Monthly Report: September 2015

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

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

Taxable Dividend Income (Total: $521.25)

• Bank of America Corporation (BAC) - $6.35 (Increased 1.28% from September of last year)
• Chevron Corporation (CVX) - $11.32 (Increased 3.95% from September of last year)
• Consolidated Edison, Inc. (ED) - $103.59 (Increased 7.66% from September of last year)
• Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. (DNKN) - $0.06
• Emerson Electric Co. (EMR) - $24.07
• Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) - $18.56
• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) - $7.61
• Kellogg Company (K) - $0.46
• Mattel, Inc. (MAT) - $0.43
• McDonald's Corp. (MCD) - $93.32 (Increased 8.88% from September of last year)
• Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) - $177.22 (Increased 13.72% from September of last year)
• Pepsi, Inc. (PEP) - $0.44
• Pfizer Inc. (PFE) - $15.08 (Increased 11.29% from September of last year)
• Realty Income Corporation (O) - $5.18 (Increased 9.05% from September of last year)
• Southern Company (SO) - $13.73
• Target Corp. (TGT) - $26.31 (Increased 10.83% from September of last year)
• Time Inc. (TIME) - $0.19
• Time Warner Inc. (TWX) - $3.88 (Increased 11.82% from September of last year)
• Unilever plc (UL) - $0.07
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) - $13.38 (Increased 9.49% from September of last year)
• Total taxable dividend income of $521.25 increased by 26.31% from September of last year.

New stocks purchased this year are DNKN, JNJ, K, MAT, PEP, SO, and UL.  All other dividend increases are from dividends reinvested and dividend raises from the companies.  I'm very happy with the total year over year dividend increase.

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

Non-Taxable Dividends (Total: $301.16)

• Vanguard Long-Term Bond Index Fund (VBLTX) - $95.46 (Increased 3.98% from September of last year)
• Vanguard REIT Index Fund Admiral Shares (VGSLX) - $205.70 (Increased 17.03% from September of last year)
• Total non-taxable dividend income of $301.16 increased by 12.55% from September of last year.

The increase in distributions for this month compared to last September is excellent!  I consider any dividend increase above 6% to be excellent.  Of course, the bulk of this increase is due to VGSLX.  The increase from VBLTX is below average (less than 6%).

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

Market Values (Total: $278,225.66)

• Brokerage Accounts - $71,304.20 (Increased 2.47% from prior month)
• Roth IRA - $52,346.13 (Increased 1.60% from prior month)
• 401(k) - $154,575.33 (Decreased 1.16% from prior month)
• Total market value increased by 0.26% 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

• 72.84%

Savings rate was excellent for this month as I have set a new record!  As I've said in previous posts, 50% or more in savings rate is definitely a big achievement for me.

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

How did you do this month?