October 2017 Dividends

Hello everyone,

Thanks for stopping by once again. Another month has passed, and it is time to summarize the month gone by. I don't get as excited to review the first month of the quarter (ie, January, April, July, October), as these are usually my lowest paying months. However, it is income all the same, so they must be summarized. Let's get to it.

Taxable Accounts
Company	Symbol	Date	Amount
Cardinal Health	CAH	10/15/2017	$10.17
Cisco Systems	CSCO	10/25/17	$11.02
New Residential	NRZ	10/27/17	$19.50
Taxable Accounts Total	$40.69
Roth IRA Account
Company	Symbol	Date	Amount
iShares Large Cap S&P 500	IVV	10/2/17	$14.40
iShares Small Cap S&P 500	IJR	10/2/17	$3.21
Cardinal Health	CAH	10/16/17	$10.71
W.P. Carey	WPC	10/16/17	$10.05
Roth IRA Account Total	$38.37
Overall Dividend Income Total	$79.06
Forward 12-month Projected Dividend Income Total			$1,810.87

October 2017 Transactions

There were no transactions for October, as I am continuing to save for the upcoming wedding in June of 2018. The money that is being saved is mostly going into my online savings account, instead of the brokerage accounts for the time being. 

Let's now take a look at the 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	$64.56
May		$46.52	$59.42	$132.14
June	$6.69	$47.51	$90.97	$198.86
July	0	$18.99	$51.37	$168.64
August	$33.96	$50.11	$86.07	$156.46
September	$54.75	$55.61	$101.70	$226.17
October	$10.94	$14.42	$72.53	$79.06
November	$48.79	$50.11	$103.31
December	$63.55	$49.89	$168.03

...and in graphical form

Y/Y:

1st month in the quarter as usual gives me the lowest dividend income in the quarter, but income is income, so I won't complain too much. For October 2016, I pulled in $72.53 in dividend income, so that would make it a year over year increase of +9%., which is not exactly the worst. Yeah, I'll take it.

Q/Q:

Here's where it really gets interesting. One quarter ago for July 2017, I earned $168.64 in dividend income. One look at the October 2017 total of $79.06, would rightfully raise some eyebrows, as it represents a decrease from the last quarter of -53.1%.

But wait, let me explain!

The July income included the yearly dividend from the company stock where I work. That payment equaled $72.70.

In addition to that, the July income also included $20.52 from Prospect Capital (PSEC), a company which I have since sold off and reallocated into other companies, which do not pay out a dividend in the first month of the quarter.

Add to that $8.64 paid out by Walt Disney (DIS) which is only paid out every 6 months, not every quarter, and you have a total of $101.86 of the $168.64 which is not part of the quarterly cycle. That leaves $66.84 from July 2017, which is part of the quarterly cycle. That would have resulted in an increase to October 2017 of +18.3%. This is a lot more palatable.

But alas, the numbers are the numbers, regardless, so for the comparison to last quarter, I did see a real substantial decrease. I'll accept it, but I do still realize that I am making progress on those dividends which are on the quarterly cycle.

In conclusion
So I keep chugging along with dividend income for October 2017, which is still increasing on a year over year basis, although the rate of increase is slowing down, as my cash flow is mostly going into savings as opposed to non-401(k) investments to save for the big matrimonial milestone coming up. The important thing, though, is that it is still increasing, and I will take that moving forward.

Thanks for reading once again, and how was your October?

Let me know in the comments below!