Monthly Dividend Income (Dec. 2019)

… And just like that we put a wrap on 2019.  It was a great year in the stock market without a doubt.  My Portfolio saw a tremendous percentage gain, which I plan to detail in a coming post.

Even better though was that I continued to push my dividend totals higher.  While December dividend totals did not set a monthly record, it brought in enough for me to reach a big milestone… $10K in dividends collected for the entire year!

I’ve been talking about this milestone in my posts for most of the last few months, and I’m happy to say that it has now been reached.  As it turned out, I didn’t attain the $10K level until that last day of the year, but that didn’t reduce any of my excitement.

With $10K now under my belt I look forward to putting a new milestone in my sights and working towards it.  As of now, getting to $12K in dividend income, or a nice $1K/mo., seems like the most logical choice.

However, before I get working towards the future, let’s take a look at those dividend totals from December and find out what propelled me to new heights as we closed out 2019.

 

Dividend Income

December saw me tally $1,151.12 in dividends.  Love seeing those 4-digit months!  This was a healthy 15.06% YoY growth when compared to the $1,000.41 from December 2018.

A total of 19 companies paid me a dividend this month.  No less than 13 of those companies delivered at least $50 this month, with one even surpassing $100 for me.

Qualcomm (QCOM) was that one dividend payer to exceed triple-digit dividend income for me in December.   It was $125.50… well past that $100 mark.  QCOM is the top dividend payer in my Portfolio.  That’s despite no dividend increase in 2019.  I’m hoping QCOM can rectify this “no dividend growth” situation in March by offering up a raise.

Speaking of triple-digit payments, I’m hoping Exxon Mobil (XOM) reaches that level for me by year’s end.  A small dividend raise on top of my reinvested dividends should get me there.

My lowest payer for the month was Kontoor Brands (KTB), paying $6.16.  The KTB shares I own came as part of the VF Corp (VFC) spinoff last May.  I imagine 2020 will be the year I either eliminate my KTB position or add to it.  At its current size in my Portfolio, KTB just isn’t big enough to have a meaningful impact.  Thus, it must grow or go.

The increased dividend amount from Target (TGT) was boosted by an additional purchase over the past year.  Increased amounts for the other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year.

One stock recorded a reduced payout for me compared to last year.  That stock was VFC, and it was due to the aforementioned KTB spinoff, as opposed to a partial sale or dividend cut.

One special note… this month’s Main Street Capital (MAIN) payout included a special dividend, in addition to the regular one.  $26.06 was the regular dividend, and $30.66 was the special dividend, totaling the $56.72 I show in the table.  MAIN is supposed to be phasing out the bi-annual special dividends over time, eventually rolling them into the regular dividend.  This process has started, but it appears to be moving rather slowly.

This December I notched 4 new dividend payers compared to last year.  These 4 stocks are all from different sectors.  TCF Financial (TCF) debuted with the largest new dividend, followed by 3M Co. (MMM).  Showing up at the bottom of my dividends payer list this December were relative newcomers UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and KTB.

Disappearing from my dividend payer table compared to last year were two stocks, HanesBrands (HBI) and D.R. Horton (DHI).  HBI will be rolling off this list next quarter.  I sold HBI about 1 year ago, as I was disappointed with the company performance as well as their dividend freeze.  The freeze is still in place.  Home builder DHI was sold more recently as my covered call reached its expiration date in the money.

As usual, I reinvested all dividends into the stocks that paid them, resulting in an additional forward dividend income boost of $34.28.  This was the lowest amount that I saw for the quarter-ending months in 2019, as rising stock prices during the year resulted in fewer shares being purchased, and thus a little less forward dividend income.

At the beginning of the year, I introduced another column in the dividend income table to show the actual number of “New Shares” that were purchased with my reinvested dividends.  In December, my reinvested dividends resulted in the purchase of over 12.5 new shares of stock.  For the entire year, I was able to buy 136.396 new shares of stock for my Portfolio.  Nice!  The plan is to keep sharing this reinvested dividend information in 2020 as well.  Hopefully, you’ve found it worthy of being in these reports.

