Monthly Income Update: August 2011

Monthly Income Update: August 2011

Well even though the market has been showing signs of falling apart, the DDI portfolio knocked it out of the park and surpassed my $500/month income goal in August coming in with passive income of $527.18!

If you remember back to my post in May (May and August are both month #2 in the quarter), the portfolio fell just short of the $500/month income goal with a respectable showing of $499.90.

I have to say that I am very happy with the results as this not only exceeds the goal for this month, but provides some much needed  income cushion to make up for July’s sub-$500 dividend stream!

There’s not much new to report for August as my 3 steady Eddie’s continued to deliver:

• Realty Income (ticker: O) brought in $86.93 – I’m expecting to see a dividend increase next month
• Sabine Royalty Trust (ticker: SBR) was down slightly from last quarter at $60.17
• Wells Fargo Preferred (ticker: GWF) brought in $35.16 as expected

Sticking to my buy and hold forever philosophy, there were no asset sales in August. However, I did add $2500.00 of fresh new capital as the choppy (read bearish) markets provided some buying opportunities. I expect to add addition cash between now and the end of 2011 to take advantage of buying opportunities as they present themselves.

I had been discussing and have even made it one of my short term goals to “top-off” many of the existing positions so that I might be able to start writing covered calls (option contracts) in order to generate additional income. After much thought I’ve decided to take another approach.

While I will continue to “top-off” many of the existing positions – I will also look to add new positions to the portfolio. I’ve decided to scrap the idea of writing covered calls as I don’t want to start chopping up the portfolio with asset sales, should I get called out of my covered positions.

I think there are still way too many interesting companies with long histories of increasing dividends that I want to add to the DDI portfolio.

What resources do you find useful?

As I continue to build and grow the DDI portfolio I’d love to hear your feedback.

I have a number of great resources that I use for finding great companies to add to the DDI portfolio – I’ll start to share these with you over the next few months.  Do you have a great resource you use to help with your investing journey?

If so, leave me a comment or drop me a line – I’m always interested in hearing what you are thinking how you are growing your passive income!