Dividend Income Update – June 2011

June has come and gone, and it was really a fantastic month. In terms of dividends, I have hit my highest distribution total ever. I know that my dividend totals and the value of my portfolio are pretty small potatoes to a lot of other bloggers/investors out there, but I’m pretty proud of my humble origins and my extreme motivation to get where I want to go. Without further ado…

June 2011 Dividends Received

  • Wal-Mart (WMT) – $13.87
  • Exxon Mobil (XOM) – $15.51
  • Chevron (CVX) – $7.80
  • Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) – $39.90
  • McDonald’s (MCD) – 8.54
  • Total (TOT) – $54.30
  • Harleysville Group (HGIC) – $23.04
  • Pepsi (PEP) – $17.00

Total dividends received for the month of June: $179.96

Wow! I’m just amazed to see that number. I started with $5,000 in my brokerage account just over one year ago and I’m just really proud to see how well I’ve done in terms of budgeting, living frugally and saving money so that I could grow my portfolio, and therefore my dividends, to this kind of amount. Maybe I should take a one-day reprieve from living frugally and go out and celebrate! Of course, I really do enjoy saving money and investing, so the process is a celebration in itself.

Overall, I’m very happy with the progress so far. It took a lot of positions paying out this month to hit such a high number, so obviously I won’t see this type of income again for a little while, but it sure was nice while it lasted! I’m just excited to keep chugging along.

I’m still behind my goal of producing $1,200 in total dividend income for the year of 2011. I have produced a total of $498.61 in dividends through June, which is the half-way mark for the year. I have some serious catching up to do!

I have updated my dividend income page to reflect June’s dividends.

Thanks for reading.

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17 Comments

  1. Very nice picks DM! I hold all of those except HGIC. I haven’t researched that yet.

    Any reason why you don’t reinvest dividends?

  2. MoneyCone,

    Thanks!

    I do reinvest my dividends. I think I described somewhere on this site what I do, and I’m publishing an article soon on this too. I basically wait a month for my dividends to accumulate and inject fresh capital into my brokerage account. I take the fresh capital and the accumulated dividends and invest with that. I certainly don’t cash my dividends out. I just don’t DRIP and I’m going to explain why soon.

    Take care!

  3. Good job. Do you only keep limits on achieving x amount in dividends or do you have a limit on how much you invest per month /quarter?

  4. Mantra, congratulations on your dividend income for this month! It’s exciting to reach the first $100 isn’t it? 🙂

    Are you reinvesting your dividends when possible into new shares (DRIPs) or simply collecting the income to reinvest later?

    PS
    How is the bus working out for you? I can’t tell you how much money I am saving per month with public transportation.

    Cheers
    The Dividend Ninja

  5. Inq,

    I’m not sure I understand your question. I do not really have set limits for investments on any type of time basis. I invest as much as I can based on income. My income can fluctuate quite dramatically, so that can have quite an effect on my investment capital. I try to invest 90% of my available savings in any month, with the other 10% or so going to savings/emergency fund.

    I hope this helps.

  6. Ninja,

    Thanks! Yes, it’s one of those moments where I can see everything coming together. Pretty special.

    I don’t DRIP, and I already have an article penned on why I don’t. I accumulate dividends over a month and inject fresh capital and then invest with the combined capital. I feel that allows me the best opportunity to buy undervalued/fairly valued equities.

    The bus is working out pretty good. The savings is dramatic and well appreciated. The only problem is the bus system here in my city is somewhat unreliable and I have yet to address that issue. But, it is an issue. We’ll see how things go.

    Take care and thanks for stopping by!

  7. Hey Mantra,

    If you DRIP your shares (as you are able) you will significantly increase the ROI of your initial investment 😉 Dividends compounding over time is the way to go, but I do understand your point.

    The other way around not having enough capital to invest regularily is to borrow for investing. That probably scares you, but I’m talking about a small line of credit of 5K or so that you only use for investing, and use your monthly dividend income to pay the monthly costs. The interest expense of course would be tax-deductible as well- at least in Canda it is 🙂

    Cheers!
    Keep up the good work..

  8. Ninja,

    I actually wrote an article today on The Div-Net on why I don’t DRIP. It basically comes down to not wanting to reinvest into overvalued securities. Dividends still get compounded, just not necessarily with the same businesses every quarter.

    I’m not a fan of leverage. I’m too conservative. I take my dividends and my fresh capital of ~$1,500 every month and invest it. It’s slow and boring, but I think it will lead me to FI. Good luck to you, however.

    Take care!

  9. DM,

    I like your TOT dividend, nice to see it hit your account in big chunks like that. $179 is an impressive month for only embarking on this strategy one year ago. Keep up the good work! I’m looking for a good utility play for my portfolio with a decent yield, so drop me a line if you have any ideas…

    IP

  10. IP,

    Thanks for the encouragement and well wishes.

    I don’t really find any utilities a good value right now, but if I was to go with one, it would probably be Dominion.

    Take care and keep in touch.

  11. Congrats on your dividend amount for the month! I read your expense report for the month first then this post. What is cool is that if you think about it, if you reach your goal of $1200 in dividends for the year, that would be the equivalent of 1 month of living based on your June expenses! Only 11 more to go!!

  12. me myself and I,

    Thanks so much for the congrats.

    You could definitely look at it that way, which would fit well in my time line of 11 more years! I’m 29 now, and plan on being FI by 40. Sounds about right.

    Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

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