Bert’s July Dividend Income Summary

2017 is flying by.  I barely know what hit me for work here in July.  Between travelling for work and gaining possession of our house, I have barely had time to sit down, relax, and focus on things.  But I must say, I couldn’t be happier doing some of the house work and I am finding it fun and therapeutic (especially when I am listening to music while painting).  Before I knew it, July was over and it was time for me to recap my performance and write my July dividend income summary.  Let’s see how I performed during the month.

dividend income

July Dividend Income Summary

In July, my wife and I received $133.27, a 28.37% increase from our July 2016 totals!  I’ve also been showing the increase in my income individually since I did not report my wife’s income in 2016.  Compared to July 2016, my income increased 14.16%! We received our annual compensation increases from our respective employers this month and let me tell you, the increases did not show this kind of growth rate.  The chart below provides a detailed breakdown:

Here are a few of the highlights:

  • I received dividends from two new companies in 2017 compared to the prior year.  Cardinal Health and Realty Income have been great additions to my portfolio in the last twelve months.  I enjoyed owning CAH so much after my initial purchase that I decided to add to them a second time during the first half of 2017.  One day I am hoping to do the same for Realty income as well.  It is a company that is on my short list to buy once I decide to stop hoarding cash and I am fully settled into my new house.
  • Once again, I was bit by the fact that KHC changed the month that they paid their dividend as it caused my dividend income to decrease during the year.  The funny thing is that if I were to remove the impact of the KHC from this table, my dividend growth rate would have been insane for July.  In the end, all that really matters to me is that I am receiving KHC’s dividend and I could ultimately care less what month they pay me in.

Summary

In all honesty, this was a relatively boring month for me in terms of investing.  I didn’t purchase any stocks and I didn’t receive any dividend increases.  KMI did announce their intention to increase their dividend in 2018 and beyond, as I summarized in my latest dividend increases article for the coming month, but I refuse to change the impact on my forward income until the company formally declares the increased dividend.  Talk is great, but I am waiting for the cold, hard results.  To me, for dividend investing, boring is a great thing.  Seeing increases in your dividend income due to DRIP and announced dividend increases shows that the power of dividend investing is real and that what we are doing is starting to make an impact.

It has been re-assuring and fun to see my dividend income continuously doing work for me behind the scenes, especially since I have been so busy lately. Each month has been a new chapter in this journey towards early retirement.  Now that July is in the books, it is time to look forward to August and start focusing on finding new ways to add additional income via side hustles or whatever means are necessary.  We always say it, but on this journey, every dollar counts and will help you get that much closer to financial freedom.

How did you perform this July? What was your YOY increase? Did you receive any dividend increases from your holdings or did you purchase any new companies? What stocks are on your watch list?

-Bert

41 thoughts on “Bert’s July Dividend Income Summary

    • Thanks PCI! Ask me again in a month how much I enjoy painting haha I may have changed my tune since then. I’m just looking forward for this to be done and to have moved into our new house.

      Bert

  1. Congrats on a fine month with strong YoY-growth. Keep it up!
    I like the point you are making with regard to your annual compensation increase: more often than not, companies reward shareholders more generously than their employees. That’s one more reason to participate in companies as an investor and build a passive income machine.
    Cheers

    • Thanks Shaper! That’s a funny way to look at it, that shareholders are on the top of management’s list despite the need to keep/retain the top talent. Now – how nice would it be to work for a company where you could buy discounted shares?? Maybe that’s how you can align both needs right there.

      Bert

    • Thanks Doug – I know, it sucks with KHC. But luckily I will receive the benefit in a different month and will see the plus side here soon. Also, I just found out from Lanny that KHC increased their dividend. Now that’s what I’m talking about!

      Bert

  2. It might have been a boring month, but you got double digit growth when compared to last year so that’s impressive. You make a great point about the fact that your dividends are hard at work for you behind the scenes while you’re busy living life. It’s nice to have money work for you for a change, rather than you always having to work for money. That’s what is so awesome about the DGI strategy.

    • Portfolio. The further we get in this journey and the more we can invest, the harder our money will continue to work for us. The power of compounding is real and it can pack quite the punch.

      Take care!

      Bert

  3. Hi Bert,
    I was wondering if you could do a post on comparing investing in an ETF / REIT with high dividend ratios versus traditional companies, and the benefits of each?
    Thanks!
    -Alex

  4. Double digit YOY increases sound good to me…. keep it up! Your new dividend payers (CAH & O) are ones we have in common. I was sad to see the decline in CAH this week after the earnings release, but I took the opportunity to average down. I was lucky enough to get 4 announced dividend increases in July – very happy about that! Pretty soon you’ll be all settled into the new house and ready to deploy some of that cash stockpile you are building… and when you do I’ll be interested to see what you do with it.

