Another month up and another month down. As I’m writing this on June 1st, I could see new flurries of dividends hitting my account. The sun is definitely heating up here in Cleveland, the Cavs are in the finals and were just robbed a Game 1 road victory. I love writing these reports, as the comparison to prior year, really hits home when you see the hard work that has been put in place to improve. Did I continue to push the limits for May of 2018 dividend income? Let’s find out!
Dividend Income
I received a total of $453.20 of dividend income in May. This is going to show an improvement from the prior year, which was an injection into currently owned positions between then and now that made it happen. Outside of that, everything went smooth, with dividends coming and being reinvested. 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 is only one new face on the listing, and that is Hormel (HRL), which I initiated a small position in last year. Further, you have to love dividend increases & reinvestment here. Lastly, KMI, had an amazing dividend this quarter, after they announced a massive increase in April, I’ll take it!
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 total of $242.01 (up from $181.94 last year) or 49% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 51% 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:
Here’s the lineup! Every single company that is on both periods, has higher dividend income (Except my $0.13 from RMR). It’s fun seeing this, no doubt. Realty Income (O) is higher due to a new purchase made earlier in the year. Therefore, I am starting to see the fruit from the infusion there. Further, I made an additional purchase in HCP last year, that’s turning out well and recent purchases into Procter Gamble (PG), will be seen in the 3rd quarter. Year over year, I experienced a 30% growth in dividend income received. Maintaining that same growth rate would produce OVER $565 next year. However, the goal is to always BEAT the bar you just RAISED. Now, onto the dividend increases that occurred from companies I own!
dividend increases
A month wouldn’t be a month without high quality companies increasing their dividend! See the small chart below for the details on the dividend increases announced this month that are holdings in my portfolio.
John Deere (DE) announced a sizable 15% dividend increase at the end of May. Thank you, very much! THis was not expected, from my point of view, and this has been a company that has not had that great of a track record for dividend growth. It seems that after a few, “no growth period” to their dividend income, they came in with a bang this year. To add $9.08 to my dividend income, would take an investment of $259.
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 48% of my average $984 monthly expense for my house, including utilities. This would substantially cover my utilities and groceries, no doubt! 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.
Another month down and it was a fun, record-setting May! I am sure there are many more who established new highs for the month and even for your lifetime, to this point. May was a really strong month of dividend income, surprisingly, it seems that the investments in Realty Income (O), HCP and Hormel (HRL) are starting to really add up. I am excited to see what August will bring, in a correlated month, as further moves have been made to impact that time of the year, which should be interested. As always, I am excited to read the comments and thank you, the community, for stopping by; as you are helping me on my journey to financial freedom!