Week in Review

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Last two weeks have been pretty slow with activity. I'm still pretty happy keeping the portfolio in defensive territory, but with bond yields rising there's not really a good space to put cash in the short term. I've shifted out of some of the bonds funds but need to think about a good place to park cash.   Most likely spot to park cash will be in $XLP as consumer defensive tends to perform well if risk amps up. 

Portfolio beta remains at 0.61 so I'm content being invested in large cap dividend producing companies that can weather the storm of risk in the next few months.

Dividend Increases (Week of Apr 3rd)

• None

Dividends & Income Received

$115.63 in dividends last week. For March we received $833! On current holdings, the dividends received account for 0.87% of the gain. 

• SCHO - $2.35
• MRK - $69.00
• TLT - $10.09
• SCHO - $4.94 (different account)
• TLT - $10.09 (different account)
• SCHZ - $10.79
• SCHQ - $8.37

Projected Annual Dividend Income sits at $8,562, with cash yet to deploy. While I want this metric to increase over time, the first priority is a high quality portfolio. Chasing yield boosts this number at the expense of potential capital preservation or stock growth. 

Current yield on cost is 2.99% vs. Dividend Yield of 2.60%. Dividend Growth companies will push yield on cost percentage higher meaning I'm getting a better return on my money than if I purchased the stock now. 

For more information on Yield on Cost, see this post from SimplySafe Dividends which I use.

Trades

• Lost 100 shares of Verizon through a covered call. 
• Lost 100 shares of Merck through a covered call two weeks ago and recovered through cash secured puts.
• Various other trades.
• Purchased some Starbucks at $88. . a day or two they declared the stock buyback dead.

Options Activity

• While I lost Merck shares to a covered call, I was able to get it back while selling and buying puts as it continued higher.  

Other Activity

• No other activity this week.

What's Next

• Will be evaluating portfolio allocation in next few weeks for Q2 but will not be changing strategy, just some fine tuning.