Monthly update: September 2014

The month has passed and it's my favorite time, giving an update of my dividend portfolio. I've updated my benchmarks to include the total return indices, instead of only the stockprice indices. This seems like a better comparison.

Indicator	As of 31-8	As of 30-9	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.645	3.545	-2.7%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	33.910	33.417	-1.5%
AEX GR	1.203	1.210	+0.6%
USD.EUR	0,7616	0,7924	+4.0%
Portfolio value	€ 19.313	€ 19.195	-0.6%

All in all, September was a mixed month. US markets are down, the Dutch market holds steady. USD gained 4% against the Euro, which made my dollar listed equities more valuable and increased my dollar denominated dividend payments. However my portfolio value still decreased a little bit. Especially BBL and TGH lost big time (over 10% decrease in value) but other stocks also did not perform well. I am not too worried though, it gives me the option to just keep reinvesting new contributions and dividend payments at lower prices.

Purchases

• None (I did make a deposit of €900 which together with accumulated dividends is enough for a purchase in the coming days)

Dividends received

• INTC: 63 shares @ $0.23 for a total of $14.49
• AFL: 28 shares @ $0.37 for a total of $10.36
• WMT: 20 shares @ $0.48 for a total of $9.60
• XOM: 17 shares @ $0.69 for a total of $11.73
• BBL: 28 shares @ $1.24 for a total of $34.72
• RDS: 58 shares @ $0.47 for a total of $27.26
• UNA: 37 shares @ €0.285 for a total of €10.55

Total: around €89 after tax which is twice as high as September last year. This is obviously great and shows the power of regular contributions and commitment to dividend growth investing. However, I don't expect to see these kind of year over year increases regularly.

Dividend increases

• BBL raised its semi-annual dividend payment with $0.06 to $1.24 per share, an increase of 5%. This raise adds around $3 to my yearly dividend income.

Yearly forward dividend

My 12-month forward dividend rate is now €734, compared to €709 last month. This increase is due to changes in the USD.EUR-rate. In the next month I expect another raise in dividend income if I start a new position.

How was your month? What are your plans for the coming month? Keep plowing your money into the stock market or maintain a cash position to use when the markets start to move downwards?