Just one month to go before closing out 2025.  But let me get this post published first… one detailing my November dividend income.

I plan for my Portfolio to begin helping me pay for my expenses come January, 2026.  So, dividend reinvestment and nearly all capital investment will cease at the end of December.

Thus, expect my additional forward dividend income to provide smaller annual numbers starting next year, mostly via dividend raises.

I do expect to continue to make Portfolio transactions from time to time.  However, this will mostly be selling one holding for investment in another.

It’s a big transition for my Portfolio.  No longer will my Portfolio income be used to continue growing the Portfolio, but instead it’ll be used to pay for some living expenses.  This was the plan as laid out nearly a decade ago, so it will be nice to see the growth stage come to fruition.

 

For now though, let’s focus on what transpired in my Portfolio in November.  Here’s a preview of what’s to come in this month’s dividend income report…

Dividend income topped $1.8K, with YoY growth hovering right around my 15% target.  Did I fall short or just eclipse the target?

Nearly all my dividends were reinvested, producing over $70 of additional forward dividend income.  How high did the total go?

It was my best month of the year for dividend raises.  Not only did I have the most companies providing a raise for any month this year, but they provided the most additional forward dividend income, too.  Keep reading to see the final numbers and the standout raises.

Portfolio transactions were limited again in November, but I managed 3 total moves… one sale (which eliminated a position) and two buys of existing holdings.  I’ll share the holdings involved a bit later.  Hardly any new investment dollars were involved, and additional forward dividend income was tiny.

The additional forward dividend income from my 3 sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital) was the best since June, exceeding $250.  The total was better than last month and easily bested the total from the same month last year (which was negative).  You’ll see the final number later.

Of course, I’ve got updated progress charts for you to see as well.  Almost an entire set of data for 2025!

Alright, let’s get to it.  The following dividend details are for November 2025, starting with my dividend income…

 

Dividend Income

 

There’s a lot to like about my dividend total for November.  My Portfolio raked in a total of $1,831.12 in dividends.  I would have loved to reach $2K, but that will have to wait.

YoY dividend growth just crept over my 15% target, finishing at 15.34%.  This is the fourth time I reached my YoY growth target in 11 months this year, and the first time in a non-quarter-ending month.

I had 18 companies pay me a dividend this month… not bad.  There were 7 triple-digit dividend payers in November, as well, one more than last month.  Perhaps what I liked the most this month was the fact that every paid dividend was north of $26.

AbbVie (ABBV) delivered my largest dividend of the month, which was a hefty $247.49.  Nexstar Media Group (NXST) also topped $200 by delivering a nice $226.45.  As for my smallest dividend (which really wasn’t that small), Main Street Capital (MAIN) sent me $26.14.  That was followed by $30.75 from Realty Income (O) and $46.79 from General Dynamics (GD).  All other dividends exceeded $60.  Wow!

The increased dividend amounts from Texas Instruments (TXN), NNN REIT (NNN) and Accenture (ACN) were helped by one or more purchases over the past year.

Increased YoY amounts for all other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year.  I added in excess of $29 in YoY dividend gains from NXST, in addition to topping $21 from ABBV.  I added exactly $19 from Fastenal (FAST), too.   Throw in north of $11 from Procter & Gamble (PG) and more than $7 from Lowe’s Companies (LOW) and it was certainly a good month.

Of the November dividend payers that paid me both last year and this year, just a single one had a payout reduction – MAIN.  I trimmed MAIN this past July due to the stock looking overvalued to me and that translated into the reduction.

As for new dividend payers in November, there were 3 of them, all monthly payers, too.  They came from my 3 closed-end funds (CEFs), all of which I purchased in the past year: PIMCO Corporate and Income Strategy Fund (PCN), DNP Select Income Fund (DNP), and BlackRock Health Sciences Trust (BME).  PCN had the most significant payout with $106.82.  This was followed by DNP with $69.27 and BME with $60.50.

Two stocks no longer paid me a dividend this November.  Each exists in the Healthcare sector, where I purged a couple names back in March.  The first was CVS Health (CVS) and the second was Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY).  Each was under-performing and I sold them to invest in BME and a couple of new growth positions.  I gave up a $100.38 dividend from CVS and $63.58 from BMY, for a total of $163.96.

 

As usual, most of my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them.  However, there was one exception in November.  It was only a partial dividend reinvestment of ACN due to a portion of the dividend being withheld for foreign tax purposes.

