The calendar has turned and we are off to the races in 2018. It has busy month and our busy season has been intense. But that hasn’t stopped us from closely monitoring our portfolios and the excitement that is happening in the stock market. We all finished December strong and as a community 39 of us were able to receive of $30,000 of dividend income. It was a record-setting month for a lot of us, including myself. And now that 2018 has started, it is time to keep the momentum going. With one month down, I thought it would be as good as a time as ever to publish my first dividend income summary of 2018. Time to check out my January dividend income summary!
January Dividend income summary
In January, my wife and I received $139.02 in dividend income. This was a 8.77% increase compared to last year! Not a bad way to start 2018, eh? The chart below contains a detailed listing of the companies that paid me (or not) a dividend during January.
This wasn’t too exciting of a month in terms of dividend income received. In fact, I did not receive any dividends from new companies. That being said, I managed to add to two of my positions in the last month that caused the dividends received from those companies to increase dramatically. I took advantage of CAH’s slump in 2017 and lowered the cost basis in my investment and I was able to add to my position in CM when the metrics were just right. Now I am a huge fan of the larger positions that are producing solid dividend income payments. The one “negative” during the month is that the newly merged DWDP changed the month they pay their dividend after consolidating the companies. Oh well, it is just a timing difference. So I will receive a nice benefit in the comings months!
January portfolio news and dividend increases
This month, I wanted to try something new. I created two charts to provide you all with the major updates/happenings of my portfolio during January. The first table will show the dividend increases I received in January and the second will summarize changes in my portfolio, including buys, sells, 401k, and HSA contributions. January was a great month for dividend increases, so I cannot wait to share with you the impact the announcements had on my forward dividend income!
I received 5 dividend increases in January and as I mentioned in my last post, January was just an INSANE month for dividend increases. In fact, I was only expecting to receive one dividend increase during the month (ED). The other four were surprises and Lanny and I had some pretty darn exciting phone calls sharing the news with each other. I received a lot of texts saying “Call me ASAP” with exclamation marks. Yes, it was that important to find out that NSC increased their dividend for the first time in several years.
The chart above shows the power of dividend investing and the impact that dividend increases have on your forward dividend income. I did nothing to earn an additional $39.86 in annual dividend income. I didn’t lift a finger. Of the five increases, two of them were pretty large and were well over 10%. Again, I’m STILL shocked that NSC announced an 18.3% increase. This also has me very optimistic about the prospect of receiving other dividend increases in 2018. January was a crazy month, so I cannot wait to see what the other 11 months have in store for all of us in the community.
The first table showed how I was able to add almost $40 to my forward income by dividend increases alone. This table, on the other hand, shows the additional dividend income I have received from purchases and contributions to my retirement plans. This month, I was able to add $123.89 in dividend income from my two purchases of Realty Income and 401k/HSA contributions.
I recently wrote about how my wife and I are maximizing our 401k contributions in the coming year. This is the first month where my increased 401k contributions were received and as you can see, it added a TON of forward income to my portfolio. My wife is starting a new job in the coming weeks, so I plan on adjusting her contributions as well once her new plan kicks in. But as you can see, the impact of this strategy is already showing strong results. I cannot wait to see the impact this has over the rest of the year and the large dividends/distributions I expect to receive from my Vanguard funds each quarter. We also received our employer’s contribution to our HSA, which contributed to a larger than usual contribution.
What’s crazy, in total, my dividend income increased $163.75 this month from these purchases, dividend increases, and contributions. Now that is what I am talking
Summary
All and all, I don’t think I could not have asked for a better start to the year. I posted solid results compared to last year and I added a healthy chunk to my forward dividend income. Hopefully this is setting me up for a strong 2018 and the dividend increases continue for the remainder of 2018. Now, more than ever, I’m going to side hustle and do whatever I can to earn every extra dollar so I can continue to invest and push my dividend income forward.
How did you perform this month? What was your growth rate compared to last year? Did you buy any stocks? If so, how much did you add to your forward income?
Bert