Well, Lanny started our dividend income summary party off with quite a bang. Almost $5,500 Lanny! U n b e l i e v a b l e. That is how you motivate me and the rest of this awesome dividend investing community. Like Lanny, I am happy to say that my wife and I posted a personal record in December and I’m excited to share the results!
Dividend Investing is amazing for so many reasons. As we continue to build a growing, passive income stream by investing in undervalued dividend growth stocks identified by our dividend stock screener, it is always important to track your progress and make sure you are achieving your goals. Seeing the progress makes the income feel real. And eventually, one day, it will help you reach the highly coveted financial freedom.
See – The Dividend Stock Screener that helps us identify undervalued dividend growth stocks
See – Our Dividend Income Summaries each month since 2014
For the last five years, we have logged out dividend income results. The totals are summarized on our dividend income page. You can see first hand the results that each dividend stock purchase, dividend increases, and each reinvested dividend has had. We continue to fuel the FI/RE one purchase, one increase, and one DRIP at a time. So that is why I am always so excited to type up my monthly dividend income summary. To review the results and hold myself accountable. With that in mind, here is my October dividend income summary.
See – The Individual Holdings in Our Dividend Stock Portfolios
Bert’s December Dividend Income Summary
In December, my wife and I received $3,809.07 in dividend income. That’s a 51.1% increase compared to the $2,520.29 total last year. As I mentioned earlier, this was a PERSONAL RECORD for us and we look forward to working to beat this mark once again in 2020! Here is a detailed listing of the individual holdings that paid us dividends during the month:
Here are some highlights and notes about the month:
- Obviously, the impact of mutual funds was real this month. I don’t know about you, but I received some INSANE capital gains distributions from our fund family holdings. This isn’t too surprising given the strong market; however, I am still shocked by just how much income that produced for me in 2019. Hopefully the market continues to rise and this trend continues next year.
- For the record, displaying mutual incomes was not the easiest this year. Our retirement accounts changed mutual funds at various points in 2019. Further, we moved HSA’s several times. First, after leaving an employer, I switched my HSA account to Lively, a free online HSA account that allows you to invest your funds freely using a TD Ameritrade brokerage. I loved Lively; however, I transitioned all of my accounts to Fidelity during the summer to consolidate accounts into one brokerage. So I transfered my HSA once again from Lively to Fidelity. I’ll tell you what. Having all investment accounts under one roof has been AMAZING. The SPYD/SPTM dividend in the chart comes into play. Second, rather than display each individual mutual fund and try to compare, I just consolidate my mutual fund payouts and my wifes into one line item.
- This year, we took advantage of a dip in 3M’s stock price and built up our positions. You can see the new dividend received and it was nice to get that big check from one of my “Always Buy” companies.
- Like 3M, we also have built up our positions in Exxon Mobil over the last 12 months. The oil market continues to be volatile and quite frankly, interesting to follow. I think I am done adding for now; however, if their price were to fall into the mid-$60s, I would have to buy. Maybe I’ll shift gears and add to Royal Dutch Shell, one of the companies on Lanny’s January watch list instead. I received a dividend from them this month and it was one of my first dividend stocks purchased. But that dividend could always be larger, right??
- Other than that, you can see the impact of stock purchases and dividend increases. I didn’t want to highlight each one; however, it continues to amaze me the impact time has on your dividend stock portfolio.
Bert’s December Dividend Stock Portfolio Update
After announcing that our portfolio crossed a major investing milestone lin November, I am trying to continue pushing forward in my quest towards financial freedom. In this section of the article, I discuss stock purchases and dividend increases received. Both of which help point the dividend arrow higher, and higher.
Read: Milestone Achieved – Crossing $10,000 in Projected Dividend Income
First, let’s look at the impact from stock purchases and 401(k) contributions. I’ll keep this section rather brief since I wrote about my November and December stock purchases. After the article was published, I simply added 5 more shares to Canadian Imperial. Since I covered the stocks in detail, and my only addition was to a company that I discussed, I won’t elaborate further in this article. If you want more information, my last purchase article summarizes each stock purchase made in November and December. In total, purchases and 401(k) contributions added $103.51 to my forward dividend income. Not too bad, not too bad
Now, on to dividend increases. Dividend increases are the name of our game and will help fuel the growth of our dividend income stream without lifting a finger. Lanny and I are ALWAYS watching dividend increases and share each one with each other. Quite frankly, it is a blast tracking them.
