Thursday, August 30, 2012
Monthly Update - August 2012
Well August wasn't as exciting of a month as July. I only had one purchase and a few options trades.
I purchased 22 shares of MCD.
I had 3 options trades in August. I closed out puts in BBVA and DOW. I also had puts in COP expire giving me a total profit before brokerage fees of $276 for the month and my total for the year broke $2000. Not too bad! You can see all of my options trades since I started the blog on my options tab.
My forward 12-month dividend payments are now at $2123.29 which is a 3.9% increase from last month's amount of $2042.99. I've updated my dividends tab accordingly.
In order to hit my new goal of $2400 by the end of the year I will probably need about another $6900 in purchases. I still believe I can achieve this.
On the real estate front, I was able to slightly lower the insurance on my condo with a new carrier. I still have plans to refinance that loan next year if rates stay low. I've also moved into a new house that has a much higher upkeep. I will be working on reducing expenses here as well. You can see my two rental properties on my real estate tab.
This year has turned out great so far. I'm already ahead of my initial dividend goal and I've set some aggressive dividend goals for the next 8 years. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.
Looking forward to September, I may be able to break $300 in dividends in a single month for the first time.
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I like the MCD purchase, looks like an awesome month! Good to see the options are treating you well.
ReplyDeleteYour message somehow went to my spam. Thanks for following my purchases and commenting. I'll be watching yours as well.
DeleteI just started options trade late last year but I'm doing pretty well so far. I'm mainly sticking to basic options trading strategies such as selling cash secured puts and covered calls.
That's awesome $2k from options and $2k from dividends. I'll be glad when I get to that point. I really need to look in to getting rid of my espp shares to put them to much better use. Need to see how my taxes will look if I do that. Congrats. I can't wait til I get there. My forward dividends is sitting around $800 right now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. You have a nice portfolio yourself and you are well on your way to higher dividends. I only wish I had started DG investing sooner.
DeleteQuestions re: Options
ReplyDeleteWhich discount broker do you use? What is there fee for trading options?
If you are only selling 1 contract at a time, doesn't the fee really eat in to your profits?
Thanks for your time.
Your message also went to spam for some reason. I apologize about that. I use E*Trade as my main broker and Schwab for my income portfolio.
DeleteYou are correct about the fees. I plan to total my fees at the end of the year and see what percentage of my profits are eaten up by fees. The average fee at E*Trade is around $10-12 for options. I try to collect at least $100 in premiums on each trade for the fees stay around 10% of profits. I wish I could sell more than 1 contract at a time but I just don't have the cash to cover huge positions that get assigned.
Congratulations on building up your dividend stream and on the success from your options trades. You've been doing a fine job and I think you're making great progress toward your dividend goals.
ReplyDeleteHi DGM,
DeleteI like the new name and thanks for stopping buy. You've got a great looking portfolio and I'm watching your trades also. Good luck!
Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the dividend income and options proceeds. Sounds like you're doing great on both fronts.
Exceeding $300 in dividend income for one month is fantastic. I did that myself not very long ago. $300 in real passive income is great. That's enough money to really make a difference in one's life if it came down to it. That could cover about 25% of my expenses right now.
I'm hoping to receive $2,000 in total dividends in the calendar year of 2012. We'll see!
Best wishes.
Hey DM,
DeleteIt's good to see your blog back up and running. Thanks for stopping by to comment.
From my estimates I should just break $300 in Sept as long as one of my end-of-month payers doesn't pay in early Oct. I haven't checked them all yet.
$2,000 in dividends is great! I'll break $1,000 for the year next month and I plan on hitting the $2000 mark in the second half of next year.