July Dividend Income

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 July I made $3,740.41; a decrease of -5.3% versus this time last year.  GSK’s dividend cut along with two dividend payouts sliding into August.  GSK’s dividend cut was due to its Haleon (HLN) spin-off. HLN does not pay a dividend yet but hopefully will announce a dividend policy later in the year that compensates for the cut.

In July I received 6 dividend raises from ARCC, CMI, DUK, R, SJM, and WBA.  These raises will add an additional $89.63 to my annual income going forward. My biggest disappoint was the Ryder (R) raise of 6.9% which first did not meet inflation and second did not meet my expectation of a 20% raise. On the flip side, the raise from ARCC was unexpected as they increased their dividend back in February, this raise brings their total increase up to 4.88% which is sweet for a high yield BDC.

Date	Symbol	Company	Amount
7/1/22	AGR	AVANGRID	$24.13
7/1/22	ALL	ALLSTATE CORP	$3.42
7/1/22	DIVO	AMPLIFY ETF TR CWP ENHANCED DIV	$105.13
7/5/22	BBY	BEST BUY CO INC	$19.36
7/5/22	GRMN	GARMIN LTD	$74.76
7/5/22	KMB	KIMBERLY-CLARK CORP	$17.22
7/6/22	IRM	IRON MOUNTAIN INC	$500.07
7/7/22	GSK	GLAXOSMITHKLINE ADR	$116.87
7/7/22	TU	TELUS CORPORATION	$58.05
7/8/22	MRK	MERCK &CO. INC	$151.09
7/14/22	MPW	MEDICAL PROPERTIES TRUST INC	$197.41
7/15/22	AQN	ALGONQUIN PWR UTILS CORP	$335.02
7/15/22	CPT	CAMDEN PROPERTY TRUST	$14.42
7/15/22	EPR	EPR PROPERTIES	$85.49
7/15/22	KBAL	KIMBALL INTERNATIONAL INC	$2.48
7/15/22	LEG	LEGGETT &PLATT INC	$299.81
7/15/22	PKG	PACKAGING CORP OF AMERICA	$8.83
7/15/22	WPC	WP CAREY INC	$580.49
7/20/22	BCE	BCE INC	$405.89
7/20/22	PSEC	PROSPECT CAP CORP	$98.13
7/25/22	NUSI	ETF SER SOLUTIONS NATIONWIDE NASDQ	$15.65
7/26/22	XRMI	GLOBAL X FDS S&P 500 RISK	$28.76
7/26/22	XYLD	GLOBAL X FDS S&P 500 COVERED	$74.22
7/29/22	BNS	BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA	$30.13
7/29/22	CM	CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE	$305.78
7/29/22	OGE	OGE ENERGY CORP	$144.08
7/29/22	M1 Finance	M1 DIVIDEND GROWTH ACCOUNT	$43.72

Buys and Sells for the Week 7/29

Markets are up again this week and closed out the week strong. There was some slight weakness early in the week and managed a few buys, just have to be patient. Here are my trades for the week:

1. United Parcel Service (UPS)    – increased position – Some investors did not like that UPS did not revise full year guidance after another solid quarter. Grabbed 2 shares @ $179.82 and a 3.38% yield.
2. Hasbro Inc. (HAS)    – increased position – Walmart earnings dragged down quite a few names with on Tuesday. Grabbed 2 shares @ $77.15 and a 3.63% yield
3. Allstate Corp. (ALL)    – increased position – Negative sentiment and large insurance claims muted their earnings pushing share price down. Grabbed 1 share @ $115.10 and a 2.95% yield

Buys and Sells for the Week 7/22

Markets were up again making me a bit hesitant to buy as this just may be a temporary bear rally. Still found something I did like 🙂 Here are my trades for the week:

1. Hasbro Inc. (HAS)    – increased position – Earnings were pretty good in light of the FX impact. But what got me really excited was they are finally reaching into their D&D line to create a new move franchise for 2023. Check out the trailer below that was released Thursday night. Grabbed 12 shares @ $82.69 and a 3.35% yield.

Buys and Sells for the Week 7/15

I miscalculated markets this week. With inflation numbers slightly higher than predicted I really thought markets would fall on Friday but instead it went up up and up. I missed out on Thursdays lows so buying was really light this week. Here are my trades for the week:

1. Hasbro Inc. (HAS)    – increased position – Below $80/share is enough to get my attention. Grabbed 2 shares @ $78.13 and a 3.58% yield.
2. Independent Bank Corp (IBCP)   – increased position – One of my trading accounts had a small balance so I just swept up what little funds there were and put them to work. Grabbed 1.3 shares @ $18.94 and a 4.65% yield.

Movie Fun Night – Vote for your Movie

Me and the family are once again starting up our backyard movie night and this year we decided to try something different and let readers have a vote in the movie choice for this Saturday (7/16). To cast a vote simply leave a comment below by Friday. The choices for this weekend are:

1. O Brother Where Art Thou – votes (2)
2. My Cousin Vinny – votes (1)
3. Stripes – votes (1)
4. Big Daddy – votes (1)

Its a tough choice no doubt…I’ll update later in the week once I have the Family’s votes.

