March Goals

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

February Goals

We are onto goal 2 of our dividend plan!  It is exciting to be able to cross off goal 1!!!!  However, I wish we would have been able to hit goal 1 and 2 in 2013, but that didn’t happen so I am a little disappointed.  I feel like we are never going to be able to retire early and we both semi-love semi-hate our jobs.  We do not want to work forever, but it feels like we will have to 😦

Just to refresh, goal 2 is to increase the total amount of money we have put in to $60,000 by purchasing $5,000 worth of shares with an average yield of 4% in two more stocks in the first two months of the quarter.  Let me explain a couple of things.

First, I like to think of dividends in groups based on the month they pay out.  Most dividends pay out 4 times a year and they usually pay out the same month of each quarter.  The first month of the quarter would be January, April, July and October.  I want to get as close to equal amounts of payments each month, so I want to buy stocks in each quarter.

Second, we already have $50,000+ in 10 stocks where we bought $5,000 worth of shares for each stock.  Right now, we have 3 stocks in the first month of the quarter, 3 in the second and 4 in the third.  Goal 2 makes it so we have 12 stocks total with 4 in each month.  I only need to focus on getting stocks in the first two months of the quarter.

Third, I say, “we already have $50,000+ in 10 stocks” because although we have put in $50,000, the stocks have grown in value and we have been paid dividends which has made it so we have more than $50,000 in stocks.

Fourth, I have no idea what the future will hold as far as the value of stocks but we can control how much we invest.  This is why I am focused on how many shares I buy vs how I expect everything to grow.  The stock market may tank this year and be 50% less than what it was in 2013.  The stock market may grow at the same rate it did last year.  Whatever happens, I still have the ability to buy shares and so that is what I am focused on.

Now that we got that out of the way, let me explain what I plan to do in February to help me hit goal 2. The two shares I plan on purchasing are KRFT and VZ.

KRFT has a yield of 4.01% and it pays out in the first month of the quarter.  This stock is performing in-line with the market and its earnings estimates are uptrending.  I believe KRFT will continue to pay a dividend and may increase the percent in the coming years.

VZ has a yield of 4.41% and it pays out in the second month of the quarter.  This stock is under performing a little but it has been increasing its dividend for the last seven years.  I believe VZ will continue to increase the dividend for the next couple of years.

With these two shares, we will get part of goal 2 to have 12 stocks with 4 in each month of the quarter that average 4% yield.  Now that we got the easy part out of the way, we have to come up with the last piece of the goal….the $10,000 to purchase these two shares.  I am hoping to buy at least $5,000 worth this month.  We will buy the same amount of both shares until we are at our goal.

Also, part of goal 2 is to get every month of the quarter paying at least $200 in dividend payments.  We have three stocks that we should be getting payments from in February.  They are HCP, PAA and T.  Per my calculations based on how many shares we own right now, we should get the following payments.  HCP should pay $67.80, PAA should pay $56.70 and T should pay $69.97 for a total of $194.47.  With the purchase of VZ, we will be above $200 this month of the quarter.  Of course, we won’t see any results of that purchase until May since you have to own the stock about one month prior to the pay date.