 

Dividend Raises

When I read other December dividend reports, it appears December is a big month for dividend raises.  This would seem to make sense, as companies announce their dividend plans for the new year.  Strangely though, December is not one of my better months for receiving dividend raises.  In fact, if it wasn’t for one of my recent Portfolio additions, I would have been left with only a couple of tiny raises producing around $1 of new forward dividend income.

What I miss out on in December must be getting rolled into January and February, as those are my best months of the year for dividend raises.  I hope that’s the case again.

However, before I focus too much on what lies ahead, let’s check out what transpired in December.  In December, I had 3 companies announce a dividend raise.  This matches my lowest amount for any month during 2019.

The month started with my first raise from Eastman Chemical (EMN) since becoming a shareholder earlier in the year.  The 6.45% raise was acceptable to me, despite it coming up short of historical norms for EMN over fairly recent reporting periods.  Besides, compared to what followed the rest of the month, this looked stellar.

The rest of the month saw two tiny dividend raises from REITs Realty Income (O) and W.P. Carey (WPC). These are the typical, small quarterly raises that these REITs offer up.  Sadly, these two raise percentages are even lower than what O and WPC offered up last year.

 

All totaled, these dividend raises contributed $10.92 to my additional forward dividend income.  This was my 2nd lowest total of 2019, only better than the March total of $8.68.  Nothing to write home about, but an increase nonetheless.  I was happy that the EMN raise was big enough to get me over the $10 mark for additional forward dividend income this month.

I’d have to invest $433.33 at my Portfolio’s current average yield of 2.52% in order to equal the same boost to my annual forward dividend income that these dividend raises provided.

Looking forward, I’m expecting good things on the dividend raise front as we turn the calendar to 2020.  In January, I expect to hear raise announcements from O, Blackrock (BLK), Fastenal (FAST), Comcast (CMCSA), Air Products & Chemicals (APD), Nexstar Media Group (NXST) and Aflac (AFL).  I suspect dividend raises will be more along the lines of what we saw in 2019, as opposed to the tremendous ones from 2018.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

While the market heated up in December, I stayed on the sidelines when it came to new investments… for the most part.  You see, I did manage to sneak in one purchase on the day after Christmas.  I added to one of my newer positions in an attempt to have it move up the ranks in my Portfolio.  I added some shares of General Dynamics (GD).

You can find all the details in this recent post: Recent Buy – GD.

With the purchase, my forward dividend income increased by $40.80.

 

Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income

This year I continued with tracking the additional forward dividend income generated each month from the trifecta of sources: reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and new capital investment.

I’ve been showing 2018’s totals, too, so that we can compare as the year goes along.

As noted at the start of the year, I anticipated that my Reinvested Dividends total would move higher in 2019, but that I’d see a reduction in the total from the Dividend Raises and the Investment of Capital.  Well, those predictions came true.  Check out the final tallies for the year.

 

The additional forward dividend income generated in December was $86.00.  Not one of my better months, but I was happy to see contributions from all the sources.

For the 2nd straight year, ‘Dividend Raises’ managed to generate the most additional forward dividend income for me, besting ‘Investment of Capital’ once again, despite those reductions in the annual totals that I expected.  However, the total from ‘Reinvested Dividends’ grew nicely compared to 2018.  I expect the contribution from Reinvested Dividends will pass any totals I generate from Investment of Capital one day as well.  At that point, one could say the Portfolio is growing on its own.

While I was hoping to achieve $1,600 in additional forward dividend income for the year, I came up short.  This was not a goal I had at the outset of 2019, but I put it in my crosshairs later in the year.

For 2019, my average monthly amount of additional forward dividend income being generated finished at $127.30/mo.  That’s a nice chunk, but I’ll be pushing to do better than that in 2020.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.  All of my quarter-ending months exceeded the $1000 mark in 2019, and every month was higher than $600.  I’m hoping every month next year is north of $700.

 

 

On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.

On the last day of December, my final dividend payout of the year pushed me past the $10K mark.  Woohoo!  I adjusted the Y-axis scale below to accommodate the milestone.  If I’m lucky, I’ll have to make another adjustment by the end of 2020, but that may be too aggressive.  🙂

 

Annual Growth

With the close of 2019, let’s take a look at the YoY growth of my actual dividend income, as well as my forward dividend income.