Buys and Sells for the Week 7/8

Markets were down early in the shortened week but recovered quickly. Wasn’t quite fast enough to trades in when the markets were done but I got a few. Here are my trades for the week:

1. Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD)    – increased position – Used my monthly Roth IRA contribution to add to this. Grabbed 7 shares @ $70.45 and a 3.44% yield.
2. Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)   – increased position – Price drop caught my attention. Grabbed 2 shares @ $57.00 and a 5.62% yield.
3. Packaging Corp of America (PKG) – increased position – As long as share price remains low I will slowly build this out. Grabbed 1 share @ $135.56 and a 3.69% yield

June Dividend Income

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 June I made $5,789.87; an increase of 26.38% versus this time last year.  Biggest payout I have had this year, if only the first two months of a quarter were this nice.

In June I received 3 dividend raises from GIS, ODC and WPC.  These raises will add an additional $32.70 to my annual income going forward. June is a tough month for raises so I’ll take anything that comes.

Taking a mid-year look at my annual income growth goal of 12.5%, my income is currently exceeding that goal by 3% and the bulk of that is due to the massive 49% dividend raise from United Parcel Service (UPS) back in February. Since UPS is my largest position it made a significant dent, without that I would have been closer to my goal.

On the home front I am finally caught up on maintaining properties for two homes (mine & my father-in-law’s) and I can finally start enjoying summer.   Last year we started our backyard movie nights and cannot wait to get that started again, best part is we could not get a screen last year because of supply chain issues but I was able to get a 120” screen and cannot wait to try it out.  My daughter caught Covid and had a side effect of something called “Covid Eye”, long story short her eye is as swollen as Rocky Balboa’s except she didn’t say cut me Mick.

On another note, fellow blogger Northern Lights Investment is back from a very dangerous surgery and is blogging again but still in need of much recovery and far from out of the woods.  Also, another callout to fellow blogger Dividend Portfolio as he battles cancer and faces a tough road ahead.  Try to keep both in your prayers as they can use all the help they can get.  

Here are the charts we love to see:

Date	Symbol	Company	Amount
6/1/22	ALE	ALLETE INC	$138.76
6/1/22	DIVO	AMPLIFY ETF TR CWP ENHANCED DIV	$107.69
6/1/22	PNW	PINNACLE WEST CAPITAL CORP	$207.96
6/1/22	PSX	PHILLIPS 66	$28.87
6/1/22	SJM	SMUCKER J M CO	$18.93
6/2/22	CMI	CUMMINS INC	$41.04
6/2/22	UPS	UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC	$345.18
6/3/22	ENB	ENBRIDGE INC	$254.72
6/6/22	SO	SOUTHERN CO	$70.24
6/7/22	JNJ	JOHNSON &JOHNSON	$199.02
6/7/22	VLO	VALERO ENERGY CORP	$35.28
6/8/22	AMGN	AMGEN INC	$11.76
6/9/22	DFS	DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES	$15.61
6/9/22	MSFT	MICROSOFT CORP	$67.84
6/10/22	CVX	CHEVRON CORP	$23.96
6/10/22	IBM	INTERNATIONAL BUS MACH CORP	$155.03
6/10/22	PFE	PFIZER INC	$239.15
6/10/22	SNA	SNAP-ON INC	$33.96
6/10/22	WBA	WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE INC	$70.07
6/13/22	MMM	3M CO	$63.12
6/15/22	AVA	AVISTA CORP	$147.84
6/15/22	EPR	EPR PROPERTIES	$85.49
6/15/22	FAF	FIRST AMERICAN FINANCIAL CORP	$163.33
6/15/22	NWL	NEWELL BRANDS INC	$25.56
6/16/22	DUK	DUKE ENERGY CORP	$67.39
6/16/22	OGN	ORGANON &CO	$5.71
6/16/22	PRU	PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL INC	$520.12
6/17/22	BHB	BAR HARBOR BANKSHARES	$54.07
6/17/22	R	RYDER SYSTEM INC	$54.57
6/17/22	WM	WASTE MANAGEMENT INC	$46.92
6/21/22	CMP	COMPASS MINERALS INTERNATIONAL INC	$28.65
6/21/22	PSEC	PROSPECT CAP CORP	$98.13
6/21/22	UL	UNILEVER PLC	$58.55
6/23/22	QCOM	QUALCOMM INC	$177.49
6/24/22	BP	BP PLC	$8.59
6/24/22	KHC	KRAFT HEINZ CO	$9.70
6/24/22	LMT	LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP	$25.80
6/27/22	SCHD	SCHWAB US DIVIDEND EQUITY ETF	$33.46
6/28/22	NUSI	ETF SER SOLUTIONS NATIONWIDE NASDQ	$15.93
6/29/22	TROW	PRICE T ROWE GROUPS	$25.14
6/29/22	XRMI	GLOBAL X FDS S&P 500 RISK	$50.36
6/29/22	XYLD	GLOBAL X FDS S&P 500 COVERED	$146.02
6/30/22	ARCC	ARES CAPITAL CORP	$551.61
6/30/22	AVGO	BROADCOM INC	$8.43
6/30/22	BEP	BROOKFIELD RENEWABLE PARTNERS	$280.60
6/30/22	BEPC	BROOKFIELD RENEWABLE CORP	$70.08
6/30/22	CTO	CTO RLTY GROWTH INC	$64.97
6/30/22	GATX	GATX CORP	$55.27
6/30/22	NEWT	NEWTEK BUSINESS SVCS CORP	$620.19
6/30/22	PEP	PEPSICO INC	$60.72
6/30/22	WEYS	WEYCO GROUP INC	$26.16
6/30/22	M1 Finance	M1 DIVIDEND GROWTH ACCOUNT	$74.83