Another month.  The leaves are changing, Halloween is behind us, and I have officially ate way too much Halloween candy!  My wife and I love the fall season and even had a chance to go apple picking before the weather was too cold and make some fantastic desserts with our haul.  But that’s not the point of this article, is it?  Each month, we like to summarize our results and check out the growth and progress we are making in terms of dividend income.  Lanny kicked off the festivities by announcing a very nice 10.96% increase compared to last year.  Let’s see how well I can perform.  Here is my October Dividend Income summary!

October Dividend Income Summary

In October, my wife and I received $227.53 in dividend income!  This represents a  27.68% year over year increase.  The following chart provides a detailed breakdown of the individual dividends received.  Please note that a “W” represents a dividend received in my wife’s account.  Here is a detailed listing of the individual dividends received:

Here are some quick notes and thoughts about some of the happenings and changes during the month:

• Compared to last year, I received dividends from two new Dividend Aristocrats.  Leggett & Platt and Illinois Tool Works.  I initially purchased LEG in the second quarter and ITW early in the third quarter.   Thus, plenty of time to capture the October dividend.   The beauty is, I’ve taken advantage of dips in price during the last month and continued adding to my positions in LEG and ITW.  So these totals will be growing in January!  On top of it, many of you in the community also purchased ITW.  It’ll be a fun January for all of us.
• It has been highlighted each month, so I won’t beat the same drum too many times.   But my three purchases of Realty Income in January/February continue to pay dividends….literally.  I’ve loved receiving over $20/month from the Monthly Dividend Company.
• No, I didn’t receive a dividend cut from my position in Schlumberger.   When I transferred brokerages from Capital One Investing to Ally Investing, my fractional shares were liquidated.  Frustratingly, it cost me $.20 in dividend income this month.   Bummer.

October Portfolio News and Dividend Increases

In this section, I’ll review two different ways that my forward dividend income increased during the month: dividend increases and investment activity.   In the first table I will review dividend increases.

This month I received three dividend increases.  AEP, one of my rock solid utility investments, led the pack with an 8% increase.  The last two, IRM and WRK, announced their dividend increases at the tail end of the month.  This was after I purchased additional shares in both companies at the end of October.  Much like Lanny, I was able to benefit from these increases and receive an extra $9 annually after the purchase.  In total, I received $14.54 in additional dividend income without having to lift a darn finger.  How can I complain about that??

The second table discloses the forward dividend income added from stock purchases during the month.  This month was crazy and I was able to add almost $280 in dividend income from purchases and 401k contributions.  Armed with free trades and a falling market, I was able to selectively add small chunks of companies and lower my average cost basis when the opportunity was right.   I’ve detailed the purchases in my three purchase articles for the month (Purchase Article 1, Purchase Article 2, and Purchase Article 3).  But overall, I was pretty freaking excited to add $236.82 from individual stock purchases.

Did anyone notice anything different this month compared to the last?  Notice that a few of the mutual funds fell off of the table?  Well, that’s because I changed jobs at the end of September.  Unfortunately, I could not contribute to my 401k plan or HSA for 31 days.  Go figure the blackout period was when the market took a nose dive, right?  But I have registered myself and am ready to go for the rest of the year.  I’m ready to go and hit the ground running next month. Luckily my wife was still contributing and was able to capture some of this downturn in her two monthly contributions.   I still haven’t given up on our mission to maximize our contributions during the year and are still planning on hitting that mark.

All in all, from dividend increases and purchases, I added $293.77 in forward income to my annual dividend income total.

october dividend income summary

I’ve been very fortunate this year and have had the opportunity to experience strong growth in my dividend income and continue to fuel my forward income.  Once again, I’ve left this month with all smiles and am looking forward to seeing what November and December have in store for all of us.  Hopefully Mr. Market continues to present strong buying opportunities and I can add some of the companies on Lanny’s recent November Dividend Stock Watch List to the charts above.   Let’s keep pushing forward and continue to hustle our way towards financial freedom!

Did you have a strong October?  What was your growth rate?  Are you maximizing your 401(k) and HSA contributions during the year?  Are you planning on doing so next year?  What dividend increases did you receive during October?

Bert