* Progress Update - February 2009

Once again it is time for a goals/progress update. Unfortunately, I must report that for the first time since I began publicly tracking my annualized dividend income, it declined from the prior month. The AOD dividend cut set a high hurdle and the GE cut on the last day of the month would have been difficult to overcome. I knew given the environment, it was only a matter of time before the streak would break. However, I am pleased to say that my annualized dividend income has increased in 14 of the last 15 months, dating back to December 2007 when I began tracking it. I look forward to starting a new streak.


My goals were defined in this December 1, 2007 Investing Goals post and updated in my 2009 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%
2009 Goal	8,000	5.00%
December/2008	5,636	5.28%
Purchases YTD	630	0.05%
Div. Changes YTD	(304)	-0.27%
Sales YTD	(575)	-0.12%
February/2009	5,387	4.94%
Purchases	268	0.02%
Div. Changes	(227)	-0.20%
Sales	(370)	-0.06%
January/2008	5,716	5.18%

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 decreased $329, and Yield on Cost (YOC) decreased -0.24%. These changes were a net of new purchases, dividend changes and sales. Let's examine each of the these categories:

Purchases: The $268 increase in annual dividend income and 0.02% increase in YOC related to the following purchases (yield at the time of purchase):

• $70 ITW (3.56%)
• $198 TEG (7.37% )

ITW lowered my YOC, while TEG increased it (for now). I purchased TEG after the dividend increase, but before the earnings announcement. As I wrote last week, I am very disappointed with TEG and its management. I am currently evaluating the stock's place in my income portfolio. 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 ($227) decrease in annual dividend income and (0.20%) decrease in YOC related to the following dividend changes (a=dividend stated in annual terms, q=quarterly, m=monthly):

• $2 PGN $0.615q>$0.62a 0.01%
• $1 HCP $0.455q>$0.46q 0.00%
• $4 NUE $0.32q>$0.35q 0.00%
• ($1) RY $0.40623q>$0.3959q 0.00%
• ($18) ETO $2.09a>$2.03a -0.02%
• ($215) AOD $0.18m>$0.12m -0.19%

The decrease in RY was due to currency conversion resulting from a strengthening U.S. dollar compared to the Canadian dollar. The ETFs/CEFs dividend volatility continue to concern me.

Sales: The ($370) decrease in annual dividend income and (0.06%) decrease in YOC related to the following sales:

• ($216) AOD -0.11%
• ($154) GE 0.05%

I am now comfortable with AOD's allocation and will begin working on ETO's by selectively selling a portion of my holdings. This will position me to better withstand a dividend cut from it. Since I sold GE after its dividend cut, but did not immediately reinvest the proceeds, the overall the decline is greater than it would have been otherwise.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that I will likely not achieve my 2009 goals. I anticipate a troubled environment throughout the remainder of 2009 and into early 2010. As such, I will continue to focus on quality and upgrading my portfolio. This will not lead to the highest current income, but should optimize long-term results.

That's it for this time. The next monthly progress update will be on Saturday, April 4th.