January was a nice month for our dividend portfolio holdings and the markets in general. While progress in the account is very slow going it’s fun to watch the account grow ever so slightly each month.

In the past we would usually post every couple months at the most as the portfolio was mostly out of sight out of mind and didn’t garner much attention until we either had money to invest or saw a statement. Now that the portfolio has grown to become a larger part of our overall investment picture we have started paying more attention to it and also started creating some tracking spreadsheets. As an accountant this is the fun part as I personally love doing monthly and annual comparisons and even some projections if the mood hits me.

Now that we are over a year into this experience it’s fun to gather some of this data and see how our journey is tracking, which helps in the motivation department as well. We started adding some comparison information into our last update, which you can read here, and starting with this update we will add more data and attempt to provide consistent monthly updates on the portfolio and our holdings going forward.

For us the hardest part of this portfolio is funding it. As we are now retired we are committed to only investing money that gets generated from this blog via ad revenue, which is nearly impossible, or affiliate revenue, which is wildly inconsistent and can range from almost nothing to a few hundred dollars a month. On average we have been able to invest about $200 a month over the course of the last year, but it is getting harder and harder to reach that amount as the economy has slowed and affiliate revenue has tanked along with it. So you will see some months where there is going to be very minimal activity, but that is also kind of the point we are trying to get across. It doesn’t take a lot to get started and grow and account over time.

Let’s dive in!!

Our dividend portfolio ending January 2023:

Symbol	# of Shares	Change From Prior Month
ABBV	13.721	–
ABR	21.456	–
BKH	3.135	–
DOW	9.638	–
EPD	4	4
FRT	6.235	0.061
GIS	5.214	–
IBM	3.23	–
IRM	12.983	0.161
JEPI	11.525	0.109
JNJ	6.228	–
K	2.106	–
KHC	5.297	–
KMB	2.109	0.018
KO	2.106	–
MAIN	10.436	0.060
MMM	7.359	–
MO	12.173	0.243
MPW	14.991	0.264
O	5.271	0.020
QYLD	31.293	0.616
SCHD	10.074	1
SO	2.129	–
SPTN	6.334	–
T	15.212	1
VTRS	10.319	–
WBD	3	–
XOM	5.259	–

In the month of January we received dividends from FRT, IRM, JEPI, KMB, MAIN, MO, MPW, O and QYLD totaling $51.44. All dividends received were reinvested into the underlying positions. Starting next month we will provide a cumulative total for the year each month as well.

We also made some purchases in January adding to our positions in SCHD and even T! And for the first time in awhile, we started a new position in our portfolio as we decided to purchase 4 shares of EPD. This is a company in the energy services business that owns and operates oil and natural gas pipelines. Some people think this kind of business is doomed with the push for electric everything and some people will not invest in these type of services for environmental reasons. I am not one of those people. I also think these companies will be relied on even more energy as long a we keep failing to maintain energy independence as a nation. So I will happily take the 7%+ dividend in the meantime while that gets figured out.

Looking at a year over year comparison the our January dividend distributions increased 53.23% from the same period in 2022. All of our positions grew with KMB being the laggard of the group at only 5.65% dividend growth. We haven’t added to this position in awhile so this is pure growth through reinvestments and dividend increases.

With the new share purchases and reinvestments we made in the month our dividend portfolio will now provide projected annual dividend income (PADI) of $682 or almost $57 per month on average. This is an annual increase of $16 or $1.33 per month on average from our last update at the end of 2022. Our yield on cost (YOC) only increased by a slim 0.02% and finished at 5.45% in January as our purchases just about averaged out to our current yield.

Stock	January 2022	January 2023	YOY Growth %
FRT	$4.32	$6.67	54.40%
IRM	$6.94	$7.93	14.27%
JEPI	$0.00	$5.97	597.00%
KMB	$2.30	$2.43	5.65%
MAIN    (m)	$0.00	$2.33	233.00%
MO	$8.27	$11.21	35.55%
MPW	$1.99	$3.40	70.85%
O    (m)	$1.00	$1.30	30.00%
QYLD  (m)	$8.75	$10.20	16.57%
Total	$33.57	$51.44	53.23%

At the end of the month our dividend portfolio was valued at just under $13,024. This is a 29.74% increase from January of 2022 and a 2.71% increase from the previous month. Our portfolio did lag the market in January as some investors appeared to be shifting into riskier assets with the latest fed news. There were also some negative news headlines for JNJ and MMM regarding some ongoing litigation that impacted our positions. These will ultimately be resolved, but until then it’s a nice buying opportunity if you have the funds.

Month	2022	2023	YOY % Change
January	$10,038.48	$13,023.98	29.74%

Month	Year	Portfolio Value	MOM % Change
December	2022	$12,680.53	2.71%
January	2023	$13,023.98

There you have it! Overall it was a fairly nice month and everything was heading in the right direction. We have considered setting a goal to try and achieve 1K in annual PADI before year end, but in the current environment that goal doesn’t appear to be obtainable or realistic. So for now we will set our sights on achieving the $750 mark and then see where the rest of the year takes us economically.

Thank you for reading our blog. Please leave a comment or any other feedback below.

Happy investing!!

Joe

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