Dividend Income Update – May 2014

rising-dividendsAnother month has passed by, and itโ€™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 itโ€™s pure numbers. Itโ€™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 oneโ€™s expenses.

May was yet another very successful month – another large leap forward toward financial independence. The wonderful thing about dividend growth investing is that as time passes and the dividends become larger and larger, the march forward becomes much brisker. I feel like when I was first starting I was walking along as fast as I could, but it was still a walk. Now I feel like I’m at a steady jog. And one day soon I’ll be running.

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

May 2014 Dividends Received

  • Raytheon Company (RTN) – $15.13
  • Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) – $13.12
  • Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) – $20.67
  • AT&T Inc. (T) – $23.00
  • General Dynamics Corporation (GD) – $12.40
  • Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD) – $15.40
  • American Realty Cap. Prop. Inc. (ARCP) – $14.17
  • ONE Gas Inc. (OGS) – $2.24
  • Oneok, Inc. (OKE) – $19.60
  • Realty Income Corp. (O) – $12.77
  • The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) – $32.82
  • Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. (OHI) – $30.00
  • Orchids Paper Products Company (TIS) – $21.00
  • Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) – $75.60

Total dividends received during the month of May: $307.92

I get so excited over this stuff. I remember when I was 20 years old and waiting tables while I was in college, scrounging for every penny I could find. And this kind of income took me a week to earn; sometimes it took even longer. It would appear that my second worker is indeed making a healthy income now, and giving me all of it! ย And the second worker is getting ammo I never even provided; the investments in ONE Gas, Inc. (OGS) and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) were spun off or provided to me from other companies I already owned an equity stake in (Oneok, Inc. (OKE) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), respectively). Simply fantastic.

The dividend income for this May was a full 104.4% higher than what I received in May 2013. Success begets success! I’m incredibly proud of the kind of progress I’ve been able to muster thus far, although I also know things are slowing down a bit now with my recent move back home to spend more time with family and this blog. So I’m anxious to continue marching forward toward the beautiful vision of complete financial freedom, but also looking forward to enjoying the journey a bit more than I have in the past.

I was able to cover only ~7% of my expenses this month via passive dividend income, which is very low for me. However, this was due to one of the most expensive months I’ve ever had since I realized the rent owed on the apartment I left in Florida. I’ll be discussing May’s budget disaster in the coming days, and then I’ll be following that up with an article on how I plan to really batten the hatches for the rest of the year. I’m excited to delve back into some serious frugality here pretty soon.

June should be another monster month for dividends, as the final month in every quarter usually is due to a large number of high-quality companies lumping theirย dividend payments together around the same time. Not that it bothers me; money is money, and I’m happy to receive it however it comes.

One of my major goals for 2014ย is to receive $5,200 in dividendsย during the year. With five months now down and behind us, I’ve received a total of $2,013.09 in dividend income for the year – 38.7% of the way there. I’m optimistic that I’m going to exceed my goal by a healthy margin, and I’ll continue reaching higher and higher as the year continues.

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

Full Disclosure: Long all aforementioned securities.

Did you have a solid month of dividends for May? Looking forward to June?

Thanks for reading.

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98 Comments

  1. Congrats on another successful month, Jason. Your second worker is reliable and making steady progress year over year.
    Keep it up. Hope you are adjusting well to life in the North ๐Ÿ™‚

    regards
    R2R

  2. Very nice work. Some of our stocks are similar, but your dividend increase is remarkable. Our div income is up a mere 19% YOY. I hang my head in shame. Way to go, Jason.

  3. Congratulations! It’s a tangible sign of your growth and journey. As you approach your 50 equity limit, do you anticipate any differences in portfolio management, namely how you look at at adding on to your current positions in contrast to identifying and opening new ones? I look forward to June as well as most of my dividends arrive on the “C” months.

  4. R2R,

    Thanks so much. Steady progress is the name of the game. ๐Ÿ™‚

    And I’m adjusting very nicely thus far. It’s wonderful to be near family again. I spend this past Sunday out on my parents’ pontoon boat, which was a blast. Good stuff!

