This month, I received a total of $360.59 of dividend income, not too bad, but not amazingly high. Quite an even spread in the number of players and even amounts amongst the retirement and taxable accounts (Retirement accounts are on the right side):
Caterpillar (CAT) had a nice punch this month, as well as HCP and National Gridd (NGG). Overall, not a crazy month in dividend income amounts, but a stellar amount nonetheless.
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 must have left the “R”‘s off this month). 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 $152.09 or 42% of my income from retirement accounts (up from 25% last year) and the other 58% was from my individual taxable account portfolio. We all know my set it and forget it mentality to keep that retirement income going, as well as my Tax Strategy Part 1, 2 and 3 but also pumped to see that I had 8 companies pay me in my taxable individual account. To see my portfolio – one can go to our portfolio summary page.
dividend income yoy comparison
Something that I like to do now is attach in prior year’s dividend income, which the image is copied in below, with 2015 first and 2016 to follow.
2015:
2016:
AT&T (T) has been a huge difference in my eyes here. The dividend is up $5.29, which is a 7.67% growth year over year. This is a benefit of dividend growth and reinvestment working the magic. Realty Income (O) is up by a nice amount, as well as the other health care reits in Senior Housing (SNH) and Sabra Health (SBRA). For math purposes, the year-over-year growth was 25.49%, which is incredible! With my latest purchase of Citizens & Northern (CZNC), this percentage should only increase next year, and would expect this to be at or over the $400 mark! Cannot wait for time to take it’s course, that’s for sure.
Overall, feel fairly happy with an above 25% growth in the course of the year, given the fact that KInder Morgan (KMI) is on the list, a company that experienced a devastating slash to the dividend payout. If I experience the same growth rate, we are going to be nearing the $450 mark!
Dividend increases
Back on track here! Last month I did not experience or witness any dividend increases, but thankfully, this has changed. I have recorded three dividend increases from Realty Income (O), Scott’s Miracle Grow (SMG) and Kraft-Heinz (KHC). The largest increase has come from SMG at 6.39% and this added $4.74 in projected income. It was great seeing O continue their increases, as thus far I believe their dividend increases in total have soared over 5%, which is a better growth rate than in previous years for the company. Kraft did their standard increase, a little bit early might I add, and I had no complaints here. The $9.26 added would take, at a 3.50% rate, an investment of $265. Therefore, I’ll take the extra added income, thank you dividend paying companies!
dividend income conclusion & Summary
August was a great month! Why would I say that? Fairly easy – I employed my tax saving strategies, which is geared toward retirement accounts that pay dividends on the March/June/September/December months, which has retracted capital from being deployed for companies that pay in August, yet I still received a massive 25% growth rate. Further, I experienced three great companies that increased their dividend, whereas, I published 0 companies in August of 2015. Further, with my new purchase of 81 additional shares into Citizens & Northern (CZNC), this will provide over an additional $21 per quarter beginning in November, which will impact August of 2017.
As I discussed with my NEW updated – normal monthly expenditures at the moment, this $360.59 would cover 37% of my average $984 monthly expense for my house, including utilities; this is also down from last year, due to one-time dividend as mentioned above, but believe with the organic growth – it is trending the right way. All of the investing from last year and moves this year, show being frugal to save 60% of my income, that every dollar counts, has helped me in achieving lofty goals that I set in place for my 2016 year.
How did your August turn out? Bring in a good amount of dividend income? What do you see from my progress above? Any comments, tips, insight or further suggestions are always appreciated! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and thank you for coming by! Talk soon.
-Lanny
Fantastic 25%! Some people give AT&T a hard time because of the weak .01 increases to the dividend every year, but it just goes to show that with a high starting yield and consistent DRIPing, those little raises do add up. Almost 8% increase in dividends from that company is pretty cool. Just imagine if they can start to reduce their debt and continue to add big increases in earnings from their DirectTV deal! Cost synergies and expansion and those .01 raises turn into .02 and maybe even larger in the future…
Congrats on the nice increase. Always fun to see the charts going up and up!
ADD
ADD,
Thank you so much! DRIPing and a small increase goes a LONG way. Like you said – 8% growth in the total dividend package is FINE with me! I love that type of YOY growth. Appreciate it ADD, let’s push it through September!
-Lanny
Awesome job bringing those dividends in
Doug –
Thank you! I hope you are gearing up for the big September month end, the bigger months typically for us!
