Bert’s March Dividend Income Summary

No everyone, this is not an elaborate April Fools joke.  I am actually posting my dividend income article before Lanny this month.  Somehow, some way, he has always managed to publish his article first.  Well not so fast my friend!  I am ready to roll here and review my March dividend income.   The final month of every quarter is always my favorite because a large percentage of companies pay their dividend in this month, so each day is action packed.    It really makes each day exciting!  Let’s take a look and see how much dividend income I received this year and how it compares to the same month last year.

dividend income

March Dividend Income SUmmary

This month, I received $324.83 in dividend income, which is a 124% increase from March 2015!   I am smiles here and could not be more excited about the results.  Check out the table below to view a detailed breakdown :

DD - March Income

Man, I still can’t believe it.  I never thought I would be here this soon in my investing career.    As you can see by the length of the chart, there were a lot of moving parts that contributed to the growth of my income over the last year.  I can’t promise that I will highlight them all, but here were some of the major contributors to my triple digit growth rate.

  • Compared to last year, I received dividends from 10 new companies over the last month….10!  One of my goals last year was to invest $15,000 in “New” Capital in 2015 and I knocked that goal out of the park.   Now, I am starting to reap the rewards as the dividend checks continue to roll in.  Hopefully I can replicate the magic because I increased the amount I am looking to invest in 2016.
  • Lanny and I made some strategic purchases during the first quarter.   Our strategy during January and February was to make sure we invested in companies that would allow us to collect four dividend checks during the year.   In the first quarter I initiated large stakes in both Pfizer and T.Rowe Price and snuck in before the ex-dividend date.   Thus, I was able to receive their first quarter dividend payment this month.  These two purchases alone provided me with $55.38 in dividend income.  Thank goodness we thought that plan through and were able to receive the dividend payments. While what I am about to say is meaningless,  I think this fact is funny.  Pfizer was the first dividend check I received this month and T.Rowe Price was that last dividend check I received.   What are the odds of that?

  • Taking a step back here, I just realized that three of the ten stocks that I purchased over the last year were on my “Always Buy” list.  These stocks were MMM, EMR, and JNJ.   I created my “Always Buy” list to identify five companies that I would love to have at my portfolio and I could purchase in a sudden flash sale.   I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though; I clearly liked those stocks when I created the list so of course I’m going to try to purchase them if I can.  Hopefully I can add the other two to my portfolio; however, it would take a pretty substantial decrease in Target’s stock price for a purchase to happen any time soon.
  • This will be my last point here, but it is the thing that has me feeling the best as the calendar turns to April.  I have experienced months with more income in the past.  Each December, I receive over $1,000 in income due to capital gain distributions and year-end dividends from my mutual funds.  While it is awesome receiving that income, I always am cautious to anticipate earnings like that annually because of the dependency on capital gains.   What happens if the fund performs poorly and doesn’t have any gains to distribute.  So why am I excited?  Of the $324 in dividend income I received, only $8.56 came from a mutual fund! The dividends received are core dividends.  I was about to write that I could expect to receive dividends quarterly, but I stopped myself and started laughing.  How could I make that statement after what happened to KMI, BBL, and other oil companies over the last year.   I love the fact that over $300 is coming from stocks though!  That’s a really cool feeling.

DIVIDEND INCREASES & STOCK PURCHASES

None & None.  What? How can this be possible?   Well, Lanny summed it up pretty well at the beginning of the week when he complained wrote about not purchasing a stock in over a month.  Stock prices continue to rise and there just aren’t that many discounted stocks available.  I don’t want to buy a stock just to buy a stock, so I will stockpile cash and wait for the perfect time to strike.  Patience….patience…..patience.    In terms of dividend increases, I am a little surprised no announcements were made in March.  On the bright side though, April will be a much more exciting month as I am eagerly awaiting the big dividend increase announcements of PG, JNJ, and IBM.  The foundation stocks are about to deliver big for us in April….Can’t wait!

Summary

Months like these add fuel to my fire.   I want to keep scraping and finding every dollar possible to invest and grow my dividend income.   I couldn’t be happier with the results…how could I be upset with a +100% growth rate?  While I”m still behind many of you in the community, I feel as I took a big step closer in my journey towards financial freedom.   However, I still have a long way to go.  So now it is back to the grind.  Time to focus and keep on investing.

How was your March?  Did you set any records?  Were you able to find any hidden gems to purchase during the month?

Bert

47 thoughts on “Bert’s March Dividend Income Summary

    • The Fin Tech,

      Thank you so much! Thanks for stopping by as well, I believe this is your first time commenting (please correct me if I am wrong). Hopefully we will see you around at least monthly for our dividend updates.

      Bert

  1. Keep it up Bert. Slow and steady! It’s life changing travelling on this route and very humbling to be receiving passive income which will help you live the good life.
    Thanks for sharing bud and don’t stop! Cheers.

    • HUSTLER!

      Don’t you worry, I’m not going to stop this hustling until I crush financial freedom along with the rest of us. You are absolutely correct, seeing the capital roll in is definitely a humbling experience and it helps me appreciate what we are all trying to do here. We are taking steps to take control of our lives and make sure we are getting the most out of our time on earth.

      Take care and as always, thanks for stopping by!

      Bert

    • Bryan,

      Thank you so much! I’m starting to see the true power of dividend re-investing. The snowball takes a little to get rolling. But once it does, it picks up speed and becomes pretty powerful. Now, I just want to keep on adding as much capital as possible here to keep the momentum going!

      Bert

    • I know, I’m still a little shocked the growth rate was that much. It really made me appreciate the hard work and investing that has taken place over the last 12 months. It is scary, but 12 months doesn’t really seem like it was that long ago. Time flies, which is further evidence that we need to hit financial freedom and do what we love.

      Take care and have a great weekend!

      Bert

  2. Congrats on another fine month. It bet it feels good to see your YoY monthly dividend increase so much. March was a record month for me, coming in just under $800 in dividends. I really want to hit $1,000 in a single month this year. I think I can do it in December if I can find a few more deals out there before the end of Q3.

    Thanks for sharing and inspiring.

    • IH,

      Thank you. It feels amazing….and now I want this feeling every month haha If only I had the capital to do so. Congrats on the record for you as well! Just think to, come December you will have 3 quarterly dividends that have DRIPed and several dividend increases to bolster your dividend payment. So the amount you need to invest is a lot less. Hopefully you can pull it off. I have a pretty good feeling about it! Just keep clawing away.

      Best of luck. Congrats again on the new record!

      Bert

  3. That’s a pretty awesome increase. If you could pull that off every year…I set a record this month too, but it’s quite a bit below yours.

    • Chris… congrats on the record! It doesn’t matter if it is below mine. All that counts is that you are growing yourself and making progress towards your goals. The best part is that each successive quarter you will hopefully be setting a new record and the power of dividend re-investing will then begin to take over. Hopefully you take some time to enjoy your successes for the month. Just keep on pushing and clawing!

      Bert

  4. That’s a great growth Bert, nice job! If you were business that would be hugely impressive 🙂 You’re getting some good income from good companies there, keep up the long term buys! We’d love to be able to get over $300 in month, maybe in a couple of years.

    Tristan

    • Tristan,

      hahaha I like the business analogy. I am hoping that my share price would have seen a nice pop after my press release announcing earnings on Friday haha You’ll get there before you know it because you are focused and determined to reach your goals.

      Keep up the great work. As always, thanks for stopping by!

      Bert

  5. Great stuff Bert! You showed some tremendous growth YoY and $300 for a month is awesome. I’m kind of surprised to see that none of your holdings announced a dividend increase, luckily 6 of mine did. I track but don’t count on the distributions from my MF holdings because they just aren’t reliable. Even the dividends bounce around from quarter to quarter and year to year which is frustrating. Although I don’t own any of the dividend focused MFs. All the best and can’t wait to see what you find to invest your capital into.

    • JC,

      My man, thank you so much for stopping by. I was a little surprised by it too. Typically at least one of the companies will increase their dividend. In the past, I had always been able to count on KMI to announce a quarterly dividend. And…well…we all know how that episode ended. Congrats on receiving increases from 6 of your holdings. That sets a great tone for the rest of the year and the few extra dollars you will receive each quarter going forward will definitely be nice. Dividends from MFs are a pain to track (you may even call them an MF). I just project an average income using the last four quarters and update the equation each time a new quarter’s payout is announced. I prefer the much more predictable and steady payouts from my equity holdings.

      Again, thanks for stopping by.

      Bert

    • Easy Dividend,

      Thank you so much for coming by! I believe this is the first comment I have received from you! I appreciate the kind words. Its not about beating my monthly totals. Instead, focus on growing your dividend income and beating your previous results. The game is to keep growing your own income quarterly and get one step closer towards financial freedom. And if you keep at it, that is a game you can easily defeat!

      Bert

  6. Here we go again!!! Awesome results from our favorite end of quarter months. Impressive triple digit year over year gain which just shows that you are headed in the right direction. As I always write, it’s nice to see quote a few names in common paying us in March. Great job… I do like that “Always buy” list by the way… I’ll be posting my results early next week. Look forward to your round up as well to see how our fellow DGI bloggers are doing.

    • DivHut,

      haha thank you so much! You first sentence made me laugh out loud here at home. We are all making some amazing progress here. I’m looking forward to reading your update as well. Are you going to include Baby Divhut too?

      The Always Buy list was clutch for me. It always gave me a list of stocks that I can fall back on during times of uncertainty or a flash sale. I did the dirty work ahead of time and pre-screened them to know that they would be a fit in my portfolio. The only thing is that I may have to update it annually as circumstances change. We will see if I decide to or not.

      Have a great weekend.

      Bert

  7. Hey Bert,
    Solid number my friend! Very impressive to say the least. We actually ended up selling some stocks (RDSA and UNA) after they paid dividend in March, and bought them back yesterday with about 4-5% discount to the sales price a couple days prior. That is dividend income and capital gains, yeah!
    Have a great weekend,
    Cheer.

  8. Bert, congrats on the excellent results! I set a new record last month for dividend income. It is always nice to see the end of quarter payments add up. I will keep looking for opportunities to add, but it is getting a lot harder to find names on my shortlist at attractive valuations at the moment. Keep up the great work, $324 is a very impressive haul for March!

    • Thank you so much Niche! Congrats on the new record yourself. Aren’t you happy you started dividend investing? This won’t be the last time I read about you setting a new record. I’m pumped as heck for you and excited to see where you sit in March 2017!

      I think the best thing we can all do is be patient and wait for the right opportunity. Let’s not try so hard to add dividend income that we end up purchasing a stock at a premium just for the sake of purchasing. The time will come soon enough and when it does, we are all going to be ready to strike.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Bert

  9. Congrats Bert on such a great jump of 100%+. Great job! I’m also adding new companies since last several months as I want to spread out the bets. Market is getting a little frothy and I’m also taking a breather. Keep up the good work, race on!

    • R2R,

      Thank you so much! What companies have you purchased? Please let us know as we are looking to find some sort of a discounted investment out there. With the market increasing, it is just hard to find some discounts out there.

      Bert

  10. That is great progress Bert , over a 100 % increase and as you mentioned something that definitely helps was being able to capture all four dividend payments for the year with the new purchases. Finding value has become a bit more difficult with stocks rebounding from their lows earlier in the year, patience will be rewarded eventually. Looking forward to your future reports thanks for sharing.

    • Dividend Force,

      Thank you so much for the kind words and stopping by. I was pumped that I could capture all four, just a great feeling knowing that you are maximizing your purchases. I loved one of your last sentences, patience will be rewarded….EXACTLY. Let’s not rush but rather wait for the perfect time to strike.

      Bert

  11. Truly fantasy month you had! That’s some incredible results over one single year, but with your investing rate, we will certainly be saying that every year from here on out. I finally crossed the $100 threshold for a month, as I had around $125 roll in… Not too shabby considering the cuts we’ve had in a few.

    • Thank you very much Agent! I still can’t believe the results myself, couldn’t be happier with how the month played out. Congrats on crossing into triple digits! That is such a fun milestone to crack. There is something about seeing that third digit in the number that is really special.

      Have a great Sunday.

      Bert

  12. Hi Bert,
    Congrats on a fantastic month with more than double your income compared to this time last year! If that’s not telling you you’re doing the right thing, I don’t know what will 🙂

    I had a good month too although mutual funds are the main source of my income. The individual stocks held their own though with nearly 10% dividend growth all by themselves.

    Best wishes,
    -DL

    • DL,

      Thank you! Don’t worry, I got the message that this is the right thing to do loud and clear haha That’s great progress. Dividend income is dividend income; who cares if it comes from mutual funds or individual stocks. Are you planning on diversifying away from mutual funds and continue to add new individual stocks to your portfolio?

      Bert

      • Hi Bert,
        I’ll still be buying some individual stocks from time to time. I made a stock purchase on Friday as it happens but I haven’t posted it yet. Stay tuned for details! 🙂
        Best wishes,
        -DL

        • DL,

          I’ll offer you the chance to break the news right here, RIGHT NOW! Or you can keep us in suspense until your article is released. Regardless, excited as heck to see what stock you bought.

          Bert

  13. Hi

    It was frustrating for me, too!
    Could not find any bargain stocks to reinvest dividends in.
    I decided to just invest small amount to lower cost on some of my holding.

    Congratulations and keep up the great work, it’s been very inspirational and educational.

    • HKFooty,

      I believe this is your first time commenting here, correct me if I’m wrong? Welcome to the comment section! It looks like you sound some value out there. While it was frustrating, it was nice in the sense that I could slow down my investing and replenish my capital. It was definitely needed. Which stocks did you lower your cost basis in?

      Thank you so much for the kind words. Take care and have a great weekend! Hopefully we will see you around here more often.

      Bert

  14. Wow, great month Bert!

    I’ve been reading about your and Lanny’s successes for awhile now, but growth like this compelled me to comment. I’m coming up on my first year charting dividends in July, and I am very excited about the growth rates I’m in for!

    -Millennial Investor

    • Millennial Investor,

      Thanks for taking the time to comment! Hopefully this won’t be the last time either. Very kind of you to take the time and share your thoughts. Can you give us a hint at what kind of growth rates we are talking about. Single, double, or triple percent?

      Bert

      • Considering my July income last year was $.30, I think I’ll be looking at 1000s in percent. YoY growth I am hoping to get above 600%. Ahhhh the great growth results of the early years, right?

        -MI

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