Half of the year 2021 has come and gone already. I can’t believe that I am writing my second month income update on this blog. Time is simply flying by! But the pursuit for finance independence achieved through dividend growth investing is not slowing down. Those dividend checks are coming along at a steady clip. So let’s jump into the update.
Dividend Income Received
During this last month, I received income from the following:
| Company / ETF (Ticker) | Amount |
| AFLAC (AFL) | $4.68 |
| Broadcom (AVGO) | $1.71 |
| Church & Dwight (CHD) | $1.54 |
| Duke Energy (DUK) | $3.62 |
| The Home Depot (HD) | $6.74 |
| Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) | $10.58 |
| Lockheed Martin (LMT) | $6.70 |
| 3M (MMM) | $3.66 |
| Microsoft (MSFT) | $1.31 |
| NextEra Energy (NEE) | $1.02 |
| Pepsi Co. (PEP) | $5.66 |
| Southern Company (SO) | $5.81 |
| Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) | $0.10 |
| Target (TGT) | $0.81 |
| T. Rowe Price (TROW) | $4.52 |
| UnitedHealth Group (UNH) | $2.52 |
| United Parcel Service (UPS) | $0.69 |
| Visa (V) | $0.15 |
| Waste Management (WM) | $0.73 |
| Exxon Mobil (XOM) | $0.90 |
| Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) | $13.64 |
| iShares Core Dividend ETF (DGRO) | $2.37 |
| Realty Income (O) | $3.79 |
| STAG Industrial (STAG) | $1.45 |
| Total | $84.70 |
This was a record breaking month as far as monthly income received. As I have stated in my previous posts, I hold REITs in tax-advantaged accounts such as HSA, Roth IRA. I hold shares from Realty Income (O) and STAG Industrial (STAG), both REITs that pay dividends on a monthly basis. Part of my capital in the HSA is also deployed into two dividend ETFs: SCHD and DGRO. Both ETFs are slightly different in terms of their sector allocation, giving me some overall diversification. I am reasonably happy with their performance in my portfolio. All in all, I have received dividend income from 22 companies during this month! That is also a record by itself.
Buys/Sells made during this period
I made the following purchases during this month:
Staying in the game purchases: ABBV, CAT, CHD, COST, HD, LMT, MSFT, NEE, PEP, PG, SWK, TROW, TXN, UNH, V, XOM
Other purchases: AFL, CLX, JNJ, JPM, MMM, SO, TGT, VZ
The “staying in the game” purchases are simply dollar-cost averaging into the stocks since the threshold for number of days since the last purchase made had expired (threshold configurable based on category of the holding in my spreadsheet setup). The tranche size is dependent on the current valuation of the stock in question (i.e. smaller tranche size for an overvalued stock).
In general, this is an overvalued market, so there are no screaming deep value stocks that interested me during this month. However, as the famous saying goes:
Time in the market is more important than timing the market.
So rather than wait on the sidelines hoping for a correction, I am choosing to deploy my capital into companies that I think are close to fair value. Among the options available, Clorox (CLX) is going through some correction as life in general returns back to some normalcy here in the US, and seems to be reverting to its mean providing a buying opportunity. The other purchases, I was happy with the valuation at this time, even if they are not available at deep discount.
I have no sells during this month.
So how did your portfolio perform during this month? Please let me know in the comments below!
Disclosure: Long all the stocks mentioned in this post.
