Kiplinger - 12 Stocks to Get Dividends Every Month By Jeffrey R. Kosnett

We found a dozen great stocks with a payment schedule that will line your pockets with cash all year.

January
General Electric (symbol GE) price: $21, yield 2.6%
The diversified giant known as "Eclectic" has been reinventing itself since Thomas Edison's time. Now, GE is remaking itself as the developing world's go-to source for engines and turbines while remaining a global leader in high-end medical devices and energy-related capital equipment. The Fairfield, Conn., firm is shifting away from media and financial services. GE sold control of NBC Universal to Comcast, and its finance arm, which nearly sank the whole ship, is recovering but produces only one-sixth of the company's profits.

In any case, diversified manufacturers are generally more consistent sources of dividends than television networks and financial engineers, so you can be confident that GE's pledge to rebuild its dividend, which it slashed by two-thirds in 2009, is genuine. A boost in 2010 and another this year have brought the annual rate back to 56 cents, up from 40 cents per share annually. More raises are likely this year and beyond.
Also pays in: April, July and October

(Dividend-paying stocks can help your portfolio through volatile markets. Watch our video for more tips on Navigating Volatility in Your Portfolio.)

February
Aqua America (WTR) $23, 2.6%
February is a short month, so we'll cheat and make Aqua America, which pays on March 1, an honorary February dividend payer. Providing water is an essential service, and it's a business that earns a guaranteed profit margin. Water service is also a monopoly, or close to it -- even water purists who drink and cook with bottled H2O are likely to twist the tap for bathing.

Aqua America, which serves about one million customers in 14 states, is the largest of the nation's dozen or so investor-owned water utilities. The Bryn Mawr, Pa., company's market capitalization of $3.2 billion exceeds the value of all other publicly traded water companies combined. Because of its girth, Aqua America can raise capital cheaply and use it to buy other water systems, usually from local governments that can't afford to maintain their systems. That enables Aqua America to raise dividends consistently, usually by about 4 cents per year.
Also pays in: June (first day), September and December

March
McDonald's (MCD) $76, 3.2%
The fast-food giant is a Dog of the Dow, one of the ten highest-yielding stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average. That's enough to get some love from dividend hounds. But unlike the other Dogs, McDonald's barks to celebrate its tail-wagging dividend increases. Over the past five years, the Oak Brook, Ill., company has raised dividends at an annualized rate of 30%, to a current $2.44 per share yearly.

McDonald's is a prodigious generator of cash. While other chains struggle to stay in business, McDonald's invents one hit product after another -- think breakfast servings of oatmeal and McCafe coffee drinks. More than half of sales and profits come from outside the U.S., so an investment in McDonald's shares effectively gives you exposure to all sorts of foreign currencies and lets you ride the rising spending power of hundreds of millions of consumers in fast-growing emerging markets.
Also pays in: June, September and December

April
Automatic Data Processing (ADP) $50, 2.9 %
Payroll processing may be a boring business, but few firms, whether they pay dividends or not, are as consistent as Automatic Data Processing. The company, one of a handful in the U.S. with a triple-A credit rating, processes payrolls, manages employee and business records, and runs IT departments under contract. The payroll business depends on the overall health of the economy in general and job growth in particular. Because the economy is expanding and the employment picture appears to be improving, this is a good time to invite ADP to send you a check every three months.

ADP's yield won't knock your socks off, but its dividends are ironclad -- the company holds $1.4 billion in cash and owes minimal debt. The low yield is also palatable because ADP boosts its dividends like clockwork -- 36 years in a row, to be precise. A modest rise in short-term interest rates will benefit ADP, which invests the payroll money it holds before transferring it to its clients' workers.
Also pays in: January, July and October

May
Verizon (VZ) $36, 5.4%
Before the Internet, the iPhone and Skype, Ma Bell was the phone company. Ma Bell, formally American Telephone & Telegraph, was tightly regulated and paid high dividends. The government broke up Ma Bell in 1984, accelerating a revolution in telecommunications that continues to this day. But when it comes to high dividends, it's back to the good old days, with two of Ma's offspring, Verizon and a new iteration of AT&T, each yielding better than 5%.

