Bert & Lanny’s Dividend Income Summary November

Another month down in the dividend income books.  Monthly I will evaluate and show the results of which companies paid dividends, progress towards the year and comparison to the past.  This is a great way to track my dividends to see if I’m on pace for financial freedom.  We are changing it up going forward to have both Bert & Lanny’s dividend income summary into one post – to save on postings/focus for the month.  This hopefully allows readers to also track and compare Lanny vs. Bert and who is dominating who in the dividend income playing field, isn’t that right BERT?!  Now onto our November dividend income results!  Time to step up to the plate

dividend income

Lanny’s November Dividend Income Summary

November: I received a total of $147.07 of dividends broken out by the following:

div monthTrend

Overall, $147.07 in dividend income for the month of November isn’t too bad, very excited about crossing the triple digit mark again, that’s for sure.  This is the 6th time in a row of 3 digit dividend income, with the allusive December month coming forward, very excited.  I received nice checks from my telecom monster AT&T (T) and from my oil pipeline Kinder Morgan (KMI).  Year to date – my dividend income is actually at an astounding $3,059.06 – absolutely crushing my last year total through 10 months ($1,458).  The nice income from AT&T is partly due to my purchases over the year back into them and Kinder Morgan increasing their dividend steadily throughout the year as they dissolve the partnership to the company.  For my individual portfolio, I had $106.70 that is taxable with the remaining $40.37 coming from my Roth account (non-taxable).  A much better mix here, as technically I’d be able to use the taxable dividend income earlier on in my pursuit.  All dividends being received are being DRIP’d, as that is what us diplomats do.  This was a big month as I established my 2015 goal of $5,750 dividend income going forward beginning of 2016, as well as other fun goals to accomplish – like learning my language – ITALIAN!!  My purchases of IBM & Mattel earlier will help push the dividend income further already.  I am fairly excited for 2015, as my dividend projections going forward are gearing closer to the $4,850 mark for the year (as you’ll see in a new post how), with share buybacks allowing some stocks we own to further increase their dividend, as well as the aforementioned purchases.

It’s been such a fun wild year and I cannot thank this community enough to continually hold us in check, allowing us to show you our dividend income summary month after month and just being able to simply communicate our goals and share through the trials and tribulations we all go through.  Going forward, I am planning on digging deeper into the lifestyle I live to show you what I am doing to have my ability to save the income I need to continue this heavy pursuit.  I’ll have a fun one, I think, regarding my mortgage coming soon that I’m excited to analyze and breakdown.  What a month of November!

Dividend Income Increases

This month we had a few dividend increases, with Intel (INTC) announcing a very solid 6.7% dividend increase, which is the first one after a 1-2 year hiatus from the increase environment, no complaints on my side, as this adds $7.32 to my dividend income annually.  Intel’s increase was $0.225 per quarter to $0.24.  One small dividend increase from my healthcare REIT – Sabra (SBRA), which I bought in a pooled transaction with 2 other healthcare REITs, increased their dividend by one cent and added a big whopping $1.31 to my annual dividend income total – haha very minimal, but I will take it.  I have this REIT within my Roth IRA due to the high yielder at 5.50%.  Not a big month for increases, but not a bad month, as Intel was definitely a huge surprise for me.

Year-To-Date & Summary

This can’t even be compared, truthfully.  In November 2013 I earned $1.47 for the month.  This is an increase of $145.60 and the percentage increase isn’t even worth mentioning, as it would be astronomical (Fine, fine it is a 9,900% increase!).  This is definitely not sustainable, and my projected November 2015 income is at $162.50 at the moment – therefore, a more “smooth” increase projected of 10.50%, not too shabby!  Of course – this should grow with additional purchases I plan on making as part of my 2015 goals, as well as dividend reinvestment and further increases!  I love this snowball, truthfully!

How did everyone else’s November fair up?  How does the outlook appear for next month and even a year from now?  Feeling positive about the direction your portfolio and dividend income is headed?  Please share your thoughts!

