April is behind us and we’re already 9 days into May which means I’m a little late with my April update. April was a quiet dividend month but it looks like I crossed a mini-milestone. My April dividends were just above $20 and if my projections are correct I’ll never see a month of dividends fall below $20 going forward. Another milestone is that I’ve earned more dividends in the first 4 months of 2015 than I did in the entire year of 2015. These small steps of progress are encouraging. Also, in April I finished contributing to my Roth IRA for this year by adding some JNJ stock.
First, I’ll jump into my last major stock purchase which was Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). JNJ is one of those companies that I’ve wanted in my portfolio since my dividend investing interest was first sparked. I’ve kept my eye on JNJ hoping for a dip in price but it just didn’t seem to drop in price much recently. Despite my attempt to remain patient, I finally pulled the trigger on a JNJ purchase in early April. Although it may or may not be a great value right now (who really knows?) I finally added this dividend aristocrat to my portfolio. JNJ touts 52 years of consecutive dividend growth which is downright astonishing. In addition to its dividend resume, JNJ offers many familiar consumer products such as J&J baby products, Neutrogena, Tylonel, and Splenda. JNJ also has medical device and pharmaceutical offerings. JNJ would fall in the category of household names in my opinion and I feel very, very comfortable owning stock in JNJ.
In addition to my stock purchase, I had some dividends roll in last month. Here is the breakdown of my April dividends:
Loyal3 Account
| Symbol | Dividend |
| PEP | $0.21 |
| KO | $0.88 |
| WMT | $0.32 |
| NKE | $0.04 |
| KRFT | $1.26 |
Roth IRA
| Symbol | Dividend |
| PM | $5.12 |
| MORL | $6.26 |
| KRFT | $6.21 |
April Dividend Total = $20.30
One year ago I had $0.03 in dividends so I’ll take the $20.30 in April with a smile.
Dear Dividend... 