Happy belated Halloween readers!

I hope everyone had a great October. The fall season is upon us and the weather around here went from a toasty 90+ degrees to 60 degrees almost overnight. Crazy how the world functions.

Another crazy thing has been the stock market this month. We almost had all the gains from the beginning of 2018 get wiped away with the recent pull back. And while prices are still pretty high overall, there’s still some good value to be found in high quality blue chip dividend stocks.

Let’s get started!

Summary

$230.56 in dividends

Added $3,400 to the portfolio

Added $177.74 to my annual income.

$54.02 in side hustle money

Account Deposits

As usual, $200 comes out per paycheck with automatic deposit and at the end of the month, I throw whatever is left into the account. I was also able to add an additional $3,000 into the account for October.

$200 +$200 +$3,000 = +$3,400

Dividend Payouts

Here are the companies that paid me dividends for the month of October:

KO Coca Cola $24.18 MRK Merck $9.60 MO Altria $47.20 SDIV Global X SuperDiv $13.66 DEO Diego $21.01 STWD Starwood $22.08 CAH Cardinal Health $29.05 O Realty Income $12.79 MAIN Main Street Capital $3.32 CSCO Cisco $6.27 GE General Electric $3.00 CLDT Chatham Lodging $17.05 CPB Campbell’s $21.35 230.56

Using Google Docs, I keep a running spreadsheet of how much dividend income I receive every month. I think it’s important to realize the growth of your passive income over time. In Oct 2017, I received $125.03 in dividend income. If we do the math, that means my October dividend income has increased a staggering +84.4% compared to the previous year.

Monthly Total: +$230.56

Stock Purchases

I purchased 26 shares of WRK @ $45.00.

WestRock manufactures and sells packaging solutions for the consumer and corrugated markets in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company operates through three segments: Corrugated Packaging, Consumer Packaging, and Land and Development.

They currently sit at a 4.0% yield and are new to the dividend growth group. They only started paying dividends in the 2nd half of 2015. They currently are on a 3 year growth streak with only a 38% payout ratio. So there’s potentially some good wiggle room for the dividend to grow.

This adds +$47.32 to my annual income.

I purchased 44 shares of F @ $8.80 and 20 shares @ $8.30.

Everybody knows who the Ford Motor Company is and there’s plenty of haters out there on the stock. They have definitely been getting hit hard lately and given that the stock is cyclical in nature anyways, there’s been a lot more red lately than one would expect.

They currently sit at a 6.4% dividend yield and have been paying increasing yearly dividends for the last 6 years. Their 5-year dividend growth rates sit at 25.2%! For those who like a little bit of risk for a higher yield, $F is really attractive at these levels. Current payout ratio of 45%

This adds +$38.40 to my annual income.

I purchased 39 shares of OZK @ $25.25 and 6 shares @ $24.30.

Bank OZK provides a range of retail and commercial banking services to businesses, individuals, and non-profit and governmental entities.

They currently sit at a 3.0% dividend yield and have been paying increasing yearly dividends for 21 years. What’s crazy is that I’ve never really paid much attention to them until now. Their 5-year dividend growth rates sit at 23% with only a 24.8% payout ratio!

This adds +$32.76 to my annual income.

I purchased 3 share of IBM @ $129.25.

IBM dipped hard from a combination of earnings as well as the recent acquisition of Red Hat ($RHT). They paid a hefty $34 billion for the company and many are questioning why they overpaid so heavily. I believe they’re will be good synergy between the companies but I can agree with the sentiment on its heavy cost.

The board also authorized $4B in additional funds for use in the company’s stock repurchase program. That’s a little surprising for me since they’ll be picking up a decent amount of debt for the purchase. But management obviously has a plan and there should be no issues with dividend payout. So at the moment, IBM is looking extremely attractive at these levels. It’s currently at a 5.4% yield, 19 year growth streak, 5-YR DGR of 12.3%, and a payout ratio around 45%.

This adds $18.84 to my annual income.

I decided to drip another share of Main Street at $36.00 purely because I love how they operate.

They currently sit at a 6.3% dividend yield and have been paying increasing yearly dividends for 8 years. Their 5-year dividend growth rates sit at 7%.

This adds +$2.34 to my annual income.

I purchased 7 shares of MMM @ $186.50.

3M Company operates as a diversified technology company worldwide. The company’s Industrial segment offers tapes; coated, non-woven, and bonded abrasives; adhesives; ceramics; sealants; specialty materials; purification products; closure systems for personal hygiene products; acoustic systems products; automotive components; and abrasion-resistant films, and paint finishing and detailing products.

This is my first ever purchase of this Dividend Aristocrat and my only regret is that I didn’t buy more! The share price jumped back over $190 before my funds could settle!

They currently sit at a 2.8% dividend yield and have been paying increasing yearly dividends for 60 years! Their 5-year dividend growth rates sit at 14.7 with a payout ratio around 50%.

This adds +$38.08 to my annual income.

Total : +177.74 to my annual income

Stock Sells



None.

Portfolio News

GE cut their dividend to $.01 – I don’t own much GE so I’m not in too much of a hurry to sell. Morbid curiosity with what happens with it now.

IBM Buys Red Hat

Visa declares $0.25/share quarterly dividend, 19% increase from prior dividend of $0.21.

from prior dividend of $0.21. Main Street Capital declares semi-annual supplemental cash dividend of $0.275/share, bringing current annualized run-rate for dividend at $2.89/share.

Side Hustle

Something that I wanted to do more, that for one reason or another never came to fruition, is work on side hustles to increase my monthly income. Every morning when I take my son to school, I like to stop into the local thrift store and see if there’s any good deals. Well, this month I was lucky to find some Nintendo DS/3DS games for $0.69 that I then flipped on Ebay. After shipping and fees, I managed to get a profit of $54.02!

Admittingly, it’s not a world breaking amount. What I like to do is compare what that specific amount of money can get me in “real life” expenses. In this case, that $54 is my internet bill every month. Not too shabby!

Total: +$54.02

Conclusion

In the month of October, I continued to grow my dividend portfolio with some good purchases of some great companies.. Please feel free to check out my new portfolio and dividend champion screener pages.

Thanks again for reading my Dividend Portfolio Update for October 2018! Until next time!