Monthly Update - March 2014

Sorry about getting this up late but I've been super busy lately with work and closing on my new rental property.

Below is a summary of my activity for the month:

New Purchases: -$2,251.24 (net):

$1200 of KMI
$650 of ESV

Posts about new purchases can all be found by following the "Buys" label here.

Sells:
78 shares of LO @ $52.58/share = $4101.24 (mentioned here)

Options Trades:

I didn't have any options trades for the month.  That's the first month since I started trading options that I didn't have a trade.  I still have several positions open and plan to continue trading options going forward.  My options trading should gradually pick up after April.  My total profit for the year is  $118.00.

I've updated all of these trades on my Options tab and you can find these trades on my options label.

Dividends (and quarterly graph):

WFC - 37.94
INTC - 112.50
COP - 65.11
TGH - 42.30
SO - 114.19
LO - 79.95
CVX - 78.18
NSC - 38.88
JNJ - 36.45
WAG - 21.42
CSX - 30.00
MCD - 51.63
ESV - 150.00
V - 9.68
TGT - 58.93
TEVA - 52.88
BBL - 125.86
PEP - 26.74
RDS.B - 129.99
BP - 109.48
BDX - 25.12
LMT - 58.52
OMI - 37.50

I earned $1493.25 in dividends for the month.  This is an increase of 159% from last March.  My total year-to-date dividend income is $2259.78.  This is 22.6% toward my goal of $10,000 in dividends for the year.  I've updated my dividend income on my Dividends tab.

Forward 12-month Dividends:

My expected forward 12-month dividend income has increased to $9894.99 from $9690.68, a 2.1% increase since last month.  Even though I had a negative net purchase for March, my forward income has still gone up.  I suspect all of the recent dividend raises from February and March are now reflected in the data I get from Google & Yahoo Finance.

You can find all of my monthly dividend information from the Dividends page.

Dividend Increases: 

The following 3 companies in my portfolio increased their dividends this month.

WFC - 16.7% increase announced on 03/26
APD - 8.5% increase announced on 03/20
GIS - 8% increase announced on 03/11

I've now had 13 companies increase dividends so far this year.

These increases can also be found on my Dividend Increases label.

Goals:

No goals were completed in March but I'll post soon about a goal that I just reached in April.  I'm still trying hard to reach all of my goals.

These goals can be found on the Goals tab.

Real Estate:

I'm still working on the construction of my office condo which should be ready by June.

My third rental was closed on last Friday and I mentioned final numbers of around 8% ROI here.  Next I'll be looking to put it up for lease this week to hopefully get $1300/month.

I posted my electric bill for the second month of 2014 and owed only $5!  It looks like I'll pay next to nothing for electricity over the next few months at this rate.  So far I'm happy with results.

All of my real estate posts will be found on my real estate label.

Net Worth:

I'm now at $644k, up from $608k.  I'll soon have the rental numbers updated on my Net Worth page.

Looking Ahead:

My expected dividends for April are $544.46.  Although much lower than March, I should still see over a 100% increase from April of last year.

I'm also nearing $10k in annual foward dividends and will post a milestone about this in the next  couple of months when it is met.

I'll be posting about a goal I achieved and hopefully leasing the new rental this month.

My new purchases will still be smaller until May as I am making a large tax payment and coupon this month.  Like last year, I'll have the majority of my purchases in the second half of the year.

How was your month?