A Personal Best | Dividend Update - March 2018

dividend growth investing | financial independence | freedom | dividends
Dividend Update - March 2018
It's the end of one month and the beginning of another so it's time for my favorite update: my dividend update.  These dividend updates reflect all dividends that I receive through my investing pursuits. I hope they can help inspire you to take control of your own finances and invest to build a passive income stream. What you use that stream for is up to you, whether it's to fund early retirement, just provide some FI/FU money, or even to provide for an annual vacation; the key is that it can provide options and open up all sorts of possibilities. You can check my dividend income or progress pages to see what dedication to an investment plan can give you.

The 3rd month of each quarter is always my biggest month for dividends and March didn't disappoint.  My FI Portfolio produced $921.17 in dividends during the month, which was a personal best, while my Folio First portfolio chipped in another $8.30.  My Roth IRA added another $45.02 during the month.  The 3 portfolios combined to generate $974.49 of dividends. 

FI Portfolio

As I mentioned above my FI Portfolio produced $921.17 in dividends last month which was a personal best for any month.  It's pretty exciting to see that number keep climbing month after month and quarter after quarter.  Even better is that later this year we should finally get back to a regular monthly investment schedule which will push the dividends even higher.

Compared to December 2017 that's a solid 1.5% increase whereas the year over year comparison came in very strong at 10.7%.  

Roth IRA Portfolio

After February's no show for my Roth IRA it started contributing once again in March.  In March my Roth IRA generated $45.02 in dividends.  Compared to December 2017 that's a hefty 8.2% increase thanks primarily to Norfolk Southern's monster dividend increase announced in January.  The year over year comparison is even juicier at 24.9%.  

Dividend Raises During the Month

The pay raises just keep on coming.  March saw a slow down from February in the number of dividend increases; however, I won't complain about "only" 4 raises being announced.  You mean a company I own a piece of, albeit tiny, wants to pay out more of their profits to me just because I own part of the company?  Sign me up!  

That's 4 different pay raises in just one month compared to a big, fat zero from my day job.  Combined those 4 companies increased my forward 12-month dividends by $23.06.  Even better is that the raises came from wide variety of industries: tobacco, banking, retail and real estate.

Through the first quarter of 2018 there's been 19 announced raises from 18 of the companies that I own combining to increase my forward 12-month dividends by $161.69.

Looking Forward

My forward 12-month dividends for my FI Portfolio ended March at $6,108.81 while my FolioFirst forward dividends are at $78.50.  That brings the total taxable account forward 12-month dividends to $6,187.31  My Roth IRA's forward-12 month dividends ended the month at $337.40.  Across all 3 accounts, assuming no dividend cuts or position size changes, I can expect to receive at least $6,524.71 in dividends over the next year.

Monthly Average

Below is the chart showing the monthly dividend totals for each year that I've been investing as well as the monthly average.  It's not always an increase as some companies have weird payout schedules, as we saw above, and eventually some positions will get dropped, but the long-term trend is what matters.  

The rolling 12-month monthly average for my FI Portfolio is at $482.09 per month which is just slightly above 2017's monthly average of $473.37.  This should continue to increase throughout the year assuming no dividends cuts.
dividend growth investing | dividends | financial independence | freedom
Monthly Comparison of Dividends Received From FI Portfolio
Dividends Received Breakdown


Dividends | Financial Independence | Dividend Growth Investing
Dividends Received Breakdown March 2018

I've updated my Dividend Income page to reflect March's changes.

With the first quarter in the books how are you doing on your goals for the year?

Let me know in the comments below!

Comments

  1. Thats pretty amazing, JC. Congrats on achieving your personal best..and now that you have started investing and adding to your forward dividends again, Im sure you have plenty more personal bests in the coming quarters.

    Keep it up
    R2R

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  2. Gongrats on your best month. It's a nice feeling to beat your own personal records.

    Keep up the good work!!

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  3. JC,

    Congrat-u-freaking-lations! Holy cow that is a great month and I'm excited for you and the fact you set another new personal record. The best part is that you are going to keep on setting new personal records after personal records. Man I'm excited for you. I love the names in your portfolio as well. Keep up the great work my friend.

    Bert

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  4. That is a great month JC. That is awesome that you are producing so much dividend income. You will really excelerate the growth once you start contributing regularly again. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Keep kickin butt JC. It's so much fun and very rewarding to watch the dividends grow. Tom

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  6. That's some long list of dividend payers for the month. Nice to see we have over a dozen names in common paying us both in March. Keep doing what you're doing. Seeing those rolling 12 month dividend averages skew up is always nice to see. Just goes to show what long term dividend investing can achieve. Enjoy these milestones.

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  7. I lost a little bit of money in the first quarter with the stock market being down, but overall it's just a small blip compared to my gains in 2017. April is dividend month. Good luck!

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  8. Congrats on the record-breaking dividend total, JC. That's an impressive list of dividend payers you have.... many companies in there I'd like to see in my Portfolio, including MMM, HD & COST. $1K any month now!

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