My Dividend Path To Financial Independence - July 2016 Portfolio Update

Another exciting month has now passed, which was characterized by ongoing investments and an ambivalent earnings seasons regarding my investments. Despite being a rather quiet month, especially compared to June, I am excited about a 140% increase in dividend income quarter over quarter as new portfolio additions from May and June start contributing to growing my dividend tree.
What's more I started by personal "Tracking Portfolio Income in Google Sheets" series, which sparked attention and motivates me to proceed with that.
Portfolio Buys | 14 purchases
As in June, I easily topped my monthly investment of $1,000 as I added stocks worth $2,000 over the month. In total I recorded 14 purchases of which 10 were additions to existing stocks and the remaining four (SO, CF, MS, RAI) representing new additions to the portfolio.
The biggest three purchases with around $250 each were MS(to diversify portfolio with financials), T (a dividend stalwart I do not want to miss in my portfolio), CF (a small bet here as I believe that the fertilizer sector has been beaten to the grounds and hopefully found a bottom) and GILD (cost-averaging in the wake of disappointing Q2 earnings).
The most controversial buy from my point of view here is GILD. GILD is a cash cow, at least currently, but market saturation, the doom and gloom of Clinton's potential presidency and increasing competition leads to lower sales in GILD's blockbuster drug, Harvoni. Soon after earnings... Read more