Monthly Review: September 2015

After spending 6 wonderful weeks with my parents, including an amazing cruise to Alaska on the Norwegian Jewel, I'm slowly catching up on my DivGro admin. Once again, my monthly review post is quite late – and less than a week away from needing to write another monthly review!

Compounding matters, I've been quite busy at work and things won't improve on that front until at least April Fool's day 2016! Fortunately, I love my work and wouldn't want to change what I'm doing at all! So, I'll just have to squeeze some time out of my leisure time to keep up with this blog!

Look for my Q3-2015 quarterly review in the next few days... first though, here's September's review.

Dividend income in September was solid, but not quite as high as in June. Projected monthly dividend income increased nicely, though:


September Highlights

The stock market continued its downward trend in September, though with less volatility than in August. The downturn in August and September has created some excellent buying opportunities and I'm looking forward to deploying more funds in October and beyond!

For DivGro, dividend income increased to $764 from $560 received in August. In September 2014, dividend income was $498, which means a solid year over year increase of 53%!

I bought 34 shares of Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE:PM) and 35 shares of ExxonMobil Corp (NYSE:XOM), in the process adding $241 to projected annual dividend income (PADI). Adding the effect of dividend increases, DivGro's PADI increased by $274 to $6,956, approaching my goal of $7,500 by year's end.

Transactions:

• Purchases
• 2015-09-25: Buy 34 shares of PM @ $81.27
• 2015-09-25: Buy 35 shares of XOM @ $73.27
• Dividends
• 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt CMI: $18.53
• 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt HP: $48.13
• 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt AFL: $19.50
• 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt COP: $28.12
• 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt INTC: $28.80
• 2015-09-08: Cash Dividend Receipt WMT: $16.66
• 2015-09-08: Cash Dividend Receipt JNJ: $22.50
• 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt CVX: $18.07
• 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt IBM: $39.00
• 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt XOM: $21.90
• 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt MSFT: $24.80
• 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt TGT: $22.40
• 2015-09-11: Cash Dividend Receipt WBA: $15.84
• 2015-09-11: Cash Dividend Receipt RS: $16.00
• 2015-09-14: Cash Dividend Receipt VNR: $21.15
• 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt STAG: $16.10
• 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt MCD: $22.95
• 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt AVA: $24.75
• 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt MDP: $25.16
• 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt O: $100.00
• Deposits
• 2015-09-29: October Cash Deposit: $2,500.00

Changes in Projected Annual Dividend Income:

• The purchase of 34 PM shares added $138.72.
• The purchase of 35 XOM shares added $102.30.
• MSFT's dividend increase added $16.00.
• PM's dividend increase added $2.48.
• O's dividend increase added $0.60.
• MO's dividend increase added $13.50.
• Projected annual dividend income (30 September 2015): $6,955.97.

Dividend Summary:

• Dividend income last month: $560.39
• Dividend income this month: $763.92
• Total dividend income year-to-date: $4,863.21

Markets:

Aug 31, 2015	DOW: 16,528.03 S&P 500: 1,972.18 10-YR BOND: 2.20%
Sep 30, 2015	DOW: 16,284.70 S&P 500: 1,920.03 10-YR BOND: 2.06%

In September, the Dow dropped 1.47% and the S&P 500 dropped 2.64%. In comparison, DivGro dropped 4.41%. My portfolio is overweight in Energy stocks and, consequently, DivGro's performance continues to lag the wider markets by a fair amount...

Portfolio: click on the triangle to see a snapshot of DivGro's state on 30 September 2015.

Goals Progress: Below is a chart showing the progress I'm making on my 2015 goals. I'm happy to report that I reached my goal of climbing the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, 30 times! That's the equivalent of 4,890 floors. At the current pace, I can probably reach 6,520 floors, or 40 times up and down, before year's end.

I'm ahead of pace on 3 of my other goals. I've written 34 premium articles for Seeking Alpha, so I should reach the goal of 36 SA premium articles int the month of October. Most importantly, though, I'm ahead of schedule on my PADI goal, as well as my goal of earning $6,000 in dividend income in 2015.

I'm behind schedule on 4 of goals, though 2 or 3 of them are still doable. As far as losing three stone is concerned, it is highly unlikely that I'll reach that goal in 2015. The wonderful cruise we took to Alaska has taken its toll: I'm now only 1% along the way to losing 3 stone. This is turning out to be a big fail! I'm going to try my best to at least lose on of those stones...

September Posts

I wrote only 5 articles in September, linked here in order of popularity by page views:

1. 8 Dividend Increases, August 16 To September 4, 2015 – no dividend raises for DivGro holdings
2. Recent Buy: Apple Inc – bought two lots of AAPL stocks for an average yield on cost (YoC) of 1.74%
3. Recent Buy: Philip Morris International – added to my PM holding, securing a 5.02% YoC
4. Monthly Review: August 2015 – projected monthly dividend income increased to $557
5. 7 Dividend Increases, September 7 To September 18, 2015 – DivGro holdings MSFT, PM, and O announced dividend increases!

Looking Ahead: I have enough funds for at least 2 buys. I will probably look to add to current holdings, rather than opening new positions.

I've updated my Performance page with the latest results. It provides a central place for reviewing DivGro's status and performance relative to the markets and to prior months.

Thanks for reading and take care, everybody!