March 2017 Dividends

Another month gone, and here we are in April. A great time to summarize my dividend income for March 2017. I've made a conscious effort, to not procrastinate with these updates, as I had a stretch where I was not publishing these until the next month was half over!

Not a good look.

To keep this top of mind, I decided to get on the ball once the month to be summarized ends.

So here we are. As you follow along, you'll see as I did, that this turned to be a pretty good month!

Let's get to the summary:

Taxable Accounts
Intel (INTC) - $2.86
Cummins (CMI) - $8.20
Target (TGT) - $28.80
Emerson (EMR) - $4.80
Compass Minerals (CMP) - $7.20
Flower Foods (FLO) - $18.88
Prospect Capital (PSEC) - $20.05
Qualcomm (QCOM) - $27.98
VF Corp. (VFC) - $7.98
Vanguard High Dividend Yield  ETF (VYM) - $7.37
Vanguard REIT Index Fund (VNQ) - $3.68

Taxable Account Total - $137.80


Roth IRA Account
Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM) - $20.34
Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG) - $1.52
iShares S&P Small Cap 600 Index ETF (IJR) - $3.16
iShares S&P 500 Index ETF (IVV) - $11.48
T. Rowe Price (TROW) - $7.98

Roth IRA Account Total - $44.48

Overall Dividend Income for March 2017: $182.28

Forward 12-month Projected Dividend Income: $1,624.59


My March Buys:
Compass Minerals (CMP) - 1 share
Lazard Ltd (LAZ) - 5 shares
Qualcomm (QCOM) - 4 shares
T. Rowe Price (TROW) - 14 shares
VF Corp (VFC) - 16 shares
Williams-Sonoma (WSM) - 15 shares

Major Life News:
I got engaged to my girlfriend of almost 4 years!

It is an exciting time, as we make preparations for a wedding and likely buying a house together down the line.


My Thoughts on the Month:
I always enjoy reporting on progress of the March-June-September-December months, as these are my high income months. February-May-August-November come in second not too far behind, and January-April-July-October continues to lag behind, unfortunately.

Guess what?

The March 2017 income is an all-time high for me!

I was hoping to break the $200 mark, but the ETF payments were a little less than I was hoping for, and unfortunately they vary from quarter to quarter, so you don't really know until Vanguard and iShares make their distribution announcements, about a week before their payouts. One of the reasons I like investing in individual dividend growth stocks, is that you pretty much know what to expect from the payouts, as long as the dividend isn't cut. When it is raised, even better!

Let's take a look at my dividend payment history:

Month	2014	2015	2016	2017
January		$14.38	$14.42	$70.45
February		$49.07	$50.38	$112.01
March		$50.22	$52.16	$182.28
April		$10.83	$27.91
May		$46.52	$59.42
June	$6.69	$47.51	$90.97
July	0	$18.99	$51.37
August	$33.96	$50.11	$86.07
September	$54.75	$55.61	$101.70
October	$10.94	$14.42	$72.53
November	$48.79	$50.11	$103.31
December	$63.55	$49.89	$168.03

So now let's do the year and quarter comparison

Y/Y:
My March 2016 dividend income was $52.16, and this was the month I shifted my focus to a DGI strategy. After a year, this income grew to $182.28, which is an amazing 249.5% Y/Y increase!

Q/Q:
Looking back to December, my dividend income was then an all time high at $168.03. After a quarter, this has grown to $182.28, which is a more modest 8.5% Q/Q increase.

It pales in comparison to the Y/Y increase, but some perspective: imagine getting an 8.5% raise every quarter at your place of employment, as opposed to the standard 3% yearly raise.
Wouldn't you take it? I'll definitely take it!


Also, I am very excited about the major life news!

This will however change things in the near future regarding my DGI progress. We will be saving money for the wedding and house down payment over the next 1-1.5 years. Chances are we will be saving the money in a savings account (or possibly a permanent portfolio allocation) just to be more sure that the money will be there when we need it next year. I hope to still allocate some money every month to my DGI portfolio as well, but it will be significantly lower than the current level. Worst case scenario is that I have to deplete this portfolio to help pay for both, and in that case I just rebuild it, with the better knowledge than I had when I started (obviously I'm hoping I don't have to do this). Realistically, I may have to draw some from this portfolio, so that would be a temporary setback, but one I am confident I could come back from once we are married and have enough for the house down payment. Our plan is to reach FIRE by 2025, and the mindset is to do what it will take to achieve that, through side hustles or whatever else, once these big expenses are taken care of.

Back on the dividend front, I, on a high from reaching an all-time high in dividend income for March 2017, remind myself that next month, the income will be substantially lower, as the January-April-July-October months, as previously mentioned, are my lowest for dividend income.

Hopefully at some point I'll better balance across all the months, but for now it is what it is. I will not prioritize dividend income balance across the months over valuation. We'll see how April will turn out, but for now, I am excited about the future, in dividend income and life in general.

Thanks for reading, so how was your March? Let me know in the comments!