* Progress Update - Dec. 2007

December has come and gone and that means it is time for a goals/progress update. My goals were defined in this December 1, 2007 Investing Goals post. Below is an updated version of the table found in the original post.


This was somewhat of an unusual month and I don't think it is indicative of the upcoming months. Let's examine each of the change categories:

Purchases: The $238 increase in annual dividend income and 0.05% increase in Yield on Cost (YOC) related to the following purchases (yield at the time of purchase):

• $44 DHI (4.33%)
• $106 AOD (11.33%)
• $35 RY (3.28%)
• $53 VNQ (4.5%)

Obviously, AOD drove up both the dollars and YOC. In the near-term I expect YOC to drop monthly since most new investments will yield less than my current YOC, and there will not be sufficient dividend increases to offset it. The drop will be tempered with an occasional purchase of a high-yield security.

Sales: As discussed in my You're Fired! article, I sold WM in December. This resulted in a decline of dividend income of $67 and lowered my Yield on Cost by 0.02%. Hopefully, there will not be much to talk about in this category in future posts.

Dividend Changes: The $57 increase in annual dividend income and 0.09% increase in Yield on Cost related to the following dividend changes:

• ($4) VFH (ETF)
• $15 VYM (ETF)
• $9 VIG (ETF)
• $37 VNQ (ETF)

As noted above, all the dividend changes relate to ETFs. Since ETFs are made up of a multitude of individual stocks their periodic dividends tend to be more volatile than stocks. However, I still expect ETF dividends to increase over time.


Related Articles:

• Charlie Munger's 10 Rules for Investment Success
• State of the Dividend Address
• On The Shelf
• Passing the Torch - Part 1 of 2
• Dividends Are Gold in a Down Market

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