March 2014 Dividend Income Update

Time for the March 2014 dividend income update:

Dividends Received

• WFC: $25.20
• AFL: $21.83
• PSX: $10.53
• TGT: $9.89
• NSC: $8.10
• IBM: $7.60
• CVX: $11.00
• JNJ: $11.22
• MSFT: $14.84
• MCD: $22.68

Total dividend income for March: $142.89 

A nice improvement compared to last years $96.47 I received in March 2013

You can see my progress here.

Latest Buy: BRK.B

On March 1st Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, released his annual stockholder letter. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do. It's a very well written, easy to understand piece. It gives you a peak into the mind of one of the most successful investors in history. http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/reports.html

On monday 3/3/2014 I bought:

• 13 Shares BRK.B @ $116.16

Why now? Warren Buffett said it himself: The intrinsic value of Berkshire Hathaway shares exceeds 120% of book value by a meaningful amount.
A quick calculation, using numbers from the annual report, puts the value of BRK.B shares at $107.98. I basically picked up some shares at 129% book value ($116.16 a share) which is probably a good deal is 120% of book value is cheap.


This buy will not give me dividends. I think it's highly likely BRK.B will start paying a dividend in the future, it may be 5 years, it may take 10 or 25 years. When Berkshire grows bigger and bigger, it will become exponentially harder for the director's to find good use with the incoming cash, to the point it starts to make sense to send a piece of the profits to shareholders.

Berkshire doesn't grow, or even pay a dividend, but its ability to pay out a dividend grows over time.

Buffett passing away doesn't scare me too much. Berkshire is a very decentralized business where every manager is focusing on his specific area of expertize. If Buffett passes away you still have the dozens of high quality, privately held businesses, hand picked by Buffett, bringing in cash to the headquarters. Buffett has two capital allocators working for him. Todd Combs and Ted Wescher, who actually outperformed Buffett's portfolio by a wide margin.

Berkshire is a great collection of businesses, there are very talented people in charge and the price seems good too. It's great to finally be a shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway.

February 2014 Dividend Income Update

Antoher month gone, another dividend update, my favorite type of post. It shows you the cold, hard cash a dividend portfolio can produce. I added some Coca-Cola beginning this month. Only a few weeks later the Board announced a healthy increase in the dividend! Long term shareholders of great businesses get rewarded with a dividend raise.

Without further ado, the dividends for February 2014:

Dividends Received

• GIS: $14.06
• T: $17.48
• MA: $3.30
• ABBV: $8.00
• ABT: $4.40
• PG: $10.83
• KMI: $34.03

Total dividend income for February: $92.10

I set my dividend goal for 2014 at $1500. So far I'm 12.9% of the way there, my progress is tracked here.

Thanks for reading

Latest Buy: KO

The stock market is having a nice pullback! Coca-Cola hit a 3% dividend yield, I couldn't pass that up. Better yet, this month Coca-Cola will announce a dividend raise, just like it did the last 51 years.

Today's buy:

• 40 Shares KO @ $37.31

This purchase will add $44.80 to my yearly income. This is based on the $0.28 dividend KO pays every quarter, but like I said, they will announce a raise very soon. My total position in Coca-Cola is now 76 shares.

I purchased some Coca-Cola stock earlier in december 2013, where I talked a bit about the company.

Coca-Cola is the first stock that comes to mind when someone asks me what a good dividend growth stock is. It is a must have for every dividend growth investor in my opinion.

I found a fun article a while back. Charlie munger is explaining Coca-cola's strategy how to become a 2 Trillion dollar company in 150 years. A very good read.

http://mungerisms.blogspot.nl/2010/04/charlie-munger-turning-2-million-into-2.html

Thanks for reading.

January 2014 Dividend Income Update

The first month of 2014 is over. And what a month it was, for the first time in a while the soaring stock market took a breather. I have not bought anything yet, but my trigger finger is itchy. A lot of things look nice now. KO, PM, CVX, WMT all had decent pullbacks and are in the buy range for me. Problem is, I can't buy them all because I don't have the funds! I only have enough for one, I have more ideas than money at the moment. Without further ado, the dividends for January 2014:

Dividends Received

• WMT: $9.87
• DPS: $25.84
• PM: $33.84
• MO: $16.80
• GE: $14.52

Total dividend income for January: $100.87

I set my new dividend goal for 2014 at $1500. So far I'm 6.7% of the way there, my progress is tracked here. Will I make it? Whatever the total dividends I will receive this year, I'm proud where I am in live and the portfolio I have build.

Thanks for reading!