Bert’s Dividend Income Summary – January

One month down, eleven more to go in 2015!  Man does time fly.  January has been quite the active month for me, as I have been slowly (but surely) adding dividend income to my portfolio through a series of small purchases.  While this won’t impact January’s income, I am setting the table for the remaining eleven months of the year.  After having a lot of activity in 2014, I am expecting to start the year off on the right foot and have a solid dividend month.  Let’s dive into the results and see how I performed in January. 

dividend income summary

Dividend Income Summary

Coming off of a record dividend month in December, I knew my dividend income for the month was set to decline as I wouldn’t be able to replicate that performance until December 2015.  The exciting part is that I saw some significant year over year improvement as this month, I received $80.89 in dividend income.  This represents a 190% increase from January 2014, as I only received $27.85 during the same period last year.  Unfortunately though, my dividend income decreased 31% from the October (the first month in the fourth quarter) due do several major transactions in my portfolio, which I will discuss later on. 

Dividend Income- January

Januay 15 Dividend Income

As you can see in the chart above,  January’s dividend income had a lot more deletions than additions. First, DEO is a semi-annual dividend payer and pays their dividend in October and April.  Not receiving a dividend from the alcohol giant was expected due to this pattern, so seeing a $0 next to their name was not shocking.  The great news is that DEO is set to announce their April dividend payment at the end of February, so Lanny and I have something to look forward to at the end of the month.  Hopefully we will have a pleasant surprise!  The second item was that my mutual fund that pays a monthly dividend, OIEIX, actually paid their dividend on December 31st instead of at the beginning of January.  The amount is immaterial as the monthly dividend is less than $3.  But still, I would have rather shifted the dividend income to January since I receive less this month.  Come on OIEIX!

The last transaction that caused my January dividend income to decline compared to October was the decision to sell ARCP at the beginning of the month.  With the sale, I reduced my monthly dividend income significantly, as I was receiving over $15/month from ARCP.  There were many reasons to sell ARCP (As I discussed in my article last month) and I am very happy I did; However, since ARCP provided me with over $186 of dividends annually, there will be a void each month that will need to be filled through additional purchases.  Challenge accepted!  I can’t wait to re-allocate my cash and find better and stronger companies to add to my portfolio.  I have a few moves lined up, but I can’t disclose them yet to the community.  The only person who knows is Lanny, so good luck getting the information out of him!   

Not all the news was negative.  I did receive dividends from a new company this year, as I purchased 5 shares of Canadian Imperial prior to its ex-dividend date.  This was only my initial purchase of CM, as I later bought 4 additional shares as the price continued to fall.  However, this second purchase was after the ex-date, so for this month, I had to settle with only receiving dividends for 5 of my 9 shares.  Oh well!  Going forward, I will also be receiving dividends from Schlumberger during the first month of the quarter due to my multiple purchases over the last month. SLB is a low yielding, high growth stock and will pay me a quarterly dividend of $10.50.  I wanted to purchase SLB to take advantage of both the tumbling stock price due to crude oil and the expected dividend increase that was set to take place this month.  When the day finally came, SLB’s management team did not disappoint.  The company announced a 25% dividend increase!  It’ll be a nice treat to start receiving additional shares via DRIP come April.  Welcome to my portfolio SLB!

Conclusion

Even though I took a step back from October, I am ecstatic that my dividend increase has grown so much in a year.  The hours spent finding great investments last year and my efforts to invest every dollar possible last year are finally paying off.  Over one year, the snowball has grown and is finally beginning its journey down the hill towards financial freedom.  Now, on to February!

How were your months? How much has your dividend income grown since January 2014?  Do you recommend any stocks that pay their dividend this month that are not in my portfolio?

Bert

P.S. Read More:  Lanny’s January Dividend Income Summary

21 thoughts on “Bert’s Dividend Income Summary – January

  1. Congrats Bert! Looks like you had a good month. Its a shame everyones portfolio affected because of the ARCP issue. Well, time to put it behind us and move on. Good call to pick up CM just before ex-date. The Canadian banks are looking good and the yields are juicy.

    cheers
    R2R

    • Thanks R2R! I appreciate it. You are right ,the faster we put ARCP behind us the better. While the wound is slowly closing, I have a hunch it will shut as the monthly income gets replaced by better, higher quality stocks. CM and others have definitely been a slump lately. I have loved the opportunity to re-up my position recently as the stock has continued to slide. I know it won’t last forever, so for now, I’ll take these dividends at a higher yield to the bank and receive as many shares as I can.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Bert

  2. 190% YOY increase is pretty good. Definitely continue adding more capital for investing. Your dividend income will surely increase. I’ll have to tally our January dividend income later this week or early next week. 🙂

  3. Bert,

    Good looking January. PM looks like a screaming buy in the low 80s. That puts the yield close to 5%. Also if MO ever comes back to Earth, buying those two can add a lot of firepower to the typically “slower” dividend months.

