August is already in the midst of wrapping up and I have tallied my dividend income total for the month.  Again, not a typically high month for me as a dividend income investor, but everything has been truly phenomenal and I am grateful for any dollar that I receive for efforts that I had placed in the past.  That’s what the journey is about, to start seeing the fruit from the seeds being planted, weeks, months and years ago.  August, thank you – let’s see what you brought in from the patch.

Dividend Income

This month, I received a total of $287.34.  Not a bad snapshot of my income, seen below, and still had quite a few little soldiers out there bringing me a good/service.  THANK YOU to the companies below.  Words cannot express how I feel that I am able to bring in over $275 this month:

From looking this over, my highest dividend payer is from AT&T, which I own a decently sized position in at over 148 shares now, which the dividend is almost enough for 2 shares of AT&T at their current price levels.  I wanted a nice position in this area, as I believe them to be one of the foundation stocks for a dividend portfolio.

Similarly, I have split out between the individual stock amounts and the retirement accounts, as the ” – R” indicates a Roth IRA dividend (or the furthest column to the right, I forgot the “R” on O).  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 $71.73 or 25% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 75% was from my individual taxable account portfolio.  A soft month for retirement income, don’t really mind if it’s a high or low month, but ultimately would like my dividend income for the retirement accounts to be a set it and forget it mentality.  To see my portfolio – one can go to our portfolio summary page.

Comparison

Now, I look back at 2014 August’s total.  The total then was $180.47.  From a pure percentage stand point, a growth rate of 59%, which as crazy as this seems – I think I can keep that growth going, which computes to a next year amount of $457 for the month.  I think I can do it!  Possibly with new purchases, new dividend reinvestment and dividend growth – I can do this!  11 different companies paid me (again) this month as I had the same amount that paid me last month in July.  These totals and increases make sense, as this month I recently CRUSHED my way over $6,000 in projected income, which can also be attributed to my purchases in Emerson and Norfolk earlier this month.  Love seeing that amount go up, that’s for sure. 

Dividend Income Increases

There was nothing extremely significant this month.  John Deere kept their dividend the same, as well as BBL.  Should be interesting going forward with these 2 stocks.  Hope the dividends come back to being on the increase mode…

Conclusion & Summary

As I discussed back then with my normal monthly expenditures at the moment, this $287 would cover 30.5% of my average $942 monthly expense for my house, including utilities.  This covers my full auto loan payment, which is nice to know.  All of the investing from last year and moves this year, show being frugal to save 60% of my income help me in achieving lofty goals that I set in place for my 2015 year.  I am looking forward to my favorite time period – a quarter month end in September, as it will be a challenge if I could beat my June dividend income of $844!  Thankful and happy to reflect on this month from all of the hardwork.  How did your August month’s go?  Did you crush your goals?  Did you beat last year’s?  Anything unusual happen?  Please share!  Thanks everyone

-Lanny