My Recent Dividend Increases

Since the beginning of the year, I've gotten a series of dividend increases from the companies I hold in my different portfolios. Here's a quick run-down of those.

Bank of Nova Scotia (Toronto: BNS) has just announced that after a 2-year freeze of its dividend, it was again on the rise with a 6% increase (from $0.49 to $0.52 per qurter). I own BNS in my TFSA account and in my DRiP portfolio. [Sector: Financials]

A few weeks ago, TransCanada Corp (Toronto: TRP) announced a 5% increase (from $0.40 to $0.42 per quarter). TRP kept icreasing its dividend steadily even during the worst of the financial crisis. I own TRP in my DRiP portfolio. [Sector: Utilities]

Another company was Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), which increased its quarterly dividend 9% (from US$0.44 to US$0.48). Abbott is another company in my DRiP portfolio. [Sector: Pharma]

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) also announced a dividend increase, bumping it up 11% (from US$0.18 to US$0.20 per quarter). Againg, I own some Pfizer shares in my DRiP portfolio. [Sector: Pharma]

In a different sector, 3M Company (NYSE: MMM) raised its quarterly dividend 4.7% (from US$0.525 to US$0.55). My 3M shares are in my RRSP account and in my DRiP portfolio. [Sector: Industrial]

Hasbor (NYSE:HAS) played its part with an impressive 20% increase (from US$0.25 to US$0.30 quarterly) in my DRiP portfolio. [Sector: Consumer discretionary]

All told, these increases will add about $14 to my dividend income for 2011. This may look small, but that's because my holdings in most of these companies are small. Still, it means an additional 0.126% to my dividend yield.

Net Worth Update

As of March 1st, my net worth was $144 958 (up 2.3% from $141 766). If I exclude house-related assets and liabilities, my net worth was $102 070 (up 3% from $99 141). All of this increase came from my investments, both registered and not.

Assets ($203 811, down 0.2% from $204 124)

• Bank Accounts $3 387 (down 45% from $6 158)
• Emergency Funds $480 (down 83% from $2 877)
• RRSP Accounts $67 515 (up 5.4% from $64 043)
• Non-Retirement Investments $33 176 (up 2.8% from $32 267)
• Home $98 430 (stable)

Liabilities ($58 156, down 6.3% from $62 044)

• Credit Cards $2 567 (down 57% from $5 936)
• Mortgage $55 543 (down 1% from $56 073)
• Line of Credit $0 (stable)

Ratios

• Debt / assets: 0.286 (down from 0.304)
• House value / total assets: 0.485 (up from 0.483)

Moved money from my emergency fund to my RRSP, to complete my contributions for 2010. Liquidities also moved down because I paid back my credit card bill where the car repairs and new computer for Princess.

I'm still very busy, moving to another new project at work. This is taking me a lot of energy, as I'm learning another new business domain and the delivery schedule is quite tight. I barely have time to update my spreadsheets, let alone blog about them. But things are going well! That's one good thing about dividend investments and DRiPs -- once they're set up they run themselves for the most part.

Future blog posts that I plan on doing: Recent Dividend Increases, and My Portfolio in Details (maybe split in a series of posts).