Hawmps (< 20)

$25,000 Real World Aggressive Yield Portfolio - January 2012

January 31, 2012 – Comments (2) | RELATED TICKERS: CIM , WM , CQP

I have become a big fan of two recurring articles: Dan Dzombak's: This High-Yield Dividend Portfolio Will Beat the Market  and  Jim Royal's: The World's Best Dividend Portfolio.  I always like to check in on the progess of these dividend portfolios (I'm more of a dividend investor).  So, in the spirit of what I have gained and continue to gain from these recurring articles, I have decided to share my real world agressive yeild portfolio with you Fools.  I started with $25,000 and began buying stocks in August for this portfolio, so I am using the S&P 500's performance since August 1, 2012 as my benchmark.  This is reasonable since, I bought the first stock in August and as of August 1, there was $25,000 cash in the account, and since cash is part of the portfolio...  I have also set up a spreadsheet to track my holdings and make a few calculations, like re-adjust my per unit cost basis with each dividned payment, similar to CAPS, and calculating rate of return and so forth.  I posted the first blog in Decmber and I think I'll try to keep updating on a monthly basis.

Here is the link to the Google Docs spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Avd0AFqqAfOadHhmZ1p3T094OUQtaEhEZUYwNkpuUEE&hl=en_US#gid=0

To date the portfolio has returned 4.28% while the S&P has returned 1.98% from my benchmark date. 

When I posted in December I had 16 stocks, 13 that pay dividends and 3 that don't.  The 3 that don't are less than 10% of the portfolio.  I expanded the portfolio to 18 with the purchase of 2 other dividend payers in January.  Taking advantage of the euro mess, and the company's own mess, I bought 100 shares of VE at $10.25, just pennies off of the 52 week low recorded the same day of purchase and it's crept up a bit already so that's good.  The other purchase was TWGP.  I didn't have insurance so, I bought some on the cheap and got in not too far off the recently recorded low in November.  Hurricanes on the east coast made for some big losses but I think the market beat down this stock way too much.  

Dividends:  January is the month to cash in on the REIT exposure paying out $233 collectively.  Although the principal of each of the REITs (ARR, CIM, IVR, MFA) is down from purchase, the dividends have pushed the returns positive.  Collectively the REITS have a 3.5% gain to date.  PSEC paid out $15.21, like it does every month (I do like that monthly dividend, as with ARR) and I also got a divy form PT.  Now, PT is one of my attempts to take advantage of European distress, like VE and FTE, and stands as one of the big losers thus far.  The dividend (adjusted 30% for Portugal tax) this month makes me feel a little better... just a little.  But I'm confident that this company will pull through the chaos in Europe and I just jumped in too soon... time the market, right? 

The other big loser is, ZIP.  This is generally not my style, buying into a company within 12 months of the IPO, but I really liked the concept, they're profitable in the four major markets they have the longest presence, and when they made the deal with Ford I said, ok, let's get some of that.  So, ZIP will just sit in the corner of the room and do nothing for a while and look pretty.

TGS is #3 on the loser list.  TGS operates in three segments: natural gas transportation services; natural gas liquid production and commercialization, and midstream services.  TGS operates the biggest pipeline system of Argentina and Latin America, and it got spanked so I bought some, and they occasionally pay out a hefty dividend when .

And the winner so far... CQP.  This MLP has returned over 50%+ since I bought it October 13... time the market!  #2 is PSEC, one of my favorites.  PSEC has returned over 20% and pays it's dividned monthly (is there and echo in here?)  And #3, I didn't expect as #3 just yet but VE is #3 reassuring me that I really did get a rock botom price. 

Both URG and DNN do not pay dividends (a rare purchase for me) but I had to buy something that just got hammered undeservingly because ofthe  Japan incident last March.  These two stocks went down, down, down after I bought (they had already lost a bunch of value) and they are starting to come back now and both are back up above my purchase price.

I haven't touched on NYB, PERI, SVU, and WM and will save those for later.  There's also a lot more info on the sreadsheet that I'm not really touching on.  There's also $430.51 of dividneds burning a hole in my pocket and unlike Dan and Jim's portfolios, I am open to purchasing something "outside the family".