It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  Ah, the quarter-end dividend income summary post. This is my favorite time of the year, as most companies traditionally pay on a calendar quarter end, which for the U.S. dividend investors, this typically means a bigger month of collecting dividends than usual. Will that be the case for me?  Did I set some milestones here?  I have established now a minimum bar, as well as leaped to new heights for my September dividend income.

Dividend income

This was a record September month, I received a total of $1,009.48. Another 4 digit month for me in the books.  I had one back in June of this year, with my first being December of 2015. It feels good that this is becoming a “standard” quarter end mark for me.  I am absolutely loving it.

From looking at above, I had a whopping 25 different entities paying me, including the funds on the right side in my retirement account. This is up 3 positions from last September, adding more to my army of dividend deploying assets. What did I add?  Well the big one was T. Rowe Price (TROW), as I purchased them again just before their ex-dividend date in the early-to-mid part of September.  Archer Daniels (ADM) is another whopper that was including this year vs. last year, which added another bang to the portfolio.Think of this – that $1,009.48 above reinvested and easily added over $30/$35 in forward income for me as well.  I couldn’t be more excited about the growth that I’ve experienced here and the amount received in September.

Similarly, I have split out between the individual stock amounts and the retirement accounts, as the ” – R” indicates a Roth IRA dividend (or the furthest column to the right, I forgot the “R” this quarter).  I separate these two, as I like to know what portion of my dividend income is coming from those retirement accounts that I cannot touch until 59.5 (barring any other usage rule I could use). Here, it shows that I received a total of $348.06 or 34.48% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 65.52% was from my individual taxable account portfolio. $348.06 from retirement accounts shows that I’m all ready for my set it and forget it mentality to keep that income going, but given the large amount of income, it’s nice to see almost $700 from individual stocks, this is hilarious.  To see my portfolio – one can go to our portfolio summary page.

Dividend income year over year comparison

Something that I like to do now is attach in prior year’s dividend income, which the image is copied in below, with 2015 first and 2016 to follow.

2015: 

2016: 

From looking at the comparisons, dividends are up in general, it’s incredible (outside of BBL). Most of the stocks are up at least 10%, such as Intel (INTC), Visa (V), Rockwell (ROK), Pepsi (PEP), Realty Income (O), to rattle off a few names. How? One may ask that question. There is an easy answer to this question. Through dividend reinvestment and dividend growth, I have been able to further propel this portfolio. The compounding effect of these two events are intense and can be seen easily above. It is an amazing feeling seeing the impact these two actions have on the portfolio. Overall, my growth was $229.85, or 29.5%, greater than last year.  Talk about making moves.

Also, I have to point out, my maximizing my traditional 401(k) has been incredible, as you can see I received a whopping $192.36 from VINIX.  Check out my post here to see what I am currently doing to save on taxes and investing more.

dividend increases

Do you see the impact of the dividend growth and increases above?  I am in awe by the sheer impact this had on my portfolio, in one single month. It is incredible and has to be one of the best months I have ever had, as it relates to dividend income increases. Realty Income (O) continued its record year of dividend income increases, as they had increased last month in addition to this month. Then, Lockheed Martin (LMT) came in with a favorable 10% dividend income increase. Let’s just say I had no complaints this month at all. To add $40.46 in forward income, I would have to make an investment of $1,156 given a 3.50% yield.

Dividend income conclusion & Summary

My favorite part, time to reflect on what the month had turned into. This marked my first actual first month of activating all of my tax strategies, deploying large purchases in Target (TGT) and T. Rowe Price, and all the while saving over 60% of my income. In addition to the investing aspects, which you’ll read about in my quarter 3 goal update post to be released later on, I was able to accomplish many things this month as it relates to paying down my mortgage, traveling, etc. A rounded 30% growth rate is phenomenal to me, as one would expect those growth rate figures to decrease when the amounts are already large to begin with. However, that was not the case this month and you know how fortunate and lucky I am to say that. How incredible would it be to start kissing the $1,500 in a single month mark?  Time and consistency will get me there, that I know for sure.

As I discussed with my NEW updated – normal monthly expenditures at the moment, this $1,009 would cover 102.5% of my average $984 monthly expense for my house, including utilities; way up from last year and fully covers my housing expenses. All of the investing from last year and moves this year, show being frugal to save 60% of my income, that every dollar counts, has helped me in achieving lofty goals that I set in place for my 2016 year.

How did your September turn out?  Bring in a good amount of dividend income?  What do you see from my progress above?  Any comments, tips, insight or further suggestions are always appreciated.