The LAST month of the year. The last month to tally up dividends for your annual/yearly total. Typically, within investing in US-based companies – December is usually a big quarter end, as well for all you Mutual Fund & ETF holders out there, in regards to dividend distributions, as well as capital gain distributions. With 11 months in the book and not one crossing the 4 digit mark yet – did the time finally come this December? I had my hopes high, so let’s see if Santa delivered over the 1K mark this Christmas!
Dividend Income
This month, I received a total of $1,078.04, which is higher than September’s total of $779.30 or a 38.3% increase. Not too shabby, eh? I had 20 different payments come in from companies/entities and guess what… it finally happened. Over $1,000 in income for the month for my first time EVER. Cannot believe I am seeing 4 digits below, wow… wow… See Snippet:
As you can see above, fairly spread out, outside of the mutual funds that had large payments, but when you look at it from my non-retirement account – Lockheed at $57 was my highest payer for the month. I had 7 companies pay over $30+, which is very interesting and also exciting to see in a way. Still stunned that the 4 digit mark was crossed. I am excited, though, to hopefully beef up JNJ, Target (TGT) and Archer Daniels (ADM)
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 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 huge total of $580.58 or 54% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 46% was from my individual taxable account portfolio. The monster $580.58 from retirement accounts shows that I’m all ready for my set it and forget it mentality to keep that income going, but also pumped to see that I had 16 companies pay me in my taxable individual account. To see my portfolio – one can go to our portfolio summary page.
Comparison
Now, I look back at 2015 December’s total. The total then was $952.86. From a pure percentage stand point, a growth rate of 13.14%! I dig the increase and growth, as the more you have coming in, as December’s are my bigger months, the harder it is to grow on a % basis. Luckily, this dividend total should stay at a minimum around this point for next year, as I can count 5 dividend aristocrats up there. Some are on Bert’s watch list in Target (TGT) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and others are foundation stocks that an investor should have, such as McDonalds (MCD). Thank the Lord Kinder Morgan (KMI) isn’t up there, given my recent turmoil and reminder of what it’s like as a dividend investor, but I would be keen on those aristocrats increasing next year, not just from dividend growth or reinvestment.
Dividend Income Increases
So to re-cap, last month of November, the companies that announced an increase in their dividend, have increased my projected income by $28.45 going forward, love that – that takes quite a bit of a contribution to reach that amount of added income. This month – was another decent month, as you can see in the chart above. Notable increases were from AT&T (T) at their standard 2% increase, but this added $6 going forward (love the aristocrat) and then Pfizer came through big with a 7.15% increase – another solid year from them. This is amazing. From the last four months alone, I have added $97.94 in additional income, I seriously get excited about this. Forward income that all I had to do was invest capital into it earlier on and watch it happen.
Conclusion & Summary
As I discussed back then with my normal monthly expenditures at the moment, this $1078 would cover 114% of my average $942 monthly expense for my house, including utilities. WAM! All covered and good to go – for the first month I have ever had this happen! Wow… Talk about maybe being able to take one deep breath. 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. This is good to see and will help mightily, in that I set my 2016 goals already last week. I am so thankful and happy to reflect on this month from all of the hardwork. How did your December month’s go? Did you crush your goals? Did Santa deliver for you? Did you beat last year’s? Anything unusual happen? Please share! Thanks everyone
-Lanny