It's okay to buy both, but we prefer New York City-based Verizon. Verizon Wireless's deal to sell the iPhone is a game-changer, breaking AT&T's four-year stranglehold on the Apple bestseller. Analysts estimate that Verizon Wireless, 55% of which is owned by Verizon Communications, sold 500,000 iPhones on the first day its model went on sale. Verizon Wireless is spending heavily to promote the iPhone launch, and the result should be an expansion of its market-share lead in the U.S.
Also pays in: February, August and November

June
M&T Bank (MTB) $90, 3.1%
This Buffalo, N.Y., institution, organized in 1856, is the largest U.S. bank to have remained reasonably healthy during the 2008-09 financial crisis. The best evidence: M&T did not cut its dividend, which has stayed at an annual rate of $2.80 per share since the middle of 2007. Bank officials give two reasons for M&T's steadfastness.

First, M&T has a number of large shareholders (including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway) that have made it clear that they expect regular cash payments. The other is that because M&T remained profitable during the calamity, regulators had no need to press M&T to hack its dividend. M&T presciently bought a scandal-ridden Baltimore bank on the cheap in 2003 and used it to invade the booming Washington, D.C., region. The company hopes its pending buyout of Delaware's Wilmington Trust will further boost profits.
Also pays in: March, September and December

July
Kimberly-Clark (KMB) $66, 4.3%
The maker of Kleenex, Huggies and Scott paper products steers a steady financial course. The Dallas-based company maintains consistently high profit margins, carries a moderate amount of debt and tends to pay about half of its profits to shareholders.

Kimberly-Clark has lifted its payout 39 straight years, including an increase of 10% in 2010 and 6% so far this year. But while executives at some regular dividend boosters care more about the streak than their stock's yield, Kimberly's CEO, Tom Falk, has said that "our above-average dividend yield is important to us and distinguishes us among our peers." The stock's yield is higher than that of all consumer companies in the S&P 500. The outlook for 2011 is a tad iffier than usual because of soaring costs for the raw materials that Kimberly uses to make its products. So the company is mounting a preemptive cost-cutting plan that includes selling pulp mills and ceasing the manufacture of products for private labels.
Also pays in: January, April and October

August
Colgate-Palmolive (CL) $79, 2.7%
Colgate-Palmolive owns some of the world's best-known consumer brands -- among them, Colgate toothpaste and toothbrushes and Palmolive, Fab and Ajax cleaning products. And Colgate is a major player around the globe: The New York City-based company generates about 75% of its sales and earnings outside the U.S.; more than half of revenues and profits come from fast-growing emerging markets. It has 50% of the market in "oral care" (mostly toothpaste) in India and an even greater share in Brazil.

Colgate should be able to protect its profit margins by boosting prices enough this year to offset higher costs for raw materials. That, in turn, will allow it to hike its dividend for a 48th consecutive year (Colgate hasn't omitted a dividend since 1895). Colgate's yield isn't extraordinarily high, but the company has boosted its payout at an annualized rate of 13% over the past five years. Look for increases of that magnitude to continue for some time.
Also pays in: February, May and November

September
American Electric Power (AEP) $36, 5.1%
Electric utilities are practically synonymous with dividends, and every income investor should own at least one. Our pick is American Electric Power, a Columbus, Ohio, company that serves 5.2 million customers in 11 states in the Midwest and South. AEP also owns one of the world's biggest power-transmission networks, which collects tolls from wholesalers and other utilities that move electricity long distances.

AEP has everything you want in a top-notch power company. Its return on equity (a measure of profitability) is more than 10%, and the company generates power from a broad mix of fuel sources, including nuclear energy. Its stock boasts an above-average yield, and the payout ratio -- dividends as a percentage of earnings -- is a reasonable 60%, giving the company some flexibility to keep up the payments even if earnings fall a bit. After keeping the dividend rate in place for two years, AEP raised the payout twice in 2010, first by 2.4% and then by 9.5%.
Also pays in: March, June and December

October
Sysco (SYY) $28, 3.7%
From an investment perspective, the nation's leading distributor of food and related supplies to restaurants, schools, hospitals and other institutions behaves more like a utility because it generates steadily rising profits and dividends. Sysco holds an outsize 18% share of a $200 billion market in the U.S. and Canada, and it expects to expand that share by a half-percentage point annually for some time to come.

