Time for another dividend income update! This time, we’ll go over what has happened to my portfolio in October and what my plans are for the next months to come and for next year.
TLDR; I have a video as well if you’re not interested in reading.
Here’s a breakdown of my October 2020 dividends.
| PCI | $2.33 |
| NRZ | $2.25 |
| AGNC | $1.56 |
| O | $2.00 |
| STAG | $3.18 |
| GOOD | $3.50 |
| LAND | $0.54 |
| GNL | $31.34 |
In total, I made $46.70 in October.
Compared to last quarter, July, we see an increase of $0.92. While this isn’t a big increase, I’m relishing the moment. Because for the previous 2 quarters (April and July), I’ve only seen increases to the dividend payouts. No matter how small they were, I still saw them as wins.
If we compare this to last month’s, there is a considerable increase of $33.60. All thanks to $GNL for contributing 95% of that increase!
The $0.92 increase was influenced by $NRZ’s $0.75 increase, $GOOD’s $0.12 increase and $LAND’s $0.05 increase compared to last quarter.
Closing Apple Hospitality REIT
While I have increased the dividend payouts on some of my positions, I have decided to entirely close my $APLE position. I have had this position for a very long time. But after some time of thinking, I decided to close it and put the recovered funds to good use instead.
This was obviously a learning experience for me. I became too optimistic about $APLE to regain its dividend payout but did not think about the opportunity cost at the time. I wasted 7 months waiting when the almost $1,000 cash I got could’ve been used to add more into my current positions or add a new stock to my portfolio that hasn’t suspended their dividends.
What I’m Planning to Do
With the funds I have now, I’m looking to keep $500 to fund my upcoming ROTH IRA plans in 2021. I still haven’t made any moves towards opening an IRA because I’m looking at the right options for me and what strategy I’m gonna follow moving forward.
Aside from that, I’m looking at different stocks as well to boost my portfolio. What’s attracting my eye right now is Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) and Enbridge ($ENB).
Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) is in the Consumer Staples sector, so it makes sense that they be included in any portfolio. People are always buying essentials no matter what and with the pandemic, more people are stocking up on them. They have a 2.73% dividend yield, a 50% forward payout ratio and has increased their dividends for the past 58 years.
Enbridge ($ENB) is a Canadian energy transportation company. Right now, they’re only engaged with crude oil and natural gas. Thus, they aren’t completely engaged in the renewable energy sector. However, that is changing as the company is looking to that sector. They should since it is what the market is looking for right now. They have a 8% dividend yield as of the moment.
I want to expose myself in different sectors so that I can mitigate the risk of losing too much value on my portfolio. This is one of the weaknesses of a portfolio that is too exposed in one sector (for me, the REIT sector). I want to be in the Utilities and Consumer Staples more and might look into more Financials in the future.
I’m going to continue adding more to my current positions in $GOOD and $LAND. They have been really nice dividend payers for me, so I don’t see any time yet where I will be reducing them or closing my position.
AT&T ($T) on the other hand, will be put on hold. They haven’t been getting any good exposure as of the moment because of their bad management. The heavy competition in the mobility sector is weighing them down. Verizon and T-Mobile are pummeling AT&T subscribership recently. And Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Hulu are still way ahead of the game when it comes to the streaming wars.
They are even in talks with Sony to sell Crunchyroll, an anime streaming service. I really think that they shouldn’t sell that asset because of the increasing popularity of anime in the United States. People are hunkered down at home, so more online content is being consumed. Instead of selling a potential asset, they should double down on it and market the sh*t out of the asset.
We have yet to see any good news from AT&T. But I will still keep an eye on their progress.