Sunday, February 14, 2010

* Pocket Change Portfolio - January 2010

Each month I update the Pocket Change Portfolio (PCP). The table below reconciles the PCP from beginning of period to end of period for January 2010, Year-To-Date (2010) and Life-To-Date. The Portfolio Returns line provides the calculated return for the three displayed periods.

Description January-2010 Year-To-Date Life-To-Date
Beg. Portfolio Value 21,411.36 21,411.36 -
Online Cash Receipts 4,809.19 4,809.19 24,865.21
Online Expenses (4.95) (4.95) (238.58)
Gross Profit 4,804.24 4,804.24 24,626.63
Dividends 17.20 17.20 319.72
Interest Income 1.02 1.02 18.66
Subtotal 4,822.46 4,822.46 24,965.01
Gain/(Loss) (246.49) (246.49) 1,022.32
Ending Portfolio Value 25,987.33 25,987.33 25,987.33
Portfolio Returns (0.87%) (0.87%) 13.16%
Online Cash Receipts are the collected earnings from my online endeavors. Most of which is advertising on the my various blogs. The Online Expenses relates to various web related expenses such as registering 3 domains (DividendsValue.com, Dividends4Life.com and TheDiv-Net.com) and paying my annual hosting fee. The Interest Income line is interest earned on cash balances in an ING account I set up for the PCP. The Gain/(Loss) line is for market changes to the PCP (realized and unrealized). January Dividends of $17.20 included:
  • $11.20 Genuine Parts Company (GPC)
  • $6.00 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)
The portfolio was down in January and for the year, but up since its inception. Online earnings in January surpassed the $4,000 mark for the first time. A large portion of the increase continues to be related to the strong interest in D4L-Premium Services. The premium service has continued grow each month. Traffic on Dividend Value set another record in January, breaking the previous record set in December 2009.

During the month of January, I purchased the following securities:
  • 32 shares Harleysville Group Inc. (HGIC) providing $41.60 in annual dividend earnings
  • 36 shares Sysco Corp. (SYY) providing $34.56 in annual dividend earnings
  • 14 shares Intermediate-Term Bond ETF (BIV) providing $48.58 in annual dividend earnings
Including the above January purchases, my annual PCP dividend income is now $817.26 at the current dividend rates. I ended the month with $5,067.69 in cash, enough to purchase several stocks in February. I have purchased at least one stock each month since May 2009. I believe the current cash balance and recent earnings will continue to support the purchase of at least one stock each month.

My PCP holdings are always available by selecting the Holdings option from the menu in the header. The next PCP update will be mid-March.

(Photo: sanja gjenero)

The Coca-Cola Company

Tags: [BIV] [GPC] [HGIC] [SYY] [WMT]