Dividend Increases for Wednesday June 29, 2011

Dividend Increases for Wednesday June 29, 2011

General Mills (ticker: GIS) raised their dividend today from $.28/quarter to $.305/quarter, which equates to an increase of almost 9%. The annual payout is $1.20/share – based on today’s closing price of $37.38 this brings General Mills’ dividend yield to 3.26%.

This is good news for the DDI porfolio which already holds a position of 20 shares. The next dividend payment date for General Mills will be on August 1. Because General Mills has shown a trend of increasing dividends and a yield above 3% it will be included for consideration as I redeploy the free cash flow from the portfolio as June comes to a close.

The 4 Daily Dividend Portfolio Investment Rules

Daily Dividend Portfolio Investment Rules

After living through the world wide stock market melt down in 2008 and 2009, I realized that if you are going to invest in equities, there is never a guarantee that any individual stock will hold it’s asset value. During the sell-off, many high quality stocks declined in value 30/40/50% or more, just like their lower-quality counterparts. There was often no rhyme or reason for valuations – the entire market had deiced to sell. During this volatile time, I decided two things:

1. Now is a good time to start buying.
2. If you are going to buy equities, purchase shares that offer dependable increasing dividends.

Back from vacation – the cash keeps on flowing…

Back from vacation – the cash keeps on flowing…

My family just returned from a 2 week vacation in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska Cruise on the Disney Wonder. We visited the Space Needle in Seattle, Stanley Park in Vancouver and enjoyed a great trip sailing up the inside passage of Alaska to some great ports including Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan as well as seeing the fantastic glacier at Tracy Arm.

Happy Birthday DDI portfolio!

Happy Birthday DDI portfolio!

The Daily Dividend Investor portfolio celebrated it’s first birthday a few days ago on June 1st, 2011 and boy did it have something to celebrate! The total return for the portfolio year over year, was a very respectable showed an unrealized capital gain of 19.6%.

When I started the portfolio back on June 1, 2010 it was valued at $108,137.75. One short year later, on May 31, 2011 the DDI portfolio had risen to $129,381.65 for a total gain of $21,243.90. I am very happy with this performance (who wouldn’t be?) and I’m encouraged that the daily income generated continues to grow. But there’s always a little more to the story….

Monthly Income Update: May 2011

Monthly Income Update: May 2011

I’ve just finished calculating the monthly cash flow for the Daily Dividend Investor portfolio and there is good news and bad news. The good news is that the portfolio generated a very respectable income stream of $499.90 for the month of May. The bad news, which isn’t really so bad, is that for the second straight month, the portfolio missed reaching it’s income target of $500.00/month in passive cash flow.

Overall I am happy with the results and this cash can now be put back to use in the portfolio.

Bought: Pfizer (ticker: PFE)

Bought: Pfizer (ticker: PFE)

As normally happens during the end of the month / beginning of the month, the portfolio generates a surge of income, so I found I had a little extra cash. After a late day rally yesterday pushing the Dow (ticker: ^DJI) up a little over 120 point, the market is down today, about 200+ points as I write this. With this abrupt sell-off I thought today might be a good day to put some of that new found cash back to work.