It’s been about three weeks since my last purchase was made and sticking to my rules of consistent monthly buying I felt it was time, once again, to pull the trigger and add to my long term dividend growth portfolio. After all, the market has been giving us no clear indication of direction as we are witnessing volatile pops and drops in the major averages every few days and essentially remaining flat for the last few weeks. Of course, these day to day fluctuations do not concern me as I have a very long term outlook for all my portfolios. I’ll admit, it can be difficult at times to “invest with blinders on” and just stay on my path but after a decade or so of investing in this manner I have grown accustom to simply “staying the course” and not let any of the financial sensationalism we are bombarded with on a day to say basis affect my strategy. With that being said let’s take a look at my March buys. Sticking to my March stock considerations:

I have added to my taxable account 18.2825 shares at $43.76 for a total investment of $800.04 in The Southern Company (SO). With this recent purchase my taxable account holdings in SO now totals 148.4285 shares with a market value of $6,499.68.

I have added to my taxable account 11.6862 shares at $68.46 for a total investment of $800.04 in Dominion Energy, Inc. (D). With this recent purchase my taxable account holdings in D now totals 80.6919 shares with a market value of $5,530.62.

As we all know the utilities along with REITs are performing quite poorly so far in 2018. No doubt, interest rate hike fears have gripped both sectors in earnest which is providing us with some pretty good buying opportunities for those willing to hold on for the long haul. In the meantime, the dividends still appear to be quite safe based on current cash flow and while I’ll admit we may not have seen the bottom yet for the sector I’m comfortable nibbling on positions and not try to convince myself that I can successfully time when the exact bottom will hit.