6 months in. Wow, the year is officially half over. However, is there another way to look at it? What about – we have half of the year left to make an impact? I like the sound of that better. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend and that everyone has enjoyed their time with friends, family and, well, updating their portfolios! I am excited to share my June dividend income results, as it happened to be – my best month, ever.
Dividend Income
As the intro stated, June has been the best month ever, with a total of $1,498.60. I was only $1.40 short of the $1,500 mark, but I am fairly confident that by September, that should be crossed! This has quite a bit to do with my investments with my 401(k) at work, as well as my Health Savings Account (HSA), which continually has over $1,700 going in as contributions per month (as I am maxing those accounts throughout the year). See the dividend income results below:
Quite a few names popping up in there, eh? I had to remove the bottom row just to fit them all! Not a bad problem to have, at all. Further, National Grid (NGG), a utility player, had a reverse stock split and paid out a special dividend, which further increased the record month here. Sadly, one thing to mention, is Mattel’s (MAT) dividend going forward will be brutally less than this on a going forward basis, as they had slashed their dividend (gutted, in my mind) from $0.38 per quarter down to $0.16. The amount in September should be around $13 instead of somewhere over $32, “ooph”. Time to press onward, however, and they only represented approximately 1% of my portfolio. That is why one must diversify, but mad at myself, nonetheless.
Similarly, I have split out between the individual stock amounts and the retirement accounts, as the ” – R” indicates a retirement account 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 solid total of $527.54 (up from $496.63 last year due to DRIP, 401(k) and HSA) or 35% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 65% 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
2016:
2017:
When you compare your past to the present, it’s amazing how to analyze what happened. First, my income grew by $398.60. However, let’s take a look deeper into these results. First, one can see that I have many more entities paying me now, with Grainger (GWW) (due to latest purchases), Kraft (KHC) paying this month and that special dividend from National Grid (NGG). Additionally, my Pfizer (PFE) dividend income grew at a substantial rate (no, no, I am not buying blue pills here, haha, in order to juice this dividend), as I had purchased more shares on a dip earlier this year. Lastly, as we all know, I kicked Uncle Sam’s A$$ for 2016, primarily due to my pace of maximizing my tax-advantaged investment vehicles (to see how – check out that blue hyperlink on Uncle Sam’s A$$, yes I wanted to make that mention twice about Sammie).
Overall, the increase of 36% has been a site to see. Would I like to see similar results in September? Can you give me an “Oh Hell Yeah?!” – sorry Stone Cold, I had to take that line on this one. Lastly, I know there were quite a few dividend increases that were felt from a plethora of companies above, which is why dividend growth is also important, damn you Mattel.
dividend increases in June
A nice little fun part of the article here, where I reflect on the dividend increases announced in my portfolio during the month. I was lucky to have four different companies make announcements, and one surprise announcement, specifically, from Caterpillar (CAT). This was a surprise, as they did not increase dividends for quite some time, and though it was only a 1.30% increase, an increase from them is a pleasure to receive. I have noticed, not shockingly, that dividend increases have not been as strong this year, especially in retail/grocery chains, which is what you can see above from Target (TGT) and Kroger (KR). This can be associated with the impact of Amazon (AMZN) potential and their Whole Foods Market (WFM) deal. Stay tuned on that end. However, to summarize this here, the increases added $12.25 per year, which would equate to an investment of $350 needed at 3.50% in order to create. One has to love dividend increases, that’s for sure!
dividend income conclusion & summary
As I discussed with my updated – normal monthly expenditures at the moment, this $1,498.60 would cover ~152% of my average $984 monthly expense for my house, including utilities, my damn cart that I’m paying off and even a trip to the grocery store! My auto loan, as an update, is getting smaller & smaller and I look forward to unlocking a new cash flow source, so the dividend income this month and going forward will taste that much better. In similar fashion – 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 2017 year. LET’S GO!!!!
The results have been truly incredible to receive and endure. I know that it has taken hard work, that’s for sure, in order to continue this progress to financial freedom. If this journey was not hard, than everyone would do it, as they say, and the joy of the fruit tastes that much better from the labor that is being committed to the goal. The interesting part about this month, is that my June expenses also were extremely less than previous months by a few hundred dollars, which helped me save and invest more money, as well as continue my pay down strategy on my auto loan. I truly mean it when you rid yourself with additional expenses and “things” you don’t need, that success in your journey typically follows. Bert & I have a lot of great content upcoming within the next few months, so please stay tuned to that and we are hoping to drive more value to the readers, we are excited to get to work for everyone on our end!
How did your June end up? Are you feeling great at the mid-point of the year? Alter or continue with your same strategies? Excited to see everyone’s results. Thank you very much for stopping by to read the progress in June, I truly appreciate it and please feel free to share your comments, thoughts, questions and/or other items below. Talk soon everyone and, of course, good luck and happy investing!
-Lanny