    Cheers.

  5. Steve,

    Hey, my YOY % increases are only impressive because I’m still working from a relatively small base. Once I’m receiving, say, over $500/month in dividend income, the % increases aren’t going to be as impressive anymore. In the end, it’s the increase in absolute income YOY rather than the % increase. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Best wishes.

  6. Greg,

    Thanks so much. Appreciate the support very much! ๐Ÿ™‚

    As far as my portfolio goes, I plan on adding to new positions sparingly from here. There’s a few high-quality companies I have my eye on, like CL, GIS, and MMM for the remaining roster spots. I don’t plan on doing much selling, but I’ll be monitoring existing positions closely for growth in profits and dividends, and making sure they’re living up to expectations. Overall, I don’t plan to change my management style much, other than just reinvesting back into existing positions a lot more than new positions.

    June should be very exciting for both of us. I’m looking forward to a blockbuster!

    Take care.

  7. Jason,
    congrats on your results! And I agree with you, it is my favorite topic too! It so nice to get the numbers together every month and see how well (or poorly) you are doing. Also you have some nice companies out there. I will add a few of them (well, basically all of those I do not have yet) into my watch list for further review and possibly investing in them.
    Good job and keep it up! Your divi income is great and I hope I will get there soon! Your posts keep me motivated to work harder.

  8. DM,

    This is my first comment but I’ve been reading for a little while now. You’re blog postings are very inspiring.

    What are your thoughts on DE? Stock is undervalued and they keep raising the divdend with plenty of room to go as far as payout ratio goes.

  9. Debs,

    I use Mint to track both my expenses and dividend income.

    You can find it here:

    http://www.mint.com/

    My expenses get tracked automatically due to most of my purchases being electronic, while I input dividends manually in their spreadsheet.

    I hope that helps!

    Cheers.

  10. Thanks for the dividend update, this continues to be my favorite series. The way I look at it, $300 should be able to cover a good chunk of your steady state expenses. Once you’ve situated yourself in your new life configuration your expenses will be far lower than what you spent this month. I can see this level of passive income covering around 30% of your monthly expenses, which is a huge chunk.

    The important thing is that this passive income is helping you break away from the usual script. I can’t say how excited I am about your upcoming adventures. You are your own man now!

  11. Martin,

    Thanks so much for the support!

    And I’m glad you find some inspiration in this. That’s exactly why I share everything. The progress from dividend growth investing is tangible, and it makes it easy to keep going.

    To our continued success. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Take care!

  12. Corey,

    Thanks for stopping by and commenting! I hope you stay in touch. ๐Ÿ™‚

    I’ve looked at DE. The recent dividend increase was very impressive. However, the research I’ve done indicates they may be at the peak of their business cycle and revenue and earnings are expected to decrease slightly over the next couple years. I try to stay away from cyclical stocks for the most part, and prefer companies with more secular growth. However, I don’t think it’s a bad buy today as a very long-term play. I just don’t think it’s crazy cheap either. They certainly operate in a growth industry, but it seems that a lot of their products were shipped over the last couple years and softening demand is ahead. I anticipate better buying opportunities over the next couple years, but I’ve been wrong before.

    Best wishes!

  13. I’m not DM, but for what it’s worth, I like DE too. It’s more cyclical than your typical consumer oriented dividend stocks, but the yield keeps climbing and, as you said, the payout ratio is still very low.

  14. Spoonman,

    Man, you’re typing the words as if they came out of my own head. You couldn’t echo my own thoughts any better.

    I definitely anticipate significantly lower expenses starting this month and going forward. I’m excited to talk about some major changes there, but I’m looking at lower expenses across the board and I’ve made some changes to make sure of it. May’s budget was horrible, mostly because I realized the rest of rent costs on the Florida apartment because the money had to be set aside and is basically already “spent”. Plus it’s nice to recognize those expenses while there is still full-time traditional job income to offset it. But going forward I’m definitely my own man, and a cheap one at that! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Thanks for stopping by.

