Wow. Here we are again everyone. The first month of the year has come to a close. 31 days have flown by and another month of dividend income has been received. As a CPA, this month has worn me down, to say the least. Thank the Lord that dividend income continues to fuel the portfolio to new heights and continues to march on when I am struggling for time, research and spending time with loved ones. January was a great start for dividend income and I am proud to present the results to the community.
Dividend Income
I received a total of $417.68 in dividend income during January. This is a solid increase from last year, which I will talk about in the next section. There were really no surprises, no movements of dividend expected payments as it relates to timing and everything went smooth. 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.
There were 11 entities making payments my way this month. Honestly, this is consistent with last month, sticking with the trend of consistency and expectations. Only real differences are the payments just keep getting bigger, which has been a joy to see. The one different/split out is Cisco (CSCO) paid this year and Dow Chem, due to acquisition (DWDP), pays on a different date, which was expected based on their last payment.
Similarly, I have split out the taxable and the retirement accounts, as the ” – R” indicates a retirement account dividend (or the furthest column to the right). I separated these two, as I like to know what portion of my dividend income is coming from retirement accounts that I cannot touch until 59.5 (barring any other usage rule I could use). Here, it shows that I received a solid total of $37.19 (up from $33.50 last year primarily due to dividend reinvestment & dividend increases) or 8.9% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 91.1% 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:
So what are the differences here? As I stated above, Cisco (CSCO) is new this month versus last year’s January. I ended up purchasing shares in Cisco two times, which is starting to already pay off. Year over year, the dividend income increase was 9.39%! This is better than last year, due to a lot of payment date changes, growth of 1%. If I keep up the same pace, we are looking at over $456 next year!
dividend increases
We all know by now, the power of the dividend growth rate is real! Let’s just say tax reform has been nice thus far, as it relates to dividend increases. Every single increase above had exceeded my expectations, beyond belief. I thought that there would be great growth rates, but this is knocking it out of the park in month one. Intel (INTC) continues to surprise me with their results, in a difficult, competitive and potentially shrinking market, but yet, their performance allowed this result to occur. Secondly, Aflac (AFL) came out of left field with this jolt to the portfolio. This was very surprising, specially after their October increase was in the lower, single digits and this is not their typical month of increase. Then, Visa (V) also announced an unexpected 7.7% dividend increase, I will take it! Lastly, Norfolk (NSC) completely tore the cover off the ball this month with their 18% increase. In order to achieve this much forward income, one would have to invest $2,368 at 3.50%! Thanks for the dividend increases!
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 42% of my average $984 monthly expense for my house, including utilities. Almost covering half of the amount, I will get there soon. In addition, my auto loan is finally gone and I am able to deploy the additional capital for all of 2018 into new investments that are opportunistic. 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.
I know the first month always needs a clean start, to be on the right foot, make the right decisions and plant seeds for future blossoms. I am satisfied with the results, but since I am not financially free – the work is not even close to being over yet. How did you do? Killing it the first month of the year? Only 11/12 months to go, make it count everyone! Excited to read the comments below and thank you, the community, for stopping by; as you are helping me on my journey to financial freedom!
-Lanny
Nice progress man!
Are you worried at all about the Intel security issue going on right now with Meltdown / Spectre?
I don’t think it will change their results over the long term, and wonder what people think about them currently because of the bug they are working through. I believe they have issued a fix for it, but it is slowing down their processors!
Chris –
Not worried at all! I think they are smart enough, have pockets deep enough and have been around long enough to get through. Also – their recent dividend increase doesn’t hurt : )
-Lanny
Lanny, congratulations on the great month! $417 is some really nice income. Can’t wait until I reach that point haha :). Like Chris, I’m really curious to see how Intel is gonna hold up. AMD is making some real progress too in the processor market. Too bad they don’t pay a dividend.
Stashing –
Intel is chugging along over there, still setting records for some odd reason! And you’ll get therebefore you know it – trust me, I used to feel the same!
-Lanny
Nice work. Keep the cash rolling. Tom
Tom –
And letting it roll I will!
-Lanny
Lanny,
That’s a solid start. I saw NSC, and that was nice for you. My UNP position did much the same – tacked on a 10% increase over last quarter’s big raise 9.8% raise. Also, don’t know if you saw TROW just added a 20% increase. ‘Uge.
– Gremlin
Long UNP and TROW
Gremlin –
Thank you so much, they did do the same. Congrats and congrats to everyone!
-Lanny
Awesome stuff Lanny. Over $400 for January and over $80 added to your forward dividends just from dividend increases. That’s the real power of dividend growth investing there.
Just saw that Aflac announced a 2:1 split. I know it doesn’t do anything, but it’s always fun to see larger share numbers.
JC –
Agreed, hopefully it all drives new share purchases by investors. Just wild so far this year.
-Lanny
Congrats!
I think Visa is going to keep those increases coming.
That’s a business with plenty of room to run.
Yes… the power of dividend growth is very real. Just look at these results. Great start to the year and from the amounts coming in it looks like you have a pretty even spread of money coming in. A few heavy hitters and they rest all about equal. Always nice to see that. Keep making every dollar count!
