in gaming stores is definitely threatened with the growing digital game market and I want to see where that business model ends. Also, I fear what the economy taking a fall off the side would do to the business profits. If there are only a few dollars left on the table for an American consumer, I somehow doubt that it would go to used video games at GameStop (however much I'd prefer it to).

As for the budget, paying off the student loans for the wife has freed up a lot of cash flow in our household. Instead of having to spend half of our left over funds at the end of the month on student loans, we can now have that cash as free spending for more investing or for grabbing a few things that are needed. I'm excited to see where future prospects take these funds. I'd like to say that it would go towards paying off the last car loan that we have but quite honestly, the interest rate is so low that it's hard to justify it. I think the money would be a better use in the market where I can make more than what the interest rate charges me in capital gains and dividend payments. This is obviously where the Dave Ramsey school of thinking goes off the deep end in my mind. Why would anyone want to pay off a loan that has an interest rate of less than two percent when they can make three percent or more on the market at any given time.

Anyways, that's all I've got.