Dividend Update - April 2020

dividend growth investing | financial independence | freedom | dividends

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.

What a difference a month makes.  Near the end of March the markets were on their way to $0 and now they're rocketing higher every day.  Just goes to show you that know one knows what the hell is going to happen with the markets.  Luckily the dividends I received in April were pretty steady and predictable.  

My FI Portfolio produced $454.13 in dividends with my Folio First portfolio chipping in another $8.93.  My Roth IRA added $51.55 while my Rollover IRA contributed another $84.09.  That puts my taxable account dividends for April at $463.06 and the total for all accounts at $598.70.

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 my regular 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 April the companies I own paid me $19.96 per day or $2.49 per hour assuming 8 hour work days every day of the month.  For the year those numbers are $28.29 per day and $3.54 per hour.




FI Portfolio

As I mentioned above my FI Portfolio produced $454.13 in dividends during April.  Compared to January 2020 that's a 2.7% decrease due to the timing of payouts.  Compared to April 2019 it's a stellar 28.2% rise.

The year over year comparison gives a better idea of the growth with less possibility for fluctuations due to odd payout schedules.  Compared to April 2019 the YTD total came in at an equally solid 22.5% due largely to purchases made throughout 2019 and early 2020.

Roth IRA

My Roth IRA generated $51.55 in dividends for April.  That's a solid 3.4% increase from January and an excellent 14.7% year over year increase.

The YTD total through April 2020 shows a 45.4% increase compared to April 2019.

Rollover IRA

In March of last year 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.  

Companies fall in and out of favor with market participants throughout the year and I want to attempt to capture some of that change in emotion.  If I feel a company is undervalued I'll purchase shares and won't sell until the story changes or the market price hits what I feel is at least 1.3x "fair value".  This is just a little experiment that I wanted to try and if I feel it's too much hassle or that I'm constantly taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back then I'll revert back to my bread and butter buy and hold strategy.

As such the time period comparisons are less important for this account since I want to take a more active approach.  

That being said, my Rollover IRA produced $84.09 in dividends during April which was a 9.4% decrease from January.  The year over year comparison looks significantly better at 264% compared to April 2019.

Dividend Raises During the Month

April was a slow month of dividend increases for our FI Portfolio; however, that was to be expected at least based on historical increase announcements.  Just 3 companies I own boosted their dividend payments last month.  Combined those 3 companies in my FI Portfolio boosted my forward 12-month dividends by $33.61.  Through April I've received 21 increases from 20 of the 54 companies held in my FI Portfolio increasing my forward dividends by $174.24.

It wasn't all rosy though as one of holding Centerpoint Energy (CNP) announced a decrease in their dividend payout.  That stung, but it's not the end of the world.  It just goes to show you that debt and the balance sheet matters even for utilities.

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.
Purchases | Dividend Re-Investment | Dividend Raises | Financial Independence


The grand total for April was an increase of $50.19 with dividend increases leading the way.  Through the four months of 2020 my dividends have increased by $315.56 across all 3 sources with raises being the largest contributor.

Looking Forward

My forward 12-month dividends for my FI Portfolio ended February at $8,141.60 while my FolioFirst forward dividends are at $102.23.  That pushes the total taxable account forward 12-month dividends up to $8,243.83.  My Roth IRA's forward-12 month dividends increased to $676.34.  My Rollover IRA's forward 12-month dividends are at $2,994.44.  Across all 4 accounts, assuming no dividend cuts or position size changes, I can expect to receive at least $11,914.61 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 is at $624.89 per month which is $37.79 or 6.4% above 2019's monthly average of $587.10.
dividend growth investing | dividends | financial independence | freedom


Dividends Received Breakdown

Dividends | Financial Independence | Dividend Growth Investing


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

How were your dividends for March?  Did you continue to make purchases throughout the month?  Have you had any significant dividend reductions/suspensions from your holdings?

Let me know in the comments below!


Comments

  1. Hey JC. You had some terrific YoY growth across all your accounts. Well done.
    Looks like your tobacco stocks lit up your April income. KO and MDT delivered some nice totals as well.
    Looks like you have dividend raises leading the way over purchases and reinvestment in terms of adding to your FI portfolio's forward dividend income. It's the same for my portfolio.
    Happy to see you had dividend raises overshadow the cuts. Hopefully, that will continue to be the case, although the cuts and suspensions are sadly heating up.

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  2. Congrats on another solid report PIP. It's great to see the dividends coming in despite a global pandemic. I'm going to look into Phillip Morris. I own MO, but I might add PM to my list.

    I like the per day and per hour break down of the dividends you earned in April. I try to do something similar by seeing how much of my expenses the dividends I earn can cover. It keeps things interesting.

    I'm looking forward to seeing how the next monthly report turns out.

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  3. JC- Congratulations and nice freaking job! Love it, love it, love it! Keep on hustling and pushing my friend.

    Bert

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  4. Congrats on a solid month. This is my first time here. I love your profit growth. In I'm starting over with dividend investing, so I have a long way to go. I look forward to seeing how much dividends you will receive in May.

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