Actual Dividend Income

The annual numbers for actual dividend income can be seen in the chart just above.  I finished 2018 with $8,460.35 in dividends, while I finished 2019 with $10,049.68 in dividends.  This was growth of 18.79%.  This growth percentage was down from previous years, but this is to be expected as the dividend numbers continue to grow.

Forward Dividend Income

As for the annual numbers for forward dividend income, here they are.  I finished 2018 with $9,276.42 in forward dividends, while I finished 2019 with $10,804.29 in forward dividends.  This was growth of 16.47%.  I should be able to surpass $12K in forward dividend income by the end of 2020.  Growth over 11% in 2020 would allow me to obtain that $12K level.

 

Summary

This December, I was able to collect over $1,151 in dividends, on over 15% growth.  It was a good way to close out 2019.

Dividend raises were light for me in December, with only 3 raises and about $10 in new forward dividend income from them, but I expect the raises to pick up significantly as we kick off 2020.

I made only 1 purchase in December, but with stocks becoming more expensive as the days/weeks/months go by, having more cash on hand for the inevitable downturn will be good, too.

After registering more forward dividend income from the trifecta of dividend income sources, my forward dividend income finished out the year at just over $10.8K – a beautiful $900/mo.  Next stop… $1K/mo. average… probably in late 2020.

All in all, it was an impressive year in the markets, and in my Portfolio.  Thanks to the markets, my Portfolio value increased over 30% (final percentage coming soon).  However, when it comes to things I have more control over, which is my dividend income, I logged some greats results as well, the biggest of which was $10K in actual dividend income.

I hope you all had a terrific year of dividends and dividend growth in 2019.  Here’s hoping for more of the same in 2020!

 

How did you finish out the year?  Were you able to surpass any milestones in the final days of the year like I did?  Did you reach the last of your annual goals in December?  Please share in the Comments!

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

27 thoughts on “Monthly Dividend Income (Dec. 2019)

  1. Your portfolio is at that critical mass where new funds added have less and less impact on growth. With that perspective in mind, you still achieved an almost 19% annual increase which is incredible performance! Hats off to you sir on a job well done.

    1. Thanks much, Ken. Critical mass sounds like a good way to describe it. I look forward to the year when even my reinvested dividends generate more forward income than my new investments. Strangely enough, I don’t think that year it too far away.

      1. That’s an interesting point ED, definitely a crossover to look for in the future.
        I know Ken’s point as well, the bigger that portfolio gets, the harder it is to post big growth numbers. That’s when it’s a good idea to reflect on the dollar amount as well.

        1. I know my Portfolio will be ready to fly on its own when I see my reinvested dividends generating more income than the new capital I invest. Since I’ll probably be stuck around the $10K annual capital investment number for the near future, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens in the next year or so.

  2. Happy New Year! Congrats on an awesome finish to the year! Nice job collecting over $10K in dividends! I have no doubt you will reach the $12K milestone this year. Keep up the great work! 🙂

    1. $12K in 2020 looks difficult to me, MDD. However, no reason I can’t have that as a stretch goal. I’ll definitely re-evaluate things mid-year and see where I stand.
      Happy New Year to you as well. Let’s ring the dividend register in 2020!

  3. Hi Engineering Dividends, it’s great to follow your progress with these updates. You are doing great and much of the heavy lifting has been done. Best of luck next year!

    1. Thank you Dividend Dream! I’m glad the updates are proving helpful. I do feel like a lot of the heavy lifting has been accomplished. At this point I don’t feel like a have to invest a lot to keep powering the dividend machine along. It’s a terrific feeling for sure.

    1. Happy New Year to you as well, DS. It was a good way to close out the decade! Too bad I didn’t focus on my dividend investing at the start of the decade, or I’d be even farther along.

  4. Nice breaking through $10000. on the last day of the year. Reaching $1200 in 2020 even better. I enjoy following your progress. Here’s to a fabulous 2020! ~ M

    1. Yes, reaching that $10K mark was an outstanding feeling. $12K will be tough for 2020, but you never know what’s going to happen. It’s not out of the realm of possibility.
      Happy you have you following along on my journey, Michelle. Here’s to a fabulous 2020 for all of us!

