March 2015 Investments, Dividends, and Passive Income

For the first post on this site, I suppose that I should cover my recent purchases and dividends received for March and the first 8 days of April. The amounts at this time are still small but on the bright side I didn’t pay any fees at all this month in order to invest. Anyways, during this past week I opened up an account with Loyal3.com, so that I can add further companies to my portfolio for free and kick in a little bit of money at a time. One thing that I don’t like is that many of the companies available there seem pretty overvalued right now but I suppose that it will balance out over years of holding.  I’m glad I found Loyal3 as an investment vehicle, as I have been holding on to about 11 shares of Coca-Cola for over a year without reinvesting (beyond dividends), because I was waiting to lump sum in a larger investment on a big price drop which never materialized. This allows me to finally contribute smaller amounts monthly and then pump in more when the stock declines.

I continued picking up some Oil related stocks during March with my direct stock purchase plans. ExxonMobil and Phillips 66 both have really great DSPP’s which don’t involve paying any fees. It’s crazy to compare their plans versus many other companies, who accept $25 investments but charge $5+ fees for each one.  Why not just raise the minimum, if you’re going to price out smaller investors with ridiculous fees? Us smaller investors will grow into major shareholders over time. Not that I really want to deal with 10 different DSPP’s come tax time, but still. I also started a position in Royal Dutch Shell since I had a free Automatic Investment credit with Sharebuilder. This was before the buyout of BG and the subsequent tanking of the stock but my shares were already up 5-6% and so it really hasn’t hit me all that much so far.

The company I work for finally started an IRA plan this year and so since there is matching involved, I signed up for it. So, along with my dividend paying stocks, I have this Vanguard mutual fund, (VTSMX). Isn’t it great to start a new plan when the stock market is hovering around all-time highs? Whatever. It’s low cost and I get free money invested every month, which is a win. I have been wondering why I didn’t choose another fund for them to put the money into, though. Something a bit higher yielding. However, it is $25 fee each year for every fund you hold, so it probably wouldn’t be worth starting another position when it’s not too much money involved.

I still have a free Automatic Investment credit in my Sharebuilder Roth IRA which expires at the end of April…but…I know I have upcoming expenses that I need to set aside cash for and funds which will probably deposit in May, so, I might not be able to do as large of a contribution as I would like. I’ve been looking at CVX, BMO, SO, DEO, BRF-B, and RDS-B (I want to see how the price shakes out). Maybe a larger stake in PEP? Since, I initiated a very small position with Loyal3 this week.

On another front, my passive income from online sources wasn’t all too great in March. Definitely not as much money coming in as in February but still better than nothing. I am really excited for the next few months because I have projects in the works that are near completion and will be ready to launch. From which, I expect to make massive increases in my passive income and hopefully be completely sans-employment and financially independent within the close of the year. This is the Opium Dream after all; we are chasing the completely absurd and the barely believable.

Loyal3 Investments this week

Coca-Cola (KO) $45 for 1.1011 shares @ $40.87

McDonald’s (MCD) $20 for .2067 shares @ $96.78

Pepsi (PEP) $20 for .2082 shares @ $96.07

Pepsi (PEP) $10 for .1038 shares @ $96.34 (This was me testing out Loyal3 to see if it was legit)

Total Invested: $95.00

Added to yearly dividends: $2.97

Direct Stock Purchase Plans (March/April thus far)

April

Phillips 66 (PSX) $30 for .383178 shares @ $78.29

March

ExxonMobil (XOM) $52 for .616902 shares @ $84.29

Phillips 66 (PSX) $35 for .47454 shares @ $73.55

Phillips 66 (PSX) $30 for .376911 shares @ $79.59

Total Invested: $147.00

Added to yearly dividends: $4.17

Vanguard IRA Contributions

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX) $100.36 for 1.932 shares @ $50.18

Total Invested: $100.36

Sharebuilder Investments (Taxable Account)

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B) $210 for 3.3473 shares @ $62.74 yielding 5.99%

Total Invested: $210.00

Added to yearly dividends: $12.59

March/April total Invested as of 4/8/15: $552.36

March/April total yearly dividends added as of 4/8/15: $19.73

Not sure of the exact yearly dividend of my Vanguard fund but it’s yielding something like 1.7% today so I’m guessing roughly $1.70-ish, which would push the monthly total up above $20! WOW…..so much money!

March 2015 Dividends Received (All Dividends Reinvested)

VTSMX: $0.72 for .014 shares @ $52.78

Vanguard Total International Stock Market Ex-US (VXUS): $0.63 for .0124 shares @ $50.81

British Petroleum (BP) $4.20 for .1010 shares @ $41.58

Coca-Cola (KO) $3.55 for .0875 shares @ $40.57

March 2015 Dividends: $9.10

March 2015 Passive Income Earned

VigLink: $91

Adsense: $122.11

Clickbank: $31.86

March 2015 Passive Income Total: $244.97

Portfolio Holdings Total Value as of 4/9: $1895.34

VXUS: 4.0124 shares, $210.01

VTSMX: 5.048 shares, $266.74

KO: 11.9569 shares, $490.83

BP: 7.1010 shares, $293.63

RDS-B: 3.3473 shares, $201.47

GE: 7.2041 shares, $185.36

XOM: 1.195631 shares, $101.21

PSX: 1.234629 shares, $96.07

PEP: 0.3120 shares, $30.06

MCD: 0.2067 shares, $19.96