Bert’s February Dividend Income Summary

Well, well, well.  Looks like another month has finally come to a close.  We are in the first couple of weeks of a new month, so you know what that means… it is time to post my monthly dividend income update.  What seems to be a recurring theme, Lanny beat me to the punch and published his February income summary last week.  I want to echo everything the commenters said about his month.  He crushed it and increased his February dividend income 43% compared to 2015.  That was with KMI’s dividend cut.  Congrats on the awesome month Lanny!    Internally, I created this competition to defeat Lanny in terms of a dividend growth rate each month.  43% is a high bar to surpass, so let’s see if my dividend income in February grew more than his.   Time to check out the results.

dividend income

February Dividend Income Summary

First, before I display the numbers, I want to note that I am experimenting with a new layout.  Last month and many of the months before, I displayed my annual and quarterly dividend growth rate.   As one commenter pointed out, a quarterly comparison is not quite apples to apples due to the fact that companies do not necessarily pay a consistent quarterly income, which is a valid point.  In my portfolio, I have a semi-annual paying mutual fund and a semi-annual paying stock (DEO) that throw off many of the quarterly comparisons.   So for February, I am going to experiment with just showing the annual increase.  Since my chart has a few extra columns to work with, I will also show the percent increase (or decrease) in dividend income from each stock to see if the increase was related to re-invested dividends or a purchase/dividend increase/etc.   Let me know your thoughts on this new format or if you prefer the old layout.  I’m open to all suggestions here.  Now onto what you all came here to see.

Feb 16 income

In February, I received $136.04 in dividend income, a 29.02% increase from February 2015.  Darn, I didn’t beat Lanny this month.  While it is unfortunate, I am very pleased with the results.   It is hard to find a way to complain about a 29% annual increase in dividend income after all.   I’m kind of liking the growth rate comparison in the right column of the chart.  It is showing me here that  there have been a lot of events and transactions that have taken place over the last year that have impacted my February income.  Let’s see what some of the events were that caused this growth:

  • In February 2015, I used the proceeds from the sale of my fateful ARCP investment to increase my stake in HCP and initiate an entry-level position in NWFL and CZNC.   I purchased these stocks after their Q1 2015 ex-dividend date so I didn’t receive my first payment from them until May.
  • What’s funny about that last bullet point is that I have managed to add to my stake in CZNC and NWFL at different points throughout the last 12 months, which is why you are seeing dividend growth rates in excess of their annual dividend increases.  However, unlike the purchase discussed above, I made sure that I added to my position prior to the ex-dividend to capture the February 2016 dividend.  I added to my NWFL  stake in December 2015 and my CZNC stake  in January 2016.  Truth be told, this may not be the last time I add to my positions in both of these companies.
  • While those were the positive events, there were two events that caused my income to decrease.  First, I sold my mutual funds back in January, so now I won’t be receiving my monthly pocket change from OIEIX.   Second, the KMI smack down that impacted so many of us.  February is the month where the pain of the KMI dividend cut became real.  My income from KMI compared to last year decreased ~50%.  Blah!  Luckily for me (and not so lucky for Lanny), I did not receive the double whammy since I do not own any shares of BBL.   Definitely a dark spot here, but we have come out better investors from the events and the companies came out of the dividend cuts with stronger balance sheets.  

Dividend Increases and Additions to my portfolio

Phew.  Time to emerge from the detail above.   For only receiving dividend income from 6 stocks in February, it sure seems like I had a lot going on.   Well, there were plenty of other transactions that will impact my forward dividend income in the month.  I wanted to quickly summarize the events and summarize the impact they had on my portfolio.

I purchased two stocks this month that will pay a dividend in the third month of the quarter.  The first stock I added to my portfolio was Pfizer, which already paid me a $30.00 dividend at the beginning of the month.   The second stock was a stock that we were obsessed with on this website during the entire month….T.Rowe Price.  I purchased 47 shares of TROW, which will pay me a quarterly dividend of $25.38 at the end of the month.  Man I can’t wait to write-out my March 2016 Dividend Income Summary!

In addition to the purchased stocks during the month, I received two dividend increases during the month.  ADM increased their quarterly dividend income from $.28/share to $.30/share, a 7% increase, and DEO increased the first semi-annual dividend payment from $1.27/share to $1.30/share, a 2.3% increase.  This is why dividend investing is so much fun…I love receiving dividend increases out of the blue.

