Dividend Update - February 2022 #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.

2022 has been a doozy thus far in the markets as well as with geopolitical tensions and war breaking out in Ukraine.  Despite the volatility in the markets my dividends have been doing just fine.  During February my FI Portfolio produced $472.33 in dividends with my Loyal3 FolioFirst Interactive Brokers portfolio chipping in another $5.67.  My Roth IRA added $46.54 and my Rollover IRA generated $270.43.  For the month I received $478.00 across my taxable accounts and $794.97 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 February the companies I own paid me $28.39 per day or $4.97 per hour assuming 8 hour work days.  Through the first two months of 2022 those are $30.68 and $5.37, respectively.

FI Portfolio

As I mentioned above my FI Portfolio produced $472.33 in dividends during February which was the first time I've had a February up over $400.  Slow and steady.  Compared to November 2021 February's dividends were 15.6% higher and compared to February 2021 this years total is 49.9% higher.

Roth IRA

My Roth IRA generated $46.54 in dividends during February which is a disappointing 15.2% decrease compared to November 2021, but a massive 225.9% increase from February 2021.  There's a lot of noise in those numbers though with the quarterly comparison affected by Fastenal (FAST) that has an odd pay schedule of March, May, August, November.  The year over year comparison is affected by Norfolk Southern (NSC) changing their pay dates to the February, May, August, November schedule after making the Q1 payment in March 2021.  The YTD results for 2022 are 75.0% higher compared to the same timeframe in 2021; however that will be coming down once March completes.

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 $270.43 in dividends during February which is a 4.8% increase from November 2021.  Compared to February 2021 dividends showed a solid 22.6% increase due to additional capital deployment, dividend reinvestment and organic dividend growth.  YTD results for 2022 are showing a solid 19.4% increase compared to the same period in 2021.

Dividend Raises During the Month

February continued the strong start to 2022 in terms of dividend increases with 12 of the holdings in my FI Portfolio announcing raises.  Those 12 raises combined to increase my forward 12-month dividends by $102.56.

I love dividend increases because it means (1) the company is doing better and (2) I get paid more while doing absolutely nothing.  That's about as good as it gets.  Year to date in 2022 I've received 15 raises that increased my forward 12-month dividends by a combined $140.03.

Unfortunately there was a dividend cut from AT&T (T) which I still hold in my FI Portfolio.  This wasn't a surprise cut as it was telegraphed last year; however, that cut definitely stings as it reduced my forward 12-month dividends by $110.95.  Luckily the increases helped negate much of lost dividend income.  That's the exact reason why I diversify.

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.

Dividend increases led the way in February with purchases still providing a solid $60 increase.  Excluding the dividend cut and my forward 12-month dividends rose by $166.  Unfortunately, that dividend cut was very much real and brought the net increase down to just $55.53 for the month.  

Through the first 2 months of 2022 purchases and increases are leading the way as would be expected and are neck-and-neck thus far.  My forward 12-month dividend have increased $199.62 through the end of February despite the dividend cut which works out to a monthly average of $99.81.

Looking Forward

My forward 12-month dividends for my FI Portfolio ended February at $9,822.37 while my Loyal 3 FolioFirst Interactive Brokers forward dividends are at $183.12.  That pushes the total taxable account forward 12-month dividends up to $10,005.49.  My Roth IRA's forward-12 month dividends are at $935.58.  My Rollover IRA's forward 12-month dividends are at $4,233.75.  Across all 4 accounts, assuming no dividend cuts or position size changes, I can expect to receive at least $15,174.82 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 February at $727.92 per month which is $29.14 higher or a 4.2% increase compared to 2021's monthly average of $698.78.  

Dividends Received Breakdown

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

How were your dividends in February and thus far in 2022?

Let me know in the comments below!