    Best regards.

  15. Like you, I can’t stop talking about my fabulous dividend. Every month thousands of dollars roll in. I was amazed at the speed my investment is growing. best wishes to all of dividend investors.

  16. 5200$ is great for the year. And the great thing is that it will come the next year and the next and so on. Owning companies without needing to operate them is the name of the game.

  17. Hi Jason,

    Great progress! I agree, it is super fun to see the dividend dollars come in.

    I’m looking forward to reading more and it looks like you are well on your way to meet your goal this year.

    Your second worker is doing a great job for you!

    Ray

  18. I’m slowly becoming a reader of your blog, maybe I’ll have to dig around more to find the answer, but if you had one stock to choose for the rest of your life to live off those dividends only, what stock would be your Dividend of choice?

  19. Great month. I received $515 for May. First time I had crossed $500 for May. Like you I’m also looking forward to June since it’s one of my big quarters. You’ll be sprinting with your dividend income in no time.

    One big dividend you left off for the month was your additional stock you received from SBSI. I enjoyed getting my 7 extra shares this month. Keep it up and enjoy your Michigan summer.

  20. DM – Congrats on yet another successful month and a fantastic year-over-year growth. 104% growth is exceptional…I’d gladly accept that kind of growth every year. ๐Ÿ™‚ Keep it up Jason!

    Wishing you continued success. AFFJ

  21. Congratulations on another solid month! Your yield on costs for some of them must really be getting up there. I would love to see which ones have fully returned your original investment and how many years it took.

  22. I agree with DE being cyclical, but I do like the 15%+ ROE over the past 10 years. The short term earnings numbers are a little hard to stomach, but a cyclical stock will do that. I’m not sure if DE is as undervalued as many seem to think but I pulled the trigger today for a small initial position. I guess I will be finding out! Long DE.

  23. I’m excited for every month since I’m always getting distributions from somewhere. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Exciting progress, as always. Hopefully you’ll be able to recover on the income front by the end of the year to give you a bit more capital to work with going forward, but at this point even a longer journey won’t be as painful as it was getting things started in 2010.

    I think $1,000 in a month will be a big milestone. A nice round number to enjoy.

  24. Young,

    That’s a fantastic spot to be in, isn’t it? To know that you’re richer every single day you wake up before you do anything at all is a wonderful feeling. Enjoy! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Best regards.

  25. hallar84,

    I’m with you all the way. Owning chunks of fantastic companies while others run them and send you a piece of the profits is a wonderfully easy way to get rich over time. Every time I see a dividend roll in I just beam a big smile. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Cheers!

  26. Ray,

    Thanks for the support. Really appreciate it!

    And the second worker has been a busy little worker bee. I’m the beneficiary of all that hard work, and I consider myself most fortunate.

    I hope 2014 is going very well for you as well, and I hope you’re able to accomplish all of your goals. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Best wishes.

  27. evenstevenmoney,

    Thanks for the readership. I really appreciate it. And don’t be afraid to ask questions. ๐Ÿ™‚

    As far as your question goes, if I had one stock to choose from I would pick either JNJ or KO. Both are fantastic companies with 50+ years of dividend growth and high likelihood for at least another 10+ years of continued dividend growth. Underlying profit growth is great, geographical diversification is wonderful, they have a ton of individual products, and the economic moats are wide.

    I hope that helps!

    Cheers.

  28. Chad,

    That’s fantastic! Over $500 for May! I think it’ll be a few years before I hit that much for May. Great job right there.

    I didn’t include the stock dividend because it’s not actual cash income. However, I’m glad you reminded me of that because I had to change the # of shares owned in my portfolio to 70. Of course, the extra shares will throw off even more income so those shares will indirectly show up in these reports. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Keep up the great work.

    Take care!

  29. Tales,

    Thanks, bud. I appreciate the support!

