Weekly Roundup - March 14, 2015

Time continues to move faster and faster.  I honestly have no idea where the last week went.  While I didn't like the reason I was off for 12 weeks from November to February, it sure was a nice break from the constant hustle and bustle of work.  I can't wait to reach that magical crossover point where my passive income sources can cover my expenses.  There's a long ways to go but we're continuing to work towards it.

I continued to invest this week even though my plan is to rebuild our emergency funds.  At least the capital was put towards a positive use and not just spent on unnecessary things.  I fully expect the purchases to slow down although there is one more that I need to write about and I do have enough capital for another purchase already in my brokerage account and with some more dividend payments throughout the month, possibly enough for two more purchases if I split up the capital into smaller portions.

It was a pretty solid week to be a dividend growth investor since three companies I own announced raises.  Two of the increases came from the financial sector as the companies passed the "stress tests" and had their capital allocation plans approved and the other was a consumer staple giant.  Wells Fargo increased their dividend by 7.1% which increases my FI Portfolio's forward annual dividends by $5.50 and my Roth IRA's by $2.73.  JP Morgan also announced a solid increase of 10%.  I only hold shares of JPM in my Roth IRA and the increase raised my forward annual dividends by $3.50.  I also received a solid 7.3% raise from General Mills that increased my FI Portfolio's forward annual dividends by $7.84.  I'm always happy with dividend raises!

In case you missed them, here's the posts from this past week.

• Why T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is at the top of my watchlist
• Recent Buys
• Income Update - February 2015

Thanks to each and every one of you that read, commented on, and shared posts from here this past week.  I appreciate it so much.  Make sure you follow me on Twitter@JC_PIP or sign up to receive new post notifications via email so you don't miss anything.

Also, Happy Pi Day!  3.14.15 @ 9:26:53 is the furthest we can get through pi for the next century.  We live in some amazing times don't we?

Now on to the links!

Building a vision of life without work by Living A FI

Dividend investors: avoid living in the past by Dividend Growth Investor

Are you struggling with work life balance? by Retire By 40

Is this what early FI feels like? (Day 51) by FI Fighter

Recent Buy by Dividend Mantra

ExxonMobil turns Russia into an opportunity by Dividend Ladder

Why I bought Fastenal by Income Surfer

Early retirement calculator (from the Treasure Chest) by Islands of Investing

The greatest risk to my retirement goal by Retire Before Dad

Pearls of wisdom from Buffett's annual memo by Financially Integrated

Day #2: Why dividend growth investing? by The Dividend Guy

The psychology of sitting in cash by A Wealth of Common Sense

Watching dividends instead of stock prices by Sure Dividend

BP's dividend by The Conservative Income Investor

Hope you all have a great weekend!