In week two of this 10K Saving Challenge, I am saving $150. 

This week I have a bit more money to play with, giving me a chance to see which new stocks I can add to my portfolio. I was looking at my allocation in different sectors for my portfolio and found that I need to increase my utilities and information technology sectors in order to make it more diverse.  

I wanted to be certain that I was picking stocks that would pay dividends. After some time, I came to two stocks, Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP (NYSE: BIP). These two stocks were able to fill my needs for those two sectors and I was able to use the rest of the money to buy more AT&T (NYSE: T) before that Ex-dividend date hit. 

Looking back on this week’s buy maybe I should have used all $150 on AT&T so I really could have taken advantage of that closing date. Unfortunately, not going this route means that I will be three shares short. That equates to $6.24+ (because of the use of DRIP). that I will not receive at the end of the year.  

I am sticking with a different plan of growing my portfolio by buying different stocks at a time to keep my diversification up while also increase stock holdings with a high dividend yield based on a lower stock price. (I.e., AT&T which has a 6.97% with a stock price of $29.99)  

There will always be better choices that I can make, but bear with me I am still learning. Over time I hope to make less and less of these poor financial decisions.  

Final Thoughts: 

Main points that I am taking out of this week will be I was able to get two more shares of AT&T before the ex-dividend date so I could get the dividend from those shares for the first quarter.  

Cisco Systems, Inc. didn’t bring me a dividend for this quarter because I missed the ex-dividend date that was on 1/04/21 but I was able to add it to my information technology sector. 

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. based on the distribution’s history for the past few years, looks that the next ex-dividend date will fall on 2/26/21. If they keep with the same dividend payout it will be $0.485. Having this stock will add a utilities sector to my portfolio, thus increasing my diversification. 

As always, have a great day and keep learning and moving towards your goals, never stop pushing!