    The move went very well, and I’m all settled in now. The summer weather up here right now is amazing. I haven’t had a nice Midwestern summer in many years now, so it’s nice to refresh the memory. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Hope all was well for you for the month of May!

    Cheers.

  30. AFFJ,

    Thanks for stopping by! Appreciate it.

    The YOY % increase was very nice, although I also know I can’t keep that up. Those increases will naturally decrease both as the income grows and the fresh capital I can contribute slows. But it’s nice while I can get it! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Looks like you had a very active month of May, and picked up some shares in some great companies. Great job!!

    Best wishes.

  31. DividendVet,

    None of my investments have returned all of my investment back in just dividends, but I’m anxious for the day that occurs. At that point, my risk on capital is essentially 0% since all of my capital was returned to me. ๐Ÿ™‚

    And great job on your month of dividends as well. Over $200 is very, very nice! Keep it up.

    Best regards.

  32. Andy,

    The ROE is very solid, and DE is a great company. I think it’s still a good long-term investment here, but if they are at the peak of the business cycle this wouldn’t provide the best time to buy the stock. And that’s not timing the market, but rather looking at company fundamentals and making a choice based on profit growth. Again, I could be wrong. I wouldn’t mind owning DE at some point, but the capex is a bit high and the dividend coverage from FCF a bit low. Revenue growth has been strong lately, and the share repurchases have been impressive. If they can continue that kind of growth then they’ll be an excellent investment. I wish you the best of luck, and I may join you as a shareholder at some point! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Best wishes.

  33. Ravi,

    I also think $1,000/month would be a hell of a milestone! When I get to that level I’ll feel like I “made it”. ๐Ÿ™‚

    And I’m with you on being excited for every month. In fact, every single time I receive a dividend I smile. It’s just such a good feeling to get that money!

    Best regards.

  34. Another great month for you – congratulations! I hope one day I can post saying the same – a 100% increase in a year is fantastic. Well done you.

  35. Great work DM! It’s awesome to see all those little dividends, $15 here, $12 here, and what it all adds up to in only one month! Seeing this also makes me think in the reverse, about how all those little expenses can really add up. To me it’s a real thrill to see even a $15 dividend being paid from investing some hard earned money, but funny how you can easily drop $10 or $20 on some frivolous expense and not have a second thought. Another reason to get excited about saving money, and the importance of each little decision. It really can turn the tide in the long run, as you are very nicely demonstrating.

    Keep up the great momentum, look forward to those divs getting bigger and bigger!

  36. Never cheap moving thats for sure. Throws a monkey wrench into everything but at least your dividends is steady! So easy to spend in unfamiliar surroundings. Gone is the planning and hello to convenience! You will be fine in no time soon enough!

    Good Day and Grind On!

  37. Jason, considering where you were a short time ago, you have made great progress. $307 isn’t bad, it could have almost paid for you to move to MI three times. I’m not sure about you, but May only yields about 60% of what an average month yields for me. In other words, I received $633 in May, but my average per month over a full year is $1085. June looks like it’s going to be very good. At your rate of dividend growth, you should pass me in less than a decade.

    Oh, and after doing my due diligence, I took the plunge on SBSI. Guess I missed the stock dividend, but it looks like a great long term hold. Thanks for the tip!

  38. Nicola,

    Thanks! I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made thus far. Just gotta keep it up now. ๐Ÿ™‚

    And don’t worry – the progress happens. Just stick with it and be consistent!

    Best wishes.

  39. Jason,

    You’re speaking the truth there. That was one thing I immediately noticed when I first started investing and receiving dividends. I would receive $20 and be so excited – but realized how much it took to get to that level, and started to look at spending $20 a whole lot differently. Once that change in perspective occurred, it became a lot easier to save!! If it’s taking thousands of dollars invested to get to a $20 dividend, then that means $20 spent is actually thousands of dollars spent.

    Cheers!

