November is now done and with the passing of Thanksgiving comes the Christmas season and lots of consumer spending. Hopefully consumer confidence will remain high and the retailers will have a Merry Christmas for their owners, shareholders, and employees. Consumer spending, especially during the holidays, makes up a good portion of the US’s GDP.
Well, let’s do the numbers and see how I fared in November:
AWP $ 50.00
BGY $ 38.00*
CHW $ 21.00*
CIK $ 22.00*
CLM $ 46.52*
DHY $ 38.50
DMF $ 12.30
DSM $ 22.83
EAD $ 9.03
EDF $ 45.00*
EHI $ 26.60
EXG $114.00*
NCV $ 45.50
OIA $ 4.30
PFN $ 36.00
RA $ 69.85
VFL $ 15.00
WDR $138.00
ZTR $ 33.90
TOTAL $788.33 est.
* Includes Return of Capital
Hmmph. While November’s $788.33 is nothing to complain about, it’s not a $900+ month that I was expecting. Checking with dividend.com, I discovered that FGB’s payout got pushed from late November to early December, so that’s why it wasn’t included in November’s total dividend income. This means that November’s total was a little smaller and December’s total will be a little bigger. On the bright side, thanks to my buy of 100 FGB shares last month, FGB’s coming payout (which will be December 1st, so it will only be delayed a couple days) will be a bit bigger. 🙂
So overall November was a good month. No dividend cuts occurred, so that’s certainly a plus.
A slight digression: For years I’ve used Google’s Finance page to monitor the general stock market and specific stocks of interest and to also screen stocks. But, like a lot of people (but also a lot did see it coming), I was surprised Wednesday morning to find that Google revamped their Finance section and dropped the portfolio page. Yeah, I was NOT happy about that change. Thanks Google. 😛
What free alternative(s) will I use now? Well, so far I’ve found Wikivest, Wallmine, and MarketWatch. Normally I’d just switch to Yahoo! Finance but it’s not what it once was. However, I’m not totally giving up on it. I learned of a clever little “hack” for Yahoo! Finance that lists the current market price of stocks plus some basic info about them. Simply copy and paste the following URL into your browser, but replace the ticker symbols (ohi,fgb,ra in this example) with your own, and then bookmark the page for future reference.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quotes/ohi,fgb,ra/view/v1
None of the above alternatives are a drop-in replacement of Google Finance, but they’re good places for me to start. It will take some time for me to cobble together a new toolset to substitute for the experience of the Google Finance page. Ideally, I’d like a free portfolio page that doesn’t require a login (ugh!), reports the current market and its gainers and losers of the day, displays the current prices of stocks in my portfolio as well as stocks of interest, has a good screener, and provides sufficiently detailed info about individual stocks. That’s not too much to ask for, right? 🙂
If you’ve been affected by the Google Finance revamp, what site(s) do you now use or plan on using?
Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)
Congrats on the awesome month Dividend Quest! Nearly $800 is a great haul! Keep up the great work! 🙂
Thanks DD! Yep, nearly $800 is nothing to complain about at all. Also, thanks for including my site on your blogroll page. In return I added your site to the Dividend Quest blogroll page.
If FGB doesn’t change its Feb payout that month will be huge. Even if it does it will be huge with Your OHI payout. Look for a increase about the second week of January. Good month and your future months will get better. Keep it up
Thanks for visiting Doug! I’m looking forward to the next OHI payout, as it will certainly be a nice boost for that month. My ETF stocks usually suffer some dividend cuts in the first quarter of the year, so hopefully OHI will help blunt the damage from the expected cuts.
Div Quest –
What you COULD do is go to finance.google.com/finance – it’ll take you back to how it was!!
Congrats on your month of income, amazing how much you receive in November!
-Lanny
Hi DD! Yes, I COULD use that URL. Thanks a bunch! I’m glad to get the old Google portfolio page back. However, the past few days has made me think about Google and how I use their various services. If you [the reader, not just you DD] want to extricate Google from your online life as much as possible, then there are many alternatives to consider. Even with this return of the old Google Finance page, last week’s change made me acutely aware of how dependent I am on a single site for stock info. I will still seek out an alternative to Google Finance, because the new URL may disappear too. As they say about personal finance (and life): dig your well before you’re thirsty.