Friday, August 1, 2014

Spending and Dividend Income July 2014



Spending:

The numbers are in for July and another great month is in the books!  I think overall July was much more representative of what I will be spending going forward from here on out.  Over the last few months I have significantly cut expenses on my phone bill (Verizon to Republic Wireless), my rent (1050 per month to my now purchased home which costs 880 per month), and my student loans (122 per month down to 0 per month as work has picked up the tab for me).  So here are the new numbers:


There was a bit of a billing mix up this month and I was still charged for my student loan.  This is hopefully fixed for August and shouldn't happen again.  Other than that the only area of high spending was the Food and Dining category as I was a little lazier and purchased many breakfasts and lunches at work.  I have recently started going to the gym daily (free through work) and now need significantly more calories than I was eating before, it is likely that my food and dining expenses will be high from here on out as I am trying to gain a few more pounds of muscle.

This number is on track for my yearly goals and is less than my average monthly spending (Jan 1st - July 31st) of $1918.  Hopefully I can continue to bring this number down and finish the year strong.

Dividend Income:

The dividends just kept rolling in for the month of July.  While significantly lower than my June income I still managed a significant increase from my April income.  Dividends harvested this month include:

PSEC:    $33.14
SPLS:     $12.96
MO:       $19.20
PM:        $24.44
KO:        $7.93

Combining for a total dividend income of $97.67 dang so close to triple digits!  Compared to my April income 3 months ago this is an increase of almost 47%  Not bad at all!  This also brings my total dividends received up to $446.25 for 2014.


Total dividend coverage for the month was 5.54%  This was by far my second best month and it is exciting to see how quickly these numbers start adding up.  After just seven months of investing I was able to cover a good chunk of what it costs me to live.  The snowball is rolling now and it only picks up momentum from here on out.  I hope you all had a great July and here's to an even better August!  As always, thank you for reading.