Thought I was done with dividend raises for the month but surprise, surprise I received two more this week; CTO Realty (CTO) 8% and EPR Properties (EPR) 10%.
With most of my cash gone buying will remain extremely light for a few weeks but I will keep trying to put every dollar to work. Here are my trades for the week:
The dividend raises keep coming in, definitely my best February ever for raises. My run on dividend raises are over for now and should pick up again in April. The first two months of 2021 has increased my forward dividend income by 2%, pretty amazing considering we have 10 more months left for raises.
I received 4 dividend raises this week; Garmin (GRMN) 8.96%, Walmart (WMT) 1.82%, Medical Properties Trust (MPW) 3.57%, and Allstate (ALL) 4.94%. Here are my trades for the week:
Market bounce came to a complete halt when inflation data came out. Volatility is just oh so fun.
I received 5 dividend raises this week; Ares Capital (ARCC) 2.44% plus a special 12 cent payout spread over 4 quarters, Hasbro (HAS) 2.94%, 3M (MMM) 0.7%, Pepsico (PEP) 6.98%, and T. Rowe Price (TROW) 11.11%. Here are my trades for the week:
Saw this cartoon in the Sunday funnies section from the Bound & Gagged comics.
Interesting week with so many companies reporting but I’ll start with AT&T (T) finally telling us what the reduced dividend will be, I was planning on $1.20/share but they came out at $1.11/share which was slightly below what I had hoped for but still tolerable. At least the guessing game is over and we can move on
Now onto the good news, I received the most dividend raises ever in 1 week by racking up 9 raises; Allete Inc. (ALE) 3.17%, Air Products (APD) 8%, Avista Corp. (AVA) 4.14%, BCE Inc. (BCE) 5.1%, Brookfield Renewable Partners both BEP & BEPC 5.33%, Camden Property Trust (CPT) 13.25%, Prudential Financial (PRU) 4.35%, and United Parcel Service (UPS) 49%.
Here are my trades for the week:
After 35 years of clocking in and out of work and religiously saving at least 10% annually in my 401K every year, my countdown to financial independence is in sight. Each month is a step closer and let’s look at how this past month is getting me there.
For the month of January I made $3,699.22; an increase of 19.41% versus this time last year. January was a pretty cold month with lots of snow but this increase kept me pretty warm :). Markets were crazy but my portfolio held up well most likely due to investors rotating into value and/or dividend paying stocks.
In January I received 5 dividend raise announcements from Chevron (CVX), Fastenal (FAST), GATX Corp (GATX), Independent Bank Corp (IBCP), and Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB) which all together add $30.79 to my annual forward dividend.
On the home front we are still dealing with health issues with extended family members, but some of the craziness has settled down. My job on the other hand has been a bit more demanding but it may just be people all energized for a new year. As much as I have enjoyed my career, I am noticing the closer I get to FI the less patience I’m having with the job and co-workers. Guess we can call this the FI effect (lol)! Let’s see the things we all love to see…charts and dividend payouts:
| Date | Symbol | Company | Amount |
| 1/3/22 | AGR | AVANGRID | $23.71 |
| 1/3/22 | PPL | PPL CORP | $490.05 |
| 1/3/22 | WMT | WALMART INC | $14.48 |
| 1/4/22 | GRMN | GARMIN LTD | $67.89 |
| 1/4/22 | KMB | KIMBERLY-CLARK CORP | $16.63 |
| 1/6/22 | IRM | IRON MOUNTAIN INC | $497.17 |
| 1/6/22 | TU | TELUS CORPORATION | $56.52 |
| 1/7/22 | MRK | MERCK &CO. INC | $148.57 |
| 1/7/22 | PEP | PEPSICO INC | $56.05 |
| 1/13/22 | MPW | MEDICAL PROPERTIES TRUST INC | $185.17 |
| 1/14/22 | APTS | PREFERRED APARTMENT COMMUNITIES INC | $82.97 |
| 1/14/22 | AQN | ALGONQUIN PWR UTILS CORP | $244.27 |
| 1/14/22 | KBAL | KIMBALL INTERNATIONAL INC | $2.43 |
| 1/14/22 | LEG | LEGGETT &PLATT INC | $105.19 |
| 1/14/22 | PKG | PACKAGING CORP OF AMERICA | $4.00 |
| 1/14/22 | WPC | WP CAREY INC | $575.25 |
| 1/18/22 | CPT | CAMDEN PROPERTY TRUST | $12.73 |
| 1/18/22 | EPR | EPR PROPERTIES | $77.71 |
| 1/18/22 | GSK | GLAXOSMITHKLINE ADR | $172.74 |
| 1/20/22 | BCE | BCE INC | $175.73 |
| 1/20/22 | PSEC | PROSPECT CAP CORP | $155.54 |
| 1/24/22 | AMNF | ARMANINO FOODS DISTINCTION INC | $39.05 |
| 1/28/22 | OGE | OGE ENERGY CORP | $141.09 |
| 1/31/22 | BGS | B&G FOODS INC | $269.11 |
| 1/31/22 | BNS | BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA | $29.01 |
| 1/31/22 | NUSI | ETF SER SOLUTIONS NATIONWIDE NASDQ | $13.20 |
| 1/31/22 | M1 Finance | M1 DIVIDEND GROWTH ACCOUNT | $42.96 |
Simple Dividend Growth 