Dividend Income Update – June 2013

Another month has passed by, and it’s time for me to post an article on my favorite subject: dividend income. The reason why I love to post articles on dividend income is because it’s pure numbers. It’s hard to argue the success of long-term dividend growth investing when you can slowly and surely see dividend income rise over time and get closer to covering one’s expenses.

June was phenomenal for me, as I’m sure it was for many other dividend growth investors. This was a record month for me. I’m extremely proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish thus far, just a little over three years into my journey to financial independence. I started out with exactly $0 in dividend income and as you can see below I’m now far above that level. The wonderful thing is that anyone can do this. I’m not a rocket scientist, but I do have a deep desire to change my financial future. So I’ve decided to live below my means and invest the excess savings into high quality businesses that have a great track record of sharing profits with shareholders via rising dividends. I believe in the power of persistence, and I hope that belief shines in these reports.

I hope these monthly dividend income reports provide inspiration for any investors out there that are just starting out. It’s easy to see these payments rising month after month and it shows that it’s possible to one day pay for monthly expenses with dividends, which would provide an investor opportunities and freedom to pursue other interests than full-time work. Without further ado:

June 2013 Dividends Received

  • Intel Corporation (INTC) – $54.00
  • ConocoPhillips (COP) – $36.30
  • Aflac Incorporated (AFL) – $35.00
  • Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) – $27.00
  • Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) – $17.86
  • Phillips 66 (PSX) – $8.44
  • Southside Bancshares, Inc. (SBSI) – $13.20
  • Lorillard Inc. (LO) – $55.00
  • Emerson Electric Co. (EMR) – $24.60
  • Chevron Corporation (CVX) – $40.00
  • Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) – $35.00
  • Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) – $66.00
  • Harris Corporation (HRS) – $14.80
  • Avista Corp. (AVA) – $16.78
  • McDonald’s Corporation (MCD) – $46.20
  • Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) – $19.50
  • PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) – $43.70

Total dividends received during the month of June: $553.38

This is the first time I’ve ever crossed the $500 mark in one month. I’m ecstatic. If this doesn’t inspire you and show you that the power to change your future is in your hands, I don’t know what will. I started this journey worth less than $0, with no passive income to speak of and a middle class income to work with. I changed my future, and the me of today is thanking the me of three years ago for getting his act together.

This was a great improvement upon the $315.70 in dividends I received during the month of June 2012. This is an increase of 75.3% year-over-year, which is really superb. I can’t make progress like that indefinitely, but it feels good when I can!

I was able to cover 34.6% of my expenses via dividends during this past month. It feels great that I only had to generate less than 70% of my income by way of labor. The rest was automatically covered because of wonderful decisions I had made in my past to invest spare capital in order to hasten gratification.

My goal is to receive $3,500 in dividends during the year of 2013. With June behind us, we’re now halfway through the year and I was able to generate $1,723.40 in dividends through the first six months of the year. That puts me a little behind my goal, but I’m confident that with new purchases into high quality companies being made every single month I’ll be able to make up ground and exceed my goal.

I’ll update my dividend income page to reflect June’s dividends.

Full Disclosure: Long all aforementioned securities

How did you do? Have a great June? Having a great year?

Thanks for reading.

Photo Credit: sscreation’s/FreeDigitalPhotos.net   

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64 Comments

  1. Congrats on the personal best! It really is amazing to see what dedication to the task can accomplish. Dividend growth investing is by no means a get rich quick scheme. If only we had all started in our early 20’s. Just think of the extra years of compounding. The second half of the year is going to bring a lot of improvement for my dividends. I didn’t make a whole lot of purchases until the 2nd quarter but I expect to see some awesome improvement. Congrats again and thanks for being such a big inspiration to so many of us. I know of several bloggers that have mentioned getting their start with DGI after stumbling upon your blog.

  2. Congratulations Dividend Mantra!

    I guess hard work, sacrifice through saving, and smart investment of your capital does pay off over time. You are already covering one third of your monthly expenses with dividends.

    Keep up the good work, and you will get there sooner than you thought possible!

    Dividend Growth Investor

  3. GREAT work!

    At this pace, you’ll be blowing by me soon 🙂

    I hope to post my dividend income update in another week or so for June.

    $3,500 in dividends during 2013 is well within reach.

  4. Pursuit,

    Thanks so much. 🙂

    I agree. Dedication to a plan makes all the difference.

    I also wish I would have started earlier. I’d probably be financially independent right now had I started at 21, or at least very close to it. The great thing, however, is that the success can happen pretty quickly regardless. Even under less than ideal conditions progress can be seen.

