$50 Per Paycheck Dividend Portfolio Update 3/20/20

It is crazy how much the world has changed since the last update not too long ago. Three years of stock market gains have been erased, the world's economy has ground to a halt, and millions of people are in some kind of quarantine/shelter in place situation, and millions more will be soon.

How's that for not knowing what the future will bring?

Is now a good time to invest? Who knows. But if you still have a job and some of the money can be spared, now is certainly a better time to invest than it was a month ago. The world has fundamentally changed and the future is murkier than ever. But, the best time to be greedy is when others are fearful. There is a lot of fear right now, so the portfolio buying continues.

As I've given up on M1, I am buying a mutual fund that tracks the S&P 500 in a new account with Schwab. Once Schwab implements fractional share purchases, I will sell the mutual fund and buy individual stock positions. At some point I will also transfer the positions held with M1.

Schwab doesn't have automatic transfers for every two weeks on a specific day, so I signed up for twice a month on particular days of the month. Automatic investments have to be $100 or more, so I will be buying the mutual fund manually.

Date	Additional Investment	Running Total Investment	Dividend Portfolio Account Value	Additional Benchmark VOO Shares	Running Total Benchmark VOO Shares	VOO Closing Share Price	Benchmark VOO Value	Dividend Portfolio VS Benchmark	Comment
6/24/19	$200.00	$200.00	$200.00	0.737844	0.737844	$271.06	$200.00	0.000%
7/2/19	$0.00	$200.00	$200.00	0.003756	0.741600	$272.23	$201.89	-0.934%	$1.0226 dividend received and reinvested into VOO
7/3/19	$50.00	$250.00	$252.22	0.182269	0.923869	$274.32	$253.44	-0.480%
7/18/19	$50.00	$300.00	$299.10	0.182202	1.106071	$274.42	$303.53	-1.459%
8/2/19	$50.00	$350.00	$343.48	0.186005	1.292076	$268.81	$347.32	-1.106%
8/16/19	$50.00	$400.00	$385.57	0.188523	1.480599	$265.22	$392.68	-1.812%
8/30/19	$0.00	$400.00	$389.89	0.000000	1.480599	$268.60	$397.69	-1.961%	Forgot to transfer $50
9/3/19	$50.00	$450.00	$439.89	0.187189	1.667788	$267.11	$445.48	-1.255%
9/12/19	$50.00	$500.00	$514.39	0.180734	1.848522	$276.65	$511.39	0.586%
9/27/19	$50.00	$550.00	$563.02	0.180989	2.029511	$276.26	$560.67	0.419%
10/1/19	$0.00	$550.00	$548.87	0.009807	2.039318	$269.32	$549.23	-0.065%	$2.6412 dividend received and reinvested into VOO
10/10/19	$50.00	$600.00	$610.45	0.185653	2.224970	$272.13	$605.48	0.821%
10/25/19	$50.00	$650.00	$677.15	0.181232	2.406202	$277.04	$666.61	1.580%
11/17/19	$50.00	$700.00	$730.52	0.176610	2.582812	$286.43	$739.79	-1.254%
11/22/19	$50.00	$750.00	$776.35	0.175039	2.757851	$285.65	$787.78	-1.451%
12/6/19	$50.00	$800.00	$833.60	0.174435	2.932286	$289.19	$847.99	-1.697%
12/20/19	$50.00	$850.00	$906.81	0.169607	3.101893	$296.30	$919.09	-1.336%
12/27/19	$0.00	$850.00	$906.81	0.014936	3.116829	$296.67	$924.67	-1.931%	$4.43 dividend received and reinvested into VOO
1/3/20	$50.00	$900.00	$952.86	0.167549	3.269442	$296.24	$968.54	-1.619%
1/24/20	$0.00	$900.00	$950.35	0.000000	3.269442	$302.03	$987.47	-3.759%	Automatic transfer didn't happen for some reason
3//1/20	$0.00	$900.00	$874.13	0.000000	3.269442	$271.74	$888.44	-1.610%	Automatic transfers didn't work. Transferring account to Schwab
3/6/20	$150.00	$1,050.00	$920.11	0.183884	3.453326	$271.91	$938.99	-2.011%	Schwab account opened, $150 for missed weeks deposited
3/13/20	$0.00	$1,050.00	$837.98	0.016427	3.469753	$247.64	$859.25	-2.475%	$4.07 VOO dividend received and reinvested
3/14/20	$50.00	$1,100.00	$789.61	0.228760	3.698513	$218.57	$808.38	-2.322%	All new deposits go into Schwab account
3/20/20	$0.00	$1,100.00	$825.07	0.000000	3.698513	$210.74	$779.42	5.856%

