We are back with another monthly dividend income summary! In this article, Bert shares his family’s September Dividend Income Summary. See how much he and his wife’s dividend income grew this month!!
Why I Invest in Dividend Stocks
I invest in dividend stocks to grow a my passive income with dividend income. One day, my dividend income will be large enough to cover my monthly expenses and allow us to retire early. That is why we are always relentlessly searching for undervalued dividend stocks to buy. To put our hard earned cash to work.
We save a high percentage of our income each month, to help fuel our dividend stock portfolio. Having a high savings rate is a key pillar of our strategy and helps fuel the fire and push the snowball further down hill. While we are waiting to invest our money in the market, it is earning a high interest rate in accounts. There is NOTHING more critical than maximizing EVERY DOLLAR in your savings account.
READ: How To Maximize Your Cash – 4 Simple Methods!
The 3 primary savings accounts I use are:
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- SoFi – 4.5% APY on all savings accounts (lower for your checking account). The race for deposits is INTENSE! Banks and credit unions are offering great savings rates.
- Capital One 360 Savings – 4.35% APY – We use Capital One for our checking and savings account.
- Weathfront – 5.00% without promotion. 5.5% with an extra .5% by signing up using my referral link (Click Here).
Read: Interest Rates on High Yield Savings Accounts Are SOARING!
How Do We Find Dividend STocks to Buy?
That’s easy. We use our dividend stock screener with every stock purchase! This simple, 3 step stock screener is designed to identify undervalued stocks with a strong payout ratio that have a history of increasing their dividend. Fundamental dividend growth investing at its finest.
Watch: Dividend Diplomats’ Dividend Stock Screener
The three metrics of our screener are:
- Price to Earnings Ratio less than the S&P 500
- Payout Ratio less than 60%
- History of Increasing Dividends
- Dividend Yield (BONUS)
We use this stock screener for each purchase and have consistently done so for 10+ years on our journey to financial freedom!
Bert’s September Dividend Income Summary
We received $3,570.87 in September dividend income. This was a 16.52% dividend increase compared to September 2022. Sure, this wasn’t the 30%+ growth rate we experienced last month. However, how can you not be excited with a 16.5% growth rate in a month that saw your income increase over $500 compare to the same month last year?
This was the third month of the quarter. As such, we received a significant amount of dividend income from ETFs. Therefore, we decided to provide two itemized tables in this article. The first table lists individual dividends received from ETFs and the second table will list all the individual stocks that paid us a dividend.
As always, we share a few observations about our September Dividend Income totals.
Observation #1: I Love the ETF to Stock Ratio of My Dividend Income
The stock and ETF split in the month of September was 45% ETF to 55% stock. This is a great balance between the two different methods of investing.
This percentage was bolstered by a few different things. First, when rolled over an old 401(k) plan into a Rollover IRA, I was not allowed to roll my investment in VIIIX. Therefore, I invested the funds in VOO. This caused a substantial amount of ETF dividend income to move from the third quarter of the month to the first quarter. Thus, it reduced the ETF percentage.
Second, I have been purchasing a larger allocation of individual stocks compared to ETFs over the last few months. We recently published a video discussing the fact that we purchased $2,500 of Realty Income during the third quarter. That’s a huge amount of individual stock income added. Further, we’ve built up our positions in other great dividend growth stocks such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and others.
Going forward, I would love to continue maintaining this dividend income spread. I like the balanced ETF and individual stock approach to my dividend stock portfolio.
Observation #2: Over 10 companies Paid $50+ This Month
After investin for 10+ years, I’ve had the chance to build some larger positions. Through investment, DRIP and dividend increases, we’ve seen our income grow significantly for some of our positions. I counted at least 10 dividend stocks that, between my wife and I, paid us at least $50 in dividend income. The list includes Johnson & Johnson, Target, T.Rowe Price, Pepsi, IBM, Pfizer, Archer Daniels Midland, Exxon Mobil, McDonalds, and 3M Company.
Time, patience, and persistence has allowed us to build these large, individual dividend income stream. I’m looking forward to building the positions over the years as well.
Observation #3: Time to Sell the Small Dividend Payers?
This is something I continue to struggle with as I review my dividend stock portfolio. We had 9 stocks pay us less than $10 this month. Is it time to sell these positions and roll them into a single position? this of course excludes my BAC position that was gifted to me by my late grandmother.
There are a few pros. One of the major pros is that we could eliminate positions to monitor. How nice would it be to not have to think about 5 stocks in your portfolio. Another pro is that we could create a larger dividend from a position we want to continue building and grow our dividend income.
I would love the feedback from all of you on whether or not we should consider selling the small dividend income payers in my portfolio!
Summary
Another month of all smiles here in the Bert household. We were able to add an additional $500 in dividend income compared to last year. In total, you can’t really company about receiving over $3,500 without lifting a finger. See the results and the growth helps make it feel the pursuit feel real. Thank you to everyone that helps encourage us to continue growing our income and investing every dollar possible. Let’s keep building on our September dividend income totals and push towards financial freedom!
How much dividend income did you receive in September? Did you set a record? What is your ETF to individual stock analysis?
Bert