  5. Congrats on busting through that $10k milestone! You’ve made some great progress this year and it will be exciting to see where 2020 takes you, and how the machine continues to feed itself with those raises and reinvested dividends!

    1. DivvyDad! Good to hear from you. Where have you been? I keep checking your site waiting for the next post, but it never comes. You must be a busy man.
      I do check the twitter feed you have on your site and see your tweets, so I know you’re alive. 🙂 You appear to be crushing it. I hope you’ve been working on some new spreadsheets to keep track of your growing portfolio.
      As for me, $10K is now in my rear view mirror and I’ll take this thing as far as those dividend raises and reinvested dividends will take me.
      Glad you stopped by. Happy New Year to you.

      1. Yeah, unfortunately I have been quiet on the blog and commenting elsewhere as other activities have been consuming my time. Still alive and kicking–one of those activities has been that my wife and I have been doing some house-hunting in a LCOL area as we would like to buy our future retirement home in the near future. That means I have been conserving cash for now and haven’t made any recent investments.

        1. House hunting sounds exciting. Hopefully, you two find what you are looking for. In the meantime, your portfolio will keep working for you. Eventually, you can escalate your investments again once the near-term cash need subsides. Best of luck in your search, DivvyDad.

  6. Way to go cracking the 10k mark!! Excellent month totals and YoY growth rate as well. That’s an impressive market beating >30% increase in the portfolio for the year. I agree, have much more control on the divvy income with markets at all time highs. 📈

    Keep it going-
    Cheers
    Divcome

    1. Thanks, Divcome. December was good, no doubt. The year as a whole was even better. I’m working on calculating all my stock returns for the year and hope to share those in the days ahead. I did have market beating returns!

  7. Nice way to end the year ED! Congrats on making those records and having to adjust the y axis of your graph 🙂
    Good luck in 2020. Hopefully, you will be able to make it to $1000/month in average, that would be awesome! 🙂

    1. Thanks, BI. I certainly like how we finished 2019. Lots to strive for in 2020.
      You certainly had an impressive 2019 with dividends. Your monthly contributions will help carry that momentum you’ve generated into 2020. Good luck to you as well.

  8. CCI photo finish! Nailed the goal. Nice month and close!
    Btw- on top of the 5 additions I made last month that you own…I added QCOM as well!

    1. It was a buzzer beater to close things out, PC. It was a good finish to the month, year, and decade, for sure.
      Hey, QCOM. Make it 6! Nice add, QCOM has been running up beautifully as of late.

  9. Congrats on another 4 digit month and on 15.06% YoY growth, ED! I’m happy to hear you were able to reach your goal to earn 10k! Always cool to see the comparison of reinvested capital vs dividends. As for my year, I hit a new record of just over $80 in December 2019. Overall, I finished a bit lower than I expected at the beginning of the year, but that was before I knew I’d be working a part-time job. Looking forward to your reports this year!

    1. Thanks, Graham. I’m glad I hit that $10K goal, no doubt. It’s a good baseline number to build on for 2020.
      Congrats on the new record. Those are always great to see. It keeps us motivated to do more. Looks like you are lined up for a triple-digit December for 2020!
      You made some good progress in 2019 in light of the change with your job. Hopefully, you are all settled in for 2020 and can focus on your growing your dividend machine.

  10. Engineering Dividend – Man you know I love reading each monthly summary Congrats on a strong month and blowing by your $10k goal. 2019 was a successful year for many and hopefully we can continue to build on our successes and set new records in 2020. I love some of the names that paid you dividends and I also love how you show the new shares via DRIP from dividends received.

    Bert

    1. Well, I wouldn’t call it blowing by my $10K dividend goal… more like squeaked by it! 🙂
      There should be plenty of new records in 2020, Bert – for me, and you. Of course, as long as we keep investing those new records are sure to arrive. What’s not to like about DGI?!
      Glad you enjoy the report and the ‘shares via DRiP’ highlight. Hopefully, I can find something new to add to this year’s monthly reports.
      Always awesome to have you drop by… here’s to a terrific 2020 for both of us.

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