-Lany
Great Job.
25% YoY growth is no joke!
I love your frugal goals, very similar to me.
I really like CAT and HCP. Keep up the great work Lanny.
DiviCents –
CAT has helped out well, but an increase would have been nice this year : (. HCP has turned out to be a high performer this year, quite interesting. If my November looks this strong, I’ll be pumped as well. Now, need to focus and stay consistent. Good luck in your months!
-Lanny
Great job, keep up the great work!
Regards MrStockFox
MrSF,
Thank you! Keep it up as well, we can’t get tired now!
-Lanny
Great job Lanny! 25% growth is pretty amazing. Not sure how much our dividend income is for September. It should be over $1,000 once again but hopefully we can break the $1,100 mark. It’s definitely good to have a mix of high yield lower growth and low yield higher growth dividend paying stocks.
Tawcan,
Thanks for coming by! I hope we both break the $1K Mark and WE BOTH BREAK THE $1,100 MARK!!! We can do this, LETS GO. The fun has already started, cannot wait to celebrate.
-Lanny
Lanny or other members,
Not sure if you caught this before on another post but what do you guys think of buying stock direct through a transfer agent like Computer Share versus in Street Name with a regular broker. I’d like your opinion, thanks. I need some opinions on this pro and against.
SD
Whether you want to use Computershare totally depends on the company. Fees vary by company. For example, with Aqua America, you can purchase for free and reinvest dividends for free at a 5% discount. The only time there’s a fee on Aqua America is when/if you sell the shares. In the long run, that 5% discount will save you more than the $15 plus $.12/share sale fee.
Then, if you look at Coca-Cola, there are separate fees to set up the account, buy shares, sell shares, and even to reinvest dividends. You would be better off buying Coca-Cola through almost any other broker.
Nice job Lanny! That’s a really nice amount of dividends and good growth, considering how sluggish the business world is at the moment – you created all that growth yourself, nice work!
It’s awesome that you’re covering a third of your expenses with your dividend income, imagine how good it will feel when you pass 100%!
Keep inspiring, Lanny.
Tristan
DDU –
I’ll be feeling very eager even if I was at a consistent 75% on average of covering my expenses! Mad that recently PM only announced another paltry 2% div increase, just weak I tell ya! Progress is progress, almost hitting the goals.
-Lanny
Impressive year-over-year growth, Lanny. I totally agree with you on AT&T people talk about it being such a boring stock. Boring is beautiful when it comes to investing. I’ll take a 7 percent raise from my dividend payers every single year. This was the first month that I was able to compare income on a year-over-year basis. I’m pretty sure that I can’t replicate my growth percentage going forward, but it’s a nice number to look at.
Chris,
Thank you – I love boring. Haha. I’m pumped you are able to compare, it’s awesome to finally see where the magic occurs : )
Good luck Chris and keep at it, seriously!!
-Lanny
Keep at it Lanny. The progress is trending upwards. Give it some time bro and you’re gonna kill it. For being so young, your well on your way. Dont’ stop Can’t Stop. I’ll be with you and Bert on this amazing journey.
Let’s keep pushing and make ourselves proud of us. No regrets.
Cheers bro.
Hustler,
Thank you, want to speed that time up for me? haha, joking, joking. Ready for the big September? I sure as hell am, record numbers LETS GO.
-Lanny
Sometimes, ‘set it and forget it’ is the b est policy to have. It keeps you out of trouble and makes you trade less frequently. We all know the studies that show how frequent trading can affect total returns in a negative way. Always nice to see a very healthy sum coming in for the month, especially from several names that are not in my portfolio. Just goes to show the number of great dividend paying companies out there for us to choose from. August was a great month indeed!
DivHut,
Really looking forward to the automatic/set it and forget it mentality to keep rolling for he day I wake up and go – damn, it’s over! haha.
August was great – September engine is a-rolling. Loving it and am excited – we will all be posting record figures I am assuming : )
-Lanny
Good job Lanny. Those are some great results compared you. I love how monthly updates just remind us that were on the right track to achieving our goals. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing!
MD,
The great thing is that you can see that you get better. You can see that consistency, patience and time works with your portfolio. Very excited that we all can see it!
-Lanny
And Lanny is at it again this month. Nice free income and more increases in the financial freedom accounts. You are well on your way to being FIRED 😉
CF,
Phew, thank you very much! More increases are coming this month too – LMT, MCD and PM. Big one’s I’m hoping too! Thanks for the motivation, as always.