The result of the dividend reinvestment that did take place was a stellar $73.94 of additional forward dividend income.  This was my 3rd time topping $70 in a month.

The reinvestment of my PCN distribution accounted for nearly $11 of the forward income total.  NXST and Verizon Communications (VZ) added more than $8 each.  ABBV accounted for nearly $7, as well.  Four additional positions added between $4-$6 to my forward income total.  There were good contributions all around.

As a result of November’s dividends that did get reinvested, I dripped over 32 new shares.  PCN accounted for nearly 8 shares all by itself, with DNP providing nearly 7 more shares.  FAST tacked on more than 3 shares thanks to its reinvested dividend, with VZ contributing nearly 3 shares, too.

 

Dividend Raises

The month of November treated my Portfolio right with respect to dividend raises.  Not only did it notch the largest number of monthly raises, but it resulted in the most additional forward dividend income for any month of 2025.

November brought 8 dividend raises!… with 3 of those raises being of the double-digit variety.  For a year in which 10%+ dividend raises have been hard to come by, getting three in a single month was outstanding.  Then to have those raises result in a bunch of additional forward dividend income made it terrific.  Triple-digit additional forward dividend income was easily achieved.  You’ll see the final total below.

My only raise in the first 10 days of the month came from Main Street Capital (MAIN), and it was my smallest in percentage terms.  MAIN hiked its dividend by 1.96%, resulting in $6.15 of additional forward dividend income.  This was the 2nd raise from MAIN in 2025 (the first was back in May), and it brought the total raise percentage for the year to 4.0%.  This total was slightly lower than the 4.17% provided last year.

A week later came a dividend raise from Aflac (AFL).  It was a boost of 5.17%, which was a big decrease from the 16% provided last year.  Still, since AFL is one of my larger dividend payers, the raise translated to a solid $41.76 in additional forward dividend income.

Amdocs Ltd. (DOX) provided its raise on the same day as AFL, hiking by 7.97%.  This raise was a surprise as it was the 2nd from DOX this year (February is its normal raise month).  However, the raise isn’t effective until after the January dividend payment.  So, it’s effectively an early raise declaration.  Since the announcement was this year, that’s two raises in 2025, resulting in an overall boost of 18.79% for the year.  This most recent raise provided $12.97 in additional forward dividend income.

Just a day later came a 10.39% dividend raise announcement from Automatic Data Processing (ADP)… the first of my double-digit raises this month.  This raise was a tad better than the 10.00% raise that ADP provided last year.  Yeah!  This boost resulted in a lovely $37.19 in additional forward dividend income.

Then another day later, my largest dividend hike for November (in percentage terms) arrived.  It was a whopping 50.0% raise from The Walt Disney Co. (DIS).  Sadly though, even with this increase, the dividend still remains below the level that existed before it was slashed at the start of the pandemic.  Despite DIS being a small dividend payer for me and it having a low yield, the massive raise added a decent $22.82 in forward dividend income.

Merck & Co. (MRK) delivered my 6th raise of the month after we were more than half way through November.  It was a 4.94% increase to the dividend which added $20.80 to my additional forward dividend income.  The raise fell short of the 5.17% boost that MRK provided last year and it adds a 6th year to the string of decreasing dividend hikes from the company.

A raise from Nike (NKE) followed a couple of days later.  NKE raise their dividend 2.5%, marking a steep decline from the 8.11% provided last year.  Sadly, only $5.99 was added to my additional forward dividend income from this raise… my smallest amount from all my November raises.  Times have been tough on NKE the past few years, so the modest raise wasn’t unexpected.  Still, it’s a long way from the double-digit raises the company provided from 2011 through 2023.

Rounding out my November raises was a most unexpected one from Omnicom Group (OMC).  OMC had been in a dividend freeze that started in 2022.  So, it was nice to see an increase where one wasn’t counted on.  Not only was it a raise, but it was a good one, too.  OMC increased their dividend by 14.29%, adding $43.47 to my additional forward dividend income.  I love it!  Can I count on another raise next year?  I certainly hope so.

 

 

After accounting for all my November dividend raises, my forward dividend income increased by a wonderful $191.15.  This was my largest monthly total thus far in 2025, just surpassing the $184.77 from January.  The $191.15 also eclipsed the $86.89 total from November of last year by more than $100.

I’d have to invest $7,351.92 at my Portfolio’s current yield of 2.60% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.

Looking ahead to December, I’m expecting 5 raises, and for them all to occur in the first half of the month.  I expect to hear raise announcements from Enbridge (ENB) since they didn’t announce in November, but also hear from four regular December raisers in Eastman Chemical (EMN), Amgen (AMGN), Broadcom (AVGO), as well as get the token quarterly raise from Realty Income (O).  Since I’m so late with my November post, it turns out all five companies I noted above have already announced a dividend raise for December, but I’ll save reporting on them all for next month.

 

Dividends Due To New Investment

Portfolio transaction activity was light in November.  I made just three moves, all executed on the same day about 3 weeks into the month.

I started by eliminating one position from my Portfolio, then reinvesting the sales proceeds into two existing Portfolio positions.  These moves were basically a reallocation of funds stemming from an under-performing holding.  It resulted in minimal investment overall and a minuscule change to my forward dividend income.

The details for these three November transactions can be found in the following post…

 

Recent Transactions – CMCSA, META, PCN

 

My total investment from the 3 transactions ended up being $67.92 into my Portfolio.  In addition, my forward dividend income increased by a paltry $1.06, as my two buys essentially offset the income lost in the one stock sale.

With CMCSA exiting my Portfolio, and META and PCN already being existing holdings, the number of stocks/funds in my Portfolio declined by one to 58.

 

Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income

In 2025, I continue tracking my additional forward dividend income generated each month from the trifecta of sources: reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and new capital investment.

I show 2024 totals as well, so that we can compare as the year progresses.

 

 

In November, for the 12th consecutive month, I notched a triple-digit addition to my forward dividend income.  Accounting for all the sources, I recorded $266.15 of additional forward dividend income.  This total was about $40 greater than last month, and about $320 better than the negative total from November of last year (-$54.22).

Just like last month, Dividends Raises was the leading contributor, adding a triple-digit amount of $191.15 to my additional forward dividend income.

Also repeating an effort from last month was Reinvested Dividends.  This source came through with $73.94 of additional forward dividend income, good enough for my 2nd best source of the month.  Its total topped the $60.93 from last month as well as the $46.45 from November of last year.

Investment of Capital provided the least amount of additional forward dividend income of the 3 sources for the 3rd straight month.  The $1.06 added was the least from this source for any month this year.  Still, Investment of Capital remained the best contributor to my annual additional forward dividend income total this year.  Its $1,227.32 should be good enough for Investment of Capital to become my best source in 2025, even though totals can change in the final month of the year.

In November, I padded the record amount of additional forward dividend income for 2025.  The current total of $2,942.45 will only climb higher next month, eclipsing $3K when all is said and done.  The year-end totals from Reinvested Dividends and Investment of Capital will be Portfolio records, but I fear Dividend Raises will fail to best my record $1,270.46 established last year.  Regardless, good progress was made with regard to additional forward dividend income in 2025.

 

Progress Charts

The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.

I’m expecting December to post dividend income in excess of $2K for the first time ever.  That will provide a nice finish to 2025.

 

 

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

Now that I surpassed my dividend total from 2024 this month, I can focus on pushing my annual dividend income to record heights in December.  Expect a Y-axis adjustment to show $24K at the top next month.

 

 

Summary

November provided an excellent $1,831.12 in dividends.  YoY growth was also great at 15.34%, just surpassing my 15% target percentage.

I collected 18 dividend payments in November, with 7 of those being triple-digit payments.  The $247.49 I registered from ABBV was the largest dividend I received.  Each of my November dividends topped $26.

My Portfolio received 8 dividend raises in November.  The 50% hike from DIS was the largest raise in percentage terms, but the unexpected raise from OMC provided the most forward dividend income, $43.47.  All the raises combined provided more than $191 in forward dividend income.

Nearly $74 of additional forward dividend income came my way as a result of reinvesting almost all of my November dividends.

Portfolio transactions were limited in November – I executed just 3.  I purged CMCSA from my Portfolio, and used the sales proceeds to invest further into META and PCN, essentially recouping the dividend income I lost in the sale.  The three moves resulted in a net investment of almost $68, and a minor $1 in additional forward dividend income.

Tallying the contributions from all sources, over $266 of forward dividend income was added to my Portfolio in November.  I padded my record additional forward dividend income total for 2025 by posting my 12th straight month of triple-digit additional forward dividend income in November.  I should easily top $3K in annual additional forward dividend income by the end of December.  The question is, how high can I push the total before the year comes to a close?

 

Is your portfolio on track to see a higher annual dividend total in 2025 compared to last year?  Have you experienced smaller dividend raise percentages for your portfolio stocks in 2025 compared to 2024?  Please share in the Comments!

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