Hut –
Too damn real sometimes. Think about what we’ve experienced in February, it is absolutely insane. Are you loving it as much as I am??
-Lanny
Nice work Lanny! Nice growth from last year. Good way to start out the year. And getting close to $100 in just dividend increases alone. The snowball is working. Keep it up!
Daze –
Thanks for the post, as always. Pumped to keep trail blazing, one day, one dividend, one stock at a time!
-Lanny
Great way to start the year Lanny. Congrats on the great YoY increase. Both O and CSCO paid me dividends in January. I really like the representation of how much of your monthly expenses the dividend income you get covers. That’s definitely a great way to look at it. Also, it’s always good to get unexpected increases from dividend stocks you own.
Side note, and I know I asked this before, but can you tell me how you embed the excel spreadsheet into the blog post. I didn’t write it down the last time, and I don’t remember which post it was. I’ll definitely write it down this time.
Thanks and congrats again.
Nice dividends. Keep going strong. Nice opportunity to buy new stocks or reinvest using the additional cash.
Geek –
Thank you very much, February has been insane with dividend increases, again. Hope we are all tasting the fruit here!
-Lanny
Sweet nice Lanny. Great growth and nice dividend increases. Nice buy on cisco like you i bought it last yr. It has really increased in value while still spitting out some sweet divs!
Keep it up
Rob
PCI –
Thank you for the post! I do love the divvy increases and love the increase that CSCO just announced the other day, incredible. Pumped!!
-Lanny
Great progress and congrats on a good month.
And I’m with you on the reinvesting dividends – it’s refreshing to receive income when you don’t always have time to plan and execute. This thing called life gets in the way (and I’m glad it does).
Question – on your 401(k), HSA, etc. with the dividends reinvested – do you actually see separate DRIP transactions or additional shares?
My current 401k will just do a value / share price adjustment – not represent a unique transaction line item – so it’s difficult to track passive income. This is even the case for bond funds within the plan.
Thanks for the post. – Mike
Mike –
Thank you. Reinvesting dividends has been great, keeps the capital going right back in.
I do reinvest the 401k/HSA and my accounts allow dividend reinvestment (Vanguard and SaveDaily through Anthem).
I gotcha, interesting. So no real dividend income that the 401k is spitting out? Hm… does it have a ticker?
-Lanny
Lanny,
Over $400!!! You’re killing it! I bet after a long day of looking at numbers it is still sweet to come home and add up these dividends. Oooo Wee!
MH –
Thank you, it is always sweet to come home and see what new dividends arrived at the door. Always brings a smile to the face… and pocket!
-Lanny
Wow Lanny, you are single handedly proving the power of DGI. Can’t wait to reach the point where you are now! The increases have been more than great so far this year! And you can even add a double digit increase for CSCO to the list since yesterday! My january was very good, €29,93 up from nothing last year, as this is my first full year of investing I can’t wait to see the end result!
Let’s make every dollar/euro count!
DI
DI –
You are right in that the dividend growth is real out there, no fricken doubt, it is incredible to see and I am awe struck. 2017 was a calm year for dividend increases, but 2018 is screaming – Intel, Cisco, Norfolk, Pepsi, T. Rowe, the list goes on – incredible announcements. We did our homework and we are benefiting!
-Lanny
Excellent progress, Lanny! $400+ to kick off 2018 is great. I really like all those dividend raises adding a nice chunk to your forward dividend income. PM is creeping up on a triple-digit dividend… I like to see that as well. Hang in there during your busy season at work…. almost half way home!
Engineering –
Thank you so much, it’s weird, I feel like the $400 should be doubled! PM better keep growing and have a real dividend increase this year, we investors could use one!! What do you think?
-Lanny
I don’t own PM, but I checked their recent dividend increases and they cooled off starting in 2015… only 2-3% for each of the past few years. Looks like you might have to wait until Sept. for an increase declaration, unless they surprise you. Who knows, it’s the season for unexpected dividend raises!
ED –
I wouldn’t be against a surprise, that’s for sure haha.
-Lanny
That’s a pretty sweet increase y/y and you can never complain about $400 to start the year off right! Nice to see all those dividend increases too!
Time –
Thank you very much. Great increases and I am even more excited about the dividend increases that are being announced!
-Lanny
Congrats on a great month, Lanny! I also received dividend from CSCO in January and am happy that I purchased them last September. I guess you heard their announced dividend increase of 14%? Got to love the purchase last year even more now!
-BI
BI –
Thank you so much! How pumped are about that increase? HELL YES I love it. LETS GO!!!! Long Live Dividend Investing!!
-Lanny
Hi,
I see that you have ngg in your account. I currently have 80 shares in my Roth and am thinking about adding another 20 shares as dividends come in. Have you written anything about this company? If so, I would love to read your thoughts. Thanks,
Lou
Well done Lanny! It’s nice to hear you’re a CPA as well. I’ll be one very soon, I just need to get my hours! But boy are you right, this is a very very busy time of the year for us!
-CD