So Lanny jumped the gun a little bit when he posted his November dividend income summary last week.  Hey Lanny…news flash….November ended yesterday, not last week.  Who knows, maybe he had too much turkey on Thanksgiving and forgot that the month wasn’t actually over.  Now that November has officially come to a close and we enter the FINAL month of 2015, it is time to take a look at the dividends received in November and check my progress compared to the previous quarter and year.  As a community, we have made amazing strides as evidence through our monthly summary of dividend income from around the community.  So let’s see if we could keep the momentum rolling in November!

Dividend Income Summary

This November I received $176.70 in dividend income, which represents a 34.10% increase from the same month in the third quarter and a 52.49% increase from 2014.   Heck yeah!  Months like these serve as extra motivation to keep on going and keep on grinding as I am starting to finally see and feel the impact of this journey towards financial freedom.  While I didn’t receive a dividend from too many companies, unlike September where it seems like every company pays in the third quarter of each month, there were a few key transactions over the last year that have set the table for the growth rates shown above.  Here are some of the highlights:

• In October, I finally decided to take advantage of the decrease in KMI’s stock price and average-down my cost basis in the oil & gas giant.   That month, I purchased 40 shares of KMI, which added $81 of annual forward dividend income.   The timing of this purchase could not have been better and I scooped up shares a few days before the ex-dividend date, allowing me to capture the November dividend  As you can see above, this purchase nearly doubled the quarterly income I receive from KMI!  Plus, as I mentioned in my purchase article, the receipt and re-investment of the $50 dividend pushed me over the 100 share mark.  This is the first individual stock that I own with a three figure share count and man is it a cool feeling.  It just makes me want to own 100 shares in every company that is in my portfolio.  If only I had unlimited capital…
• As discussed in my October dividend income summary article, the recently merged Kraft-Heinz Company (KHC) switched the month it paid a dividend from October to November.  I took the hit last month but received the benefit from this transaction in November.   The net impact on my annual dividend income is $0 though, so this switch was just a formality.  I won’t complain too much about this, I just wish my full increase came from investing in a new company versus a company that I own changing the month it paid a dividend.
•  The transaction I am going to highlight feels like it happened ages ago and I can barely remember it.  But back in January I sold my stake in ARCP for a loss and re-invested the capital I received from the sale in three companies:  HCP, CZNC, and NWFL.  The former two are rock solid community banks that pay a great dividend!  This transaction happened in February, so if you want to see the impact compare the November 2015 and 2014 columns in the chart above. 

Dividend Increases

November was a busy month for companies announcing dividend increases.  While we received some nice increases, the reality of lower annual dividend increases set further in as several large companies announced smaller than anticipated dividend increases.  A stark reminder that a dividend is never guaranteed, let alone a dividend increase.  The following list represents the dividend increases I received during this last month:

• McDonalds –  The long-awaited announcement from McDonalds resulted in a $.04/share, or 4.7%, increase in their quarterly dividend.  What was crazy is that MCD kept us in suspense as they typically announce their dividend increase in September.   Lanny and I checked their investor relations page every day for two-three weeks between 4 PM and 4:30 PM to see if an announcement was made.
• Emerson Electric – Well, EMR kept their streak of dividend increases alive….barely.   EMR announce a measly $.005/share, or 1%, in their quarterly income.   This announcement was disappointing when considering the company had a 7% five year average dividend growth rate when I performed a stock analysis in July.   But a lot changed in the oil industry in that time, which surely impacted their earnings and ability to grow their dividend.
• Kraft-Heinz–  KHC continued their streak of increase their quarterly dividend by $.025/share annually.   The quarterly dividend is now $.575/share, a 4.5% increase.

Summary

11 months down, 1 more to go in 2015.  Man I can’t wait for December to begin.  Not only is it the holiday season, but December is the BEST month for dividend investors as we receive dividends from the majority of companies in our portfolio and capital gains distributions from the mutual funds we own.  I can’t wait to receive my capital gains distributions so I can proceed with my plan to re-rack my mutual fund holdings.  based on the comments and responses I received you all in the investing community.  Thanks for all of your feedback.   I was relatively quiet this month in terms of investing, but hopefully my activity will pick up as I make one final push to knock out my remaining investing goals.   Regardless, all I know is that I can’t complain one bit about the month I had in November.  Any month that sees your dividend income increase, whether it is $.01, $1, or $100 is a great month.  The name of the game is progress!

How were your months of November?  What dividend increases did you receive?  Were they smaller than anticipated or on par with your expectations?  Are you set to defeat your goals in 2015?

-Bert