Monthly Report: October 2016

Donald Trump's victory at the polls on 11/9 was quite a surprise, especially since the majority of all the polls were showing that Hillary would win the election.  Whether it was Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, the president-elect would make history.  First reality TV show star as president or first female president.  It will be interesting to see how Donald Trump's presidency will play out.  For the sake of our nation, I hope he succeeds as the next president.  Let's see how his presidency will affect our economy, the stock markets, and foreign relations.

Now onto talking about my progress towards financial freedom!

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 October 31, 2016:

Taxable Dividend Income (Total: $35.05)

• The Coca-Cola Company (KO) - $19.45 (Increased 9.39% YOY)
• Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (DPS) - $0.14 (Increased 16.67% YOY)
• Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB) - $9.62 (Increased 7.49% YOY)
• The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC) - $0.09
• Realty Income Corporation (O) - $5.75 (Increased 10.36% YOY)
• Total taxable dividend income of $35.05 increased 9.33% YOY.

Existing positions I added fresh capital to this year is KO.  All other dividend increases are from dividends reinvested and dividend raises from the companies.

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

Non-Taxable Dividends (Total: $97.07)

• Vanguard Long-Term Bond Index Fund (VBLTX) - $97.07 (Decreased 0.58% YOY)
• Total non-taxable dividend income of $97.07 decreased 0.58% YOY.

Another decrease YOY from VBLTX.  I have been contemplating converting all my mutual funds to dividend stocks, but I think I may still hold onto VBLTX since it has a decent yield, gives me exposure to bonds, and it's a nice hedge in case my dividend stock investing doesn't go as well as planned.

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

Market Values (Total: $347,676.84)

• Brokerage Accounts - $89,004.48 (Increased 0.99% from prior month)
• Roth IRA - $67,242.08 (Decreased 3.92% from prior month)
• 401(k) - $191,430.28 (Decreased 1.43% from prior month)
• Total market value decreased 1.32% 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

• 14.00%

Savings rate wasn't good this month.  It's less than 15%, which is the savings rate I'm aiming for this year.

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

How did you do this month?