* Progress Update - October 2010

Once again it is time for a goals/progress update. I am pleased to report that annualized dividend income increased in October, extending the streak to 4 consecutive months of increases after June 2010's decline. Since I began publicly tracking annualized dividend income in November 2007, it has increased in 33 of the last 35 months.

My goals were defined in this December 1, 2007 Investing Goals post and updated in my 2010 Investing Goals post. Below is an updated version of the table found in the original post.

Description	Dividend Income Annualized	Yield on Cost
2027 Goal	110,000	20.00%
2017 Goal	30,000	10.00%
2010 Goal	9,500	5.00%
December/2009	7,274	4.84%
Purchases YTD	4,555	-0.21%
Div. Changes YTD	-66	-0.03%
Sales YTD	-1,212	0.02%
October/2010	10,551	4.62%
Purchases	833	-0.03%
Div. Changes	10	0.01%
Sales	-427	0.02%
September/2010	10,135	4.62%

The above information covers the current month and year-to-date through the current month.

Click here for a Detailed Historical Progress Table.

For the month, annualized dividend income increased $416, and Yield on Cost (YOC) was flat (0.00%). This month's changes were a net of new purchases, dividend changes and sales. Let's examine each of the these categories:

Purchases: The $833 increase in annual dividend income and 0.03% decrease in YOC related to the following purchases (yield at the time of purchase):

• $65 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 3.50%
• $244 Harleysville Group Inc. (HGIC) 4.38%
• $339 AT&T, Inc. (T) 5.94%
• $185 Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) 3.19%

Only T increased my YOC, while three securities lowered it. As noted in earlier updates, I generally expect YOC to drop each month since most new investments will yield less than my current YOC, and dividend increases will not be sufficient to offset it.

Dividend Changes: The $10 increase in annual dividend income and the 0.02% increase in YOC related to the following dividend changes (a=dividend stated in annual terms, q=quarterly, m=monthly):

• ($3) U.S. Preferred Stock Index (PFF) $2.36a>$2.30a
• $10 Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) $0.31q>$0.34q
• $6 Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (LEG) $0.26q>0.27
• ($3) Invest Grade Corp Bond (LQD) $5.41a>$5.37a

Sales: The $427 decrease in annual dividend income and the 0.02% increase in YOC related to the following sale:

• ($427) Intermediate-Term Bond ETF (BIV)

With two months to go, I believe there is a good chance of achieving $11,000 in annualized dividend income by December 31, 2010, assuming no or minimal dividend cuts.

That's it for this time. The next monthly progress update will be early December.

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