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October 2020 was an interesting month in the markets. In this post, I will discuss my savings and investments along with stocks I plan to purchase in November.

Overview

The headline development for me in October was starting a new portfolio focused on income generation. This portfolio only represents a small fraction of my invested assets, but it is one I have been meaning to start for a number of months. The overall aim of this portfolio is to provide enough income to cover my yearly expenses. While I am probably decades away from achieving this goal, at least it is a start. If you are interested in reading more about this portfolio, you can here.

My savings rate has remained high as my partner and I continue to save for our first home. The house is due to be complete in Q1 2021 so savings will remain a high priority for the foreseeable future. Apart from the income portfolio, my automatic pension contributions (10% of gross salary) have continued as normal. It has been an interesting month for the markets, with the S&P 500 posting a 2.77% loss in a month where at its highest it was up 4.84%. Various themes were cited as the reasons for the volatility (Covid, stimulus etc.) but I don’t tend to take much heed. As a long term investor, my priority during times of volatility is to ensure I stay invested.

Crunching The Numbers

Savings: €1,900 saved, just over 50% of net income.

Pension: €562.50 contributed. Half by my employer, half by me. My contributions cost me €168.75 in after-tax income.

Income Portfolio: $203.85 contributed in October. Figures for the income portfolio will be stated in USD as that is the primary currency the stocks are denominated in. Currency risk will play a role in the returns for this portfolio but as we know from our risk post, that can work both ways.

Passive Income: In October I added an estimated $7.53 in future yearly dividends.

Income Portfolio Returns

As a benchmark, the S&P 500 returned -2.77% in October. The income portfolio return was +6.41% for the same period. No dividends were received in October. For transparency, I will list the stocks purchased in October, all of which were purchased on the same day (2nd October). The closing prices quoted are the closing prices on the 30th of October.

CSCO – Cisco Systems

• Number of Shares – 1
• Purchase Price – $38.19
• Dividend Yield at Purchase – 3.77%
• Closing Price – $35.90
• Return – -6.00%

EVR – Evercore

• Number of Shares – 1
• Purchase Price – $67.33
• Dividend Yield at Purchase – 3.45%
• Closing Price – $79.54
• Return – +18.13%

KBAL – Kimball International

• Number of Shares – 1
• Purchase Price – $10.55
• Dividend Yield at Purchase – 3.41%
• Closing Price – $10.30
• Return – -2.37%

NC – NACCO Industries

• Number of Shares – 1
• Purchase Price – $18.38
• Dividend Yield at Purchase – 4.19%
• Closing Price – $19.49
• Return – +6.04%

PFE – Pfizer

• Number of Shares – 1
• Purchase Price – $36.28
• Dividend Yield at Purchase – 4.19%
• Closing Price – $35.49
• Return – -2.18%

STLD – Steel Dynamics

• Number of Shares – 1.15
• Purchase Price – $28.80
• Dividend Yield at Purchase – 3.47%
• Closing Price – $31.48
• Return – +9.31%

Overall it was not a bad first month for this portfolio, with the gains being largely driven by EVR‘s strong performance.

There were three other stocks that met my criteria but I did not purchase in October, they were IDA, MSM, and INGR. With a limited investment budget for the month, I could not add these to the portfolio.

I plan of providing a list of all my purchases each month along with their initial performance. As the portfolio grows, it will be too time-consuming to monitor the monthly performance of each stock here, but for those interested, I will link to my portfolio here.

November Stock List

All of the below stocks are on my list to purchase in November. I will not be able to purchase them all as I have only €200 or so added to the account for the month.

• CIX
• CSCO
• EVR
• GD
• HNNA
• IDA
• INGR
• KBAL
• MED
• MSM
• NATI
• NC
• PFE
• SIMO
• STLD

Quite a long list, the recent market sell-off has brought P/E ratios down and dividend yields up resulting in 15 stocks meeting my criteria. An increase of six on the previous month.

As always, this post is not a recommendation to buy the above list of stocks. It is for informational purposes only. Before investing your hard-earned money, make sure you do your research.

The Stoic Trader