Monthly Report: April 2015

I plan to post an update every month on the taxable dividend income I receive in my brokerage accounts, the non-taxable distributions I receive in my Roth IRA account, the market value of my taxable brokerage accounts as of the end of the month, the market value of my Roth IRA as of the end of the month, the market value of my 401(k) as of the end of the month, and my savings rate as of the end of the month.

Below is the monthly report as of April 30, 2015:

Taxable Dividend Income (Total: $44.01)

• The Coca-Cola Company (KO) - $17.25 (Increased 11.51% from April of last year)
• Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB) - $8.80
• Realty Income Corporation (O) - $5.06 (Increased 9.05% from April of last year)
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) - $12.63 (Increased 4.64% from April of last year)
• Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (DPS) - $0.06
• Kraft Foods Group, Inc. (KRFT) - $0.08
• Pepsi, Inc. (PEP) - $0.13
• Total taxable dividend income of $44.01 increased by 36.76% from April of last year.

Recent stock purchases from this list are KMB in my brokerage account and DPS, KRFT, and PEP in my Loyal3 account.  All the other dividend increases are from dividends reinvested and dividend raises from the companies.  I'm very happy with the dividend increases, but I probably need to purchase more dividend growth stocks that pay out dividends in the month of April.

You can see a schedule of all the dividends I have received here.

Non-Taxable Distributions (Total: $93.33)

• Roth IRA - $93.33 (Increased 1.09% from April of last year)

The increase in distributions for this month compared to last April is terrible, not even 3%.  Right now, my Roth IRA is only invested in mutual funds since I didn't know about dividend growth investing back then.  After discovering dividend growth investing, I still didn't add any dividend growth stocks to my Roth IRA just to hedge my risk in case the dividend growth investing strategy doesn't pan out as well as I had hoped and to diversify my investing strategy.  However, I may seriously start purchasing individual dividend growth stocks in my Roth IRA account soon (within 3 years).  I don't know if I should sell all my mutual funds and just buy individual dividend growth stocks in my Roth IRA or keep what I have right now and just start making individual dividend growth stock purchases moving forward.  Something for me to think about.

Market Values (Total: $284,311.21)

• Brokerage Accounts - $74,611.78 (Increased 6.99% from prior month)
• Roth IRA - $51,000.89 (Decreased 3.92% from prior month)
• 401(k) - $158,698.54 (Increased 1.77% from prior month)
• Total market value increased by 1.99% from prior month.

I'm not too concerned with the market value of my taxable brokerage accounts since the investment strategy with that is solely to generate a growing stream of dividend income.  As long as the dividends keep coming and are increasing, I'm not too worried.  Nevertheless, it's still interesting to see how it is performing.

You can see a schedule of the market values for my brokerage accounts, Roth IRA account, and 401(k) account as of the end of every month here.

Savings Rate

• 34.09%

Savings rate was excellent for this month.  I know some people are able to save 50% or more, but it's tough when you have to support a family on one income.  I'm happy with this savings rate as this is the highest so far year to date.  I would love to hit 50% savings rate, but for now, I am content if I am hitting at least 15% savings rate.

You can see a schedule of my savings rate by month here.

How did you do this month?