Dividend Update - December 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.

And just like that 2022 is in the books.  It's crazy just how fast time seems to go as you get older because without thinking about it I would say there's no way we're into 2023 already.  Of course that's why so many of us are working to save and invest and build up passive income to be able to reclaim our time.

December was an excellent month for our dividends.  My FI Portfolio produced $1,388.37 for the month with my Loyal3 FolioFirst Interactive Brokers portfolio chipping in another $12.47.  My Roth IRA added $106.77 and my Rollover IRA generated $732.32.  For the month I received $1,400.84 across my taxable accounts and $2,239.93 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 December the companies I own paid me $72.26 per day or $12.64 per hour assuming 8 hour work days 5 days a week.  While YTD those are $43.85 and $7.67, respectively.  

FI Portfolio

As I mentioned above my FI Portfolio produced $1,388.37 in dividends during December which is a solid 6.7% increase compared to December 2021.  The full year performance for 2022 showed an excellent 22.5% 2021.  In total we finished with just shy of $1,900 more in dividends for 2022 compared to 2021.

Roth IRA

My Roth IRA continued to grind higher with its dividends.  For December it generated $106.77 in dividends which represents a 14.0% increase versus December 2021.  The year over year increase was due to all three legs of the dividend growth stool: dividend growth, dividend reinvestment, and new purchases.  The full year comparison shows an equally impressive 24.5% increase compared to 2021.  

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 $732.32 in dividends during December which is an excellent 33.4% increase compared to last year.  The full year total for 2022 was 20.5% ahead ahead of 2021's level.

Dividend Raises During the Month

December saw a bit of an increase in dividend increase announcements for my holdings which is always a great thing to hear.  For the month there were 6 raises announced that combined to boost my forward 12-month dividends for my FI Portfolio by $48.49.

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.  For all of 2022 I received 60 raises that have increased my forward 12-month dividends by a combined $630.06.

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.

In December I was able to increase my forward 12-month dividends by nearly $100 but failed to reach that mark.  However, I did surpass that level in 9 of the 12 months for 2022.  December's drop off was primarily due to us looking to raise cash for other opportunities so transfers to the brokerage account were very light for the month.

Dividend increases led the way with $48 and purchases followed closely behind at $36.  Reinvestment, counted as just automatic reinvestment, added another $12.  Combined the 3 sources of dividend growth increased the forward 12-month dividends for my FI Portfolio by $97.47 from December's activity.

For 2022 the 3 sources of dividend growth combined to increase our forward 12-month dividends by $1,972.23.  Subtracting the  $375.77 in dividends lost from the AT&T (T) cut as well as the handful of sales puts our net increase for 2022 at $1,596.45.  That worked out to a solid +$133 per month increase during the year.

What's really cool about surpassing the $11k mark in forward dividends is that increases and reinvestment should add somewhere around $800 - $1,000 to our forward dividends in 2023 without including new capital being added to the accounts.

Looking Forward

My forward 12-month dividends for my FI Portfolio ended December at $11,202.91 while my Loyal 3 FolioFirst Interactive Brokers forward dividends are at $234.49.  That pushes the total taxable account forward 12-month dividends up to $11,437.40.  My Roth IRA's forward-12 month dividends are at $1,070.59.  My Rollover IRA's forward 12-month dividends are at $4,748.06.  Across all 4 accounts, assuming no dividend cuts or position size changes, I can expect to receive at least $17,256.05 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 December at $856.02 per month which is $157.24 higher or a 22.5% increase compared to 2021's monthly average of $698.78. 

Dividends Received Breakdown

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

Did you surpass any milestones or set any records for the year?  

Let me know in the comments below!