Dividend Update - May 2023 #Dividend

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.

May was a strong month of dividends across our accounts.  My FI Portfolio produced $569.25 for the month with my Loyal3 FolioFirst Interactive Brokers portfolio chipping in another $6.86.  My Roth IRA added $68.66 and my Rollover IRA generated $285.23.  For the month I received $576.11 across my taxable accounts and $930.00 across all accounts.  

Making Money While I Sleep

The power of joining the ownership class is that those companies can work much harder for you than you can.  Think about it.  By myself I have to devote my own time to a job in order to make money.  However, by buying a stake in a high quality business I now get to leverage my own time that I exchanged for money into companies that are working around the clock to make products or provide services for their customers.  Those companies are working 24/7/365 which means that I make money even when I sleep.

During May the companies I own paid me $30.00 per day or $5.25 per hour assuming 8 hour work days 5 days a week.  YTD that's $43.29 per day and $7.58 per hour.  

FI Portfolio

As I mentioned above my FI Portfolio produced $569.25 in dividends during May.  Slowly inching my way towards every month being >$600.  

May's results were an excellent 23.2% increase compared to May 2022.  The YTD results compared to 2022 have 2023 coming in 21.0% higher.

Roth IRA

My Roth IRA had another solid month during May although the mid-quarter month is well behind the other two months.  My Roth IRA produced $68.66 in dividends during May.  Compared to April 2022 that's a strong 12.1% increase   The YTD results have 2023 19.2% ahead of 2022 through May.   

Rollover IRA

In March of 2019 I mentioned that I would start reporting on my Rollover IRA.  The bulk of those funds are invested in dividend growth companies, although there's a few that aren't, so to give the cleanest picture I will show just the dividend growth investments during my monthly reports.  That being said I'm not too worried about any particular month/quarter of dividends since my current plan is to be a bit more active with these funds than I would in my taxable accounts.  

My Rollover IRA produced a total of $285.23 in dividends during May which is a solid 18.7% increase compared to May 2022.   

The YTD results through May have 2023 just 4.4% ahead compared to the same period in 2022.  

Dividend Raises During the Month

Dividend increases picked up some in April after March's measly 2 raises.  May was the beginning of the summer lull for dividend increases with just 1 raise from my FI Portfolio holdings being announced.  Combined the announced raises boosted my forward 12-month dividends by $5.23.  So far in 2023 I've received 32 total increases which have increased my forward 12-month dividends by $366.46.

Dividend Increase Source

I've started breaking down the monthly dividend increase into its components: purchases, re-investment and dividend raises.  This lets me see what is the bigger contributor each month in my pursuit of financial independence.  I'm only tracking this for my main FI Portfolio since that is the portfolio that I want to ultimately provide the bulk of our income.

This year continues to be a slow grind higher for our forward dividends largely due to the lack of fresh capital being added to the portfolio.  Another baby on the way and the desire for cash as well as other potential opportunities have a way of changing your plans.

That being said I'm still quite happy to see that we're averaging a $86.42 per month increase through May despite very little being added to the portfolio.

As such purchases have been a non-factor in 2023 adding only $65.68 to our forward dividends and that's primarily been from cash dividends being used to purchase other holdings.

Luckily dividend growth investing isn't built to rely solely on one source of dividend growth.  When one is lacking you can still rely on the other two to help you out.  

Dividend increases have carried the weight thus far in 2023 with nearly a $73.29 per month average.  That's going to come down as the year goes on, but solid results nonetheless.   

That's what's really cool about finally hitting some scale with your investments and dividends.  Dividend reinvestment and organic dividend growth can do the heavy lifting for you and eventually will far surpass what you can do with savings alone.

During May our forward 12-month dividends rose by $20.07 and YTD they've increased by $433.28.

Looking Forward

My forward 12-month dividends for my FI Portfolio ended May at $11,665.23 while my Loyal 3 FolioFirst Interactive Brokers forward dividends are at $241.82.  That pushes the total taxable account forward 12-month dividends up to $11,907.05.  My Roth IRA's forward-12 month dividends are at $1,164.89.  My Rollover IRA's forward 12-month dividends are at $4,510.32.  

Across all 4 accounts, assuming no dividend cuts or position size changes, I can expect to receive at least $17,582.26 in dividends over the next year.

Monthly Average

The following chart shows 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 ended April at $910.39 per month which is $63.32 higher or a 7.4% increase compared to 2022's monthly average of $856.02.

Dividends Received Breakdown

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

Have you been crossing any milestones this far in 2023?

Let me know in the comments below!