We are swiftly approaching the halfway mark for 2018. Man oh man, where has time gone? Lanny, like so many of you already, published his May Dividend Income report and crushed it. He earned almost $500 in dividend income and posted a 30% dividend increase! Nice freaking job Lanny. That’s how you crush it right there. I’ve spent some time compiling my results here. Let’s see if my May dividend income summary was as strong as Lanny’s!
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May Dividend Income Summary
This May, I earned $343.59 in dividend income. That represents a 24.70% increase from the previous year! Here is a detailed breakdown of my results:
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Did anyone else notice something strange about my detailed chart? I was able to produce a 24.70% increase without initiating any new positions. I received dividends from the same 10 companies in May 2018 that I did in May 2017. The year-over-year increase was the direct result of good old fashioned dividend re-investment, a few dividend increases (Thanks KMI for the HUGE 60% dividend increase) and several purchases that increased my stake in companies that I already owned. Here were the summary of the purchases that impacted my May dividend that were made in the last 12 months:
- I purchased Realty Income 3 times during January and February as the company’s price continued to fall.
- In April, I purchased an additional 13.0701 shares of SBUX and 9.6389 shares of PG.
- In November, I added 28 shares of AT&T.
May Portfolio News and Dividend Increases
In this section, I’ll review two different ways that my forward dividend income will increase during the month: dividend increases and investment activity. The first table I will review is the dividend increases during the month. In April, I received an additional $66 in annual dividend income due to dividend increases alone. The leader of the pact last month was KMI, which you saw the benefit of their massive dividend increase in the table in the first section of the article. The following table shows the dividend increases I received in May.
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Let’s just say that May was a little underwhelming, since I only received one small 3% dividend increase from Cardinal Health. It added $3.84 to my forward income. I’ll never complain about receiving additional dividend income though, especially since I didn’t have to lift a finger to earn the extra $3.84 in income! One thing to note is that I purchased LEG at the tail end of the month, after the company announced their dividend increase. Since I did not own shares of LEG prior to their dividend announcement, I did not include them in the table above.
This next table will show the additional forward dividend income I received from stock purchases and 401k contributions. I love putting this chart together because the numbers get large quickly, especially now that my wife and I are maximizing our 401k contributions during the year. It is really exciting to see the consistent, massive contributions that are made each paycheck.
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I cannot believe I was fortunate enough to add over $300 in dividend income this month from purchases. The two purchases I made this month, PEP and LEG, added quite the punch to my forward dividend income as each of the purchases added triple-digit dividend income to my portfolio. My HSA contributions slowed down this month compared to previous months (VITSX) because I had medical expenses to pay. My HSA investment account is set up where it will invest all contributions in a mutual fund once your HSA cash balance is $1,000. Since I had to cover expenses, my cash balance was reduced, and my contributions did not bring my balance to $1,000. Oh well. Hopefully I will begin investing soon in this account!
Summary
The fun part of dividend investing is seeing the results of your saving and hard work pay-off. I am excited as heck that I was able to see my dividend income increase 24.7%. But what has me even more excited was the fact that I was able to add over $320 in forward dividend income during the month. We say it all the time, but this continues to show me that every single dollar really does count on your journey to financial freedom. June is going to be a fun month, and I cannot wait to start seeing the dividends trickle in.
How was your month of May? What was your dividend income total? Did you post a strong growth rate as well? What stock paid you the highest dividend this month? What companies announced a dividend increase for you?
Bert
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
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