September… ah September.  The leaves are changing and so did my dividend income for the month.  It’s a wonderful quarter end, which for me and most investors – typically means a larger than normal month of dividend income to our portfolio.  Most of the big blue chip companies pay on the calendar quarter end and I own quite a bit that does so.  As the leaves change color and the temperature begins to cool in Ohio, our portfolios heat up with checks coming into our mailbox from all of the wonderful companies that we own.  Now… to the numbers!

Dividend Income

This month, I received a total of $779.63.  Wow… almost $800 in a single month, not too shabby and am quite a bit happy with this but also mad because I haven’t crossed a certain “bar” yet during a single month (yes, the 4-figure mark).  

Bodda Bing, Bodda Boom.  $779.63… Just in awe.  I had a foundation stock in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) pay almost $23 this go around – one of our foundation stocks for a dividend portfolio.  Then, on the flipside – Emerson (EMR) (whom I recently made a nice chunk purchase of) also is going to be paying me dividends on a going forward basis, one of Bert’s always stocks to buy when you are able to.  The wild cards here are BHP Billiton (BBL) – a lot of pressure here and with reinvestment at such low prices – was able to add in over 2 shares on that dividend alone.  Additionally – one can see a Shell dividend of $54 up there, which was also enough to purchase approximately 1 additional share, due to the downward pressure on oil and their stocks this year.  What’s interesting is Lockheed Martin (LMT) is $7 higher than last year – from just reinvestment and growth alone ($44 to $51 or 16% higher) and that is a similar pattern seen across the board, outside of retirement/ETF/Mutual fund dividend amounts.  On a second thought – PRFDX was $10 higher last year, 37% growth (through reinvestment and increases alone), VINIX is $37 higher than last year – due to additional 401K contribtuions, reinvestment and increases.  The tough one to swallow was with VGK – $87 last year and approximately $75 this year – lowered a dividend amount, on my European ETF – shocker, with high holdings in oil companies that are in Europe.  All in all – great month as my individual companies pay me only had increased, with just the ETF decreasing.  Heck, Realty Income (O) was $1.10 higher or 9% higher, due to dividend growth and reinvestment, I’m loving this.

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 forgot the “R” on O).  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 $246.80 or 32% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 68% was from my individual taxable account portfolio.  $247 from retirement accounts shows that I’m all ready for my set it and forget it mentality to keep that income going, but given the large amount of income, it’s nice to see almost $534 from individual stocks, this is hilarious.  To see my portfolio – one can go to our portfolio summary page.

Comparison

Now, I look back at 2014 September’s total.  The total then was $610.18.  From a pure percentage stand point, a growth rate of 28%, which as crazy as this seems – I think I can keep that growth going, which computes to a next year amount of $997 for the month.  I think I can do it!  Possibly with new purchases, new dividend reinvestment and dividend growth – I can do this!  22 different companies paid me this month and I had 17 that paid me last year (due to new purchases).  These totals and increases make sense, as last month I recently CRUSHED my way over $6,000 in projected income, as well as purchases into EMR, and even JNJ.  Love seeing that amount go up, that’s for sure. 

Dividend Income Increases

Decent month of dividend increases.  Lockheed Martin (LMT) increased their yield 10% this year, Philip Morris (PM) had a smaller than normal increase at 2% (which can be found in our article over Big Companies, Small dividend increases).  However, I need to note this – McDonalds (MCD) has not announced their dividend for the 4th quarter yet, and I am not sure on the board schedule, but they have traditionally in the past always increased in September.  Has that ship stopped?  Will we see an increase today, October 1st?  We’ll find out.  All in all – dividend increases have added approximately $27 in forward income, I’ll take it.

Conclusion & Summary

As I discussed back then with my normal monthly expenditures at the moment, this $779 would cover 83% of my average $942 monthly expense for my house, including utilities.  This covers my full home mortgage, principal and interest, as well as almost all property taxes and insurance – almost there!  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 2015 year.  I am looking forward to the fourth quarter – best time for dividend income during the year, as almost all of the hard work starts to show in these final 3 months if your company is a quarterly payer and also – a challenge if I could beat my December 2014 dividend income!  Thankful and happy to reflect on this month from all of the hardwork.  How did your September month’s go?  Did you crush your goals?  Did you beat last year’s?  Anything unusual happen?  Please share!  Thanks everyone

-Lanny