Bert’s May Dividend Income Summary

We are swiftly approaching the halfway mark for 2018.  Man oh man, where has time gone?   Lanny, like so many of you already, published his May Dividend Income report and crushed it.  He earned almost $500 in dividend income and posted a 30% dividend increase!  Nice freaking job Lanny.  That’s how you crush it right there.  I’ve spent some time compiling my results here.  Let’s see if my May dividend income summary was as strong as Lanny’s!

dividend income

May Dividend Income Summary

This May, I earned $343.59 in dividend income.  That represents a 24.70% increase from the previous year!  Here is a detailed breakdown of my results:

Did anyone else notice something strange about my detailed chart?  I was able to produce a 24.70% increase without initiating any new positions.   I received dividends from the same 10 companies in May 2018 that I did in May 2017.   The year-over-year increase was the direct result of good old fashioned dividend re-investment, a few dividend increases (Thanks KMI for the HUGE 60% dividend increase) and several purchases that increased my stake in companies that I already owned.  Here were the summary of the purchases that impacted my May dividend that were made in the last 12 months:

May Portfolio News and Dividend Increases

In this section, I’ll review two different ways that my forward dividend income will increase during the month: dividend increases and investment activity.   The first table I will review is the dividend increases during the month.  In April, I received an additional $66 in annual dividend income due to dividend increases alone.  The leader of the pact last month was KMI, which you saw the benefit of their massive dividend increase in the table in the first section of the article.  The following table shows the dividend increases I received in May.

Let’s just say that May was a little underwhelming, since I only received one small 3% dividend increase from Cardinal Health.  It added $3.84 to my forward income.  I’ll never complain about receiving additional dividend income though, especially since I didn’t have to lift a finger to earn the extra $3.84 in income!  One thing to note is that I purchased LEG at the tail end of the month, after the company announced their dividend increase.  Since I did not own shares of LEG prior to their dividend announcement, I did not include them in the table above.

This next table will show the additional forward dividend income I received from stock purchases and 401k contributions.  I love putting this chart together because the numbers get large quickly, especially now that my wife and I are maximizing our 401k contributions during the year.  It is really exciting to see the consistent, massive contributions that are made each paycheck.

I cannot believe I was fortunate enough to add over $300 in dividend income this month from purchases.  The two purchases I made this month, PEP and LEG, added quite the punch to my forward dividend income as each of the purchases added triple-digit dividend income to my portfolio.  My HSA contributions slowed down this month compared to previous months (VITSX) because I had medical expenses to pay.  My HSA investment account is set up where it will invest all contributions in a mutual fund once your HSA cash balance is $1,000.  Since I had to cover expenses, my cash balance was reduced, and my contributions did not bring my balance to $1,000.  Oh well.  Hopefully I will begin investing soon in this account!

Summary

The fun part of dividend investing is seeing the results of your saving and hard work pay-off.  I am excited as heck that I was able to see my dividend income increase 24.7%.  But what has me even more excited was the fact that I was able to add over $320 in forward dividend income during the month.  We say it all the time, but this continues to show me that every single dollar really does count on your journey to financial freedom.  June is going to be a fun month, and I cannot wait to start seeing the dividends trickle in.

How was your month of May?  What was your dividend income total?  Did you post a strong growth rate as well?  What stock paid you the highest dividend this month?  What companies announced a dividend increase for you?

Bert

32 thoughts on “Bert’s May Dividend Income Summary

  1. Hi Bert, So far this year I feel like I’m having a very good performance form dividend increases. Many of the companies I own have broken to the upside versus past dividend increase trends. This is great and I think you may be seeing it with your holdings. As long as I can avoid a dreaded dividend cut, I think it’s going to be a really good year for increasing income my favorite way – dividend increases. Tom

    • Tom,

      I would agree, your progress has been excellent and I’ve enjoyed reading your monthly updates 🙂 This community has done an excellent job pushing the envelope this year and the results are really starting to show. I would agree, I am finally starting to realize that trend as well, so I’m getting pretty darn excited if you ask me. Dividend Cuts will happen and sadly, you can’t really see them coming sometimes. However, even with an isolated cut, you are still going to crush it this year!

      Bert

  2. Hey Bert – nice recap and progress!

    As mentioned to Lanny, you guys continue to make great gains (and, as also stated to Lanny, sorry about the Cavs… Mrs. BD is there with you guys). The increased / future dividends you also highlighted will also be a nice, ongoing boost to forward income.

    Overall, May was decent for us. Still slow in the first and second months of each quarter, but T helped us a bit in May. More to hopefully come soon. – Mike

    • Thank you very much Mike! I appreciated the kind words. I hope your wife is hanging in there. I was with Lanny for Game 4 and we both didn’t talk very much at the end. It’ll be interesting to see what LeBron decides to do in the coming weeks. T has helped us all out all over the place haha

      Bert

  3. Bert,

    Great month – considering it’s an ‘off month’. June will no doubt be even better!

    One question… what does the ‘W’ mean in the stock name of certain stocks in your first table?

    Keep it up!
    Tall Investing

    • Tall Investing,

      Thank you very much! I hope you’re right about June haha The W stands for W. These holdings are in my wife’s account, so I try to show which holdings belong to which account. I guess in the end it doesn’t matter, but I enjoy reporting the separately.

      Bert

  4. Bert good job that combined T really is a heavy hitter. Adding over 300.00 in dividend income is awesome also that will really grow in the future. Keep it up.

  5. 300$ in forward income is just a monster amount, congratulations Bert! Great too see your progress as well.

    For me another personal record with €26,14 which about covers my internet/tv/telephone provider costs!

    I’ve made two purchases this month which I will highlight in a future post!

  6. Hey Bert,

    25% y/y is pretty awesome when you’re talking about numbers in the hundreds as a starting point. Nice to see those increases come through as well and I’m looking forward to seeing that help the future totals. Here’s looking forward to a nice June!

    • TITM,

      I appreciate the kind words. I’m getting pretty darn excited about the second half of the year and what that is going to bring to all of us. I have a hunch we are going to see records left and right here!

      Bert

  7. Hey, Bert. I’m with you on the dividend raise. CAH was my lone one as well. We’ll just have to rectify that situation in June!
    Congrats on another good month. What stood out to me… your added forward dividend income number blew the doors off your dividend house. That’s what we are talking about… what a way to enhance your future paydays.
    Nice to see the full power of those O purchases from earlier in the year, too.
    Until next time, Bert… take care.

    • ED,

      We already have TGT’s small raise, so maybe we are on our way to getting this fixed haha I really appreciate the kind words and I love the house analogy. We are all just crushing it this year and are setting the tone for a pretty darn impressive dividend house haha

      Bert

  8. Nice month as always. Happy to be a fellow shareholder on a few companies. Gotta love dividend increases. I have done the same thing and been adding to a lot of my positions in this market rather than starting new ones. They build up faster when they are larger and who knows when most of these companies will be trading at a discount again. Nice to see you taking advantage of the market as well with a few buys to increase your positions. The strategy is working. Keep it going!

  9. Great stuff Bert! Your dividends increased by nearly $75 YoY and with all that capital you put to work increasing your forward dividends that’s just that much better. I really like the PEP purchase that you made and should have scrounged up some cash to add a bit to my position when it dipped below $100. That 3.5% yield is still enticing and I just might scoop up some shares although there’s a few potential candidates that are on my radar.

    • Thank you JC! I appreciate the kind words. I was very happy with the PEP purchase and the fact I was able to catch the price under $100. I have my eye looking out for it to happen again and if it does, I may add to my position. I’ve watched the company for years, and it was rare to catch it at that price/yield. What other companies are on your radar?

      Bert

      • Bert,
        JNJ and PEP both look good here and I recently added shares of SJM to my portfolio. I wouldn’t mind adding some more MO to my portfolio but that will be if the share price falls to the low $50s. I only have enough cash for 1 smaller purchase but I’m looking forward to putting it to work.

        • JC,

          I’m kicking myself for not picking up SJM when the price temporarily dipped below $100. That is a company that has always been on my radar and the 3% yield is pretty sweet for them. Enjoy that stock my friend!!

          Bert

  10. You just keep chugging along. You put up a solid double digit year over year gains which just goes to show that all aspects DGI can help move the snowball along: 1) adding fresh capital, 2) reinvestment 3) dividend raises. As always, I’m happy to read the consistent buying too which no doubt will continue to boost your total returns. I looked at LEG a long, long time ago but never added to my portfolio. Perhaps that’s a name for me to consider too.

    • Divhut,

      Thank you very much. I didn’t think of it like that, but you’re right, it was a fundamental dividend growth investing at its finest. I’ve really enjoyed the consistent purchasing, which isn’t something I’ve always done. I’m very excited for the second half of the year to see how it plays out.

      Bert

  11. Bert congrats on what appears to be another solid month and a double-digit increase from last year. It’s always awesome to see that dividend snowball machine pulling in the most weight in your overall results. Looking forward to continuing to follow your progress Bert.

  12. Bert, That increase in O is awesome! and makes it even better it’s going to be that much higher every month! Congrats! Also, My goodness you put some money to work this month with the LEG and PEP purchases. 2 very strong companies!!

    • Thanks Money Hungry! Much appreciated. I am loving this increased O dividend, that’s for sure. I’m really excited to receive this first PEP dividend at the end of the month and LEG at the beginning of July. That will be SWEET!!

      Bert

  13. Fantastic 24% YoY!!! You are doing fantastic, Bert! Mine was only about 16% YoY. May is underwhelming. Last year June was a WHOPPER of a month, hopefully it will be the same.

Leave a Reply

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