  40. Mark,

    I’m trying, brother. I’m definitely giving it my all. A bit disappointed with no fresh capital invested during the month of May, but excited to get back to it in June. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Excited to see your dividend income update here soon!

    And that’s an incredible milestone by MDJ there. How phenomenal! That’s something to be very proud of. I know it’ll be many years before I get to that type of net worth, but I applaud those that can get there so early in life.

    Best regards.

  41. Asset Grinder,

    Haha! Well, the first day or so was convenience over cheap because I didn’t have any groceries or food up here. But that’s changed now. It’s back to PB&J and cheap, easy meals for me. ๐Ÿ™‚

    And congrats on your fantastic dividend income for May and your incredible net worth. You’re doing fantastic! Hopefully, I’ll catch up to you by the time I’m 90. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Cheers!

  42. KeithX,

    Thanks so much!

    Yeah, I experience a similar oscillation of dividends from May to June. And I’m looking forward to seeing how June shapes up. Should be exciting times for many of us dividend investors!

    And glad to have you on board as a fellow SBSI shareholder. I think it’s a solid bank, and I’m about 50/50 on buying more shares in June. We’ll see.

    Hope you’re enjoying this weather. The mosquitoes are a little crazy, but the sunshine has been great.

    Cheers!

  43. DM,

    Can’t help but think of this in my head (THIS IS AWESOME! THIS IS AWESOME!). Seriously – huge leaps and bounds from your May 2013 income stream and June will put you over the 50% mark, I have a strong feeling, towards your goal. I know we the readers are curious on the expense side of things for May with the big transition, should be a great read. What will be great to see is – June dividend income as a % of expenses. Also – majority of healthy stocks have taken a very slight bump the last few days, so I’m hopefully we continue to see a devaluation trend here for buying opps. Nice job again DM, 3 days in the big month!

    -Lanny, one of the DDs

  44. Hi Jason!

    Wanted to check in now that things seem to have settled down for you and say congrats on a great month for the Freedom Fund and it’s dividend income, and more importantly congrats on your transition into this new stage in your life. Wishing all the best for you and the family with your homecoming. I’m so excited for you to be doing what you love and still making the plan work through a little adjustment. I’m also happy to be a beneficiary in all this: more content from you! I especially liked your recent post ‘If I Were Starting All Over Again,’ because it was written for someone in my exact situation. Thanks for sharing all the great ideas and words rolling around in your head!

    Take care!
    Ryan

  45. Congrats Jason! 104.4% increase is excellent. way to go. Passive Dividend income update is also my favorite item to post on my blog ๐Ÿ™‚

    My May dividends are generally much lower than June and I’m trying to balance it out to reduce big fluctuations. Its exciting to receive these passive income flowing and moving us closer to FI.

    I agree $1000 per month in dividend income would be a big milestone for me as well, but, I’ve ways to go for that!

    Hope you are settled there in MI.

    Best wishes.

  46. First comment, but I just wanted to say awesome results Jason! I’ve ready through most of your blog and I’m pretty sure you’ve convinced me. I know it’s going to be a long and arduous journey, but I’m sure learning about and getting into dividend investing will be worth it in a few years. Best of luck and I want you to know that you just gained another follower today!

    Thanks, Sam

  47. This post made me go and look at my YOY dividend income, and it actually went DOWN for May. Very odd. But I’m already at 105% of last June’s dividends, and we’re only three days in.

  48. I’ve recently found your blog and have been enjoying it. Have you ever considered spending some time as an investment professional – at a hedge fund, mutual fund, financial advisor, etc? You say that one of your true passions in investing, rather than working at a car dealership. Given the high pay level in this industry, why not marry your passion with some nice extra income? If you find the right niche, it might not really feel like a job, and you may even want to continue for the enjoyment, even after you hit your number. Personally, I think that being a financial advisor could be incredibly rewarding. If you are doing it for the passion rather than the money, you could charge low fees, take on pro-bono clients, steer people toward low-cost investments, and generally feel like you are making a huge difference.

