One of the best months of dividend income to report. As dividend investors, we love the quarter ends, due to being the most popular month, as well as an even better month for those that have mutual funds and/or ETFs. The busy season is slowly slowing down, gosh I wish it would end, but dividend income always keeps me at least going for the time being.
Dividend Income
I received a total of $424.15 of dividend income in April. This is slightly up, but could have been even higher, but one company changed their timing of the dividend, offset by one new addition to my April listing. Outside of that, everything went smooth, with dividends coming and being reinvested. The 401(k), Health Savings Account (HSA) and all dividends are automatically invested/reinvested and helps take the emotion out of timing & making a decision. Also, to find out why I max out my 401(k) and HSA – please refer to the 3rd part of my tax series, as that describes the magnitude of benefits to increase the amount you can invest due to reduction in taxes.
Here we have a solid 11 different entities sending checks to me this month (same number from last year). The new face in this line up is Cisco (CSCO), whom I purchased on two separate occasions last year. One name is off the list, as they slid into quarter-ends, was DowDuPont (DWDP). Solid names here, that have had a few solid dividend increases thus far, this year.
Similarly, I have split out between the individual stock amounts and the retirement accounts, as the ” – R” indicates a retirement account dividend (or the furthest column to the right). I separate these two, as I like to know what portion of my dividend income is coming from those retirement accounts that I cannot touch until 59.5 (barring any other usage rule I could use). Here, it shows that I received a total of $48.25 (up from $35.45 last year) or 11% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 89% was from my individual taxable account portfolio. Additionally, this shows from retirement accounts that I’m all ready for my set it and forget it mentality to keep that income going. To see my portfolio – one can go to our portfolio summary page.
Dividend Income Year Over Year Comparison
2017: 
2018: 
Here’s the lineup! Every single company that is on both periods, has higher dividend income. It’s fun seeing this, no doubt. Realty Income (O) is higher due to a new purchase made earlier in the year. Therefore, I am starting to see the fruit from the infusion there. Dividend increases have been strong and steady, and I expect this to continue, going forward. Year over year, I experienced a 15.51% growth in dividend income received. Maintaining that same growth rate would produce $490 next year. However, the goal is to always BEAT the bar you just RAISED. Now… we know this is a heavy dividend increase month, so how did that turn out?
dividend increases
A month wouldn’t be a month without high quality companies increasing their dividend! See the small chart below for the details on the dividend increases announced this month that are holdings in my portfolio.
Here we go! As Bert mentioned in his recent article – there were quite a few dividend increases expected in April! The fun part was this: Tuesday I had IBM, Wednesday was Grainger (GWW) and then Thursday was Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). Those were some exciting days and a much better week : ) However, the most exciting announcement was Kinder Morgan (KMI) getting back into the dividend increase game! I don’t expect 60% increases, at all, going forward, but nice to see their capital strategy has begun to work for them. Further, loved that Procter & Gamble (PG) came in with a better than prior year dividend increase (4% vs. 3%). It looks like, though, IBM’s dividend growth prospects may be starting to slow down here, as they continue to transform their business. $77.74 added would equate to, at 3.50% yield, an investment required of $2,221! That allow speaks to the power of dividend growth at it’s finest! Thank you dividend aristocrats and other dividend growth announcements!
Dividend Income Conclusion & Summary
The name of the game is to learn and act in the right manner to what you have learned. The plan is to maximize every dollar for investment opportunities and live a balanced life. My hope is that my month of dividend income above shows the community that one can use dividend income as a revenue engine to take back control of your life. Dividend investing, once you learn the right way, becomes easier to do and starts to make quite a bit of sense : )
As I discussed with my updated – normal monthly expenditures at the moment, this dividend income would cover over 43% of my average $984 monthly expense for my house, including utilities. This would substantially cover my utilities and groceries, no doubt! In similar fashion – all of the investing from last year and moves this year, shows that my aim to save 60% of my income, and making every dollar count, has allowed promising results already this year.
Another month down and it was a fun, record-setting April! I am sure there are many more who established new highs for the month and even for your lifetime, to this point. April is such a fun dividend increase month, to which I would assume that most of you experienced or benefited from April’s announcements. I am excited to read the comments and thank you, the community, for stopping by; as you are helping me on my journey to financial freedom!