Where does time continue to go? Seriously, this month was one giant blur.  Finally, my wife and I moved into our new house on the final day in August.  In fact, this is the very first article that I wrote in my new residence!   Life comes at you fast, that is for sure.  With the movers gone, the furniture nearly set, I wanted to take some time to review my August dividend income and see how much our family’s dividend income has grown in the last 12 months.  Let’s check out our August dividend income summary!

August Dividend Income Summary

The dividends are tallied folks!  In August, my wife and I received $278.51 in dividends from 10 different companies.  This represents a 61.59% increase from August 2016! I’ve mentioned this every month, but I did not start tracking my wife’s dividend income until 2017 since we were not married until the middle of 2016.  2017 represents the first year that I am reporting our combined finances and therefore, I also show the year over year comparison of just the dividends I received in my investment account to provide an apple to apples comparison to the figures I reported here on this website last year.  When comparing my dividend income totals compared to last year, I saw my total dividend income total increase 14.15% compared to the prior year. I am very happy that I was able to muster a double-digit increase without the help of my wife.   Here is a detailed breakdown of the 10 companies that paid us this month:

Here are some of the highlights from the table above:

• Compared to August 2016, I received dividends from two new positions: Realty Income (Purchased in 2016) and CVS (purchased in 2017).
• Two companies on this list increased their dividend since our last dividend payment in May.  Realty Income increased their monthly dividend from $.2110/share to $.2115/share and Caterpillar increased their quarterly dividend from $.77/share to $/78/share.  The impacts did not have that significant of an impact compared to May, but as we all know, it is always nice to receive a dividend increase from a company regardless of the size of the increase!
• My wife continues to barely one-up me in our fake competition about who receives the larger AT&T dividend (for the record – she has no clue that this competition even exists).  I may just have to buy one more share of AT&T so I can surpass her because she is always going to win this competition unless I add to my position.
• Adding to my position in PG continues to provide a strong booth to my dividend growth rate.  I’ve recently debated about fortifying the positions in my portfolio rather than adding to new positions to provide an extra bump to the dividend I receive from each company.  It was nice receiving an additional .39 shares of PG, which added $1.07 in annual dividends to my forward income.  This may not seem like a lot, but these small increase from dividend re-investment add up and can make quite the difference in aggregate.

August Portfolio Updates

I’m always excited to discuss and highlight my dividend activity for the month….who doesn’t??  But there were some other moves made in my portfolio outside of re-investing dividends that helped push my annual dividend income forward.

• I made one purchase during the month.  I added $1,035 to my stake in Cardinal Health after the company’s stock price fell (Purchase summary here).  This added $29.36 to my forward dividend income.
• Two companies I own Increased their dividend: Kraft-Heinz ($.60/share to $.625/share each quarter) and Canadian Imperial (1.20 CAD to 1.30 CAD).  I wish my CM position was in the same atmosphere as Lanny’s, because I’m jealous of the $4.50 impact CM’s increase had on his portfolio.
• Our company’s annual salary increases become effective in August.  While I did not increase my annual contribution limit, the increase in salary resulted in an increase in my 401k contribution each paycheck.  I’m going to re-adjust this amount going forward an increase the total once the dust settles from my house moves, but the extra $18 per paycheck that will be contributed will add a nice handful of change to my forward income.  I’ll take it!

Summary

One of these months I am going to beat Lanny.  I know it is going to happen!  All jokes aside, another month has gone by too quickly.   Even though the month passed with a blur, I am excited that my portfolio was constantly working behind the scenes to provide my wife and me with nearly $300 in dividend income.  The automation and ease of dividend investing are some of my favorite aspects.  I leave this month even more excited to unlock cash flow that I had been saving for our move, initial housing projects, and costs to furnish out place.  Luckily the amounts came in under budget and I look forward to putting the extra cash flow to work!  This stressful month is behind me and I enter September with a full head of steam,  ready to kick some butt and take back control of all aspects of life.  Everyone, LETS GO FOR IT and keep on pushing ourselves here so we can reach financial freedom ASAP.

Did you crush it during August?  What was your year over year dividend growth rate?  Are you ready to make a strong push in the final four months of the year?  What stocks are on your radar?

-Bert