Bert’s May 2016 Dividend Income Summary

May 2016 was  the best month of my life…hands down.   And it had absolutely nothing to do with investing.   I’m sure those that have been following along can guess what happened.  If not, no worries, I will have some blog posts soon to fill you all in on what exactly happened soon.  It was also a great month for dividend income as I saw some growth compared to May 2015.  Let’s take a look at the dividend income I received during the last 31 days!  Here is my May 2016 Dividend Income summary!

dividend income

May 2016 Dividend Income SUmmary

This month, I received $170.19 in dividend income, which is a 33.46% increase from May 2015.  The chart below shows the details.  the total dollar amount of income trails Lanny’s month of May by about $100; however, we both posted comparable growth rates as we both were around 30%.   The chart below provides a detailed breakdown of my dividend income for the month.

DD - May Income

Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the catalyst of my dividend growth rate during the period.   It must have been the change in OIEIX, which I sold earlier in the year…..KIDDING.   No, the increase was due predominately to my increased stake in Citizens and Northern Bank (CZNC), which I have purchased twice in the last twelve months.  The nice thing was that Lanny and I timed our recent purchase of CZNC with the ex-dividend date to make sure that we captured the May dividend.  Now you can see why we were so keen on buying before the ex dividend date.   This last purchase of CZNC added ~123 shares to my position, adding $32 to my quarterly dividend income.  Without this buy, I would be staring a single digit dividend growth rate in the face.

My increased stake in CZNC allowed me to fight off negative headwinds for the month.  As we all know by now, KMI slashed their dividend 75% at the end of 2015.  I’m not upset about this decrease anymore as the company is on sounder financial ground than it was pre-dividend cut and I like the company’s long-term prospects.  The other negative decrease was from when I sold three mutual funds at the end of 2015 and stop collecting the pocket change that OIEIX threw my way every month.  That money was invested in CZNC and PFE in 2016, so I think I did pretty well for myself with those moves.  Thank goodness the negative headwinds were not stronger and as bad as they could have been!

May 2016 POrtfolio Performance

I wanted to try something different this month, so let me know what you all think of this brief section.  I thought it might be a good idea to show how my overall portfolio performance against the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones.  We always focus on income growth in our summaries, so why not look at how well your portfolio performed against the broader market.   Overall, my portfolio’s % gain increased 3.4% during the month.  This was measured by taking my increase in market value less increase in cost basis for the last two months; this figure includes the impact of stock market appreciation and re-invested dividends.  Then, from there, I backed out the $170 in re-invested dividend income earned during the month to arrive at the true increase in value due to stock market appreciation.  This total increase equated to 1.14% during the month, which was in line with the S&P 500’s increase of 1.5% and ahead of the Dow Jones’ increase of .08%.  However, I would hardly call this a major victory.

Summary

Similar to my April 2016, this was a boring month for investing.  With only one major stock purchase, the majority of my other dividend increases were a result of dividend re-investment.   There is nothing better than seeing the power of dividend re-investing working its magic, right?

Did you have a nice month of May?  Do you think comparing my portfolio’s performance against the major indices provides and value?  How well did your portfolio perform during the month?  Did you receive any dividend increases from companies during the month that were noteworthy?

-Bert

43 thoughts on “Bert’s May 2016 Dividend Income Summary

  1. Hey Bert. Glad to hear you had a great month – look forward to hearing what happened. Good job this month and on the double digit dividend growth. Two digits are so nice, eh? 1/3rd is nothing to scoff at. 🙂

    DB

    • Thanks Dividend Beginner! Couldn’t be happier with the month and my results, especially considering that this was an “off month” in terms of companies paying dividends. Regardless…I’ll take it! Did you have a good month of May??

      Bert

  2. After reading few reports about monthly income for may it looks like the all the blogger have T and pg .Good to be part of those companies.Nice growth from last year .

  3. Great growth rate over the year. You are very focused and getting a huge progress. Mine is growing pretty well. It is amazing to see the progress when we are focused. Wish you all the best with your journey!

    Cheers!

    BeSmartRich

    • BeSmartRich,

      Thank you very much. When we focus on things and are determined, it is pretty hard to stop us. It is like getting in front of a moving train haha Excited to read your report when it is published.

      Bert

  4. Congrats on a fantastic month. Did you get married in May? I know the date was coming up, but I wasn’t sure if it was in May. Also the Cavs are in the finals, so it’s a good month for you there as well. Nice YoY growth in dividend income. You and Lanny have been working hard adding stocks and it’s really paying off. Excellent month.

    • Oops. I forgot to mention my May dividend income I finished May with $452.58 in dividends :-). I’m looking forward to a possible record month in June. It will be close.

