Hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday and were able to take a moment to enjoy everything that we have in our lives. Loves ones, friends, family, dividend stock portfolios, you name it – we need to be thankful. Now that November is finished and my body is heavy from eating, it’s time to digest the November Dividend Income results! Let’s check it out!
Dividend Income
I received a total of $391.60 in dividend income this November. Time, yet again, for the best November month ever recorded, almost crossing $400 for the first time ever in this month. I am aiming for you Mr. 400 come next year! 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. Two new 2017 investments of CVS (CVS) and Hormel (HRL) are now paying dividends on a quarterly basis, which I love. Outside of those dividends, the remaining growth is through dividend increases and reinvestment, as well as one minor addition to a community bank stock!
As you can see, Citizens & Northern (CZNC) take the pie for the largest dividend received this month. I have continued to make investments in them throughout the year. Hormel (HRL) was my most recent purchase back in the 3rd week of October, outside of AT&T (T). This was another dividend aristocrat and pay close attention to the dividend increases below, as Hormel (HRL) is mentioned there!
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 $198.11 (up from $160.03 last year primarily due to Citizens, dividend reinvestment & dividend increases) or 50.6% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 49.4% 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: 
Year over year, my portfolio’s dividend income was 21.8% higher in 2017 vs 2016 for November. I will dissect on what caused the large increase. First, as stated above, I purchased CVS Pharmacy (CVS) and Hormel (HRL), which were two stocks that paid this month compared to prior year. Secondly, I did make two investments throughout the year, that I did not write about, for Citizens & Northern (CZNC). What can I say? I love community banks! I also cannot forget my small purchase in January of Procter & Gamble (PG), that helped increase that income portion from last year. Mostly everything else is through dividend reinvestment and dividend growth, the combination factor is extremely powerful. AT&T (T) and CVS should have a dividend increase announcement in December, that we are all eagerly waiting to read!
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 39% of my average $984 monthly expense for my house, including utilities. In addition, my auto loan is finally gone and I am able to deploy the additional capital 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 me to achieve lofty goals that I set in place for my 2017 year. We only have one month remaining and we must do everything we can, the right way, to keep the engine moving forward.
As always, excited to read everyone’s November income reports and start to compile our monthly article for everyone. 2017 is quickly winding down and I am fortunate to start building up capital, for other reasons as well. I am exhausted, but need to find each piece of motivation to step forward, not backward. Only one life for us to live, and let’s make it meaningful, challenging and fun at the same time. 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