Summary

Am I pissed I didn’t beat Lanny? Of course.  Am I pissed that my dividend income from KMI slashed their dividend and reduced my February payment by 50%?  Who wouldn’t be?  But honestly, the positives of the month heavily outweigh the negatives. The bottom line is that I saw a double-digit increase in my monthly dividend income figure from the prior period.  Plus, as highlighted in the last section, I was able to use the month of February to make some moves and set the table for future increases in my monthly dividend income.    Now that February has come to a close, let’s hope that Lanny, me and all of you can carry this momentum into March and realize similar growth rates in this heavy dividend month.

Did you have a strong month of February?  Were you impacted by the KMI dividend cut?   What are your thoughts on the new format?  Did you find all the information relevant or would you add/delete anything?   I’m looking forward to reading and responding to your comments!

-Bert

17 thoughts on “Bert’s February Dividend Income Summary

    • R2R,

      Thank you very much. It was a great month and I couldn’t be happier with the results. All of us our seeing our income streams trend in the right direction and are making some great things happen.

      Bert

    • ADD,

      hahaha I know, I have been busy and this was the first shot I had to write an article. I would love to have this out in the first day or two of April. We will how things progress next month though haha Sorry to keep you in suspense. What excites me is thinking about the progress made after receiving such a substantial cut in income. I own 100 shares of KMI, so that dividend cut definitely hit home.

      Regardless, I can’t complain for one second.

      Bert

    • Thanks Tawcan. I would love to be able to keep this up each year. I would hit financial freedom freedom before 30 at that rate haha Seeing results like this just get me excited and even more excited to keep this momentum going. Man do I love this stuff!

      Take care and have a great evening.

      Bert

  1. Keep up the great work Bert. Don’t worry about KMI’s, it’s time to move on and focus on tomorrow and the future. Let’s keep ripping it up. Don’t Stop and before you know it, you will hit the G note every month. Thanks for sharing bud.

    • HUSTLER! Exactly, the KMI’s happen and the faster you put it behind you the better. You live and you learn, right? The biggest takeaway was that reminder that there is some risk in what we are doing here. And hopefully I hit that G note soon haha However, I still have a long, long time to go!

      Thanks for the support and the kind words as always.

      Bert

  2. Hey Bert,
    Like the new format, nice and simple. And it’s nice to see the changes from the previous year. Well done. Congrats on the 29% yoy increase, that is a very solid number!
    The only thing I would add, this is especially useful for new investors and new readers, is the full company name (not just the ticker).
    Looking forward to you March update.
    Cheers.

    • Team CF,

      Thanks for the feedback about the format. It fits more of the KISS model. Why over complicate it and put information in there just for the sake of putting it in. Sounds like a winner and I’ll keep it going for another couple of months. I’ll give putting in the names a whirl one of these months.

      I appreciate your support. Take care and thanks for stopping by!

      Bert

  3. Bert,

    Hey, nice move on the YOY comparisons. I believe I was that “commenter” that pointed out the variances in quarterly comparisons. 🙂

    Looks like things are rolling along, bud. Every day is an opportunity to get closer to where you want to be. Keep it up!

    Cheers.

    • haha you were the one. I didn’t want to call you out in the article though, so I left it as an anonymous source. The new format has seemed to get some good reviews, so it may be a keeper. You are right. Every day brings us new opportunities to reach the end game. It makes waking up and checking your brokerage account for a new batch of dividends very exciting.

      As always, thanks for stopping by Jason!

      Bert

  4. Hi Bert,

    Thanks for sharing your results for Feb 2016 and congrats on the 29% yoy increase. My February was quite slow, but I think March will have a lot more activity in terms of passive income to report. I like the new format and I look forward to seeing your results for March!

    • Niche!

      Thank you for stopping by. The third month of the quarter is always more fruitful than the first two months. For some reason the majority of our favorite companies choose to distribute then. I’m excited to check out your report after next month and track your progress.

      Take care!

      Bert

  5. Hey Bert, nice job. if you were a company, a 29% increase would be huge! Don’t feel bad about not rising as much as Lanny, it’s great motivation but shouldn’t detract from the great result you’ve had.

    Good luck for the rest of the year, I hope the rest are 25%+ too!

    Tristan

  6. You did awesome and I think you know it. So what about beating or not beating Lanny, so what about the KMI cut… bottom line, despite the negatives you ended up with a very respectable year over year increase which means you are on the right path doing the right things. Only a couple names in common paying us in Feb. but that’s cool too. Great update… and look forward to your dividend income round up among the bloggers.

  7. Excellent job man. More income is better than less income, and you are definitely heading in the right direction. KMI stung me a little too, but that’s ok, I don’t need the income now, I need it 20 years from now and I think they will be just fine.

    I too like the monthly comparison, good job.

    Chad

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