Well, 2019 is off to quite the start isn’t it? The market madness that ended the year continued into the beginning of 2019. Looks like we should expect a fun 2019 after all! For the last time this year, it is time to review my previous month’s dividend income and assess my performance. This one was exciting and I had a hunch that a record was looming. The results were tallied and my thoughts were confirmed. Time to dive into my December dividend income summary!
December Dividend Income Summary
This month, I received $2,519.44 in dividend income. This represents a 46.10% year-over-year increase! I wish I could actually do a back flip, because one may be in order here. This is by far the largest sum of dividend income I’ve receive and it is a personal record!
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 of my quick thoughts and highlights from the month:
- One thing stands out right away – the growth in dividend income from mutual funds. It has been well documented that this is the first year my wife and I maximized our 401(k) and HSA contributions. Well, the year is over and the impact was definitely felt the impact. In the table above, I consolidated the dividends and capital gains distributions from the funds held in our 401(k) and HSA investment accounts. It shouldn’t be a surprise that these were our two largest contributors to dividend income during the month, the largest of which was one of my 401(k) funds VWNAX. VWNAX paid me over $1,000 in dividends/capital gains this month. Four freaking figures. Of course there is a chance that the capital gains could decrease next year. But you know what, that sounds like a 2019 problem. For now, I’m going to enjoy the large increases realized during the month and continue maximizing our contributions in 2019.
- On an individual holding level, my favorite individual stock dividend was Dominion (D). Not only was this a new dividend received compared to last year, but we also received a surprise dividend increase announcement from them at the beginning of the month.
- Okay, so I have a lot of other favorite individual stocks and activity in my portfolio. D isn’t the only one. This month, I also received new dividends from Exxon, Muncy Bank, and Tyson. On top of it, I received larger dividends compared to last year from Realty Income and Consolidated Edison due to additional purchases made throughout the year.
- Interestingly, this month is not reflective of a lot of the purchases I made during the fourth quarter. Many of them either missed the ex-dividend date for the December payout or are going to pay me a dividend in the first or second quarter during the month. I can’t wait for IRM, ABBV, and others to start paying out this year.
- Last, but not least, two words. Dividend Increases. Looking at the chart above, you can see the true power of some of the increases received during the year and the good old-fashioned power of Dividend Re-Investment.
December Dividend Portfolio News and Updates
In this section, I’ll review two different ways that my forward dividend income increased during the month: dividend increases and investment activity. In the first table I will review dividend increases.
I had anticipated the T and PFE dividend increases, as I wrote about them in my monthly expected dividend increase series before the month. But the two largest dividend increases announced caught me off-guard and I was pretty excited about them. Both were 9% increases and added over $22 to my forward dividend income. Thanks for the unexpected increases D and NWFL! All in all, I received over $40 in dividend income due to dividend increases in December.
In this second table, I listed all of the additional dividends received from stock purchases and 401(k) contributions. I’ve written two articles summarizing my stock purchases for the month, so I won’t cover those closely here in this article. The purchase articles are linked here and here. The remaining dividend income was due to our 401(k) contributions during the year. In 2018, I used a flat dividend rate to estimate the additional forward dividend income received. This month, I will have to update this number once again! Overall though, purchases and contributions added $233 in forward dividend income! Not too bad, not too bad.
In total, purchases and dividend increases added $274.20 in annual dividend income.
SUmmary – DEcember Dividend Income
This was an exciting way to end the year. Each year I have a strong December, but something felt different about this one. After a fun year of investing, it was nice to see the results of the hours of research, endless phone conversations with Lanny about potential investments, and interactions/ideas from all of you pay off. I love this community because of the motivation each of you provide me and I am honored to have gotten to know so many of you. 2019 is going to be a blast and some major things are going down this year. Let’s build upon our successes and continue pushing forward. I have no clue who to attribute the origins of this quote to, but it’s what is always in the back of my mind when reading about a record. “Records are meant to be broken.” All, lets break some freaking records in 2019! LETS GO.
-Bert