If you’ve been following along, I started this blog in March of 2012.  I never expected to make this much progress but it’s great to start seeing results.  I also didn’t expect to encounter a great community of like-minded investors to bounce ideas off.  It’s also very motivating to me to see other people invest and reach their goals.

Well, with my latest purchases that I’ll mention next week with my weekly purchases article, I’ve reached a forward dividend income of $12,000.  That means I’ll be receiving $1,000 on average each month over the next 12 months without any further capital being invested.  This is certainly not enough to retire off of but it’s a great mental milestone to hit the $1k mark per month.

The beauty of dividend growth investing is seeing compound interest work its magic.  It’s sort of like a snowball rolling down a hill.  You may start with a tiny ball of snow but the longer that the snowball rolls (time) , the faster it rolls.  It’s not just moving at a constant speed, it’s accelerating!  The more snow it accumulates (dividend increases or new capital added) , the faster the acceleration.

This acceleration means you should hit $200/month just a little faster than $100/month and so on if you are keeping contributions the same.

Pretty soon you’ve got a snowball that will produce $100/month, $250/month, $500/month (posted June 2013), $600/month in dividends (posted Aug. 2013) and now $1000/month!  Next stop , $1500/month (hopefully by late next year or early 2016).

The hill is very high but I am picking up speed.  I can just start making out what looks like FI at the bottom!  I hope to see you there some day!

My total portfolio value hit $250k Wednesday for the first time.  This is an increase of $50,000 in exactly 3 months.  While I’m not as concerned about my total portfolio value as I am about dividend income, it’s still nice to see the value increase with additions of new capital and capital gains.  In order for companies to keep paying higher dividends, their earnings also need to increase which usually causes the stock prices to go up as well.

I think most of us are expecting or hoping for some sort of correction this year.  These same feelings were there for me this time last year.  That correction never came.  Regardless of my feelings, I didn’t quit contributing fresh capital to my portfolio by way of new purchases each week.  I’m extremely glad I kept consistently contributing as you saw the markets rise significantly in 2013.  You see, nobody can predict the markets.  Instead of watching the DJIA or S&P 500 move up and down daily, I’m looking for companies that represent a good value at the current time. A process made substantially easier by utilising companies like Stocktrades.ca to get real-time advice and company profiling, making sure that you invest and diversify in an appropriate manner.

I’d like to keep my portfolio at around 40 positions.  My portfolio weight in energy is higher than I’d like but that’s where I’ve been finding value lately.  I’ve added a lot of capital fairly recently into BP, RDS.B, CVX, and ESV.  I expect this weight to come down as other sectors go in and out of favor.

I’m still shooting for a portfolio valued at over 1.7 Mil that yields an average of 3.5%.  This will produce 60k ($5k monthly) in income.  So I’ve got a long ways to go to reach my goal.

My next portfolio milestone will be $350k and $500k after that.  I hope to hit $350k sometime this year.   I appreciate everyone that has been supportive and that reads my blog.  I try to be as transparent as possible by posting all my trades, good or bad.

I keep a live updated portfolio on Google Docs that can be seen on my portfolio page here.

That’s right, I just updated my Net Worth page and I’ve crossed the $500,000 mark!  What’s really incredible about this is, that just 5 years ago, I had a net worth under $50,000.  I’ve made huge strides in the last couple of years since I’ve been a dividend growth investor.

It’s also my birthday today which makes this even a bigger milestone.  In just 6 years from now I want to be able to retire or semi-retire and do what I want to and when I want to.

So, it’s not time to fully celebrate yet, as I’m still working and have a long ways yet to go.  However, It’s nice to celebrate the smaller milestones while on my journey to FI.

I appreciate anyone following me along on this journey and I plan to continue to post updates as usual.

 If I was trading a lot of highly speculative positions then this might not be a huge milestone. Typically highly speculative positions have large betas and there will be larger gains as well as larger losses to balance that out.  However, I have an unrealized 100%+ gain in one of my long-term DG stocks that I bought just last year!  Capital gains are secondary to dividend income but it’s still something I want to see happen. 

That’s right, one of my best trades last year was picking up shares of Walgreen’s (WAG) on weakness.  It was back around June of last year when they had some issues with their Express Scripts deal and also announced they were buying out Alliance Boots.  I decided to pick up some shares on weakness.   Their 52-week chart is at the top of the page. 

On June 20th of 2012 I bought 68 shares @ 28.99/share.  Shares are currently trading over $59/share!  That original post that includes some puts I sold also can be found here.

My only regret is that I didn’t buy more shares.  I’m actually due to add more to the company and probably will if prices ever come down a little.  My average cost will still be well below where shares are trading at. I have no plans of selling shares. 

Has anyone else had this type of success with any of their holdings?

My total portfolio value hit $200k last week for the first time.  While I’m not as concerned about my total portfolio value as I am about dividend income, it’s still nice to see the value increase with additions of new capital and capital gains.

I continue, regardless of what the market is doing, to add fresh capital to my portfolio by way of new purchases each week.

I’d like to keep my portfolio at around 40 positions.  I do still need to work on my diversification though.  If you read My Business Plan, you will notice that my sector weights and international diversity are close to my targets.  However, I’d like to add a little more exposure to Mid-Cap stocks.

In order to received $60k in annual dividend income, I’ll need a portfolio valued at over 1.7 Mil that yields an average of 3.5%.  So you can see, I’ve got a long ways to go to reach my goal.

It will be great to document my journey to FI.  I appreciate everyone that has been supportive and that reads my blog.  I try to be as transparent as possibly by posting all my trades, good or bad.

You can find my portfolio created from Google Docs that keeps a live snapshot here.

That’s right!  If I never added any additional capital to my portfolio, I should receive on average $600/month ($7200/year) in dividends.  This amount is also growing at a rate higher than inflation due to buying high-quality companies with histories of paying increases each and every year.

The great part is that it’s taken less time for me to get to $600/month from $500 than it did the previous $100/month increase from $400 to $500.

On April 2nd, I broke $4800 ($400/month) in annual dividends.  It was on June 25th that I broke through the $6000 ($500/month) mark in annual dividends.  That’s almost 3 months.  This time around it only took from June 25th to August 27, barely over 2 months.  Now I’m sure this has a lot to due with a difference in new capital being deployed but it also has to do with the compounding effect of more dividends rolling in each month.

The dividend snowball is in effect and I can’t wait to hit the $1000/month mark.  At this pace, it will be around April of next year.