    • You stumbled on it IH! We were married the final week of May. I can’t believe you remembered that. The Cavs have made for quite the exciting last two weeks, especially with that Raptors series. Hopefully that woke them up.

      Thanks for the kind words about the dividend income. It is nice to see all of this hard work, research, and drive to invest as much as possible pay off in the long run. Congrats on the great month on your end! Looking forward to seeing you set a new bar in June. Isn’t the game of dividend investing a blast.

      Bert

  5. Good month Bert! I track my performance against the S&P since it’s more broad based. Not as important in the distribution phase except to monitor my ability to beat it. If I can’t, it’s probably time to migrate to index investing 🙂

  6. That’s a crazy YOY growth rate Bert! Solid income and solid plan. I assume you got married? Congrats man, there’s to a great new life together!

    Haven’t tallied our May dividend yet (will do that tomorrow probably), but our dividend income should be over $1,000 once again. 😀

    • Thanks Tawcan! I was pretty darn happy with the dividend growth. I definitely didn’t get that raise from my employer over the same period. I did get married last weekend. Looking forward to many more years of happiness down the pipeline.

      Looking forward to reading your article and seeing how you managed to crush $1,000 once again! Man I am pretty jealous of you haha

      Bert

    • Thank you very much Thias! Capital appreciation is 1.B compared to measuring dividend income. Very important as well and you need your portfolio to appreciate if you ever plan on retiring early!

      Bert

  7. Great results for the month of May. You are definitely doing the right thing with your investments as your year over year growth shows. Also nice job of capturing the CZNC dividend before the ex-date. I know there are some that exclusively trade using a dividend capture model. Look forward to seeing where you plan to deploy your June cash. I’m still on the fence about where to invest this month. Thanks for sharing.

    • Thanks Divhut! I would love to read more about others trading with the dividend capture model. Didn’t realize that was a thing but it sounds very interesting. Plus, it is right up our alley haha

      I have a hunch June is going to be a record setting month for a lot of us and we are going to have some fun deploying our cash (hopefully at least). You have a very solid watch list based on your article, so if you pick one of those companies you won’t go wrong.

      Take care!

      Bert

  8. Awesome month for you Bert. Congrats on being a married man bud. That’s wicked news bro. Now you can build wealth twice as fast 🙂 LOL… sorry sorry, I’m always thinking about money 😛
    Thanks for sharing your dividend income report. Keep it up alright bud. Give it some time and it’s only gonna explode. I promise you. Don’t stop! Cheers my friend.

    • HUSTLER!!

      haha I love that you are always thinking about money. Guess what….so are we hahaha And you aren’t wrong, there should be some extra money thrown towards investing in the coming months as we iron out or budget and finalize our combined financial plan.

      Thanks for the kind words about the investing report as well. I’m waiting for it to take off and I have a hunch it will soon. Now, we just wait for the right moment to strike and let the power of dividend re-investing play its course.

      Have a great weekend Ty…Go Cavs!!

      Bert

  9. Hi Bert,
    Congrats on your wedding and on the excellent income progress this month! It’s fantastic to see 🙂

    I’m always curious about comparisons against the S&P and the reasoning behind it – why did you decide to include this? What do you hope it will show?

    Does it add value as is? I’m leaning towards probably not. You’re likely giving an unfair advantage to the Indexes since your results will be reduced by trading fees and the S&P index itself is purely theoretical without any fees. The Dow in particular is a price-weighted index so it’s not a great benchmark to reference.

    If you’re trying to gauge how on track your portfolio is, then perhaps more useful comparisons might be the dividend growth of your portfolio vs the dividend growth of the S&P or perhaps dividend income / yield or something like that. You’re likely to come out ahead on those kind of comparisons, and they’re more inline with your investment objectives I think.

    While I hope you get great results and crush the index; the main potential downside I see is a behavioral / emotional cost. Does it mean anything to you if the S&P continually beats your total return performance in each of the next 6 / 12 / 18 months in a row? And if you only compare on a month on month basis, beating the index in one month may look great but ignores the cumulative performance of the previous months/year – for example you already need to beat the S&P index by +0.36% this month to get back on track.

    To be transparent, I do compare my portfolio as a whole vs a Total Stock Market index fund just to see how I might have done in an alternate universe. This is a complete “apples to potatoes” comparison (more extreme than oranges) in my case because I’m comparing a mixed Cash / US stock / International Stock / Bond portfolio to a 100% US stock fund. The results aren’t actionable for me; I’m mostly just playing with how to calculate “growth of $10,000” type charts. I also did a more detailed 4-year comparison of my purchases vs a dividend index fund which gave me confidence to adjust my investing strategy and I buy fewer individual stocks now as a result to save my time & energy.