    MDP

    • MDP,

      Thank you very much. I swear you and Lanny are on the same wave-length. He has been talking to me about PM a lot recently behind the scenes and it is looking like that will be my next investment. I don’t have too large of a position in the tobacco industry right now either (~2% of my portfolio), so re-upping on PM would be an excellent fit based on my portfolio’s needs. I always forget about MO for some reason, probably due to the fact it took off last year. I didn’t realize it paid its dividend in January either. As you said, it would be nice for this slower month.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Bert

  4. Bert,
    We did the right choice when we sold our ARCP position. On my case I able to grabbed some energy companies and Canadian banks like BNS and TD. Great work on the 190% YOY increase!
    I have MSFT, the price went down a little bit (poor quarter) and the ex dividend date is I think last week of February. Entry yield is on the low side around 2.9% but wait if the price goes down might offer a better yield. I only own 20 shares and I might pull the trigger if the price is right. Happy shopping!

    • FFF,

      I agree, it was the right decision. The company no longer fit in a dividend growth investors portfolio, no matter what the optimistic investors tell us. Too much uncertainty. While it is hard to lose that monthly dividend, it will be even better when we start receiving the checks from companies that fit our investing style. Interesting choice in MFST. Company has a lot of capital to reward shareholders with, so I am sure you will receive an increased dividend or share buybacks in the short-term. I’ll have to look into the stock more now, thanks for the research project!

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Bert

  5. Way to kick of the year Bert! Even though you didn’t beat your month of October, your achievements to date are still very impressive. From roughly $28 last January to almost $82 this year is awesome! With consistent growth rates anywhere near that, you’ll be financially independent in now time. 🙂

    Regardless, keep it up. Best wishes! AFFJ

  6. Yes my man! A great start to 2015, even with the loss of ARCP. But I know you’re going to have fun ‘shopping’ to replace it with a higher quality company!

    Keep up the good work,

    Cheers

    • M,

      I can’t wait for the shopping spree to begin. There are some great stocks available, especially with the recent slide in REITs such as HCP (which I already own) and O (a stock that I would LOVE to own). I have a pretty good idea with which stocks I am going to purchase, so we will have to stay tuned to see if my vision comes to life!

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Bert

  7. Thats a great YOY increase Bert! Keep up the good work. Don’t be too upset that you lost out on more dividend income with the 4 shares of CM and the ARCP fiasco… I’m sure you’ll make up that lost income in no time.

    • ADD,

      Thank you very much for the kind words. It is crazy to see how far my portfolio has come in one year. At this time last year, $1,000 in dividend income felt like it was a mile away. Hopefully the ARCP income will be replaced and I can officially forget about the company for good! What’s funny is that in a year, I will hopefully look back at losing $15/month in dividend income and laugh!

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Bert

    • Thanks Adam. I am with you, those two stocks are not going anywhere in my portfolio. I love the two companies. Market leaders in industries that will be around for a long period of time and a great dividend. Someone just needs to talk to DEO’s board about switching their divided to quarterly instead of semi-annually!

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Bert

  8. Bert,

    Great way to start the year off. I don’t personally like to compare quarters because some companies (like your DEO) don’t pay uniformly. Comparing YOY results is much more beneficial and accurate. Just my personal take.

    Excellent news there with SLB. That’s an excellent raise right there, which possibly portends good things ahead for them and the oilfield services industry. I hope NOV follows suit.

    Keep up the great work!

    Best regards.

    • DM,

      As always, thanks for stopping by and the kind words. i was very excited with SLB’s dividend increase. They had every reason to lower the increase this year based on the broader market conditions; however, they went in the other direction and announced one heck of an increase. NOV has the potential to do the same. Low payout ratio, a lot of cash on hand, and an insane recent history of dividend increases.

      I see where you are coming from with the quarterly comparisons. Luckily for me, DEO is my only semi-annual stock so it doesn’t doesn’t impact my monthly income too much. I am striving for the day when having the occasional semi-annual dividend stock won’t have a significant impact on my income. If my dividend income were , doubled or tripled, losing out on the $20+ dollars would barely be a blip on the radar. Hopefully I will get there sooner rather than later.

      Thanks again for stopping by!

      Bert

  9. Lumpy dividends to start off the month, but I guess it will be a record year for the dividend income in 2015.

    No worries and rock on.

  10. Always love reading the dividend income posts. As you know, it’s a real way to track progress month to month and year to year. ‘Dividends don’t lie’ is the saying. Overall, a nice start to the year despite an ARCP hiccup. That sure was a mess that many dividend bloggers have been cleaning up for the past few months. Looking ahead your portfolio seems to be stronger with more dividend raises coming your way. Thanks for sharing and look forward to your next update.

  11. Nice start to the year! I like your focus on actively managing your portfolio instead of just letting it go on “autopilot”. Though you had to make some moves, it seems you’ll be the better for it. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the year!

    – HMB

Leave a Reply

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