Earnings have been sluggish lately because the restaurant trade, which accounts for nearly 60% of sales, has been struggling and because costs are surging. But the Houston company runs a tight ship. As it buys smaller competitors and folds their accounts into its system, the increased efficiencies offset any shocks to the bottom line from such things as higher prices for sugar and diesel fuel. Sysco has boosted its dividend 41 straight years. It did so even in 2009, as a long string of consecutive years with earnings gains ended during the recession.
Also pays in: January, April and July

November
Realty Income (O) $35, 5.0%
With this high yielder, you don't have to wait three months between checks -- the Escondido, Cal., real estate investment trust pays out monthly. In fact, Realty Income has paid cash dividends for 487 straight months, and it usually raises the disbursement three or four times a year. Granted, the boosts are usually on the order of hundredths of cents per share, but they solidify Realty Income's reputation among REIT fans as the stock-market equivalent of an ATM. Realty Income's formula is simple: It leases properties long term, with rent escalators, to fast-food franchises, cinemas, auto-repair shops and other mundane businesses. The tenants pay the property taxes and upkeep.

Occasionally, Realty Income does the unexpected. Late in 2010, it bought a Napa Valley winery, which now accounts for a fat 8% of the trust's assets, and agreed to lease it to spirits giant Diageo for 20 years at a rent that gives Realty Income an initial yield on its investment of about 8%.
Also pays in: all other months

December
ConocoPhillips (COP) $72, 3.7%
You can find all sorts of ways to collect cash from energy enterprises (see 3 Higher-Risk, Higher-Reward Ways to Earn Dividends). But the most popular way is still to buy shares of a large, integrated oil company. Our favorite is ConocoPhillips.

Not surprisingly, the energy giants make more money when oil prices are high and less money when oil prices fall. But that doesn't mean their fortunes -- and yours -- are tied to the whims of energy traders. Conoco is selling the last of its once-20% stake in Lukoil, a Russian oil company, and is using the proceeds to drill vigorously in shale fields in the U.S. in search of both natural gas and "liquids," which means oil, as well as propane and other gas that can be liquefied. Conoco, based in Houston, has raised its payout ten straight years, and over the past five its dividend has grown at an annualized rate of 13%. If shale pays off, shareholders will continue to see fat increases in coming years.
Also pays in: March, June and September

The Div Guy owns shares of GE and VZ at the time of this post.

The dividend investor By DAVID K. RANDALL

It’s a great time to be buying stocks that pay dividends. Nearly a quarter of the companies in the S&P 500 have announced that they’ll raise their dividends this year. That puts investors in an enviable position – they have to sort through a lot of big-paying companies and decide which ones to buy.

Bob Shearer, who manages the $13.3 billion Blackrock Equity Dividend Fund, talked with The Associated Press about his strategy and expectations for dividends. During the 10 years he has run the fund, he has beaten the S&P 500 by an average of 3.7 percentage points a year. Its top holdings include Chevron, ExxonMobil and General Electric.

Which industries have the most appealing dividends?

Shearer says that multinational companies that do business in emerging markets are in the best position to raise dividends. “So we prefer companies in the mining and industrial sectors,” he says. Companies like Caterpillar and Deere have booming businesses in China, Brazil and other countries that are growing, he says.

When will dividends return to their pre-2008 levels?

“We have looked at the dividend cuts during the financial crisis and found that for the most part, they were limited to just a few sectors – primarily the consumer discretionary sector and obviously financials,” Shearer says. “So, for many sectors like energy, materials and industrials, we are seeing some dividends even hitting new highs.”

Your portfolio is relatively light on financial companies. Why?

Shearer is concerned about new regulations that limit banks’ revenue from overdraft charges, late payment penalties and other fees. Without those money makers, “the ultimate earnings power of some of these companies is somewhat unclear,” he says. But he does like some financial companies. JPMorgan Chase is one of his fund’s top holdings because the company is well managed. His fund also owns Wells Fargo, which Shearer thinks will make more money as it completes the conversion of former Wachovia branches into Wells Fargo branches.

Was there anything surprising about the dividend increases this quarter?

“I think one surprise that we are seeing are technology companies initiating dividends for the first time, as Cisco announced last year,” Shearer says. “Technology companies typically like to reinvest back into their business for growth. However as these companies mature, they can now think about returning some cash to shareholders in the form of dividends.”

As our net worth gets closer to the million dollar mark, I think back to how we got here. We don't make that much money but we are able to save a large portion of our earnings and we seldom use debt to purchase items. Our house is paid for as well as our cars. We did just recently take out a new mortgage but this is on an investment property in California that was owned by a bank after being foreclosed.

Why is it so hard for the average American to save money? Case in point, after the kids soccer game on Saturday we were walking back to the parking lot. One of the families on the team had just purchased a new Range Rover. The family makes more money than us but they definitely spend much more than we do. Do you think that Range Rover will go up in value after they drove it off the dealers lot?

Jennifer Waters from MarketWatch has an interesting article on what it takes to become a millionaire.

Wealth is what you save, not what you spend
Want to be a millionaire? Don’t overspend and use debt wisely

We all may not be millionaires but there are plenty of financial and life-planning secrets we can learn from the well-heeled.

Most people know that wealth in the U.S. is in the hands of a small percentage of the total population. And, today, most of those folks with a net worth of $1 million or more have earned it themselves.

They’re mostly entrepreneurs who create everything from high-speed networks to garbage haulers. They dig ditches and build houses and grow corn and make jewelry. They deal stamps or coins or artwork and control pests and cut lawns. They also cure people and give them new teeth. Others will defend their neighbors or even feed them.

And they’re not big spenders. In fact, most of those with big bucks live well under their means — think about Warren Buffet still living in that modest Omaha home — and they put their money instead toward investments that help them stockpile more wealth.

“Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend,” according to Thomas Stanley and William Danko, the authors of the seminal tome on America’s wealthy “The Millionaire Next Door,” first published in 1996.

“It is seldom luck or inheritance or advanced degrees or even intelligence that enables people to amass fortunes,” the authors wrote. “Wealth is more often the result of a lifestyle of hard work, perseverance, planning, and, most of all, self discipline.”

Wealth is defined in many ways, though it’s generally determined as the value of everything you own minus debts. But there’s a difference between marketable assets — things you own that could be liquidated rather quickly, like stocks, bonds, real estate — and possessions like cars, clothing and household items that you use regularly and aren’t likely to sell.

Income alone does not make one rich. It helps, of course, to build wealth, but the financially independent look to their salaries as a means to an end, which is that pile of cash.

“The wealthy don’t spend their wealth on discretionary purchases,” said Pam Danziger, founder of Unity Marketing, a consumer market-research firm specializing in luxury goods and experiences. “They get rich by maximizing the value of their investments.”

That doesn’t mean they don’t pay big bucks for pretty shoes or outfits, but that most choose those items carefully and shop for value and quality. “They truly evaluate the purchase as an investment, not an expense,” Danziger said.

What they do though is diversify those investments, which gives them more flexibility to ride out difficult times. “The wealthiest clients have very, very diversified portfolios that go way beyond just stocks and bonds into hedge funds, currencies, commodities and emerging markets,” said Leslie Lassiter, managing director of the JPMorgan Private Wealth Management.

“There are many, many mutual funds out there that will allow you to get exposure to those types of asset classes,” Lassiter said.

Among the biggest differences between those flush with cash and those wishing they were is in how they pay for things. Millionaires tend to use cash for most of their purchases, including cars, homes and boats.

For the average wage earner, of course, that’s not always an option but it still holds this lesson: Don’t look to debt to fund your lifestyle.

Most wealthy people use debt for investment purposes and are careful not to over-leverage themselves. “A prudent use of debt is an appropriate thing for anyone,” Lassiter said.

They also plan very well and spend a lot of time at it. Many are compulsive savers and investors who often say the journey to riches was far more fun than the reaching the goal.

And they’re patient, willing to invest in the long term and wait it out. “They stick with their investments and are more likely to have a financial plan,” said Sanjiv Mirchandani, president of National Financial, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments.

Many take the long-term approach to investing because they’re working at being financial independent. When they retire, for example, many will know exactly how much they need to live on, to give away and to leave as a legacy.

“The best ones really understand how much liquidity they need to cover their expenses and make sure they have that much cash on hand,” Lassiter said. “That’s something the average person should do as well.”

At the same time, she said most are very careful about leveraging debt. “The wealthy tend to balance between the two,” she said.

Recommendations for accumulating wealth:

Live below your means: People with high incomes who spend all that money are not rich; they’re just stupid.

Plan: That means plan for today, tomorrow and 30 years after retirement. Take time doing it too and spend time monitoring it every day. Use budgets and stick to them.

Diversify: As Lassiter said, look for mutual funds that allow you exposure to asset classes that aren’t related to each other.

