Dividend Portfolio Update for March 2017

Summary

• Tax return transfered to the car loan (only one more month to go!)
• $246.69 in dividends for March 2017
• +$40.64 added to annual income

The month of March has come to a close but it does so after bringing some much needed good news, as well as gifts. First of all, Springtime has finally dawned on us and it’s nice to be able to go outside and not have to haul hats and mittens around. I can’t tell you how nice it is to look out at the window and not just see the dull gray of winter. One of my side projects this year is to try my hand at starting a container garden. Nothing big, but I’ll be happy if I manage to get even one pepper or green onion from what I planted.

The big news this month is that I received my Federal and State Tax refund. I decided back when I made my 2017 Goals that I wanted to go ahead and pay off my car. This will save me 2.2% in interest on the loan and will let me free up about $700 of additional cash every month. The tax refund was around $4,500, which puts a huge dent on the principle. I currently have a little over a grand left on it and I plan on paying that off next month.

The portfolio return for March didn’t end how I wanted it to, but it’s nothing compared to the grand scheme of our long term dividend portfolio. The portfolio was down -0.58%.

Account Deposits

It was a tough month to add additional cash into my dividend portfolio. Not only did my tax return go to the car loan, but I also added additional cash that I had leftover in order to make paying the loan off next month easier. My Robinhood account still auto-deposits $200 per paycheck automatically. Which in a month, means that I put $400 into my account by default. I wanted to squeeze in an additional deposit and managed to put $275. Bringing the grand total of deposits this month to:

$200+200+275 = $675

Not as good as the previous few months but there’s nothing to complain about here.

Dividend Payouts

It was a very nice month in terms of dividends. For the month, the portfolio managed to collect $246.69 in dividend payments. If only every other month was as good as March! The following is a breakdown :

Dividend Total for March 2017 : $246.69

Stock Purchases

• 1 share of PSX @ $78.90
• 1 share of PFE @ $34.70
• 1 share of F @ $12.65
• 1 share of SO @ $50.35
• 10 shares of SBSI @ $32.60
• 3 shares of XOM @ 82.00
• 25 shares of F @ 11.43

I couldn’t buy as much as I wanted to since I put quite a bit of money on the car loan. I tried to DRIP shares of some of the dividend payers this month and added onto my positions of SBSI and F. All in all not the best month for purchases but anything positive is, well positive!

Total: +$40.64 annual income

Stock Sells

Absolutely nothing.

Conclusion

The portfolio is shaping up quite nicely and this month was no different. Next month I plan on paying the car completely off so I’m not expecting any big plays but it’ll be nice to have debt off my back. Thanks for reading and see you next time!