February 2016 – Monthly Update

I’m a little late AGAIN getting this out… I promise not to make a habit of it but I’ve been super busy getting the new business started. I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve posted! I do owe my readers more updates and I’ll try to get back on a regular weekly schedule of posting my latest purchases. At some point I’ll slow down and have more free time to write. Until then I will try a little harder to find time for some updates.

Below is a summary of my activity for the month:

New Purchases: $1,200 (NET)

$200 of UNP
$400 of DEO
$400 of CAT
$200 of V

Posts about new purchases can all be found by following the “Buys” label here.

Sells:

None

Dividends:

January – 293.72

DE – 17.94
APD – 20.76
KMI – 29.21
CAT – 17.61
OHI – 57.00
CLX – 39.27
GIS – 46.20
MOTIF – 134.74

I earned $362.73 in dividends for the month.

Forward 12-month Dividends:

My expected forward 12-month dividend income is $8076.00. This is a drop from January as BBL brought a giant hit to my dividend income. Another lesson of why it’s important to diversify.

I keep a forward dividend projection on my Dividends tab.

The following companies in my portfolio increased their dividends this month.

KO – On 02/18/16 they increased the quarterly dividend from $0.33 to $0.35.
TD – They increased their dividend on 02/25/16 from C$0.51 to C$0.55
I wasn’t able to post about these increases in February but these increases can usually be found on my Dividend Increases label.

Goals:

I’m overdue for getting this out. I hope to have it done before the first quarter is over.

All goals can be found on the Goals tab.

Rental Real Estate:

 

I currently own 1 rental property that’s up for lease in the next couple of months.

All of my other real estate posts will be found on my real estate label.

Net Worth:

I’ve started to update my net worth again. I still have a few changes but it will be more accurate after another month or two.

You can find the details of this on my Net Worth page.

 

Looking Ahead:

Purchases were light but I’m still consistently investing, just not as much as I’d like since I am working on catching up with my taxes. The remainder of the money has been pumped into the bar I’m opening soon. Until things get normalized around here, posts will be a little sparse. However, I’ll do better than posting once a month, it was just a busy month.

The restaurant is getting really close to finished. I did receive my license to sell alcohol and the food license was easy to get. So I can technically open but have been taking care of other logistical things like insurance and pricing for foods/alcohol so I can work on the menu pricing. I’ve almost finished menus and have a fully operational POS system (which is similar to the Revel Systems one) connected to two printers, one for receipts and one to send tickets to the kitchen. My original target date was mid march but that has been pushed back to the end of April. I’m getting a lot of interest from neighbors and I’m nervous as well as anxious to open up. I’ll try to post more updates and hopefully some pictures.

I’m keeping myself busy and focused. I’m a long ways from FI but I’m doing things that I enjoy doing so in a way I’ve already made it. I know I’m much happier now than I’ve been in a long time.

The picture is from a temple in Thailand.