January Stock Purchases: HCP, PG, SO, WELL

Life has been really busy for me the past few months, but I will try to catch up on my posts to keep everyone aware of my dividends I've been receiving, my portfolio, my stock purchases, and my savings rates.

Below are my stock purchases for January:

• I purchased 20 shares of HCP, Inc. (HCP) at $25.5799 per share in my taxable brokerage account.  This is a dividend yield of 5.79%, adding $29.60 to my taxable dividend income.
• I purchased 10 shares of Welltower Inc. (WELL) at $60.75 per share in my taxable brokerage account.  This is a dividend yield of 5.73%, adding $34.80 to my taxable dividend income.
• I purchased 24 shares of The Southern Company (SO) at $46.75 per share in my Roth IRA account.  This is a dividend yield of 4.96%, adding $55.68 to my non-taxable dividend income.
• I purchased 13 shares of The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) at $86.50 per share in my Roth IRA account.  This is a dividend yield of 3.32%, adding $37.31 to my non-taxable dividend income.

After these purchases, my taxable dividend income will increase by $64.40, and my non-taxable dividend income will increase by $92.99.

What do you think of my January purchases?  Do you own any of the same companies?

Bought: CAH, HCN, HCP, K, KHC, KMB, OHI, T, WBA

Happy New Year everyone!  With 2017 behind us, it's time to reflect on our new year's resolutions, our goals, our achievements, and our areas for improvement.  I make it a habit to set new year's resolutions every year and aim to achieve as many of them as possible.  Looking back over this past year, I have achieved a majority of my new year's resolutions so I'm very happy about that.  With the start of the new year, I'm optimistic that 2018 will be just as good, if not better, than 2017.

It's been a while since I've posted, but I plan to post my monthly reports for October, November, and December before the end of this month.

October was a great month for picking up stocks, and I did my best to capitalize on that opportunity.  I also made some purchases in November and December as well.  Below are my stock purchases for the months of October, November, and December:

Bought: CAH, GIS, GWW, HCP, HRL, K, KHC, KMB, T, WBA

It's been a while since I've posted on here... Life has been crazy hectic with work and trying to raise two kids haha... August and September seemed to have a lot of great buying opportunities in my opinion as there seemed to be a lot of dips in a lot of decent companies.

Below are my stock purchases for the months of August and September:

Bought: GIS, GPC, K, VZ

July was a month that saw a dip in the stock market, so I decided to capitalize on the opportunity to initiate some new positions as well as add to existing ones.  I've been making multiple purchases in smaller amounts to diversify, initiate new positions to diversify, and average down my cost basis in various companies.  The purchases have been in smaller amounts because I've also been trying to save up money for a potential large expense that may come up in the near future.  I believe that by the end of this month, I should have the minimum cash reserve I need to account for the large expense.  After that, I can begin aggressively buying up stocks in larger amounts to try to reach financial independence as quickly as possible.

In any case, see below for my purchases for the month of July:

Bought: GWW, SYY, T

Wow time flies... I can't believe it is already the end of July.  Before we know it, the summer will be over.  I have been loving the summer so far; beautiful weather to be outside and enjoy the sun.  I'm hoping to continue to create wonderful memories with my kids along the way while working hard to position myself financially for the future so I can be financially independent as quickly as possible and hopefully retire earlier than expected.  I've been continuing to find the balance between being as frugal as possible and also spending some money to create new experiences and memories for my kids.  I would like to believe that I've been finding the right balance.  Extreme frugality and letting life pass you by is something that sounds quite depressing and will possibly be a huge regret when looking back in old age.  I hope that doesn't happen to me.  I try to live my life with as little regrets as possible.

Anyways... time to post my purchases for the month of June:

Bought: GWW

Happy first day of summer everyone!  Life has been pretty busy for me, but it's also been really fun and exciting.  I've been trying to find a balance between being frugal to save up money to invest aggressively, while also enjoying life along the way.  Recently, I've been reminded how quickly time flies by (there's no greater reminder than seeing how fast your children grow up), and I want to make sure I don't let it pass me by being frugal all the time.  Life is more than just saving aggressively to reach early financial independence or retire as early as possible.  It's also about living life.  I want to create memories with my family and have something to look back on; hopefully, when my kids grow up and they reminisce on their childhood, it will be nothing but positive and happy memories.  So yea, that pretty much sums up where my head space has been at recently -- trying to find that delicate balance between saving aggressively and spending money to live a little.

Bought: GIS, GPC, GWW, K

Everything has been pretty crazy for me recently... I've been swamped with work while simultaneously being sleep deprived and trying to raise two kids.  Props to all the bloggers out there who work full time, have children, and are able to blog consistently.  I don't know how you guys do it, but I have much respect.  I've been behind on my posting as I've been trying to spend as much of my free time with my kids as possible.  You only live once, and they only have one childhood, so I'm trying to make it count.

Anyways, below are the companies I purchased for the month of April:

Bought: APD, GPC, HCN, HCP, TGT, XOM

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted.  Life has been extremely hectic for me with work and family responsibilities.  March was a month with lots of great buying opportunities, and as such, I capitalized on those opportunities to invest in many different companies.

Below are the companies I purchased for the month of March:

Bought: APD, D, OHI

The stock market continues to be very interesting these past couple of months.  Some days, it's up a lot; other days, it's down a lot.  My plan is to continue investing every month, although there are times where I struggle whether to hoard up cash until there's a huge pullback so I can buy good quality stocks at huge discounts.  But the opportunity cost could be that the stock market does not have a huge dip anytime soon, and my money would just be sitting there earning pretty much nothing and getting eaten away by inflation.