    I’m glad that this blog has served as a platform for inspiration for many other bloggers and investors out there. I noticed quite a few blogs pop up not long after mine, and I’m really glad to be a part of a great group of young investors growing their wealth in such dramatic ways!

    Cheers to growing our wealth!

    Best wishes.

  5. DGI,

    Thanks for the congrats! I do appreciate it. 🙂

    Hard work and sacrifice definitely pays off. It’s not just some cliche. I think that this strategy, more than others, proves that.

    Keep up the great work on your end too! To continued inspiration and motivation. 🙂

    Best regards.

  6. Anonymous,

    I purchased O one day after the ex-dividend date for the June dividend. I will, however, receive a dividend from O during the month of July and every month thereafter.

    Take care!

  7. Mark,

    I don’t know about that. You’re still way ahead of me! 🙂

    I’m looking forward to seeing your dividend income update. You’re doing fantastic over there. Keep it up!

    Best wishes.

  8. Congratulations on your personal record! I totally agree that this blog (among others) inspires people to start thinking about the future and to plan accordingly. It’s great to see down-to-earth people do great things!

  9. Congratulations! That’s incredible. Do you always buy the best priced stock you can find each month? Or do you try to create a new position in a new company each month?

  10. I meant to say, I REALLY want to try following your path and strategy, but I’m worried about figuring out if market levels are too high? I’m still trying to learn how to evaluate individual companies and figure out if they’re too expensive or cheap.

  11. DM, this is a great achievement. 560 buck a month is great. When you reinvest this monthly income, that’s when the big buck start rolling in! I am exited to see when my dividend income exceeds my own contributions. I cannot contribute as much as you, so it won’t last long when my dividend income exceeds my monthly contributions and when reinvested that will be a great game then!

    My June results weren’t as great as yours. Although my dividend income increased (for which I am really happy), my value decreased and of course I want both to see running up. But that’s OK, I will be able to buy more shares during this downturn.

    Good job DM.

  12. Beo, I don’t think you would do anything wrong if you start investing for dividend growth income now. There are a plenty of companies which are currently fairly or slightly undervalued. To name a few, you can open a position in Realty Income (O), KMP, AT&T, LO, or WMT. Don’t use all of your cash, just open a small initial position and wait. Start adding slowly more as prices are dropping lower.

  13. DM,

    Wow, that’s awesome — $500 big ones. If I’m not mistaken, that’s enough to cover your entire rent for the month!

    I’m hoping to be able to live rent free forever after as well. I’m just waiting for Rental #3 to close… can’t wait until the cash flow starts rolling in.

    Keep it up!

  14. Robin,

    Thanks!

    I’m glad that there is some inspiration to be found here. That’s the primary purpose behind the blog.

    I agree with you. That’s what I try to convey: that this is possible for anyone. I’m nobody special. I have no prior training or background in finance. I didn’t get a ‘helping hand’. I started out in bad shape and climbed out and now I’m doing wonderful things. If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for anyone.

    Best wishes!

  15. Beo Wulf,

    I always try to buy the most attractively valued high quality company I can find, while still considering portfolio weight. I don’t necessarily go out and try to buy a piece of new companies, and I don’t necessarily try to buy only what I already own either. I keep a close eye on a universe of about 100 companies and I choose what fits best for me from that list. Whether or not I already own it matters little other than if it’s already an overweight position for me (as PM currently is).

    As far as the current market goes, it’s impossible to say. I refrain from trying to time the market and concentrate on individual companies instead. If I think I can invest in a high quality company that is poised to offer attractive long-term returns then I’ll gladly let go of my fresh capital regardless of where the market is at.

    I hope that helps! Please stick around. 🙂

    Best wishes!

  16. Martin,

    Hey, we all have different income and expense levels. So we all have different means available to us along with different goals. As long as you’re meeting your goals, that’s all that matters! 🙂

    I’m with you. I’ll gladly buy more shares when prices are down! 🙂

    Take care.

  17. FI Fighter,

    You’re right. This covered my rent completely this month. That’s really amazing! I’m not living rent-free quite yet, however, as I don’t average this much every month. But, the day is coming! 🙂

    Keep up the great work with the rentals! It looks like you’re doing fantastic! 🙂

    Best wishes.

  18. MFIJ,

    Thanks a lot! I appreciate the support.

    You have a little more invested than I do, if I remember correctly. So it looks like we’ll be seeing very similar results for the foreseeable future. May we both prosper!

