Wealth: March Dividend Income

March 2017 Dividend Income

GME - $30.40

ARII - $6.80

QCOM - $15.37

STAG - $1.75

TGT - $9.00

EMR - $7.68

LB - $4.80

WFC - $8.36

Total March 2017 Dividend Income: $84.16

Total March 2016 Dividend Income: $20.40

Percent Increase: 312% increase

Now that March has come and gone, it's evident that the Dividend Scythe has been hard at work. If we're only looking at the change from the previous year to the current year, the percent increase has been phenomenal! It's enough for me to even wish for a positive increase year over year but an over 300% increase from last year is exactly what I want to see and more! Moving forward, I'm sure that I probably won't see these high percentages as it will be harder to see huge jumps as the portfolio grows but it's incredibly pleasing on the eyes as I get to look at it now. 

Wealth: January Dividend Income

Part of investing in dividend growth stocks is trusting in the process. There are going to be some good months and there are going to be some bad months. The trick is to try to align for dividend payments to be about equal every month. This is a trick that I have not yet mastered. As one can see from last years dividend payments, I might be a little off as far as consistency goes.

I can't give up though. The dividend snowball is a slow moving process at the start as you try to build up a good enough roll to get it moving. While months like this January may have felt small in comparison to some other months or small in comparison to where I thought it might be by now, it is still an amount of money that I wouldn't otherwise have.

It's good to keep this lesson at the forefront of my mind as I don't want to start straying from this path. If I think too much about other "get rich quick" schemes, I may find myself potentially falling for them and that just simply will not do! It simply will not do at all - not one bit! One has to remember the other types of dividends that have been given through the month.

Dividend Income: November

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. With the arrival of December comes the monthly honor and duty of counting up the dividends received over the past month and recapping the movement that got us here. That being said, overall, the month was a pretty decent month in relation to others. Here's a quick recap of our payers.

• AT&T - T - $14.88
• YUM Brands - YUM - $3.57
• Abbvie - ABBV - $5.70
• STAG Industrial - STAG - $1.74
• Total: $25.89
• Total Dividends for 2016: $269.08

I know it doesn't look like much in the grand scheme of the portfolio but it looks like a lot to me because it shows the building block style of investing. Only a year ago I was looking at less than $100 total dividends for the entire year (it was actually only barely over $50. That means that this year alone has already completely shattered last year's results. If I can continue that trend, the additional investment income that dividends provide start to become a snowball that rolls itself. 

With kids on the horizon, it's important for me and my wife to put away as much as possible right now so it's locked in during the months/years that it will be even harder to find the additional income to invest. Although we have yet to be successful in having kids, it's an almost certainty in the near future and I would be an idiot to not prepare ahead of time for that life adjustment. Anyway, that's all I've got for today. 

Dividend Income: July

It's the beginning of another month and that means that it's time to tally the dividend payments from the previous month. All in all, it was a great month. I find that pretty much any time there is a payment incoming from AT&T (T), I can expect a fairly decent payment. It definitely helps boost the confidence moving forward that the strategy of dividend investing is a good strategy.

Where it may still not seem like a whole lot at a total of $28.25 for a whole month of dividends, it actually is a big enough amount to do something with. Hell, for a good portion of my portfolio, the stock price per share is less than that. That means that this last month provided for me the opportunity to add even one more share (theoretically) to the portfolio. With one more share there comes one more payment of dividends that further propels the snow ball forward.

I also want to remind myself with another month past that it is important to not bench mark your portfolio based on other investor's portfolios. Even though this can sometimes be a great motivator for future success, it can also give an unfair view of things as investing in dividends can be a very skewed curve when graphed out. The more dividend payments coming in, the faster the trend line goes up so it does not accurately represent a slow and steady trend upwards but more an increasing stream that will eventually become a roaring river. I just have to keep my eye on the prize moving forward and have faith that the small stream of income I've built will eventually pick up more and more speed. Anyways, here is the breakdown for the month:

July Dividend Income

RAI - Reynolds American Inc. - $5.88

STAG - STAG Industrial - $1.74

GE - General Electric - $5.75

T - AT&T - $14.88

Total July Dividends: $28.25

Dividend Income: May

Another month has come and gone and now it's time to collect the dividend payments that were made to my account in the month of May. All in all, it's been a great month for dividend income. My key player, AT&T (T) has made a payment and some of my other holdings have as well. I was also able to make a great collection of new buys that supplemented income in the future.

Unfortunately however, May did hold a sell off. It was only one but it's very unfortunately whenever even one needs to happen. As you all know, I like to hold my stocks as long as possible (forever if possible) but sometimes it's just not possible. The sell off was of course the sell off of Kohl's (KSS) as it had not even mildly performed as I would hope and there numbers were showing that it did not seem that would be changing any time soon.

This did come with the chance to buy new holdings. In the Month of May I was able to purchase three new holdings - RAI, LB, and GME. Granted, I never thought in a million years that I would be adding GME but it came at a time where I had been proven wrong. The company appears to be doing much better than my initial take on them and I have high hopes for them in the future. With all of this being said, let's compile the dividends for May and see how it all stacks up.

STAG: $1.74

ABBV: $5.70

YUM: $3.22

T: $14.88

Total for May 2016: $25.54

Total for 2016: $96.21

Unfortunately it just wasn't enough to break the $100 total for the year but it's still on track to do very well for the total of 2016. With a few big payments coming next month, there is almost no way that the portfolio won't break $100 for the year by the end of next month. Moving forward, I hope to continue making great stock choices, collecting dividends, and x'ing out any companies that decide that they know better what to do with their money than to pay dividends. 

Recent Buys: ABBV, STAG

I've said it before and I'll say it again; I love the smell of purchases in the morning. This morning I woke up and after finalizing my budget for March I was able to move a good amount into the investing account. This allowed me to quickly grab a few stocks that I've been looking at for some time now. These two stocks were ABBV and STAG. The purchases are as follows:

New Purchases:

ABBV - 10 shares - $586.90 - 3.90% annual dividend 

STAG - 15 shares - $300.90 - 7.02% annual dividend 

With both of these being added to the portfolio, the portfolio gains an additional (potential) $43.60 in annual dividend income. This gives it a huge boost in payouts for the year as I race towards crushing last years dividend payouts. As this is very important to keep my eyes on, I've also gone back and compiled the monthly payouts for 2015 so that I can better understand not just the YOY growth of the totals throughout the year but also through the month. That is as follows:

As you can see, I've already crushed January, February, and March's last year payouts. I hope that this trend can continue into the rest of 2016. The only threat to that would be if a cut was presented that would severely limit a payout for any of the next few months. As I don't see that sort of thing coming and I doubt that most people can, I won't bother thinking about it too much. I will simply plan to keep my eyes forward towards the future and hope that these picks further bolster a well run portfolio of dividend paying stocks. 

Thanks for following and if you have any feedback, please leave your comments below. I would love to hear from any of my readers, most importantly on such updates as new acquisitions.