I focused on my quest to balance my individual stock portfolio with a broad market index fund.

At the end of September, my taxable portfolio is roughly $44,000. $9,250 is in VTI and $34,750 is in individual stocks. I’d like to keep growing my VTI holding for the near future. This month was a good step in that directions.

I also received my first VTI dividend this month! That will help me stay motivated to keep adding to it.

7 shares of VTI @ $126.52/share ($885.68)

8 shares of VTI @ $128.48/share ($1,027.88)

1 Share of HRL @ $30.98/share ($30.98)

1 share of HRL @ 31.78/share ($31.78)

1 share of CSCO @ 32.59/share ($32.59)

September was a great month for my dividend income. A lot of it was reinvested into VTI through a DRIP. I took the rest and strengthened my HRL and CSCO holdings a bit. I’m looking forward to the day when these are equal to my other holdings in my portfolio. The great thing is that those positions will be almost fully-funded just by dividends.

Another encouraging sign is that 5% of my total September purchases were funded by reinvested dividends that I didn’t have to work for.