Recent Buy: ETP

Jan 18, 2013: Bought 100 shares of ETP at $47.42 per share.

Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) is a master limited partnership that owns and operates natural gas and NGL pipelines, natural gas storage and distributions terminals, and natural gas processing facilities. With recent acquisitions, ETP is also becoming a major presence in the oil pipeline business.

ETP pays a quarterly distribution of $0.89375 in the months of February, May, August, and November. This distribution represents a solid yield of 7.56%.

MLP Selection Criteria

The main goal of DivGro is to generate a reliable and growing dividend income stream. In striving for reliability, I look for high quality, fairly valued businesses with long histories of strong, rising dividends. Taking on unnecessary risk for short-term gains or unsustainable yields will not deliver a reliable income stream in the long run.

I've designed my selection criteria to help me identify appropriate candidates for DivGro. As stated, the selection criteria target dividend paying companies that report their financial results regularly, and for which metrics like price to earnings ratio, dividend payout rate, and earnings growth rate are readily available.

There is another class of businesses that produce dividend-like income worth considering: Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). For MLPs, I use a different set of selection criteria, because they operate with special rules and offer certain tax advantages.

Goals for 2013

I believe in setting challenging yet attainable goals.

It is not advisable to entertain goals that are impossible, or even nearly so. No matter how hard I try, I will never run 100 meters in under 10 seconds. That feat is only possible for a select few, presently male-only, athletes, with the talent and training to make them world-class sprinters. On the other hand, if I wanted to, I could set a goal to become a good guitar player and with hard work and dedication, I could attain that goal in a few year's time.

Setting goals that are simply attainable will not require special effort, nor will I feel a great sense of personal satisfaction in accomplishing them. Challenging goals demand extra focus and commitment. They require me to raise the bar, to exert extra effort, to put in the time. And when I attain these goals, I know I'll experience a great sense of achievement.

Recent Buy: INTC

Jan 8, 2013: Bought 120 shares of INTC at $21.21 per share.

Intel Corporation (INTC) is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. Intel makes motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers and integrated circuits, flash memory, graphic chips, embedded processors and other devices related to communications and computing. It is the world's largest and highest valued semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue.

With its streak of 9 consecutive years of dividend increases, INTC is a Dividend Challenger, though it could become a Dividend Contender if the dividend is increased again this year. INTC currently pays quarterly dividends of $0.225 per share.

Recent Buy: CVX

Jan 8, 2013: Bought 25 shares of CVX at $109.68 per share.

My first purchase for DivGro is Chevron Corporation (CVX), a multinational energy corporation with headquarters in San Ramon, California. Founded in 1984, Chevron is involved in all aspects of the oil and gas industries, including exploration and production; refining, marketing and transport; chemicals manufacturing and sales; and power generation. Chevron is ranked as the third largest American corporation in the Fortune 500, after only Exxon Mobil and Wal-Mart Stores.

Chevron is a Dividend Champion, with a track record of 25 consecutive years of dividend increases. It currently pays quarterly dividends of $0.90 per share. Dividends payed out in 2012 increased by 13.6% over dividend payments in 2011.

Hello, World!

Welcome to yet another dividend growth investing blog! I've been inspired by several similar blogs to create my own dividend growth portfolio and to share my thoughts while managing it.

My main goal with this portfolio is to generate a reliable and growing dividend income stream. By publicly keeping track of this portfolio and interacting with like-minded investors, I hope to become a better dividend growth investor and to provide useful information to others in the process.

I've been dabbling in the stock market for more than 10 years, as a hobbyist, using somewhat aggressive strategies. While I've been quite successful so far, I need to start counterbalancing that approach with a more conservative, income-generating approach.

Currently, the blog is organized as follows:

• Home: Posts about portfolio updates and monthly reviews. 
• Portfolio: Content and market value of portfolio, updated monthly. 
• Dividends: A calendar-like table to track dividend income. 
• Charts: One-year price charts of stocks in portfolio. 
• Performance: Regular reviews of portfolio performance. 
• Goals: Overall and annual goals for portfolio. 
• Watch List: Presents a list of candidate dividend growth stocks. 
• About: Summary statement of portfolio constitution and investment strategy. 
• Disclaimer: I'm not an investment professional... 

Over time, I'll likely add pages and reorganize the layout as needed.