Last month, our dividend goal was to purchase two shares, KRFT and VZ, in the amount of $2,500 each. Also, I expected to get $194.47 in payments from the three stocks that we own that payout in the first month of the quarter. So, how did we do? We didn’t meet our goal 😦
We made less money than I had anticipated and had higher expenses than I wanted, so we ended up buying $1800 of both KRFT and VZ, which is $700 shy of where I wanted to be. Overall, we bought $1,400 less than I wanted. I am very mad at myself for this. We took a weekend trip, which meant we mad less money and also meant we spent more than we normally do.
Our dividends paid us $197.53, so that was slightly higher than what I thought it would be. That is good, but honestly I don’t really understand why the numbers are different. I mean you take the number of shares you own and times that by the dividend payout and it should equal the amount you were paid. Last month, I stated, “HCP should pay $67.80, PAA should pay $56.70 and T should pay $69.97 for a total of $194.47.” Instead, HCP paid us $70.39, PAA paid $58.12, and T paid $69.02. I must not be doing my calculations correctly…something to look into in another post.
Now that we know how we did last month, what are our goals for March? First, continue to buy KRFT and VZ in equal amounts. I am estimating that this month we will able to buy $4,000 total or $2,000 each. We may be able to do more, but what the heck is a goal for if you never hit it? Also, and I hate mentioning this for a variety of reasons, but we overpaid our taxes by a lot and will get a substantial refund back this month. I haven’t quite made up my mind what we are going to do with it, but I am thinking that some of it will go to buying more shares…so my stretch goal would be to finish getting these two stocks to $5,000 each by the end of this month so putting in a total of $6,400 or $3,200 each.
Our second goal is to get each month of the quarter paying out $250 in dividends. I believe that with the additional stock purchases we will hit that by the end of this month. In March, I estimate that we will receive the following payments: COP will pay $57.15, LMT will pay $72.39, ORI will pay $65.98 and UHT will pay $75.18 for a total of $270.69. This month will already hit this goal, but the other two months of the quarter are slacking so I am buying stocks to increasing those.
My third goal is to say within my budget on expenses. My budget is $1,000 for food, gas, and anything else. I know my car is about to need a service and I can’t remember if this is an expensive one or if it is just an oil change…but it is making lots of noises so even if it is only an oil change, I may end up spending a lot of my budget on my car. 😦 I just have to be diligent about being good with my money the rest of the month.
Disclosure: Just in case you couldn’t figure it out by reading, I am long on everything I mention. Right now we own these stocks: COP, HCP, KRFT, LMT, MO, ORI, PAA, PM, RAI, T, UHT and VZ. Just so I don’t get in trouble from some crazy entity, you should know that I am long on all of the