-Lanny
Congrats on another fine month of dividend income. We came in pretty close to one another. I finished August with dividend income of $330.
IH,
As always, thank YOU. We do come in closer typically on our monthly income totals. September – that’ll be a fun one to share! Thanks again IH, enjoy your weekend!
-Lanny
Great stuff Lanny! Over $350 for August is solid and you showed great growth considering how much KMI’s dividend shrank from last year. Keep up the good work and looking for buying opportunities.
JC –
Thank you! Glad you noticed the KMI – even with the big punch to the gut, standing tall and strong. Just goes to show – you can always bounce back from everything, and lessons learned sometimes are the more important thing that comes from a stock. Appreciate the comment!
-Lanny
Hi Lanny,
nice job in August mine was so successful because I do not have that many companies paying their dividends in August but September will be better again :).
DivInc,
September will be a great month, hands down. Looking forward to all of us crushing that month : ) Good luck!
-Lanny
You bring in three times the amount that I make in a good month! I’m super jealous and can’t wait to be at where you are currently. Keep up the great work and I cant wait for you to hit that dividend income that will be paying for your mortgage!
Diligent,
Thank you, thank you and it doesn’t matter what my amount is! If my article can motivate and inspire – then, that’s what I hope to accomplish. You’ll be here, you’ll be cruising past my totals, no doubt. I can’t wait to have div income pay for my mortgage as well, my property tax just went up aka a few more dollars to that payment, not happy! haha
-Lanny
Happy labor day guys. That’s a solid month in my eyes, great y/y growth and it’s always awesome to see dividends grow without any additional buys like you did with T. Nice to see a few dividend increases in there as well. More money being produced without any additional contributions is the way to go with dividends!
Time –
Agreed, the AT&T (T) dividend is a very fun one to look at, as it’s all on it’s own – reinvestment + div growth at work.
My snow ball needs to keep rolling, longer and faster. Luckily, the stamina is pretty strong : )
Thanks again, talk soon!
-Lanny
Covering already 37pct of the housing cost is nice. And you are adding to that each month!
Amber –
Thank you, so much, it means so much. I need to keep it going, no stopping now!
-Lanny
I got my first dividend payment in August! To learn, I bought one share of HCP to just see what the fuss is about in a more tangible way. It was neat.
ZJ –
Congrats on your first dividend!!! So awesome, I remember that day.. it felt so “weird” that this was actually happening, now (though still surreal), it’s more about how do I build on to that total. Good luck and keep it going!
-Lanny
That’s a very nice passive income stream! You are walking a nice path towards FIRE!
Cedric –
FIRE is in the distance! I do fee the warmth, but I want to “burn”, right? haha. Appreciate the comment, need that motivation!
-Lanny
Nice dude, we share some similar positions including (O, HCP and PG). It’s like we’re dividend bros. lol
Awesome month, it’s great when you can say $360.59 is a standard month now. I have some catching up to you, and having a blast on that journey!
Wallet Squirrel –
Too funny, big and nice names to have in the portfolio.
You’re still cruising Wallet, more time in the market will bear more fruit, it’s that simple – you got this! Good luck and keep us posted on how everything is going.
-Lanny
Nice! I am starting to see the snowball rolling with mine as well. I have been at it for less than a year, and my first couple months were in the $10-12 range per month. This month i’m expecting around $120 or so…. But it also is my biggest month by far.
I’m taking a slightly different approach with my Dripping, having it all go into PSEC, which is right around a 12% yield. There isn’t any dividend increase. But the very high yield should help make up for that. (Just for the time being while the snowball is starting to roll).
Thanks for the inspiration guys!
Andrew –
That’s so much fun. $10-$12 to $120?! AWESOME. Just murdering now.
No div increase, eh? Safe yield from PSEC? Have you looked into the payout ratio and their performance?
Ensure you are monitoring your investments, best of luck and thanks for the comment!!
-Lanny
Lanny,
KMI’s hit hurts, but the dividend increases appear to have made up for it entirely. However, that growth in your Roth is where its at – huge increase, great work.
– Gremlin
Gremlin,
KMI… ah the sting. It’s okay, the dividend will be okay and they are taking care of the business. Yep – the IRA increases have been amazing and each quarter end will start seeing more of that insane progress. Gear up for September!
-Lanny