    • Thanks Engineering! Glad we have some common companies in our portfolios. 4 dividend increases is amazing! How much forward income did it add to your portfolio? You have no idea how excited I am to unleash the cash once we move in and the initial expenses are behind us. My debt and the stock market better freaking watch out haha

      Bert

    • Thanks MDD! I’m very happy with the results we posted here and am looking forward to continuing to add to my positions, especially once we move into our house and the dust settles.

      Take care,

      Bert

  5. Nice job Bert! Considering we are talking in $100s for you I think the increase you received is a good total and a strong increase. We got 288% increase to $21.47 in July, still a small amount but we are getting there.

    Mr DDU

  6. What can I say except congrats on a solid July showing. I always write that it’s tough for us to come off our June highs but you still managed, with and w/o your wife, to put up serious double digit year over year gains. That’s what it’s all about. I added GSK to my watch list not long ago. Would you be buying more at this point? Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.

    • Thanks Keith! You’re right about it being difficult to follow up the mutual fund heavy June. It is always shocking to see your dividends to drop from those levels, but it is encouraging to see the dividend increase in terms of percentages. Honestly, GSK has not been on my radar but it should be. I could continue to lower my cost basis and collect a nice dividend from them. Congrats on the purchase and you are definitely hitting the pharm market hard!

  7. Ha, you really don’t trust KMI, do you? 🙂 I can understand after the cut. I started to buy into KMI only after that, so I don’t have any negative experience so far. If they can stick to their plan, that will give a lot of reward to investors who hold on these days.

    • haha No, I do. I’m just in wait and see mode until I formally get the dividend announcement. Been burned once, but am optimistic this time will be different due to a much stronger balance sheet. Nice job picking them up after they tumbled and it will be huge for shareholders if they can stick to their plan.

      Bert

  8. Hey Bert,

    that are solid results for an “off” month and the yoy increase standing at 28% is good. Keep on going!! – I can imagine how busy you are with all the travel@work and your house. I’ve been very busy @work recently too, and the huge renovation is scheduled for the fall. But first it’s vacation time;-)
    In the next days i’ll post a new updated watchlist. Right now, it’s PepsiCo and Welltower on top of my “buy-list”.
    The dollar is weak in relation to the EUR and that gives me more buying power.

    Cheers,
    DividendSolutions

    • Dividend Solutions,

      Thank you very much! Are you going anywhere fun on vacation? Smart idea doing something relaxing before the storm hits your personal life! Interesting that PEP is on your watch list. What is drawing you to them (in terms of valuation? I know it is an awesome company) at the moment?

      Bert

      • In my next Halftime Report i’ll post about the vacation – i think both destinations will be fun, although they’re very different, i’ll let you know…

        It seems, that i have been watching PEP forever without pulling the trigger (two+ years). They ain’t cheap, but not completely overvalued in my opinion. And the stronger Euro helps pushing the “dollar price” back.

    • Thanks Mr. SLM! Things are finally starting to turn the corner at our house. We are about to head over there now and fix a few walls. The wallpaper is down and the trims/window trims have been painted. Now, we are just getting ready to throw some paint on the walls next weekend before the hardwood guys come and refinish the floors. We are making some moves though!

      Thank you very much for asking.

      Bert

  9. I am a huge fan of CAH and O. I am thinking with the pricing levels for O that it might make sense to jump in and CAH I think I’m finally going to take the plunge because they are clearly a well run company. July was a pretty quiet month for me overall with dividends so I’m looking forward to some more action in August/September.

    • Those are two of my favorites! I’m glad you are taking another look at CAH after the dip here and I may be doing so as well. This will be a great opportunity to lower my cost basis (hopefully). What is your entrance point for O? What are you seeing as a value. If you add to CAH and O, you will have one heck of an October in terms of dividend income.

      Take care!

      Bert

  10. 28% is great! Keep it up Bert. I actually had a great July as well, a record thankfully. But I am still behind on my goal…should be a good race to the $13K finish….

    Passive Income Dude

  11. Great YOY result (with and without the wife)! Well done here, as July seems to be a tough month to grow from a dividend perspective.
    oh, and thanks again for the kind words on our dividend blog post. Don’t underestimate how much your guys have contributed to us starting dividend investing!

  12. Awesome month, especially for an off month. Love seeing new positions pay out. I also started a position with O and CAH recently. Think this is only the first or maybe second time they have paid out for me. Keep making those quality buys and this nice growth. Cheers!

  13. Boring can be a good thing 😉

    These growth rates are pretty awesome! We’ve been checking out CAH a few months back, but didn’t buy because of our real estate plans.Still like the company, but I’m afraid we won’t make any new stock buys until the next year 🙁 Until then our dividends are trickling in every month and are still growing YoY. So, I have nothing to complain about!

    • Boring is a great thing in terms of dividend investing! Hey – you are making moves with your real estate purchase and trust me, I know first hand how much cash something like that can command haha Let the dividends do the work for you and just be happy knowing that with each DRIP, your income grows that much more.

      Bert

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *