Monthly Dividend Income (Dec. 2017)

Happy New Year, everyone!

Well, the markets decided to close out 2017 by climbing higher yet again in December, wrapping up the year in strong fashion.  Thankfully, my portfolio followed along, ending 2017 with record dividend income for a month and a year.  In addition, a few more dividend raises got sprinkled into the mix, setting me up for even more dividend income in 2018.  Here’s a look at the presents that December brought for my portfolio…

 

Dividend Income

The total was $827.84… the highest total I’ve had for any single month, breaking the mark set this past June.  It was also just the 3rd time I eclipsed $800 in a month.  The Dec. 2017 total was also a 19.34% increase compared to Dec. 2016.  This is exciting news to say the least.

A lengthy list of 17 companies paid me a dividend this month.  The largest amount came from QCOM, delivering a shade over $107.  The least came from V, at a tad under $16.

The 2017 amounts from QCOM, XOM, SBUX and O mainly increased thanks to additional purchases over the past year.

Increased amounts for other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year.

The decreases from TROW, VFC and SWKS were a result of partial sales during the past year.

Only one new December payer showed up compared to last year, and that was TGT.  However, it did deliver a tidy sum of over $53 to me.

My CMI and PX positions were closed out over the past year, thus no dividends this time around to compare to last year.

 

Dividend Raises

December resulted in a cooling down of the dividend raises that had heated up my portfolio the past couple of months.  I did have 3 companies raise their dividend, but the raises were noticeably smaller.  REITs WPC and O had small percentage increases.  These appear much smaller than typical raises since these two companies tend to raise more frequently than an annual basis.  This was WPC’s 4th quarterly raise of 2017, raising 1 cent earlier in the year, followed by three 1/2 cent raises.  Meanwhile this was O’s 5th raise of 2017, with the biggest jump being the first one of the year.  Annualizing, WPC had an annual dividend raise of ~2.5%, while O had an annual dividend raise of ~5.2%.  Finally, I had ENSG with a raise just shy of 6%… which is nice.  However, the associated dollar amount that came with the raise wasn’t big since ENSG has a low yield and is one of the smaller positions in my portfolio.

These raises contribute a total of $3.79 to my annual forward dividend income.  While this is nowhere near the $90+ boosts from the last couple of months, it’s an increase, and I’ll take it.  Every little bit counts!

I’d have to invest $150.40 at my portfolio’s average yield of 2.52% in order to equal the same boost to my annual forward dividend income that these dividend raises provide.

 

Summary

I’d have to say my portfolio finished out 2017 with a bang with regard to monthly dividend income.  Record monthly dividend income and nice 19%+ YoY growth.

I finished 2017 with $6,705.87 in paid dividends, a whopping 29.11% YoY increase compared to the $5,194.04 I collected in 2016.

I also finished 2017 with $7,316.98 in annual forward dividend income, a healthy 25.76% increase compared to the $5818.11 I had at the end of 2016.

Finally, just this week I shared a newly minted set of Goals for 2018.

Look for another post next week where I plan to check the 2017 performance of the entire portfolio, as well as its individual holdings.

How about you?  Did you finish 2017 on a high note with regards to dividend income?  Any records set in December, or for the year?  Please let me know in the comments…

I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.

28 thoughts on “Monthly Dividend Income (Dec. 2017)

  1. Happy New Year. Year 2017 was actually a good year for you having your passive dividend income increased by 29.11%. Congratulations!

    1. Welcome, Myfinancekits. Thanks! Yes, 2017 was certainly good. I’ll take a 29%+ increase in dividend income any year. Unfortunately, it will become harder to achieve that level in the future as the numbers get bigger, but that won’t stop me from trying. Take care.

  2. Awesome stuff. Over $800 for December and a 19% increase year over year. Also that 29% year over year increase for the total year dividends is huge. Keep up the great work in 2018.

  3. Great work! You must be getting close to surpassing your typical contributions for December which will be a big milestone. Nice increase YoY from Starbucks – I couldn’t believe the line leading to the Starbucks at my local grocery store the other day. People will always want their coffee.

    1. Hey, Dozer. I nearly doubled by SBUX position back in August with an additional purchase. That purchase coupled with the juicy dividend raise they announced in November accounted for the jump. I’m not a coffee drinker, but I agree that it appears to be something many people must have… good to be a stockholder in that case!

  4. I like Johnson and Johnson. I think that given the Republican tax cut, they’ll bring back some of their foreign cash and either issue a special dividend or announce a stock buyback.

    1. I’m a fan of JNJ, too, as you might tell from my long holding period. I’m curious as to how each of the companies in my portfolio will react to the changing tax landscape. Over the long-term I’d hope all the companies would see some sort of benefit. Thanks for commenting, Troy.

  5. Hey Paul,

    more than 800$ in a single month is great!! – Congrats on your record. My dividend income in Dec was 267$ which is a record for December. The blogpost will be out soon. – Keep it up and all the best for 2018!!
    By the way: i added you to my blogroll.

    Greet’s
    DividendSolutions

    1. Records all around. Congrats to you, too, DS! I’ll be looking for your new post. Thanks for the blogroll add. I’d add you to mine if I had one…. perhaps something for me to work on this year. Thanks for stopping in and commenting!

  6. Congrats on a successful December ED and it’s nice to see another strong finish from another member of the DGI community. You had impressive numbers all around, including double digit YoY growth. Looking forward to the breakdown of your portfolio in 2017.

    1. Hi, DP. Yes, the growth was terrific, but it will be difficult to duplicate. I’d be happy with just coming close in 2018.
      As for the next post, it will be a little different than the usual ones… even more numbers to digest. I hope you’ll like it. Take care.

  7. Way to go! Congrats on the record month! That is some position you have in QCOM. Getting over $100 from a single company in a month is awesome. Especially nice for DRIPing. Best of luck in 2018!

    1. Thanks, DD! QCOM is a bigger position than I originally anticipated, but I decided to buy more while it was down last year. DRiPing my QCOM will provide over 6.5 shares per year at the current price and yield. Best of luck to you in 2018 as well. Thanks for checking in and commenting!

  8. Congrats on that solid showing for December. It’s always a nice feeling reaching a new high milestone. Nice to see we share a handful of stocks paying us last month. Keep up the good work and look forward to seeing what 2018 brings you!

    1. Thanks, DivHut. Yeah, always nice to hit a new milestone. I’m hoping for bigger dividends in 2018, with continued inflation-beating dividend raises!
      Looking forward to your Dividend Income Update for December. I’m sure it will be outstanding. I appreciate you checking in and sharing your thoughts.

  9. Nice job and nice site ED. I just cruised around a bit and checked out your about page and portfolio. We have a lot in common in terms of our age, stock holdings and DGI philosophy. I like your portfolio construction, diversification and analysis. I see from the comments above we also share many of the same friends in the DGI blogging community. Thanks for stopping by DD last night and best wishes for 2018! Tom

    1. Welcome, Tom. Thanks for your kind words. I enjoyed visiting your site, as you have lots of wonderful content. I’m sure I’ll be a frequent visitor. Here’s to a fabulous 2018 of dividend growth investing!

  10. Awesome December. Way to end the year strong. Someone above mentioned that they were wondering how the tax cut will affect their companies. I’m also excited to see how much more money will be staying in my paycheck. That is all more money available to invest and help increase monthly contributions.

    Have a great 2018!

    1. Thanks, Scott. So true… we should be able to keep a few more dollars in our pocket as opposed to letting Uncle Sam get them. If we can then turn that into increased investment contributions, then we should be able to enhance those future dividend payments. All the best to you in 2018!

  11. So many high quality companies paying you ED! Very nice, and I do like the double digit growth too. Seems like this is going one way, and that’s UP UP UP!

    1. Thanks, Stockles! It was a good month and a good way to close the year. Amazingly, my growth rate for Dec. was good, but even better for the entire year. I hope to repeat the performance, but it will be difficult.

  12. Those are some amazing results and ditto growth. I hope to be where you are in a few years time! For now my goal is $500 in forward income 🙂

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