    Best regards.

  19. Over $550 for the month is a huge jump! I think June is a big month for a lot of DG investors since there’s so many quality stocks in that month. You have a lot of those names already and you just added RDS-B so that could help make next quarter (Sept) even bigger.

    Grats
    CD

  20. Congratulations, you’ve presented an amazing success story so far. After some nice summer-night-discussions with some friends lately I have started to notice one further outstanding quality of your blogging work: it’s very intriguing as well as very inspirational. In a world where envy and jealousy seem to become predominant features of human character, a development accelerated by the seeming anonymity of the internet, it’s very well worth noticing that there’s a writer that has succeeded in sharing his story in a way that I cannot imagine anyone who doesn’t wholeheartedly grant you with pleasure your success! And finds inspiration for oneself in it!
    Take Care!

  21. Congrats on a fantastic month of dividends! I just barely cracked the $600 milestone in dividend income in June — also my best month ever. Your blog has been a huge inspiration to me, and I can’t thank you enough for setting me along a similar path.

    -Chicago81

  22. “This was a great improvement upon the $315.70 in dividends I received during the month of June 2012. This is an increase of 75.3% year-over-year, which is really superb. I can’t make progress like that indefinitely, but it feels good when I can!” – DM, this post.

    He actually does compare it to the same month last year, so not sure what you are asking exactly?

  23. Congrats on a great month, DM! That’s awesome that about a third of your expenses were covered for the month. Hopefully you can continue this awesome growth and then you’ll be FI before you know it.

  24. Captain,

    Thanks for stopping by!

    You’re right, my September looks pretty good thanks to the RDS.B addition. We’ll see how it goes!

    It looks like you’re making great progress as well! Keep it up.

    Best regards.

  25. TiglatPileser,

    Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate that.

    I’m really just lucky to be able to share my story and inspire others. I grew up in a rough part of Detroit and if it weren’t for my aunt and uncle adopting me at a young age I might not be alive. I owe a lot of my success so far to my family and others around me, so if I can give back to the world in some way then I’m happy to do so. I honestly hope to be in an even better situation to give back one day. I hope to be actively engaged in philanthropy a decade or two from now. We’ll see if I have such an opportunity in the future.

    Best wishes!

  26. Pay off my rentals,

    Right, so Took2Summit answered your question there.

    Although taking it a step further it would probably be even more useful to compare quarters YOY. Comparing Q1 2012 to Q1 2013 would probably be more insightful because it smooths over monthly fluctuations since dividends are paid quarterly by most companies. However, since I do monthly dividend income reports I compare month YOY changes for comparison. I may add a year-over-year quarterly comparison in the future. We’ll see.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Take care.

  27. Chicago81,

    Hey, a familiar face (name) from ERE. 🙂

    Glad to see you have found some inspiration here. And I’m also really glad that you had a record month as well. That’s awesome, man! I know you’ve got some pretty considerable assets to your name last I looked, so keep up the great work!

    Best wishes.

  28. Jake,

    Thanks. It was a fantastic month.

    It’s funny. When I first started telling people about what I was doing and I was waxing ecstatic about $25 monthly dividend tallies nobody seemed very interested. Now that I’m receiving enough to pay rent, I have the attention of some others around me. Funny how that works! 🙂

    I hope we both continue to grow our wealth! 🙂

    Take care.

  29. “the me of today is thanking the me of three years ago for getting his act together” I love it!

    And congratulations on covering over a third of your expenses with your dividend income. With months like these it’s easy to get motivated and keep making decisions that our future “me’s” will be very thankful for.

    One day you will be sitting in the beach with a Piña colada thanking yourself for all the hard work and intelligent choices you’ve made.

  30. Spoonman,

    I hope our future “me’s” definitely have plenty to be thankful for! 🙂

    And I also hope we’re both sitting on the beach with a tropical drink in hand one day, relaxing and reaping the rewards of intelligent decisions made long ago.

    Every month is a chance to make our future brighter!

    Best wishes.

  31. It’s always good to see the dividends roll in. It gives peace of mind and makes it easier to sleep at night has more and more dividends come rolling in.

  32. Awesome month my man! You’re definitely firing on all cylinders right now. Sizable dividend income, income from the blog, and I know that promotion at work a while back helped out too 😉

  33. Great job on the gradual accumulation of your savings, then patient investing, that has given and will give you rewards every day for your entire live, your children’s lives, your grandchildren’s lives, and 50 generations potentially down the line! Dividends don’t stop as soon as you die, they keep paying out as long as the asset itself exists.

