Another month down and 1/6th of the way there for the full year. It was 64 degrees in Cleveland during the final days of February and I cannot believe the weather is acting the same as the market – just never know what you’ll get! February was a very rollercoaster month, first with the news from BBL’s dividend cut that definitely left me feeling some pain, but also new inspiration to get back on the horse and trudge forward, because that’s all we can do! Without further-a-do, let’s see how February played out for me!
Dividend income
This month, I received a total of $275.79, which is a whopper once you dive into the analysis of the year. This is also with a heavily reduced Kinder Morgan (KMI) dividend, as they as well – cut their dividend by 3/4! The agony! However – the other hard working companies continued to pay resounding dividends and you also will see new names on the list below. In total – 11 companies paid me this month, not too shabby, here are the stats:
As you can see above, the big hitter was good old AT&T (T) – which I recommend as a foundation stock for any dividend investors portfolio. They’ve been strong and a huge benefit to my portfolio since I’ve owned them. I essentially picked up two shares of them as well with this reinvestment.
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 $119.44 or 43% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 57% was from my individual taxable account portfolio. We all know my set it and forget it mentality to keep that retirement income going, but also pumped to see that I had 10 companies pay me in my taxable individual account. To see my portfolio – one can go to our portfolio summary page.
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: 
To begin, I had only 8 companies in February’s of 2015’s income summary and I had 11 total in this year’s post. Always a plus here. What’s funny is that each company has paid me more except …. ding ding ding – you called it, KMI. I went from receiving $28.69 from them to receiving $17.39; and this is in between further stock purchases and the glooming dividend cuts. Most of these companies had higher dividend amounts through reinvestment and increases, some were due to additional purchases, such as Norwfood Financial (NWFL). Year over year (YOY), my income grew by 59.67% from dividends received – always a pleasure having that large of an increase, thank you all again.
Dividend income increases
One of my other favorite areas, as this is a big reason why we are dividend income investors! Let’s see the summary of activity below, worth noting:
Not the biggest impacts here but, since I purchased ADM again, the 7% increase added over a double digit income growth to the portfolio at $11.20. Canadian Imperial (CM) – has been increasing their dividend quarterly, but with the exchange/conversion rate, the overall impact wasn’t as large – it’s essentially a 1 cent per quarter increase here; but if they continuously do that throughout the year, that’s fine by me! They are a high yielder to begin with, so an increase is an increase nonetheless. However, with the growth from ADM – my strategy of making larger investments actually looks like the impacts are even greater from the dividend income increases… I like it. I believe the same will be for my latest purchase of T. Rowe Price (TROW). Time will tell!
Conclusion & Summary
As I discussed back then with my normal monthly expenditures at the moment, this $275 would cover 29% of my average $942 monthly expense for my house, including utilities. This % is dramatically higher than last year. 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 2016 year. What do you guys think of my month of February? Seeing nice YOY growth or did you also get heavily burned by KMI and/or BBL? See anything off or something I should be on the look out for? How did ya’ll do? Always an exciting post to read from others. Please share your insight and comments and thank YOU again for stopping by!
-Lanny