All About Interest

One man's journey to financial independence.

2013 – Full Year Review

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Just like that 2013 flew by for me.  I stayed extremely busy between work, traveling, personal life and this blog.  It was also an incredible year for my DG portfolio.  My portfolio and this blog grew by leaps and bounds.  Below I’ve posted a full year update on what has happened.  

If you missed them, I’ve already posted a monthly update for December as well as a full 2013 options update and a 2013 Goals update plus 2014 goals post.

Porfolio Value:

I started the year with a value just over $94,000 for my DG portfolio.   Due mainly to the investment of additional capital and also some market gains, I finished the year with a portfolio value of $240,000.  That’s an increase of $146,000 or 155%!  

All of my purchases can be found by following the “Buys” label here.

Top Performers:

Shares of Walgreen’s (WAG) rose substantially and I broke the 100% gain on a single stock milestone.

Worst Performers:

Shares of Towergroup (TWGP) plummeted from over $20/share to now $3/share!

This caused a large chunk of dvidends to be lost as well as a capital loss.

Options Trades:

I did extremely well here.  I already posted a full yearly review of my options trades.  The link is at the top.

Dividends:

My total for the year was $5814.52 , up from $1791.55 in 2012 for an increase of 225%.  My expected future 12 months of dividend income has increased to $8724.62 from $3954.05, an increase of 120%.  I’ve updated my dividend income on my Dividends tab.

I don’t expect these types of percentage increases to continue but I have set some very aggressive goals for the year.

Below is my Forward 12-month dividends graph since the beginning of 2013.  I love how the graph is pretty much at a 45 degree angle and keeps increasing each month.

Here’s my monthly dividends throughout the year.  Notice the wavy graph due to the majority of companies I own paying out in M/J/S/D timeframe.



Next is a graph of my quarterly dividends.  They have increased every single quarter except this most recent quarter.  This is mainly due to VOD paying their larger dividend in the 3rd quarter and the elimination of TWGP from my portfolio.  I don’t expect to have any more dips as my portfolio gets larger.



Goals:

I’ve already posted a full year recap as well as my new goals for 2014.

Real Estate:

I paid off the 2nd lien on my primary house in January.   I had originally received an 80/10 loan in order to not have PMI.  Since I didn’t have the 20% cash to put down I decided to go this route and aggressively pay of that second lien within about 6 months. 

I had  solar panels installed on my home which should save me a lot of money in 2014 on my electric bill.  You can find out more about that here.  I plan to post updates throughout this year.   

I was able to increased the rent on both of my rental properties.  It was a monthly increase of $100 for my house and also a $100 increase for my condo unit. 

I’ve also successfully bought an office condo to move my business into.  I’m still working on a post for that one.  It closed at the end of the year and I’m working on the build out of the interior.
  
Looking Ahead:

It’s going to be tough to beat the success I had in 2013.  I have set some very aggressive goals so wish me luck.  I expect this will be an exciting year! 

I appreciate everyone that has be following me along on this journey to FI and I hope everyone exceeds their goals for 2014!

Comments

  2. Wow AAI, you exploded this year. Great Job! I like that your progress has been balanced between your personal life and your investing life. You mentioned that you have your own business. Congrats on buying your own office condo. That’s a great way for your business to pay for a personal asset! What industry are you in?
    -Bryan

  4. AAI,

    Phenomenal progress this past year. Growing your portfolio by $146,000 in just one year is amazing. There are many people out there entering into their “golden years” with just that much in their 401(k). Awesome stuff, man.

    I think you’ll knock it out of the park again this year. Your business seems to do be doing very well, you’re working off a larger base of dividends, the rentals are humming…you should have a fantastic 2014!

    Keep up the great work!

    Best wishes.

    • Thank DM,

      I certainly had a better than expected year. That’s one reason I set some goals that may be reaching a little bit.

      I agree about many people not saving nearly as much as they need to. The savings rate has gotten better since the Great Recession but there’s a lot of boomers that are not in great shape and will be working part-time jobs to make ends meet.

      I plan to focus on making consistent purchases regardless of what the market is doing. The rental income is also a nice boost. I’m now also saving money on electricity from the solar investments. These extra savings will get plowed right back into the markets.

      Thanks and keep up the good work on your end as well!

  8. I have to cry when I read here:
    “That’s an increase of $146,000 or 155%!”

    I would like feel like an millionaire, if I could earn such an amount in just one year! 🙂

    Good work, AAI!
    greetings
    D-S

    • haha. You’ll be there before you know it if you keep making consistent purchases.

      Well, if I had that much in passive income each year I’d certainly be retired already. It takes a very large portfolio to throw off the amount of dividends for retirement. I have a ways to go.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  9. Awesome year man! SERIOUSLY.

    It’s nice that you were 100% open about Tower Group. That sort of thing is usually painful to think about, much less write about on your blog. I kind of felt that way about LINE for a while. I learned a lot from following the TWGP saga. I think the lesson is to be careful with Bermuda stocks and insurance stocks. Anyways you gained a lot of respect from me for discussing that unfortunate situation on your blog.

    On the other hand you had an incredible pick with WAG and some others too. It all worked out in the end.

    Best wishes!

    • Hi CI,

      Thanks! I try to be as transparent as I can about all my trades, good or BAD. That one was obviously bad and I think I’ve learned my lesson. There were definitely some warning signs and I ended up trying to catch a falling knife. I’m staying away from insurance companies for the time being.

      That’s the great thing about having a diversified portfolio. With 40 positions, most are around 2.5% weight so one huge loser can be more than offset by the gains in the rest of your portfolio.

      Thanks for dropping by and best wishes for 2014!

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