    I really think you would like the video game, Fable III, as the only fun financial simulation RPG game out there on the consoles (and PC now). You start off working hard for money between your quests, saving and gathering gradually, then finally you can invest it in properties in every town you visit to either live in or rent out. You collect dividends/rent every 5 min as you adventure throughout the world on your quests. You control your rent prices, evictions, repair schedule, etc. By the end of the game, you practically own the whole world and rent it out. Every shop, house, vendor stall, etc. Then with online multiplayer, you can donate your rent to other real life players whom are just getting started in the game to save them time on working for their first investment, or just let them learn the lessons in wealth building finance themselves.

  34. Investing Pursuits,

    I’m with you. Dividends definitely provide peace of mind, in no small part because they are tangible. It’s cold hard cash hitting your account, and it’s liquidity that can provide flexibility if you so need it.

    Best of luck on the job search!

    Take care.

  35. CI,

    Thanks! I feel like I’m definitely humming along now. It’s wonderful knowing that I have somewhere around $500-$600 in free capital available to invest before I even save a penny from my day job. That definitely speeds things along. This is compounding in real time, and is live for the world to see. I hope I’m representing it well! 🙂

    Best regards.

  36. FYC,

    You made a great point there. This portfolio could be passed down to another generation, and that’s a wonderful feeling!

    Sounds like a pretty cool video game! I played Fable I a while back and really enjoyed the freedom of the character development and the way the world changed around you. Really unique stuff!

    I’ll have to check out the newest Fable. 🙂

    Best wishes!

  37. Susan,

    Hey, thanks for stopping by!

    Glad you find this encouraging and motivating. I’m really happy to hear that.

    Stay on your path and keep working at it. The progress feeds itself and before you know it the passive income is rolling in faster than you can keep up. Best of luck!

    Take care.

  38. Wow, over $500 in dividends that cover over 1/3 of your expenses — that’s great! And the best part is, you can reasonably expect the dividend total to be even higher next June purely from organic dividend growth. Very nice!

  39. Congratulations! Your progress is very encouraging to me. I am more and more convinced that dividend growth investing is one of the best strategies. What you are doing is very inspiring to me. I am following your suit and pursuing passive income through dividend investment.

  40. I got a little more than $1,000 in June, in July expect to get all times high about $1,160 . can never know exact amount as it will depend on FX rate USD/CAN –( cannot have divi in US$ ) and I’m holding some ETFs with variable div rate like HYG , PCY etc). First month of the Q is always the best for me from dividend perspective as dividends from my biggest holdings BCE, RCI, PM, MO, TD, BNS are coming

  41. DGM,

    Thanks! It was a fantastic month. I’m really blessed! 🙂

    And the organic growth is one of the most amazing elements of dividend growth investing. Once you get to $5,000+ or so in annual dividends, the yearly raises make a huge difference.

    Best wishes!

  42. gibor,

    Wow! Great month there. Very, very nice!

    July looks to be even wonderful. You’re knocking it out of the park. I can’t wait for the day I hit $1k in one month. That will be quite amazing.

    Great holdings there. 🙂

    Best wishes.

  43. Indeed, 19 of your holdings I already own, namely AFL, COP, CVX, DLR, GE, INTC, JNJ, KO, MCD, MDT, MO, O, PEP, PG, PSX, SYY, T, WFC & WMT. I own others you do not have. My total dividends for June are a bit shy of $500. I am planning to add some of your choices in a few months, the ones that make sense in my diversification model and perhaps some others. Though I should mention my entire portfolio is not comprised only of Growing Dividend stocks, I have some in Indexes or sorts, various industries/sectors, fixed income and a few speculative and hedge type as well. Thank you for the inspiratino and best regards!

  44. DM – Great work on hitting over $550. I also hit $550 in june.

    Having recently returned from SouthEast Asia, I can tell you that your $553 earned in June (while not a huge amount in north america) can probably sustain you 100% in a country like Cambodia or Vietnam (assuming you are already based there). You would still be on a budget but given your budgeting ability I am pretty certain you can live on that amount in parts of Asia (excluding flights, etc). I just thought I would leave you with that comforting thought that your June 2013 dividends could sustain your living costs in another part of the world.

    You are inching much closer to your goal. This time next year you might even receive $700 in June. Keep at it!

  45. $25000 dividends,

    Wow, thanks for the great information there.

    I keep the idea of living in SE Asia in the back of my mind. It seems like a great way to commit geographical arbitrage – whereby one earns their money in an expensive place and spends it in a cheaper place.

