A new home at last

Well, I started looking almost 6 months ago, but I've finally found a home to purchase.  Its a 3 bedroom Cape house, very close to my job.  I'm obviously pretty excited about this; I was fine with renting, but it wasn't really making sense financially any longer, as rent of my 1 bedroom apt isn't much less than the total of mortgage/taxes/insurance.  Plus, rents are probably going to continue to increase yearly here, while my mortgage is fixed.  You could make the argument that I could move and try to find something cheaper, but this will be my 3 move in the past 3 years; I'm kind of tired of moving.

This isn't the actual house, but it looks pretty close.  An actual picture coming soon!

You might be wondering, where does this leave my dividend investing? Well, first of all, no shares of stocks were sold to pay for any house-related expenses, as I have been saving for this for a while.  Second, dividend investing is still going to be an important part of my investment strategy (probably even more so now), as I have taken on quite a bit of debt and need to "diversify" some away from relying predominantly on my income from work.  That being said, I imagine that I'll probably have to do a bit less dividend investing in the short term as I look to also pay down my home some.  I will say though, that I have some fresh capital in my account that I'm ready to use soon... stay tuned!

Recent Purchase - ERF

Here I sit in the northeast US, sent home from work at 1pm due to the upcoming snow storm.  I figured this would be a good time to post about a recent purchase I made in my roth IRA at the end of January.

I purchased 244 shares of Enerplus Corporation (ERF) for $13.54 per share.  Enerplus is a oil/natural gas exploration company, operating in the United States and Canada.  Its a former Canadian Royalty Trust that became a corporation after the tax structure for CANROYs changed.  This is still a relatively risky play, but its one I'm comfortable with. It pays a dividend of $0.09 a month, so this position will provide $21.96 of dividend income for my Roth per month.  Its good to see my roth dividend income increasing, as this will all be tax free income!

How is everyone else doing finding value in this market?

if you're in the Northeast US like me, stay safe this weekend!

January Dividend Income Update

With the first month of 2013 coming to a close, its time for another dividend income update!  January was a great month for me!

Taxable Account:
O - $10.62
ERH - $75.00
AT - $12.60
NM - $18.00 (paid Dec. 31)
GE - $19.00
CIM - $135.00
bank stock "X" - $3924.60

Total in taxable account: $4194.82

Roth IRA:
ARR - $88.80
GGN - $28.32
STB - $18.81

Total in Roth IRA: $135.93

Total January 2013 dividends: $4330.75
Total January 2012 dividends: $3739.92

Wow, what a great increase from 2012, and a great overall total!  If only all months could be this good.  This month, I did not make any purchases in my taxable account, as I focused on my Roth IRA contribution.  I'll be making a purchase in my taxable account this month; it will be interesting to see where I can find value in this market. Hope you're 2013 investing got off to the same good start that mine did!