Recent Purchase, SDRL

As I alluded to in last week's post, I made another purchase for the portfolio at the end of February:

I picked up 70 shares of SDRL.  Seadrill limited is a deepwater drilling master limited partnership.  Its one I have had on my radar for quite some time.  I bought the shares at a price of $36.30.  This will add $59.50 per quarter to my dividend totals.  With this purchase, my projected dividends in my taxable accounts for the next 12 months is $22,813.90.  Awesome total; even with buying a house I still feel like I can hit my dividend goals for the year!  I guess things are still going steady almost 3 months into the year. 

February Dividend Income Update

Yet another month has passed, meaning its time to update my dividend income.  Without further ado:

Taxable Account:
ERH - $75.00
LINE - $725.00
CLMT - $450.45
AT - $12.52
O - $12.66

total from taxable account - $1,275.53

Roth IRA:
STB - $18.40
ERF - $21.57
GGN - $28.32
ARR - $88.80

total from Roth IRA - $157.09

Total Dividends for February - $1,432.62

No complaints about this month here!  This was a big month for me financially, I purchased a house that I will close on at the end of March.  I also picked up a part time job that I hope to be blogging about in the near future.  Future topics for the blog also include a purchase that I made early this week, and also a sale.  Stay tuned!

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!

Recent Purchase - GGN

After loading up my roth IRA with my 2012 contribution last week, I made a purchase.  I bout 161 shares of GAMCO gold and natural resources (GGN) for $13.60 per share.  This brings my total number of shares of GGN to 236.  My total number of shares will now bring $28.32 in dividends to my roth IRA every month.  I still have enough cash in the acount to make at least one more major purchase.  I have an idea of what I want to buy with it, I'm just waiting on a good price.  What are you guys buying?

Contributing to my Roth IRA

I was able to contribute to my roth IRA this week, thus eliminating goal number 1 from last week.  It wasn't as straightforward as it is for most people, as I make too much income to regularly contribute to a roth, so I wanted to write about my experience doing it.  I feel like this could serve as a guide for others who want to do the same thing.

So on Monday, I walked into my discount broker's office, and asked to open a traditional IRA, and then immediately convert it into my roth IRA.  They seemed to understand what I wanted to do here, and I walked out of the office thinking "wow, that was easy."  About 5 minutes after I left the office, the person who set up my account called me to ask how much I wanted withheld for tax purposes on the conversion.  I said zero, as I explained to him that the contribution I made to the traditional IRA was non-deductible, and would be made with after tax dollars, therefore there was no need for withholding anything.  He said he had never heard of doing that, so I told him I would check with my accountant and get back to him.

I then called my accountant.  It took me about 30 minutes to explain to her what I wanted to do.  She said she wasn't sure, but that she would look into it and call me back.  About an hour later, I got a call from her saying that she had looked into it further, checked with some of her colleagues, and that yes, what I wanted to do was perfectly fine, and to go for it!   I went back to the broker the next day and set everything up.  On Friday morning, the money hit my roth IRA.

So to sum it up, to contribute to a roth when your income exceeds the limit:
1.  Contribute to a traditional IRA. 
2.  Make the contribution non-deductible - to do this, you'll need to file form F8606 at tax time.
3.  Convert this traditional IRA with the non-deductible contribution to the Roth.  You've now contributed to your roth IRA even though your income is too high to do so normally.

** NOTE - if you have any previously existing traditional IRAs, this won't work.  You cant just "choose" to convert the non-deductible IRA contribution to the Roth, if you have previously contributed to an IRA, you will only be able to convert a portion of the traditional IRA to a roth without tax implications.  For example, if you do this and already have $5000 in a traditional roth, $2500 of your conversion will be from the non-deductible contribution, and $2500 will be from the previously created (and so far not taxed) traditional IRA, for which you will owe taxes on the conversion.

The only thing I'll say is that make sure you let your accountant know that you're doing this at some point.  I knew this going in, but I'll need to file form F8606 to make the IRA non-deductible.Other than that, I think I'm all set to go.  Be on the lookout for a post about what I buy with the money in my roth!