September 2016 Dividends

Hello people,

I am happy to report my highest dividend month to date! It was a joy to tally up the numbers for September. Take a look below:

Taxable Accounts
Cummins (CMI) - $8.20
Compass Minerals (CMP) - $1.39
Emerson (EMR) - $3.80
Flowers Foods (FLO) - $12.48
Intel (INTC) - $2.86
Prospect Capital - $19.12
Qualcomm (QCOM) - $22.96
Target (TGT) - $1.80
Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ) - $3.63
Vanguard High Yield Dividend ETF (VYM) - $6.30
Walmart (WMT) - $1.50

Taxable Account Total: $84.04


Roth IRA Account
Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG) - $0.75
Vanguard High Yield Dividend ETF (VYM) - $16.91

Roth IRA Account Total: $17.66

Overall Total Dividend Income for September 2016: $101.70

Forward 12-month Projected Dividend Income: $1,226.88


My Thoughts:
I'm beginning to really like these months: March, June, September, and December. These tend to be the spikes in dividend income, as most of my holdings have payouts in these months. Consequently, the low points in dividend income tend to happen in the months: January, April, July, and October, so next month things should cool off, but it's all about building the dividend income house long-term to be able to cover expenses down the line, but not at the expense of just buying shares of companies just because they pay out in certain months. I'm still paying attention to valuation, and only buying shares of companies that are undervalued or fairly valued. When companies that pay in these lower months become attractive, I will pounce, and eventually even out the various months for dividend payouts.

Per usual, let's take a look at my dividend history

Month201420152016
January$14.38$14.42
February$49.07$50.38
March$50.22$52.16
April$10.83$27.91
May$46.52$59.42
June$6.69$47.51$90.97
July0$18.99$51.37
August$33.96$50.11$86.07
September$54.75$55.61$101.70
October$10.94$14.42
November$48.79$50.11
December$63.55$49.89

Since starting on this dividend investing journey, my September dividend income has gone from $54.75 (2014) to $55.61 (2015) to $101.70 (2016). This is my first ever month above the century mark, $100, so I am very proud!

From last September, this has been a Y/Y increase of 83%. From June 2016, this has been a Q/Q increase of 12%. As long as the numbers keep going up, I know I'm on the right track. One thing to note is that there were some iShares ETF payouts that I was expecting on the last day in September, but unfortunately those did not come through until a couple days after, so they will be counted in next month's report (great to see that my highest dividend total ever could have been even higher!).

On a down note, I realized near the end of September that one of my holdings, Viacom (VIAB) cut their dividend in half. This was actually a company that I became more skeptical of its long-term prospects the more time I owned it, and thought about selling many times. The fact that they cut the dividend in half gave me good reason to really give it a second look to evaluate if I wanted to hold on to it. I decided against it, and sold my position. I still received a dividend in early October, but of course, it was half of what I would have been expecting. With the proceeds from the sale, I decided to purchase more shares of Target (TGT), as it appeared to be most attractive stock on my watch list in terms of valuation, yield, and dividend growth, among other factors. When I write my post for December 2016 dividends, there should be a sizeable jump in the dividend for that month. I am looking forward to counting those dollars!

One thing to remember is that I have been investing in dividend-paying stocks since June 2014, but that was a time of yield-chasing for me, not really knowing what I was doing. I gained some more knowledge about what I was doing, and started with dividend growth investing this past March. Also, at that time, I started paying attention to valuation before buying shares in companies. Knowing this gives me even more pride in what I have been able to accomplish up to this point. I am nowhere near my goal, but I have the confidence to proceed, knowing what has been done, and knowing that I will be continuing this momentum that has been built up.

As I mentioned earlier, there will be a dip in income for October when compared to September, but I expect an increase from the previous quarter (July 2016) and the previous year (October 2015), and those comparisons are what I focus on. Again, when the valuation is right, I can take steps to even out the monthly payouts, but for now, I invest in companies with attractive valuations, as I build up the portfolio amount, and the dividend payments that result.

Thanks for reading, how was your September? Feel free to let me know in the comments.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

April 2017 Dividends

March 2017 Dividends

Regret and Hope