I am still kind of new on the dividend investment thing so I am sure many people reading this post are going to laugh, but you gotta start somewhere right?!

Starting with the new year I started tracking my dividends in my taxable accounts. I get dividends in my non-taxable accounts, but they mostly comprised of mutual funds that track indexes so it doesn’t translate well when I talk about dividends in those accounts.

In January I earned $18.87 in dividends. In February I got $20.57. Not much, but it’s money I didn’t have to work to get at all. Plus a 9% one month increase is a heck of a lot better than I got in my savings account. Unlike trading which isn’t much work either, but you do have to monitor the trade. With dividends it just shows up in your account.

This is where I got dividends in February:
ARP (Atlas Resource Partners LP) – $2.56
AGNC (American Capital Agency Corp) – $0.88
CNSL (Consolidated Communications) – $11.75
HAS (Hasbro Inc) – $1.29
O (Realty Income Corp) – $ 0.57
ORC (Orchid Capital Inc) – $3.51
Interest – .01 (not really dividend, but it is part of my taxable accounts)

I added PER (Sand Ridge Permian Trust), WMC (Western Asset Mortgage Capitol Corp), and YUM (Yum Brands) which will also payout in February, so I should see a bigger payout next quarter in May. As far as the year goes I am up to $39.44. Considering I earned $39.85 in all of 2014 I think I can say I am going to do better than last year.

I am still trying to grow my dividends funds so they can be another part of my financial strategy. As such all the money I earn in dividends will be re-invested into new stocks. The idea being that it will compound along with my other stocks for higher returns.

Full disclosure – Long in all the above mentioned stocks.