Thankfully, I found a few companies in the month of February that I decided to purchase:

Bought: CL, MMM, VFC, WMT

With the start of a new year, I've decided to kick it off by investing very aggressively in the first month.  There were several companies that had a slight pullback, and I was able to invest more capital in said companies.  It makes me glad that I can put money to work for me and start the compounding process sooner.

Without further ado, below is a summary of my recent purchases for the month of January:

Bought On Loyal3: VFC

I made one last purchase on Loyal3 before the 2016 year was over.

What I love about Loyal3 is you can invest with as little as $10 in a selection of companies and own partial shares.  This really helps investors with little to no capital get a foot in the door without commissions eating up a certain percentage of their new capital.  The only downsides are that there is a limited selection of companies you can pick from and they don't offer dividend reinvestment plans.  That's fine with me since they have some good dividend growth companies I can invest in at zero cost.

Bought: CL, HRL, MDT, VFC

Today marks the end of 2016.  While there seems to have been many celebrity deaths this year and an "interesting" presidential election, this was a good year for me.  I paid off my mortgage, welcomed a second child into the family, and was still able to invest a decent amount of capital into dividend stocks.  With the increase in interest rates and a new president elect, it will be interesting to see where the stock market goes in 2017.  Either way, I'm looking forward to the new year.  Cheers!

Below is a summary of my recent purchases for the month of December:

Bought: CL, CLX, GIS, MDT, UL

Things have been crazy hectic recently as we just welcomed a new child into the family.  With the first child, everything's all new so the challenge is learning everything for the first time.  With the second child, the challenge is learning how to juggle two children simultaneously while being sleep deprived.  It's definitely been a blessing having another child; I'm just extremely tired and running on a few hours of sleep every day.

In any case, I've made some recent purchases for the month of November which I'll quickly summarize below:

Bought On Loyal3: DPS, K, KO, MCD, PEP, TGT, UL, VFC, WMT

It sucks when there are buying opportunities in the stock market and you don't have the capital to invest in everything you want.  If I had more cash on hand to invest with, I'd be buying up stocks left and right the way the stock market has been recently.  Unfortunately, since I don't have enough capital on hand to invest in everything I want, I have to invest in smaller amounts across different companies.  And that's one of the reasons why I love Loyal3.  It allows me to invest in companies with as little as $10.  Given that I don't have enough capital to invest in different stocks that I want without the commission taking a decent hit, I've decided to invest in stocks offered on Loyal3.

Bought On Loyal3: KO, PEP, TGT, VFC, WMT

After paying off my mortgage, from that point forward, my strategy to attaining financial freedom as quickly as possible is by investing aggressively and consistently in dividend growth stocks, regardless of how the stock market is doing.  There have been studies that show that it is better to put all your capital in the stock market in one lump sum investment rather than spreading it evenly across 12 months.  And since it is impossible to time the market perfectly, that is what I plan on doing - investing as much of my savings as possible into dividend growth stocks.

Bought: ADP, CLX, PEP

The stock market has been really interesting these past few days... There was a huge pullback where many companies saw a drop in their share prices.  But then in just a couple of days, the prices are pretty much back where they were.  During the slight market sell off, I made a few more purchases to my Roth IRA account, maxing out my Roth IRA contributions for the year.

On 9/16/2016, I invested in three companies in my Roth IRA.

Bought: TGT, VFC

I have been contemplating back and forth recently about whether or not to max out my Roth IRA and my spouse's Roth IRA since I am aiming to achieve financial freedom as soon as possible.  Financial freedom is the point in which my passive income can cover my living expenses.  In terms of retiring, I believe I won't be able to retire (quit working in corporate America) until I'm 56 years old.  The main reason for this is because I would like to pay for my children's undergraduate education, or help out as much as I can so they don't graduate with a ton of student debt.

For this reason, I had considered maxing out only my Roth IRA account and investing the rest to dividend growth stocks in a taxable account.  After weighing out the pros and cons further, I think I am going to max out both our Roth IRA accounts before investing in the taxable account.  Why?  Because of the tax advantages.  Lord willing, I will eventually turn 59.5 year old so I'll still need money from that age and onward.  All the dividends coming out of my Roth IRA account at that time will be tax free.  Another important factor is that my beneficiaries will be able to take out distributions tax free until the money runs out.  So from a legacy planning point of view, the Roth IRA is an excellent tool.

Bought On Loyal3: TGT, VFC

Now that my mortgage is paid off and my emergency fund is rebuilt, this month marks the beginning of my plan to invest in dividend growth stocks aggressively.  My plan is to consistently invest every month in dividend growth stocks, regardless of how the stock market is doing.  I plan to invest when the stock market is at all time highs, and when the stock market is at all time lows.

Bought On Loyal3: TGT

On June 28, 2016, I had paid off the mortgage on my home.  As a result of that payoff, I had pretty much depleted all of the cash in my savings account and needed to rebuild my emergency fund.  By the end of this month, I should have enough cash in my savings account after paying off my monthly expenses.

With many dividend stocks trading at higher prices, I don't feel like I've really missed out on any big opportunities.  However, once my cash in my emergency fund is rebuilt (which should be by the end of this month), I will begin investing aggressively.

Thankfully though, Loyal3 allows investors to invest with as little as $10, which is pretty sweet.  So I decided to invest a small amount of capital when I saw one of the companies recently have a pullback of around 6%.

Bought On Loyal3: TGT

I purchased the following stock in my Loyal3 account on 5/23/2016: