Bert’s November Dividend Income Summary

The crazy, turbulent month of November 2016 has finally come to a close.  But you know what November coming to a close means, right?  The best darn dividend month of the year is set to begin and I am as intrigued as every what December will have in store for us.   Before I begin looking too far forward, it is time to summarize the past month and the dividend income I earned.  How did I perform compared to November 2015 and was I able to achieve a higher year over year dividend growth rate compared to Lanny?  Time to find out!

dividend income

November dividend income and analysis

nov-16

In November, I earned $160.19 in dividend income.  What sucks is the fact that my dividend income decreased 9.34% compared to the prior year.  What the heck!  Looks like Lanny crushed my performance this year since he was able to sport a 9.52% increase in November.  Nice job Lanny, you may have won our fake competition this month, but there will be plenty of other chances for me to strike in 2017.  Watch out!   I was upset about the decrease for about two seconds, and then I realized the decrease was purely cosmetic and the devil was in the detail for my performance this month.  You know, for only receiving dividends from six companies this month, I have an awful lot of explaining to do.  Here are the major events that impacted my November dividend income summary.

  • I mentioned this event in my October dividend income summary article last month as well because it had the opposite impact.  In 2015, the newly merged Kraft-Heinz broke from their trend of paying a dividend in first month of the quarter by distributing their dividend in November versus October.  It made my growth rate in October 2016 look higher than it actually was and now, my dividend growth rate appears lower because of it.  If I do not consider KHC, it would have swung my dividend growth rate for the month from a negative 9.34% to a positive 3.1%.   So yeah, I would say this one-time event had quite the impact.
  • I’ll get the negative out-of-the-way before I start discussing the positives.  This will thankfully be the final time that I have to mention the KMI dividend cut that sent shockwaves through the dividend investing community when their dividend cut was announced around this time last month.   The company has been performing well since this time last year and their balance sheet is much stronger as a result of a cut.  Still, the impact to my income in the short-term definitely stung.
  • Now, onto HCP.  While their dividend income appears to have decreased compared to last month, it was not due to a dividend cut.  Rather, this was the first month of the highly anticipated spin-off QCP.  So naturally HCP’s dividend is going to appear lower as a result of the transaction.  QCP has not announced the amount or date of their quarterly dividend payments yet, so I will hold off on further assessment until those details emerged.  The dividend is the final piece of the puzzle that is missing from this transaction and I am eagerly awaiting QCP’s first dividend announcement.

  • I’ve mentioned it every month so far in 2016, so I won’t elaborate on this point any more.  At the beginning of the year, I sold 3 mutual funds and one of them was a monthly dividend payer.  Thus, I did not receive my pocket change from OIEIX this month.
  • I did mention there would be a positive bullet point earlier, right?  Last but not least, the positive changes for the month.  My investment in two community banks over the last 12 months has really paid off.   The payouts I received from Citizens and Northern (CZNC) and Norwood Financial (NWFL) increased tremendously in a short period of twelve months.  What’s nuts is that I am receiving over 2 new shares of CZNC each quarter as a result of my re-invested dividend, even after the community banking industry has taken off.   CZNC pays a $1.04/share annual dividend, so each quarter, I am adding over $2.08 to my forward dividend income total.  May not seem like a lot, but that $2.08/share could buy me an additional .10 shares of the company, which further accelerates the DRIP!  Seeing my quarterly dividend from CZNC is one of the main reasons I started subscribing to the “purchasing stock in intervals of at least $3,000” philosophy that Lanny wrote about last year.  Man, once you get the dividend snowball rolling, it is hard to stop.

 summary

The past isn’t the only thing that has me excited as I reflect back on the prior month and November had a lot of memorable activities as well.   I look forward to including Realty Income in my monthly dividend income summaries going forward since I purchased shares in the company at the beginning of the month.  Further, that purchase help me knock out a 2016 goal as the purchase helped push my forward annual dividend income above $3,250.  Nothing is more motivating to me than seeing these kind of results on a monthly basis and I cannot wait to review each of your summaries in the coming weeks.   I truly believe that we are all on the right path and in the process of making amazing things happen.   Developing this passive income stream can help you accomplish a lot, whether it is covering most of your monthly expenses to helping pay down your student loans/other debts.  And the more I see the monthly payouts increase (Despite the fact my income appeared to decreases 9% this month, my dividend income would have increased without the KHC timing difference), the more motivated I become.  So let’s make the best of our final month of 2016 and set the table for an amazing 2017!

Did you have a record-setting November?  Were you bit by the KHC timing difference as well?  What stocks are you watching/targeting for December?  Are you ready for an insane December in terms of dividend income??

