August 2016 Dividends

The snowball is rolling once again.  After a few months of little dividends I (not really but companies I own part of) pulled in a decent month of $268.33.  Most of it coming from my redesigned dividend portfolio from a few months back.  With four months left in 2016 we will see if I am able to come out ahead of last year.  This year is about $700 behind were I was last year.  I have been holding on to my cash so far this year as I might be making a real estate purchase.  If that doesn't happen I will at least get it invested in my wife's and my IRA's.  Whatever cash is left over will go into the old taxable account.

If my AGI is too high this year I may not be able to take any deductions from IRA contributions.  If that is the case I would almost be better off putting it into my ROTH IRA.  We will see closer to tax time.  What are your thoughts on it?  If I go above $118k in AGI where is the best tax advantage?

Company
Held In
 Dividend (Qtr)
Amount Received
Shares of Life Purchased
August Notes
Verizon (VZ)
Taxable
$0.578
$1.13
0.0207
2.21% dividend increase
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG)
Taxable
$0.670
$0.67
0.0077

Alliance Holdings GP LP (AHGP)
Taxable
$0.550
$0.55


Caterpillar Inc (CAT)
Taxable
$0.770
$0.77
0.0091

Helmerich and Payne Inc (HP)
Taxable
$0.700
$0.70


Intel Corp (INTC)
Taxable
$0.260
$0.78
0.0215

Murphy Oil Corp (MUR)
Taxable
$0.250
$0.50

Cut dividend/time to sell
AT&T Inc. (T)
IRA
$0.480
$48.00
1.1095

Verizon (VZ)
IRA
$0.578
$56.50
1.0368

UNIVERSAL CORP VA (UVV)
IRA
$0.530
$26.50
0.4393

ABBVIE INC SHS (ABBV)
IRA
$0.570
$28.50
0.4251

Procter & Gamble Co. (PG)
IRA
$0.670
$33.48
0.3849

BOWL AMERICA INC    CL A (BWLA)
IRA
$0.170
$51.00
3.5466

Caterpillar Inc (CAT)
IRA
$0.770
$19.25
0.2286


The new account was set to reinvest dividends automatically.  I forgot that I have 30 free trades a month so I set it to accept cash instead.  However that didn't get through their system in time so I have all of these reinvestments this month.  I might as well use those trades even if it is only on a couple of shares (in the right companies).

For the month there wasn't much news.  Verizon (VZ) bumped the dividend while I was on vacation.  Murphy Oil (MUR) cut theirs.  Unfortunately that means time to sell.  As a dividend growth investor you want to own companies that increase their dividend every year.  Stagnant or decreasing dividends won't keep up with inflation or support you well into retirement.  You want companies with increasing earnings each year (and thus increasing dividends.)  The energy sector has been hit hard this year so it was no surprise. Only those companies with tons of cash will be able to survive this energy storm.


YOY (year over year) dividends received was a 53% increase which is always good to see.  I would like to say that was from capital injection.  Maybe some of it was but most comes from the new portfolio. 

I hope you had a good month and the dividends rolled in for you.

Thanks for reading!

Dividend Family Guy

Comments

  1. Dividends Down UnderSeptember 6, 2016 at 6:41 PM

    Wow DFG, that's a huge increase - very impressive. I love all the YOY graphs as it can show what great progress you're making - keep it up :)

    We got $0 dividends in August, oh well. Next month will be better.

    Tristan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dividend Family GuySeptember 8, 2016 at 7:24 AM

      Hi Tristan,
      Yep the graph is decent. I may change it to total dividends for the year per month as that might be a little smoother and easier to see progress. My current graph is choppy. Don't worry about 0 some months.
      Later,
      DFG

      Delete
  2. DivHutSeptember 7, 2016 at 3:32 AM

    You brought in a very respectable number for the month of August. Even though those cuts hurt, they just happen. It's all part of being a dividend growth investor. At least your portfolio looks very well diversified with a lot of solid payers to pick up the dividend slack. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dividend Family GuySeptember 8, 2016 at 7:26 AM

      Hey Keith.
      It does hurt but like you said that is why we diversify so we don't loose all of our income in one cut. Cuts happen, just have to plan for it.
      Cheers,
      DFG

      Delete
  3. FerdiSSeptember 7, 2016 at 5:02 PM

    Very nice year over year increase, congratulations~! You'll start to see the new portfolio work for you in the next few months and years -- keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dividend Family GuySeptember 8, 2016 at 7:27 AM

      Thanks Ferdi,
      I always receive lots of encouragement from the community. You guys keep me at it.
      DFG

      Delete
  4. Dividend LifeSeptember 8, 2016 at 9:39 PM

    Hi DFG,
    It's great to see the snowball rolling again - especially since August is a fairly quiet month too!
    If you can't deduct your IRA contributions then I'd think it's better to pay into a Roth than a T-IRA account (can access money earlier if needed, zero tax to pay on it vs. forced RMD and marginal taxes on capital gains in a T-IRA). Roth contributions also have an income limit but it's quite a bit higher than the IRA limits if you file jointly.

    Congrats on a great month!
    -DL

    ReplyDelete

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This webpage is provided for general information only and nothing contained in the material constitutes a recommendation for the purchase or sale of any security. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at dividendfamilyguy at gmail dot com.