As many of my readers know, I love dividend stocks and believe dividends provide a great source of passive income. Quarterly, I provide updates on my dividend income, dividend goals and if I buy dividend stocks.
Using ‘The Dividend Report‘ section of my blog, I share the progress of my goals. I also share dividend growth stock ideas and thoughts. Additionally, I will share the rationale behind any future purchases or sales. Dividends are truly a wonderful thing.
The Dividend Report
For over four years, I have been working towards the same goal. I want my monthly dividend income to average $1,500/month and provide 25-33% of my monthly retirement income. This goal may be revised upwards over time. I track my dividend income with Personal Capital and store the data on a Google Sheet.
In case you were wondering, real estate will provide the rest of my retirement income.
Q1-2020 Dividend Income
The S&P experienced a wild ride this quarter. The market was volatile and had a number of swings up and down. COVID-19 increased the intensity of the stock market rollercoaster.
The market shot to all-time highs in February before falling more than 30%. The S&P closed the quarter down by 20.67%. Not a great way to start the year, but the increased volatility presented some great buying opportunities.
2020 marks the 8th year of tracking dividend data. It’s been wonderful to watch my passive income streams grow annually. I continue to make great progress and hope to reach my dividend income goal soon.
The graph below shows my dividend income history since 2013:
The table below shows my dividend history since 2013:
As you can see from the chart and graph, my dividend income continues to grow. The increases are quite sizable at times. Regular income that increases above the rate of inflation is one of my favorite reasons to invest in dividend growth stocks. You can also see the presence of exponential growth in my dividend income.
Q1-2020 vs Q1-2020
Last year’s Q1 dividend income was $1,288.85. This quarter I earned $1,945.39. This is $656.54 or 50.94% more compared to the same time period last year. Imagine if your job paid you 50% more this year.
There are two main reasons for the large increase in my dividend income. First, I have more money invested. Second, most of my stocks keep increasing their regular dividend payments. I also DRIP (dividend reinvestment plan) some of my dividend stocks. This means each quarter I own more shares of the same stock and collect even more dividends.
This quarter vs. last quarter
My Q1-2020 dividend income was $1,945.39. Last quarter (Q4-2019), my income was $3,862.46. This is a $1,917.07 or 49.63% decrease from last quarter.
The extreme decline is a bit misleading. A few of my funds do not pay dividends in the third quarter. Likewise, I received a couple of extra dividend checks in the 4th quarter and also had more capital invested. The 4th quarter always produces more distributions. I am not concerned with this ‘drop’ in dividend income as it is seasonal and occurs every year during the first quarter.
My average monthly dividend income is now $759.78 ($9,117.40 / 12 months = $759.78), which is 50.65% of my goal of $1,500/month. Previously, I was at 47.00% of my goal. I hope to build off this success and reach my goal by the end of the year. I will continue to offensively build wealth and invest regularly. I cannot wait to see how compounding continues to work in my favor.
New Purchases
I was an active buyer of stocks given the wild drop and swing in the markets. Below is a list of stocks I either bought for the first time or added to an existing position. Yes, I bought 10 different stocks during the first quarter. This is not normal but there were screaming deals.
Pfizer -$PFE (new position)
Disney – $DIS (added to existing position)
Home Depot – $HD (new position)
Raython – $RTX (added to existing position)
AT&T – $T (added to existing position)
Corning – $GLW (added to existing position)
Dominion Energy – $D (added to existing position)
Johnson & Johnson – $JNJ (added to existing position)
Exxon Mobile – $XOM (added to existing position)
Microsoft – $MSFT (added to existing position)
There’s nothing like earning money without doing much work for it. Getting that stimulus check was good. Congrats on the strong passive income numbers for Q1-2020.