-Bert

23 thoughts on “Bert’s November Dividend Income Summary

  1. You can’t help when companies switch months but the good thing is it adds to another month so it all ends up good. Next year at this time you will be back in positive year over year gains for the month
    Keep it up

    • Doug,

      You’re right, I don’t own enough shares to be able to convince management not to make such moves haha You’re right, I’m hoping 2017 will bring forward a nice consistent flowing dividend stream so I can spend more times writing about the important changes in my portfolio versus explaining one-off differences like these away.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Bert

    • Exactly. It sucked this month, but I was able to benefit from the bump last month. In the end, it is all positive as I still received a growing income stream from KHC. Hopefully that is the end of the one off monthly dividend changes and I am back rolling again in December! I cannot wait to start tallying my income this month.

      Bert

  2. Nothing to sneeze at when you take into account the KMI and KHC issues. Pretty impressive returns that would allow you to take off about 9 hours from a regular job (at an estimated wage of $20/hour–about average for the US). That’s a whole day of freedom if you look at it that way. Onward and upward.

    • Chris,

      Right, I had some strong headwinds to overcome this month, that’s for sure. That’s the perfect mindset and I love the positive way to look at dividend income. Income gave me one day off and now is the journey to 30 or 31 of those.

      Onward and upward!

      Bert

  3. Bert – I wouldn’t get too fussed about the one month decline. If it is any consolation, I was down in November almost 18%! This was because November is typically one of my slower dividend paying months (the others being Feb, May, & Aug), and I sold a couple of stocks which paid nice dividends in November 2015. Hence the year over year decline. Despite this, for the year I am still slightly ahead of my projected dividend increase pace for 2016, so all is good (except for the fact that my Winnipeg Jets are throwing up all over themselves, but that is a story for another forum…).

    • Dining on Dividends,

      I’m excited to see what stocks you purchased with the funds you received from the sale. Sounds like you are in store for fluctuation similar to mine. Which stocks did you end up selling as well? It has been a few years since I followed hockey closely, so I had to check the standings here. Looks like Winnepeg is still in the playoff picture with a lot of hockey left, one point out of last place. There is always room for sports talk on this forum!

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Bert

  4. Good job Bert! A more than 3% increase when making the right adjustments. Nice!
    I also like how you motivate fellow bloggers in the summary. Message received 🙂
    Can’t wait for writing my own December summary and reading yours.

    • Thanks DIB! Glad I can motivate you in the way others in this community have motivated me over the years. Looking forward to seeing how crazy this December is going to be and seeing you and others CRUSH some dividend income records.

      Bert

  5. Solid dividend income. For the statistics of a month, a dividend month switch is a bitch. ????
    I expect a nice increase in your income in november 2017 if you keep up the good work. And you’ll beat Lanny then.

    Cheers,

    Pollie

    • Pollie,

      Thanks! Hoping 2017 is coming quickly and I cannot wait to see the results start to trickle in. The dividend switch sucked, but I can’t be upset about it. Still received my dividend after all, so I’ll deal with the “annoyance” of the change in monthly payoff 🙂

      Bert

  6. While it’s rare to see negative year over changes in our dividend income, November was easily explained by the KHC shift is dividend distributions. It doesn’t matter what month the dividends roll in as long as they keep rolling in. Still, a respectable amount making its way into your portfolio all in a passive manner… and what’s not to like about that? Great update. Thanks for sharing.

    • Right, you hit the important thing right on the head. What matters is that I received the dividend income from KHC. Will I really remember 10 years from now that once I received a dividend in October versus November….HECK NO! Just another chapter here in this amazing book we are all writing. Looking forward to reading your update as well.

      Bert

  7. It’s never great to see a month decline y/y but it’s no big deal as long as the overall yearly trend is up! You can’t control who’s paying when and sometimes you sell stuff that pays in one month to buy stuff that pays in another.

    • TIMB,

      Exactly. I’m still trending in the right direction when I take a step back and look at the full picture. That is the one downside of the monthly summary, but what can you do? haha As much as I wish I had Warren’s influence over KHC and their dividend, I have accepted the fact that I am a victim of their final decisions and my input will not be considered! Have a great weekend.

      Bert

  8. Despite the decreased year-over-year November payout, it still was $160 that you didn’t have to work for. Plus, you’re setting yourself up for success in the future. Keep up the good work!

    Scott

  9. Darn, too bad not all months can be winners, eh? Still, it’s another $160!
    But considering your persistance, I have a gut feeling you will be doing just fine moving forward!
    Best of luck next month.

Leave a Reply

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