So looking at the dividends across my portfolio for this half of the year, I'm looking at a total return of 2.27% cash (excluding franking credits). Not as nice as I was hoping, but given the portfolio has had reasonable capital growth I'm not disappointed.

Expected payouts for the record are:

ORG $ 0.25
ASX $ 0.75
BHP $ 0.49
TLS $ 0.14
CBA $ 1.15
WES $ 0.60
SUN $ 0.20
CSL $ 0.40
WOW $ 0.56
NCM $ 0.15
AMP $ 0.14

Lowest dividends in % terms are Newcrest, CSL & BHP, but that is to be expected. The finance sector has paid strong dividends as usual, and Telstra has maintained its strong dividend and is probably one of the best yields out there at its current price.

New year purchases

I just picked up this morning AMP and NCM shares. Index has been down the last few days so I think its a good opportunity to buy. AMP at $4.60 looks quite reasonable. It's probably the last financial stock I'll pick up for a while. As long as they maintain their dividends at current levels I'll be happy. Newcrest Mining I got for $28.95 which I'm happy about, they are worth $30-$35 easily.

Origin & CSL Purchase

As of Tuesday, I became the proud owner of both CSL and ORG shares. I picked up CSL at $30.67 and ORG at $14.83. Origin has been a favourite of mine for a number of years. Wish I had kept some shares from 2006 when I was day trading ($7 a piece would have doubled my money in less than 3 years and thats after all the other crashes we had).

CSL I'm 50/50 on. I want some exposure to the medical industry, and they are my only real pick. But I just don't think they have performed well overall. I would like to think I'm buying on a low and they make it back to $40 a share.

Borrowing to Buy

I have been contemplating over the last month or 2 borrowing to buy some more shares to extend my portfolio. The interest rates have been good, but running the numbers it's not going to be more profitable than just holding my balance unless I payout the loan. (unless we see a 10%+ spike in capital growth in the first 6 months say)

Also the concept of margin loans / calls I find disturbing. I'm trying to create wealth - not negatively gear. So depite some fantastic offers from Commsec, Westpac and others I'm just settling for an unsecured personal loan. Low borrowing costs, and I'll keep the interest down by paying out the loan as fast as possible. With some luck I will have it paid out by the end of the next financial year.

Now you may ask, what did I actually want to buy? My selection was as follows:

• Telstra (TLS) at $3.10
  
• Westpac (WBC) at $18.68
• Woolworths (WOW) at $25.78
• ASX (ASX) at $32.00

Seems I picked a good day so far to buy, just after a drop and they are all up ex brokerage for now (crosses fingers). I'm also getting rid of my underperforming ASX200 index fund. I don't think it's been a bad investment - they've hit the benchmark return within half a percent. I just think now that I've built up my own portfolio I can do without it. Plus I hate the fact the unit price is not transparent day to day, and the exit could take a couple of weeks.

The debate will now be to decide: does the balance pay off my loan or buy new shares directly...

2009 Wrap up

Well my portfolio is down a little over 14%, excluding dividends. Dividends were around 3% of my portfolio value and I don't re-invest (its a pain on recordkeeping). The back of the napkin maths say I am down in total 10.23% after negative growth, dividends and franking credits. Not a bad result considering the ASX200 is down 26.20% since I started and the ASX20 is down 19.54% over the same.

Now if you were to be generous enough to exclude my worst loss in SUN I'm actualy ahead by 0.32% after divdiends (of course excluding SUN dividends). Still I'm happy to wear the loss on SUN, its part of the game. 

Looking at the numbers most of my shares have recovered to a near break even position while the index, in particular the ASX200 is still down with its recent peak of around 3850. This is nothing compared to the 5000 mark it floaded near the first quarter of '09 (July to Sep 08). Even lower again to the 5800 it was back in May 08.

I hope we keep seeing a recovery into the next financial year.

Suncorp Share Offer

Following hot after Wesfarmers, Suncorp are offering a 1 for 5 share offer at $4.50. I'll be taking up the offer as I think it's a reasonable buy in this case. Not happy my existing shares are down this low. But at least this take up will help my position should they recover in the near future.

Wesfarmers Share Offer

Wesfarmers are offering a 3 for 7 share offer at $13.50. I'll be taking up this to fortify my position. I still belive WES to be worth $22+ in the long run.