Reduce use of credit and turn to cash: It’s easier, of course, for a prosperous person to pay for a house in cash than it might be for most folks, but credit-card debt for luxury purchases or extravagant vacations will never pave a road to riches.

Have access to cash: While the rich keep much of their wealth invested, they can get cash when they need it. “Have some kind of line of credit available, like a HELOC (home-equity line of credit) that you never use,” Lassiter said. “It’s a safety valve.” She suggests a year’s worth of cash to cover expenses; Danziger thinks three years worth is a better bet.

Spread cash around: When the wealthy pulled money out of the equities markets two and three years ago, they opened a bevy of bank accounts, all guaranteed up to $250,000 of deposits by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Bring your children into the mix, and remember the importance of estate planning: The affluent can go to great lengths to teach their children about money and how to manage it — something every family should do. Though talking about money with children consistently ranks as one of the most dreaded conversations, it’s important that your heirs know where all the bank accounts and safe-deposit boxes are — even that their names are on them, too — who the attorney is, where the will and trusts are filed.

I like a low cost online broker and I don't need a lot of bells and whistles. I typically make less than 10 stock trades a month. I have had a brokerage account with with Zecco for several years now and have enjoyed 10 free trades a month. Zecco no longer offers free trades and now charges $4.95 a trade. Time to look for another broker.

I looked at Barron's and SmartMoney broker ratings for 2010 to find a new discount online broker. I came up with Just2Trade for my new brokerage firm. Just2Trade offers stock trades for $2.50 and $.50 per option contract. SmartMoney 2010 Broker Survey rates Just2Trade 9 out of 17 in the Discount Broker ratings.

Here is what Barron's has to say about them:
Just2Trade (www.just2trade.com)
Pros: Very low costs with little in the way to clutter up your experience. J2Trader, a streaming platform, is free to all customers. A powerful technical analysis pattern-recognition feature, Recognia's Technical Event Stock Screener, is included here. Adding capabilities to the site this year that will help in the rankings next year.
Cons: Execution engine is rather low-tech. Limited complex options capability.

Recently with the market run up, my Vanguard accounts are now over $500K. Vanguard offers Voyager Select Service for accounts with $500K to $1M. Part of this service benefit is $2 stock trades with Vanguard Brokerage. With the $2 stock trades and the majority of my assets at Vanguard, switching to Vanguard Brokerage makes a lot of sense for me. So now with $2 stock trades from Vanguard, they now win out over Just2Trade. I will be moving my stocks from Zecco to Vanguard during the month of May.

I have been thinking of making another real estate investment for the past year. I have been successful with condo investments in the Oklahoma City, Miami and Boston areas. My strategy has been to buy properties after a prolonged downturn in the local market. OK the Florida condo was more of a momentum play but it worked out well. I had purchased a condo in Hallandale Beach, Florida and was able to resell it a couple of weeks later for a nice profit. This was at the very peak of the real estate bubble in March 2007. I have been looking around in Florida over the past several months for a condo to purchase but I am still not sure if the current Florida market has hit bottom yet.

My brother called me about a condo in California that was a bank owned property and had recently come out of foreclosure. Comparable units in the complex are averaging $305K in price. We went in together in the purchase and were able to buy the property for $249K. The previous home owners had brought a short sale of $300K to the bank in 2009 but the bank did not want to go down that much in price. Fast forward a few years later and the bank forecloses on the property, then sells it to us for $249K in April 2011.

The property we purchased is a three bedroom condo in Rancho Mirage, CA. The condo complex is very stable and has a great rental history. Many retirees from around the US and Canada come to the area for the winter months. The complex has a 27 hole golf course that runs throughout the property along with many pools. This property has a great view of Mt. San Jacinto as well as grapefruit, orange, lemon and lime trees at the back of the property.

The property needed a few minor repairs, a refrigerator and furniture. The condo is now on the rental market and we have it rented out for 2 months already. We will break even when we rent it out for 7 months of the year. There is also a great upside potential in price appreciation as well. Here are a couple of pictures I took of the property and complex in March while on Spring Break.

We plan to hold the properly for 3 to 5 years and then sell it. We have a local rental company handling all the rentals and cleaning of the property. We will just need to pay the bills and start collecting rental checks. I already have some ideas for investing the proceeds of this condo in real estate outside the US. I just need to have the US Dollar appreciate in value over the next few years.