Fractional Share Trading at Fidelity

I've been a Fidelity customer for a long time. I've also been looking/hoping for a broker to offer fractional share trading with limit orders. Until today, I didn't know that being a Fidelity customer and having that wish are not mutually exclusive.

Although it isn't offered (yet?) on Fidelity's website, fractional share trading has arrived to Fidelity's mobile app. I'm not sure when this happened, as I don't trade as often as I used to, but this morning I noticed a little banner in the trade screen that said "NEW Fractional trading available in Quick Ticket."

I clicked on Quick Ticket and was presented an option to trade in either shares or dollars. Much to my delight, there was also an order type button for market and limit.

As a quick test, I was able to order $10 worth of AMZN at a limit of $1,979.44. The order was filled at $1,976.66, so I ended up buying 0.005 shares of AMZN for a total outlay of $9.88.

After a minute of experimentation, I found out that the minimum order depends on the share price of whatever you are buying. Fidelity's error message says, "Orders with a quantity amount in dollars must convert to a minimum of 0.001 shares. That means the minimum AMZN purchase in dollars, at the share price I ended up paying, was $1.98. As another example, with AT&T trading at $36.66 per share as I write this, I can use Fidelity's app to purchase 4 cents worth of AT&T stock!

That is really fine granularity and makes me very happy because you can put pretty much all available cash to use in most situations.

I wish I'd known about this before I opened a Schwab account (to wait for a similar feature later in the year, no less) to move the Dividend Portfolio from M1.

Apart from the 0.001 share and having to use the mobile app limitations, the fractional trading feature only takes day orders. There's no "good till canceled," "fill or kill," extended hours, and so on. Perhaps these will be added as time goes on.

At the time of writing, it looks like the only other brokers that have implemented a fractional trading service with limit orders are Interactive Brokers and Robinhood. I don't have an Interactive Brokers account, so I don't know how they did it. I have a Robinhood account, but I am still in line for fractional trading.

Thank you Fidelity!

$50 Per Pay Check Dividend Portfolio Update 3/1/2020

I have been traveling again lately, which is one of the reasons I haven't posted any portfolio updates lately. The other reason is that try as I might, my automatic $50 transfers to M1 Finance have stopped working.

As I posted in the last update, for some reason (perhaps user error) my automatic transfer schedule got deleted. I then had to manually transfer the $50. I set up a new automatic transfer, which was supposed to send $50 to M1 every other Thursday, starting that week. Nothing happened that week or the next. There is a pause button (see below) that I thought may have been activated (am I getting too old for the user interface?). I changed it to the opposite position in hopes that that would start the transfers. It didn't.

I probably should have contacted customer support--I still can--but I didn't. This is just the latest annoyance among others:

1. Automatic transfers stopped working and I can't get them to work again.
2. The gain/loss figures are wrong, putting into question the trustworthiness of M1's other numbers.
3. The Android app automatically signs out every two weeks. What is the purpose of the protective pin, which I have to enter to access the app after I am forced to log in again, if the app logs out?
4. An account can only have 100 holdings.
5. The entire cash balance isn't invested when trades are made.
6. If every holding is at 1%, there is no way to specify how much of each holding M1 should buy when you put in new money.