    Best wishes,
    -DL

    • Thank you very much Dividend Life. I appreciate the feedback here as well. The comment was awesome, so I am going to try my best to break the answer into pieces here. If I missed one point or two, I apologize in advance.

      Why did I add the comparison this month/What am I hoping it would show? – Honestly, I wanted to take a look at appreciation this month to see how I tracked against the broader market. In the past, I have focused on dividend income solely. But that is one piece of the overall equation (albeit it is a major piece of the equation and the main focus on the website). I am hoping it would show me if there is something off in my portfolio that should cause me to dive into further and determine if a re-balancing is in order. For example, if the S&P 500 performed average but oil tanked, if I were too over weight in oil my portfolio would have performed well below the S&P. But I am not going to over-react if my portfolio was in line or performed a little different than the overall market. Plus, I thought it would be a fun change of pace this month compared to previous monthly dividend income reports.

      Very fair point about tracking the market performance. I was thinking of switching it up to a YTD performance in the coming months to avoid the short-term comparisons that you mentioned in your comments. Another change I might make is comparing my portfolio to the S&P and a Vanguard dividend index fund to address one of your main concerns. I don’t have a great reason for throwing the DOW in there. We all know the shorfalls of the Dow index, so I will Mutumbo that out of my monthly report going forward.

      I appreciate your feedback DL and the fact that you took the time to leave this comment. It was very helpful and will make my reports better going forward. Hopefully you have a great weekend!

      Bert

  10. Hey Bert,
    Congrats on your marriage and the 33% yoy increase in dividends for May. May must have been a superb month for you guys 😉
    Take care!

  11. Awesome! I got married too in May but had a negative month in my monthly update. Isnt it great to have a wife now? I have never been more excited to the future then I am now. I love it!

    • Cash Flow…. CONGRATS ON THE MARRIAGE!! Wasn’t it awesome??? Having a wife is awesome and I’m with you, I am so excited about what the future has in store for us. There is only one thing I am still getting used to in regards to this whole marriage thing….wearing a ring. I can’t stop messing around with it. Doesn’t feel natural just yet since I never wore one in my life. I’m sure I will get used to it soon and forget that it is even there.

      Bert

  12. 33 percent income increase is realy good. Indeed, the power of compounding at work!

    When comparing to an index, You should also compare the risk you take. Personally, I do not look at my performance against the index. I look at the progress compared to my plan. My asset allocation should allow me to sleep at night. That means some low risk low retrun investments.

    • AmberTreeLeaves,

      Thank you very much! Compounding is the 8th wonder of the world after all haha Thanks for sharing what you do in terms of tracking your index performance. I’m still on the fence about how much I will continue to do this going forward. If it doesn’t provide value to me or others, then I have no problem removing it from the article. But we will see how it goes!

      Have a great weekend!

      Bert

    • Thanks trainer! T has definitely appreciated in price over the last year or so. Heck, I remember when it hovered around $32 per share for a really long time. You’ll find the right time to initiate a position, but in the meantime, there are plenty of other great Atistocrats out there begging for you to initiate a position haha Did you have a strong month as well???

      Bert

  13. Congrats on your big increase in dividend income. My May was a 46 percent increase over a quarter ago. More shares of AT & T and Apple, along with a dividend increase in the latter, led to the nice raise. I’m pretty sure that I can’t keep up that rate indefinitely, but it’s pretty cool to see, to say the least. Congrats on the marriage, as well.

    • Thanks Chris! Nice job on the 46% quarterly increase. Adding to your stake in a heavy hitter like T will definitely do that for you. Of course your rate will revert back to an average at some point. But for now, celebrate the great rates like this and keep aiming to maintain these rates as long as freaking possible.

      Bert

  14. Hey Bert, huge congrats on getting married. It’s the best decision you’ll ever make, and your wife is the best investment of your time & money (every single day) 🙂

    Even though you say it’s a boring month; those are the best ones! That’s a solid increase for a quiet month, nice job beating the index too, that’s all you can do.

    Tristan

    • Tristan! Thank you very much. Two weeks in and I can guarantee you that this is the best decision/investment decision I ever made. In terms of dividend investing, boring is best. I will take boring every day over exciting.

      Bert

  15. Congrats on the good news this month….on all fronts!!

    I just picked up some additional Altria (MO) stock ahead of the ex-dividend date. This company continues to amaze me year in and year out. I’m done trying to understand it, I’m piling more into it for the ride now.

    • Thanks FI Champion! Great move picking up Altria before the ex-date. I love the move. Sometimes, it is best to not over think and investment and just buy a solid company. If you really want to own the company and collect dividend checks, then go and get it. Congrats on adding to your income like that.

      Bert

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