Labor Day is behind us and we are closing in on the final quarter of the year!  Fall is my favorite season.  The outdoors, changing leaves, football, playoff baseball, great food, bonfires….man I’m happy this season is here.    As with each month, we take a look at how we performed compare to last year to measure our growth, progress, and pursuit of good old financial freedom!  Here is my August dividend income summary folks.

August Dividend Income Summary

In August, I received $384.07 in dividend income, an increase of 37.90% compared to last year!  This is right in line with the 35% YOY increase I realized last month. The following chart provides a detailed breakdown of the individual dividends received.  Please note that a “W” represents a dividend received in my wife’s account.  Here is a detailed listing of the individual dividends received:

Here are some highlights and notes from the month from August:

• I received a dividend from one new company this month, Westrock (WRK).   I followed Lanny’s lead and initiated a position at the beginning of August.  It wasn’t large by any stretch, but it was a great entry position nonetheless.  I’m just always excited when I can receive a dividend in the same month I made the purchase.
• This was the first quarter I felt the impact of the Starbucks purchases I made earlier in the year.   I purchased shares once in April and another time in June.  It was nice to receive over $29 compared to only $7 last year.
• Speaking of increased dividends due to additional purchases over the last 12 months, my PG and O positions have increased drastically since last year.   Resulting in significantly more dividend income.  Plus, a couple of nice dividend increases from PG and O along the way helped too!
• KMI….that dividend increase announced in April was SWEET.  That was a major contributor to our overall increase during the month.

August Portfolio News and Dividend Increases

In this section, I’ll review two different ways that my forward dividend income will increase during the month: dividend increases and investment activity.   The first table I will review is the dividend increases received during the month.

Yeah…so….I didn’t receive that many dividend increases during the month.  In fact, I can’t even buy two items on McDonalds’ dollar menu with the extra income I received.  If anything, what isn’t included in this table is more notable than what is included.  First, while ITW did increase their dividend this month by a staggering amount, I did not include them.  Why not?  Because I purchased ITW three times AFTER the dividend increase.  Thus, the additional income is going to be included in the next table.   Second, I purchased shares of Tyson Foods in July and was expecting the company to increase their dividend during the month.  However, as I highlighted in my dividend increase recap article, TSN did not announce an increase.  Rather, they used the capital for an acquisition.  So unfortunately, I could not add them to the chart either.

The second, following chart will show the dividend income added this month due to purchases, 401k/HSA purchases.

I made four stock purchases this month which added $143 in forward dividend income.  This included initiating a new position in WRK and purchased ITW not one, not two, but THREE times.  ITW was on my last watch list and was pumped to be fortunate establish a large position.   WRK’s position isn’t nearly as large.

As I mentioned in a post earlier this year, my wife and I started maximizing our 401k contributions for the first time in 2018.  This continues to flex its muscles every two weeks and I’m loving the fact that I am adding a consistent amount of income, $66+, from this strategy.  Unfortunately, I am the only one on a high deductible plan in our family and thus, only I can contribute to a HSA.  So the impact from this tax-reduction strategy isn’t quite as strong!

In total, dividend increases and purchases added $214 in forward dividend income to my forward income this month!

Summary

Another monthly summary in the books.  Once again, I couldn’t help but smile at all the progress being made during the year.  But I’m not alone, because the community continues to crush it as well and Lanny continues to push himself.  Your progress continues to motivate me to save as much as possible and make every dollar count.  There are a lot of great companies that are expected to announce dividend increases in September.  Plus, I’m hoping there will be other great dividend growth stocks that fall into the “buy” zone.  Let’s focus everyone and make it happen!

-Bert