-Lanny

Bert’s November Dividend Income Summary

Lanny, you’re slacking.  Only 9,900% increase this year?  Talk to me when you get to 5 digit dividend income growth!  All jokes aside, that growth is awesome Lanny.  It is impressive that you took a weak month (2nd quarter of each year) and addressed it through purchases so you receive a consistent stream of dividends throughout the year.   One day, when you turn the DRIP off and you are using your dividend income to cover all expenses, you will thank yourself from building up your Feb/May/Aug/Nov. income stream.  Great job!  I really need to start writing first in this article, because your summary is a tough act to follow.  With that being said, let’s take a look at my dividend income summary for November!

November: I received a total of  $115.88 of dividends broken out by the following:

dividend income summary

Comparison

If you are ever in a beginning finance class and wanted to see an example of the power of dividend re-investing, please feel free to reference my month of November 2014.  I did not add or sell any positions that would have impacted my November income (No, IBM pays its dividend in the third month of each quarter! I’ll have to wait until next month to benefit from my recent purchase), so the slight increase in income received was due to the additional dividend income received on shares acquired via dividend re-investment.  Wow that sentence was a mouth full.  I think I have commented about this in the past couple of months, but I smile every time my dividend income increases from re-invested dividends.  Why?  Because I did nothing to earn the $2.69 (2.37% higher) this month other than update my stock tracking spreadsheet.  It serves as a reminder and motivator to keep on investing in strong, dividend growth companies because the impact of compounding dividends is real and can make a difference. Sure, the $2.69 may seem like a small amount now, but what about when my portfolio’s market values is $100k, $200k, $500k, or even $1m?  Let’s keep at it, keep investing and keep growing our income streams so we can reach financial freedom sooner.

Dividend Income Increases

I mentioned this was a boring month for my portfolio, right?  Compared to last month, which had four of my holdings have an increase, only DOW announced a dividend increase.  This was a big month for DOW shareholders as the company announced a 14% dividend increase and  nearly doubled their share buyback program, which we summarized in detail here.   So DOW has set the table for increased income now via a dividend increase, increased in income in the future by lowering the payout ratio, and increased price appreciation through the buybacks. Lanny wrote about the topic earlier, so I won’t elaborate too much, but man can share buyback programs unlock value for their current shareholders.  Dow is one of many companies to continue to reward shareholders this way.   However, other than DOW, I did not receive any additional dividend increases from stocks that I own that would impact our dividend income summary.

Year-To-Date & Summary

After 11 action packed months, I have received $1,138.13 in dividends to date.  Even though I crossed the four digit mark last month, there is something exciting about received over $1,000 in passive income in a year.  I couldn’t be happier that I found this community that pushes me, Lanny, and hopefully other investors  to continue to grow our dividend income stream.  We are all well on our way towards financial freedom and each time a dividend gets deposited into our account – we take one step closer.  The juice is definitely worth the squeeze, so let’s keep at it.  I have no idea what December has in store for me because of the unpredictability of mutual fund distributions, but I hope I can end the month with over $1,400 in actual dividend income.  I can’t wait to read everyone’s income updates in the  next couple of weeks and write this article again one month from now!  I have a hunch I am about to set a new personal record for dividend income received!

-Bert

Hopefully everyone had a nice, relaxing  Thanksgiving with your family and friends.  I know we did!  How did everyone else perform this month? With one month left, are you set to knock out your 2014 investing goals?   Thanks for stopping by!

-The Dividend Diplomats

6 thoughts on “Bert & Lanny’s Dividend Income Summary November

    • Amit —

      Thank you! I hope that we can shed some light in stocks, the power of dividends and the power of reinvesting. Definitely let us know if you have any questions. Firs action to make is to have a plan and to follow through with action! Let us know and good luck!

      -Lanny

  1. Congrats on making steady progress, you guys. Good to see that you are DRIPping all your dividend income – that should get the ball rolling in the right direction. I usually let the cash collect as my brokerage only offers synthetic drips. But starting last month, there were two holdings that qualified and I have started synthethic dripping them – KMI and OHI. So…hopefully that will help it compound over the years.

    cheers
    R2R

    • RM2R,

      Nice! Glad to hear you have a few that qualify for dividend reinvestment, luckily our brokerage lets us DRIP even partial shares at no cost, it’s nice! I know a few investors let the cash build and then they purchase a stock, I think both ways are good and make sense, I think I’m just more pro/towards automation. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

      -Lanny

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *