Spring is finally in the air and the second quarter is well under. Ah, the perfect time to sit down, relax, and review my dividend income figures from the last month. It is always nice to see what changes your portfolio had over the last twelve months, which seems like a long period of time but somehow flies by. Last month in our blogging community dividend income summary, we saw so many people producing crazy results, setting records, and setting the bar insanely high.  Now, it is time to see if I can follow the lead of all of you. Time to check out my April dividend income summary!

April Dividend income summary

This month, my wife and I received $148.62 in dividend income, a 4.05% DECREASE compared to last year!  To make it even worse, when I receive my wife’s dividend from PM, my personal year over year increase is an even word 13.49% YOY decrease.  WHAT HAPPENED? Well, the chart below provides a detailed comparison over the companies that paid us a dividend in April 2017 and 2016:

(Click on image to enlarge)

My take on the chart above is that there was a ton of noise that occurred in the last twelve months, some positive noise, and some negative noise. But once I was able to look through the smoke, it turns out that the month was a relatively boring dividend income month for me. Here are some of the highlights that impact my April dividend income total:

• First, you have to start off with the positive changes, right?  This April, I received dividends from two new companies that did not pay me in last April. I purchased Cardinal Health in the third quarter of 2016 and I initiated a stake in my new favorite dividend paying company, Realty Income, during the fourth quarter.  Thank goodness I had these new positions this month because man the decrease would have been brutal without them.  Besides for the fact that my wife added her income to my reporting this year, that really covers the positive aspects of my dividend income for the month.
• Now, the first of the negative item. Last April, GSK paid a special cash dividend that was nearly the same amount as the regular quarterly dividend.  Which is why it appears that my GSK dividend income was cut in half. I’m happy to report the decrease was not due to a massive dividend cut at least.  But without the special cash dividend, my monthly income took a pretty nice hit.
• Second, and I swear I have written about this every month in 2017 so far.  Once again, my monthly dividend income figure were thrown off by due to the fact that Kraft-Heinz switched the month they pay their dividend to shareholders.  I’m happy that the company continues to pay and I know I shouldn’t be picky about what month the dividend is paid in, but having to explain the variance every month is becoming rather annoying.

April Dividend Increases

This is the fun month.  As we summarized in our expected dividend increases article that was published a few days ago, there were a ton of companies that increased their dividend in April.  In total, I received three increases during the month:

• PG – 3% dividend increase, resulting in $4.18 in additional dividend income
• JNJ – 5% dividend increase, resulting in $6.34 in additional dividend income
• IBM – 7% dividend increase, resulting in $5.54 in additional dividend income

There it is, I received $16.06 in additional dividend income without having to lift a finger.  Man, this is why I LOVE dividend investing right here!

Summary

Look, when GSK pays a large special dividend in a month that is a “slow” dividend paying month, a decrease in your annual dividend income is bound to happen. Despite the decrease, I leave this month feeling very optimistic that my wife and I are slowly, but surely, building a strong, growing passive income stream that will one day help catapult us towards financial freedom. While our purchases have slowed down of late due to the fact that our house hunt has picked up steam lately (and this requires a lot of capital as many of you know) and we are in the process of purchasing a new car for my wife (another activity that requires cash on hand).  But I am looking forward to my finances settling down and being able to pump some cash into my portfolio soon so that we can continue pushing this dividend snowball downhill!

How well did you perform this month?  Were you able to set a new dividend income record?  Did your dividend income increase as well because of Kraft and GSK?  What dividend increases did you receive during the month?