Here are the top 20 stocks in my Dividend Portfolio as of 4/30/11 ranked by size of holdings.

1. Kinder Morgan Energy (KMP) USA
2. DCP Midstream Partners (DPM) USA
3. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) USA
4. ONEOK, Inc. (OKE) USA
5. Barclays PLC (BCS) UK
6. Procter & Gamble (PG) USA
7. Abbott Labs (ABT) USA
8. General Electric Company (GE) USA
9. CommonWealth REIT (CWH) USA
10. Exxon Mobil (XOM) USA
11. Becton, Dickinson and Co (BDX) USA
12. PepsiCo (PEP) USA
13. Unilever NV (UN) Netherlands
14. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) UK
15. Aircastle Limited (AYR) USA
16. Banco Santander (STD) Spain
17. Verizon Communications (VZ) USA
18. AT&T (T) USA
19. Pfizer (PFE) USA
20. Intel (INTC) USA

Here are the top 20 holdings of the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM) as of March 31, 2011. The Fund consists of stocks that are characterized by higher-than-average dividend yields, and is based on the U.S. component of the FTSE Global Equity Index Series (GEIS). Real estate investment trusts (REITs), whose income generally do not qualify for favorable tax treatment as qualified dividend income (QDI) are removed, as are stocks that have not paid a dividend during the previous 12 months.

1. Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) USA
2. Chevron (CVX) USA
3. General Electric Company (GE) USA
4. Microsoft (MSFT) USA
5. AT&T (T) USA
6. Procter & Gamble (PG) USA
7. Pfizer (PFE) USA
8. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) USA
9. Coca-Cola (KO) USA
10. Walmart (WMT) USA
11. Philip Morris International (PM) USA
12. ConocoPhillips (COP) USA
13. Intel (INTC) USA
14. Verizon (VZ) USA
15. Pepsico (PEP) USA
16. Merck (MRK) USA
17. McDonald's (MCD) USA
18. United Technologies (UTX) USA
19. Abbott Labs (ABT) USA
20. Caterpillar (CAT) USA

I have been building a stock portfolio of dividend stocks outside of my retirement accounts that I will use to help produce income in retirement. This portfolio was valued at $151,577 as of the end of April.

My Annualized Dividend Income as of the end of April increased to $6,506 from $6,302 over the past month. This means my dividend stocks will pay $6,506 in dividends over the next 12 months. This portfolio of stocks has a current yield of 4.29%.

I made around $300 of dividend stock purchases for the past month from dividend distributions. The stock market was up for the month and we continue to see companies increasing their dividends this year.

Most of my stocks are held in my Zecco Trading account and the rest are DRIPs. I plan to look for a new brokerage firm in May as Zecco is now charging me $4.95 for stock trade commissions. The dividends from my stocks are reinvested but I am keeping track of the amount of income I could receive once I retire or choose to receive the dividends in cash.

I will post my Top 20 Stock Holdings on Wednesday.

As of the end of April our Net Worth increased to $982,002 from $950,835 for the month which is a 3.28% increase. The increase in net worth is tied to the increase in the stock market for the month as well as the purchase of a condo that had gone back to the bank.

The breakout is as follows:
ASSETS
Retirement Accounts $526,940
Taxable Accounts $151,577
Cash $27,264
Home $205,000

Other Real Estate $137,500
Cars $6,500
Personal Property $3,000
Kids 529 Accounts $42,271

DEBT

Other Mortgage $112,050

Credit Card $6,000

NET WORTH

$982,002

Here is the summary for this month:

The big news for April is the purchase of a condo in a CA resort. My brother and I went in together to purchase the condo from a bank after a foreclosure. With a small amount of repairs and furniture. The condo is on the rental market. We have it rented out for 2 months already. We will break even when we rent it out for 7 months of the year. There is also a great upside potential in price appreciation as well.

The stock market was up for the month of April. The S&P 500 was up 3.3% for the month and that accounted for most of our investment gain.

We now have $6,000 in debt that is interest free for 12 months. The money was used to furnish the condo. We will continue to use our other credit cards for rewards but payoff the balances each month. I received around $300 in dividends for the month and have used the cash from these dividends to make additional stock purchases.

We will be building up our cash over the next few months to increase our cash reserves. You can click on my Net Worth graph on the right to see the changes in each category from the previous month. We continue to fund our Roth IRA's each month.

I will post my Dividend Income Update on Tuesday.