End of May 2019:

First, here is the portfolio's VALUE BREAKDOWN, with:

1. Total Capital Invested (not including reinvested dividends);

2. Total Dividends Received; and

3. Capital Gain (from price appreciation)

I added $653.17 (not including reinvested dividends) to the portfolio in the month of May, bringing my invested capital to $3,830.43 from $3177.26. I aim to invest $500 every month, and with the "Sell in May and go away" market pullback, it was a good time to actually exceed that. I'm expecting a little bit of a bounce in June and probably continued choppiness throughout summer, so I think there'll still be plenty of opportunities to add to my favorite dividend growth stocks going forward. [See complete stock list later in article.]

Also worthy to note, this is the first recorded month since I started investing in Nov. 2018 that I'm seeing "Red" in my portfolio returns. The May pullback has put me almost $100 in the red in capital (paper) losses; but it's nice to see the dividends buffer that a little bit and still continue to grow.

Next, my PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK against the popular S&P500 (using the SPY etf) shows that I'm lagging the market by 3%. With hardly any pullback in SPY (until this month) and the relatively short time I've been investing for primarily dividend returns, it's reasonably understandable to be behind in the short term; after all, most of the market gains of 2019 is by capital appreciation alone as SPY is still up over 12% for the year. A longer time horizon will provide better bench-marking, when the portfolio begins to ride multiple ups and downs of market prices.

At close of May 31, 2019, hypothetically investing in SPY with equal amounts on the same days (at daily opening prices and adjusting the dividends accordingly) would have rewarded me with a total market value of $3,889.38. My portfolio's actual market value closed the same day at $3,772.91; thus, lagging the index by $116.47, or 3.09%.

Third, let's take a look at the SECTOR distribution and performance in my portfolio.

The Financial sector is still the heaviest weighting in the portfolio, taking up 15.9%. However, the May pullback provided me with opportunities to buy more of my underweighted sectors and stocks, and I was able to balance it out quite evenly.​

Specifically, I went heavy in the semiconductor industry during the month as both Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) and Broadcom (AVGO) sold off on news of the Huawei ban. This bumped up my Technology exposure to 14% from only 10.5. I also added one more stock in the Real Estate space: Brookfield Property Partners (BPY), bringing the sector up from 13 to 15.5%.

Other notable additions were new shares of Caterpillar (CAT) and additional shares of 3M (MMM) from the Industrial sector, increasing the sector weight by 3% since the last month. Small additions were also made to current holdings: ABBV (Health) and EQM (Energy).

I now sit more comfortably diversified, but I would really like to add to Consumer Staples and Communication in the near future, as well as Health with everyone's favorite dividend growth stock, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). 

The best performing sector after May is Consumer Discretionary with an unweighted average performance of 8.07% (including dividend returns) across the five stocks in the sector. Technology was the leader last month, but it's understandably not during this market pullback as it is historically one of more volatile spaces, not to mention the US-China trade war heavily affecting my semi stocks.

​The worst performing sector is Consumer Staple, down an average 12.9%. But this is obviously due to one stock, my most beaten down holding: Petmed Express (PETS). It's not affecting me emotionally all that much; this is why I diversify. But I'll have to revisit this holding in the coming quarters (or years more likely as I prefer to hold for longer periods) to decide whether it's worth a spot in the portfolio. My YOC (yield on cost) is 4.38% so I'll happily continue collecting the dividend, which at this time still looks safe from a dividend cut.

Next, let's check on the average performance of stocks based on their DIVIDEND STATUS

Dividend Initiators have taken the lead this month, away from the Dividend Challengers. Not much to read from this in my opinion, except that it's expected since my semi stocks and other trade war-affected stocks are mostly Challengers.

My new additions to the portfolio was one Dividend Champion, Caterpillar (CAT), and another one Dividend Challenger, Brookfield Property Partners (BPY). Throughout the summer, I plan to add more blue-chip dividend growing stocks, meaning Contenders, Champions and Kings.

Speaking of Kings, 3M (my lone Dividend King) is getting close to another buy zone as I continue to average down on this blue-chip company. 

Lastly, let's see the actual INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE of every stock in the Solid Dividend portfolio.

My best performing stock is STILL (drumroll...) LAD, or Lithia Motors. It continues to surprise me that while the market pulls back, this stock keeps on climbing. And the company belongs, surprisingly again, in the Auto industry, which is not resistant, to say the least, to economic trends and recessions, which some "analysts" are saying the trade war could lead to. But the company does continue to perform really well. From 2017 to 2018, operating cash flow increased by 250% and the latest quarter saw a jump in cash flow of another 57% year over year (March 2019 vs March 2018). Here is the recent quarter's financial statement, or see more here or here.​

The SOLID DIVIDEND Monthly Snapshot

Annualized Returns

Since I only started investing six months ago, there's a lot of price movements that need to be digested over time (whether up or down). That's why it's really unnecessary to watch the value of your portfolio each and every day, and why I like to invest for and focus more on dividends.

At the moment, June 4th 2019, my portfolio has an annualized return of -5.39%. This is of course if the market continues to pullback at the rate it's been doing for the month of May, which indeed will not happen unless the economy has already entered a recession.​

I expect choppiness for the remainder of the summer as the market continues to adjust to and price in a trade war along with slower but continued economic growth.

As a long term dividend growth investor, it doesn't worry me at all.