Portfolio Update: April 2017

To paraphrase the great philosopher Justin Timberlake: it’s gonna be May which means April is already in the books. In fact; when this post is live it will be May already. So no more time to waste - let’s check in on what happened with my portfolio in the past month of April.

In my last post I went over the three purchases I made last month - adding to existing positions in Delta Airlines (DAL), CVS (CVS) and initiating a new one in International Paper (IP).

Three buys in one month is pretty exceptional for me, but I actually kept going and made two more purchases on the last trading day of April. I will cover these final two April purchases in an upcoming post.

By now it should be clear that I have a spending problem - although I think it’s the best kind. Reason being, with each new stock purchase I increase my forward dividend income and get closer to achieving my investment goals.

At the end of April 2016 my portfolio consisted of 27 positions with a total value of $33,106.  At the end of March 2017 my portfolio consisted of 41 positions with a total market value of $79,066 - a Year-on-Year (YoY) increase of 138%.

This YoY increase is shown in the graph below.

How was your April? Leave a comment/reply to share your thoughts!

13 thoughts on “Portfolio Update: April 2017”

    1. Thank you Divnomics. I am in year three of investing and I experience that investing gets easier. Dividends grow by themselves and each month my portfolio generates income that I can reinvest again… maybe I should do a post about that, how the ‘snowball’ slowly starts building itself 🙂

  1. OMG Tall, I wish I had a spending problem like you. I am at the point where I am contributing a significant amount of my income towards some form of saving for retirement. But, I absolutely hate the fact that I waste money on frivolous things, like eating out every day. Don’t ask me why I chose to order Dominos two days in a row spending over $40 including tips. I was purchasing just for myself. I want your kind of spending problem, where instead of me wasting it on Dominoes, Starbucks, or Chinese food, I’m buying shares in companies with a history of rising dividends.

    Good job man on the impressive growth from last year.

    1. Dividend Portfolio,

      Thanks for your kind words. What works for me is visualizing my progress through graphs and tables. Seeing my progress really helps with limiting my regular spending, although I like my occasional pizza and Starbucks as well 🙂 It’s all about finding what works for you.

      Thanks for stopping by! I looked at your website and you are making all the right moves there, keep it up.

  2. That is a substantial increase, way to go. Over 100% is a good accomplishment. Thinks are moving pretty quickly along. And those JT memes get me every time haha.

    1. Thanks DD! I am actually amazed how fast it went. Seems like yesterday that I started out with my first 2k investment. Keeping at it!

      And I remain a big fan of the JT memes as well. Perhaps I will use it again next year, the year after that etc… 🙂

  3. Awesome year over year growth, it really makes if fun when you look back a couple years and see the changes you’ve made with your income. I know for me the best was when it flipped and my percent increase wasn’t so much monitored by dollars added to the initial accounts, but in the change in dividend income how big that ended up being. Keep up the good work!

    1. Thanks DD! I look forward to that moment as well. There are many ways to measure success as a dividend growth investor and I like creating the charts that track that progress. What’s funny - at least to me - is how fast things can go. I remember crossing the $100 a month threshold in my first year.. now I am almost consistently above $200 a month and will reach $300 later in the year.

      Thanks for stopping by!

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