    I think it’s definitely realistic to get by on $1k/mo or so in the countries you’re talking about. Perhaps less if careful budgeting is involved.

    I think the only thing that would really hold me back on something like that is the closeness I have with my family. I already have issues with living so far away from them here in Florida. Living half-way across the world would be infinitely more trying.

    I hope you had a great time on your trip. I still have yet to visit that part of the world, but do greatly look forward to it one day.

    Keep up the great work on your end. You’re investing at a phenomenal rate. You’re blowing by me for sure. You’ll be hitting your $25k goal before you know it.

    Best regards!

  46. I love all your dividend articles, thank you for being so transparent. Not many people are like that these days. I’ve been investing $50 each month and currently getting around $60/month. You definitely inspire me to keep going. I was wondering what are your thoughts on investing in JUST monthly paying stocks? like O/PHT/ARR?

  47. My 2 cents: I don’t know of any monthly paying dividend stocks that are consistent dividend growing, meaning the dividend has gone up for many years and the business is good. This is mostly found in age old brands that are consumed like KO, MCD, LLY, PFE and so forth (food and drugs and other things we always use). In your 3 examples, though I own some, I see 2 REITs and 1 junk bond fund, these are in completely different categories then dominating dividend growing stocks, though they do have their place (paper real estate – mortgate and fixed income) in a portfolio. If you look at O, it is down almost 17% from its highest recent close but still sub 1% profitable after the REITs have been suffering, quite different then if you look at some of the stocks in the dividendmantra portfolio. If you own a small amount of O it probably won’t hurt to hold onto it, if I had a position in it I would be tempted to exchange that capital for something else. ARR looks scary in terms of negative appreciation and decreasing dividends, careful. And a position in PHT might be ok but only if your position size is small enough that if it’s value fluctuates it won’t impact your overall by much (I like 1% or 2% position sizes). I am sure the Mantra will have something we can both learn from to add, best regards!

  48. Aaron,

    Thanks for stopping by! I’m glad you enjoy the transparency. Not many people enjoy “putting it all out there”…but how can we learn from each other if we’re not open?

    Keep up the great work! You’ve built yourself a nice little passive income stream there. That stream will eventually turn into a river!

    As far as your question goes, I would stay away from focusing on dividend payout dates. That’s something I’ve never focused on. I would instead focus on the quality of a company and the valuation. If you build a diversified portfolio you’ll see diversified payout dates.

    That being said, I do have a position in O. I think it’s one of the best REITs you can possibly invest in, and the fact that it pays monthly is only icing on the already delicious cake!

    Best of luck!!

    Take care.

  49. Mantra, why do you like O? I have a half position in it and don’t remember why I bought it. If it is that good I would consider bringing it to a position or did I answer my own question by stating after dropping almost 17% in value it is still above what I purchased it for? I have a few positions in VNQ which diversifies my REITs a bit though I do have a few positions in some others as well.

  50. Mantra, Do you keep a spreadsheet of all your dividends/fee/transaction? all calculated up?

  51. Aaron,

    I don’t really keep a separate spreadsheet like that. My brokerage has all that information available to me at any time. I could probably make a spreadsheet with all of that info, but that would take an immense amount of time, and time is at a premium for me.

    Best wishes!

  52. Mantra,

    Excellent answer, the post touches on the reasons I forgot, should have made notes but that was before my notes on purchases system I have in place now. I probably have a slightly larger exposure percentage wise to REITs in my portfolio. I would entertain building O to a full position especially if there are more price drops and the fundamentals remain the same. I see it dropped to slightly below your cost the other day, perhaps I’ll do that now. Thanks!

  53. Hey there Mantra,
    Im a 29 year old beginner at investing and ive been driving myself crazy figuring out the best approach when it comes to making my income work better for myself. This site has been extremely inspiring and helpful for me in terms of growth. Ive had a little bit of money invested in a few mutual funds and now im looking more towards the high dividend end of the spectrum. Thanks for sharing your journey because it brings hope to guys like me because i feel like im starting the same way you did 3 years ago. Keep up the great work:)

  54. Devin,

    Thanks for stopping by!

    I’m really glad you’ve found some inspiration here. As you probably know, this is the main reason I write.

    Just remember that although it sounds cliche, a journey of 1,000 miles starts with one step. It’s one day at a time, one dividend reinvestment at a time, one new equity purchase at a time. You’ll see the progress compound over time and the you of three years from now will be really glad the you of today took those steps to improve your finances.

    Best wishes!

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