Two months in to the new year and the markets are experiencing some significant volatility, down over 20% from their recent highs.  It is during these volatile times, that investors seemingly appreciate their dividend income even more - as it provides an opportunity to reinvest the income into equities that appear attractively valued for the long term.  The question for many investors in the coming weeks and months is what if any companies in their portfolios will need to cut their dividends and which companies will be able to weather the storm and be able to increase the dividend in the next ..read more

It feels like it has been forever since I made my last purchase and cash has been piling up in the meantime.  When it comes to investing, we all know that patience is most certainly a virtue one needs to exhibit on a regular basis, whether it comes to waiting for reasonable valuation to present itself or simply buying and holding a basket of investments in an attempt to delay the gratification of what a sum of dollars can buy today and instead investing that sum of money in a security and then waiting for it to exponentially grow into a greater sum of dollars over a decade or two in sum cases ..read more

Although January 2020 ended with a volatile week of trading largely attributed to the coronavirus, no on would be able to tell based the monthly dividend receipts the PIV portfolio collected.  Take a look below for an account of the dividend transactions. As noted above, the January 2020 dividend income total increased by $83.78 or 22.7% compared to last year.  Looking at the breakout between rate and volume you'll note that the additional sum of shares purchased over the past year accounted 21.6% increase in dividend income with a minimal 1.1% increase due to rate increase.  Certainly no ..read more

Well folks, that's a wrap for 2019.  According to Forbes, the last trading session for 2019 "...capped off a strong year for the stock market: In 2019, the S&P 500 rose by 29%, the Nasdaq by 35% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 22%. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their biggest one-year gains since 2013, while the Dow’s performance was its best since 2017." Quite a year indeed and few would complain about their portfolio's climb in valuation if they were anywhere near or above the 29% return for the S&P index, especially in light of the average annual return for the S&am ..read more

It has been a bit quite on the investing front as of late for the PIV portfolio.  As I have mentioned before, activity for the portfolio, particularly that of buying equity shares, has not been as frequent as I had envisioned at the beginning of the year, primarily due to valuations that on the whole appear to rather expensive despite many believing such premiums are justified given the historically low bond yields that are often seen as the alternative investment to equities.  In any event, dividends continued to trickle in during November, below is the latest summary and YoY comparison ..read more

Market has been on a bit of a tear lately hitting new records highs in the past week.  Many of the stocks that I had been hoping to build as they hung out near their 52 week lows have seen a jump in their valuations along with the rest of the market as a whole.  Stocks like CVS, CAH, MMM and many of the banks recovered nicely and from a strictly valuation perspective, and may have plenty of more room to run in the near term.  As much as I hate to admit it, it is sometimes difficult to average up even when the current valuation of a company, although higher than what my current cost basis may b ..read more

Recent buys this month include include one purchases that added a new position to the portfolio, namely, Goldman Sachs.  See below for details on each of the recent purchases. ----- Goldman Sachs ----- Purchased: 5 shares x $197.229 = $986.15 (+$0.00 commission) Dividend Income:  This purchase adds $25.00 of income annually ($5.00 annual dividend; paid quarterly in Mar, Jun, Sep, and Dec) Forward P/E ratio: 8.27 vs. S&P Forward P/E @ 18.25 Price to Book ratio: 0.91 S&P and/or Moody's credit rating of BBB+/Baa1 or better: Yes, BBB+ Current dividend yield > ..read more

The end of the year is quickly approaching and the local weather seems to be changing just as fast.  The rate at which the weather declined from the low 90s just a few weeks ago to now averaging highs from mid 50s to low 60s this week is a bit of surprise (with the lows dropping to near freezing during the nights).  Thankfully the decline in the temps has no bearing on my portfolio value or dividend income. For the first 9 months of the year, the PIV portfolio has experienced a nearly 25% dividend income increase compared to the same period in the prior and I anticipate the portfolio will end ..read more

Here is August's dividend summary.  Life has been busy as of late and time seems to be flying by a little bit faster in recent weeks than it typically does - no matter - dividends keep rolling in.  At the start of the year I thought I just may hit the 5 digit mark for dividend this year - $10,000+, however, it doesn't look like that will happen.  The anticipated dividend growth alone would not be sufficient to meet that mark and I knew a decent amount of capital would be needed to get close, but purchases this year have much few and far between compared to previous years.  Without further ado ..read more

Well, it has been nearly 3 months since I last purchased shares of any stock.  With the recent political shenanigans surrounding trade and the Fed's anticipated actions the markets have seen some greater than usual volatility.  Today was no exception as such, seized the opportunity add to some existing position in addition to a purchase I made earlier this week which resulted in a new position to the portfolio. ----- 3M Corp ----- Company Profile: 3M Company develops, manufactures, and markets various products worldwide. It operates through four business segments: Safety & Indu ..read more