So for these reasons, with the anticipation that Schwab will offer fractional share trading in the spring, I have applied for a Schwab account. My initial funding will be the $150 I haven't been able to transfer to M1 the past month and a half.

Once the Schwab account is open, I will see how to transfer my M1 assets over. Most likely, as it seems easiest, I will sell everything in the M1 account and fund Schwab with the same cash value.

Because the account will only have around $1,000 (unless the market keeps tanking), I won't be able to replicate the current holdings in M1 until Schwab implements fractional share trading. I will therefore buy a low cost mutual fund that tracks the Standard and Poor's 500 (the portfolio benchmark) and keep adding to it with each additional $50 until fractional share trading is enabled. At that point I will redo the portfolio based on dividend growth stocks: holdings in the iShares DGRO ETF that have the highest yields in their sectors plus a few international stocks and REITs. Depending on how small each holding can be in Schwab, I look forward to having more than 100 holdings.

Date	Additional Investment	Running Total Investment	Dividend Portfolio Account Value	Additional Benchmark VOO Shares	Running Total Benchmark VOO Shares	VOO Closing Share Price	Benchmark VOO Value	Dividend Portfolio VS Benchmark	Comment
6/24/19	$200.00	$200.00	$200.00	0.737844	0.737844	$271.06	$200.00	0.000%
7/2/19	$0.00	$200.00	$200.00	0.003756	0.741600	$272.23	$201.89	-0.934%	$1.0226 dividend received and reinvested into VOO
7/3/19	$50.00	$250.00	$252.22	0.182269	0.923869	$274.32	$253.44	-0.480%
7/18/19	$50.00	$300.00	$299.10	0.182202	1.106071	$274.42	$303.53	-1.459%
8/2/19	$50.00	$350.00	$343.48	0.186005	1.292076	$268.81	$347.32	-1.106%
8/16/19	$50.00	$400.00	$385.57	0.188523	1.480599	$265.22	$392.68	-1.812%
8/30/19	$0.00	$400.00	$389.89	0.000000	1.480599	$268.60	$397.69	-1.961%	Forgot to transfer $50
9/3/19	$50.00	$450.00	$439.89	0.187189	1.667788	$267.11	$445.48	-1.255%
9/12/19	$50.00	$500.00	$514.39	0.180734	1.848522	$276.65	$511.39	0.586%
9/27/19	$50.00	$550.00	$563.02	0.180989	2.029511	$276.26	$560.67	0.419%
10/1/19	$0.00	$550.00	$548.87	0.009807	2.039318	$269.32	$549.23	-0.065%	$2.6412 dividend received and reinvested into VOO
10/10/19	$50.00	$600.00	$610.45	0.185653	2.224970	$272.13	$605.48	0.821%
10/25/19	$50.00	$650.00	$677.15	0.181232	2.406202	$277.04	$666.61	1.580%
11/17/19	$50.00	$700.00	$730.52	0.176610	2.582812	$286.43	$739.79	-1.254%
11/22/19	$50.00	$750.00	$776.35	0.175039	2.757851	$285.65	$787.78	-1.451%
12/6/19	$50.00	$800.00	$833.60	0.174435	2.932286	$289.19	$847.99	-1.697%
12/20/19	$50.00	$850.00	$906.81	0.169607	3.101893	$296.30	$919.09	-1.336%
12/27/19	$0.00	$850.00	$906.81	0.014936	3.116829	$296.67	$924.67	-1.931%	1.4285 dividend received and reinvested into VOO
1/3/20	$50.00	$900.00	$952.86	0.167549	3.269442	$296.24	$968.54	-1.619%
1/24/20	$0.00	$900.00	$950.35	0.000000	3.269442	$302.03	$987.47	-3.759%	Automatic transfer didn't happen for some reason
3//1/20	$0.00	$900.00	$874.13	0.000000	3.269442	$271.74	$888.44	-1.610%	Automatic transfers didn't work. Transferring account to Schwab