This month was a pretty solid month of dividend increases, per the table above. While none of the dividend increases were large individually, in aggregate, the impact was strong. AT&T provided us with their standard $.01 per share increase in their quarterly dividend and PFE followed suit with their recent $.02 per share increase. I’ll never complain about the size of an increase, especially when they add $27.36 to my forward dividend income.
Read: Expected Dividend Increases in January 2020
Summary
This was a very exciting way to close out 2019. A new personal record is always great. But what excites me is that I was able to continue to add dividend income via purchases and increases. My goal for 2020 is to continue building on this momentum, continue pushing harder, and continue increasing my forward dividend income. Watching Lanny’s growth over the year and his recent insane totals is all the motivation I need to see that investing consistently and frugal living works. It is simple and that’s why I’m going to work harder to make EVERY DOLLAR COUNT in 2020.
How did you perform in December? Did you set any new records? Did you have strong mutual fund capital gains distributions as well? How many new companies paid you a dividend?
Bert
Job well done, congratulations.
Thank you very much Lou!
Bert
Wow Bert. You are your own Santa! Must be a great feeling getting such a return, especially from the 401Ks.
You will be so proud of yourselves when you are
Both you and Lanny are super lucky to have a nice 401k. My employer’s kind of sucks.
What’s your take on a Traditional 401K vs a Roth?
cheers!
John
John,
I think my portfolio si more like Santa because that’s what delivered us these nice dividend gifts 🙂 What’s funny is that my current employer doesn’t have the best 401(k) plan, ironically. In the past yes, but the place I’ve been for the last 10 months, not a chance. It doesn’t even have an S&P 500 mutual fund with a ticker. Rather, its at Principal and is a “seperate account.” I’m sure dividends are included in there, I just can’t see them so I can’t report them.
What’s the deal with you employer’s plan? High fees? Pool plan options?
Bert
It’s the fees.
Fantastic Bert! Over $3,800 is huge and nearly $1,300 more than last year. I’m not sure what our mutual fund distributions were like in December. My 401k doesn’t break them out and I haven’t check my Vanguard mutual funds. I’m sure they were solid though.
Thank you JC! If they were Vanguard, I bet they were great. Most of them seemed to be.
Bert
Hi Bert congrats on the records. Just had large buys of 3 oil giants and some in REITs, one in Baltics (micro on global level and unknown to you all) and another one BPY. MMM and CSCO is also on my radar
Thank you P2035! I appreciate the kind words. Those oil giant purchases must have added a huge sum to your dividend income. I’d love to add to CSCO if the price started to slide down again. But I’m keeping a close eye on it right now.
Bert
Another monster December i’m seeing the community, congratulations to you and everyone who has benefited from what has been a great year of equities. I’m getting closer to hitting the 4 digit mark on my end, fingers crossed its in 2020
Here’s hoping there’s more to come 🙂
Isn’t it crazy how many people are setting records here in December? You’re going to easily get there in December 2020. You have a lot of time to make the right moves to get you there.
Bert
Spectacular month Bert! Nice breaking 50% YOY growth! Congrats on a fantastic close to the year and a great start to a new year! 😀
Thank you MDD. It was a great way to build some momentum going into 2020 and hopefully all of us build on our strong 2019s.
Bert
Dam ,Both of you Guys flying Hot in december month.
looks like you are on your way to hit 5k in 2020 december.
haha yes we both were very fortunate this December. What’s crazy is seeing how many other people in the community have been crushing it as well in December. 2019 was a great year for many. Hopefully you’re right about $5k in December. If the markets finish the year as strong has this year, then were have a chance.
Bert
Talk about ending the year in style! Way to get that bread. Keep at it in the new year – impressive results all around!! ????????????????
Cheers-
Divcome
Thanks Divcome! Love the emojis as well 🙂
Bert
51% YOY growth is incredible, especially starting from a $2,520 base! Congrats on a great 2019. Let’s keep it going strong in 2020!
Thank you Kody. Very kind of you to say. Congrats on a strong 2019 to you as well!
Bert
Awesome work. 51% growth is insane when your starting point is so high!
Bert,
Nice! huge yoy growth. Your wife is killing it too. Looks like there is a race within the race (between you and Lanny) there.
– Gremlin
Well done, Bert. You’re firing on all cylinders. I enjoyed the highlights and notes section in this post. It’s some good insight on what you are thinking with regard to your portfolio.
Your list of dividend payers is so large, it’s like reading the fine print in a contract. Definitely a good problem to have. ????
All the best as we kick off 2020.