  49. Very Exciting.
    I still haven’t pulled the trigger on JNJ, MCD, or PEP so June will be a pretty low month for me.

  50. Thanks in part to you, I am being very diligent about tracking my monthly dividends. May was a solid month for me, bringing in $105 dollars in dividends, which represents an increase of 61% over May of last year. I am still slightly off pace of my goal of $1,000 for the year, but I am confident I will surpass that figure by year end since January and February were very low yielding months for me since I didn’t get my portfolio reallocated until March. Good luck in Michigan!

  51. Lanny,

    Thanks so much! Appreciate the kind words and encouragement.

    And I’m excited to see where things go moving forward. May was rough as I realized the rent charges relating to the apartment in Florida, because the lease ran until August. However, now that this is behind me I can look forward and see exactly where I’m at with income and expenses. I’ll have a great idea within a month or two as to whether my new lifestyle is sustainable or not.

    I expect June to be much better in terms of what percentage of expenses dividends cover. It may just be my highest month yet! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Keep up the great work over on your end.

    Best regards.

  52. Ryan,

    Thanks, man. It’s been a crazy couple of months, but I’m anxious to see how things look moving forward. And I’m hopeful that I can write more content than ever and keep things going. It’ll really just depend on how the income and expenses look. But I’ll be ecstatic if this new lifestyle is sustainable! ๐Ÿ™‚

    May was solid, but I expect June to really break through new barriers in terms of how close I might be to FI. Of course, it’s hard to say for sure because I’m not in a permanent living situation either. I’m renting a room from my sister. While it’s convenient and nice to see family every day, I’ll at some point have to break off on my own. But life is an adventure, right?

    Thanks for stopping by. And I hope all is well with your journey!

    Cheers.

  53. PIM,

    I agree. These posts where we report on passive income coming our way are very exciting. It’s always wonderful to actually see financial independence getting closer and closer rather than to just talk about it. And that’s the benefit of tangibility.

    $1k/month in dividends is just a dream for me right now, but it’s fantastic that you can actually see the gap between that number and what I’m earning now close with every month that passes. Onward and upward!! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Take care!

  54. Sam,

    Thanks for following along! And best of luck on your journey.

    I see you’re only 24 years old. Time is your biggest asset right now, so make sure to use it wisely. I can only wish that I would have gotten started as early as you. Stay consistent and stick with it. The you of 5-10 years from now will be very glad the you of today embarked on a wonderful journey. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Best wishes!

  55. Justin,

    Hmm, that’s strange for May. I’m assuming you had a sale that negatively affected the YOY numbers. However, looks like you’re going to crush it in June. Ultimately, I would place more relevance on yearly totals or quarterly trends over monthly numbers. My monthly dividend totals oscillate quite a bit with the last month in every quarter being quite large, so quarterly dividend totals against quarterly expenses is perhaps a more accurate way to look at your progress.

    Best of luck!

    Cheers.

  56. Tad,

    I’ve often thought about your suggestion. However, from the research I’ve done, it looks like I’d need a degree to work in the financial industry. And I see two problems with that –

    1. The cost and time required to go back to school.

    2. No guarantee once I spend the time and money to get the degree that I’d actually like it.

    So I’m hesitant to try my hand. I would agree that I’d certainly enjoy it more than working at a car dealership, but would the trade-off of possibly significantly delaying my financial independence for the job be worth it? That’s really the question for me.

    If I decide to go back to work after this trial period of writing I might try to somehow migrate into this field without a degree, but I think that will be difficult. We’ll see!

    Thank you for the suggestion. I appreciate it. And I largely agree with you. I do believe I would enjoy that a lot more and I wouldn’t need to make a ton of money at it. Therefore, I could be a little more cautious as to what products I’m trying to sell. However, that would depend on the firm I’m working for. If my sales aren’t up to par, I might find myself without a job. Then I’m back to square one.

    Best wishes!

  57. Josh,

    Well, as long as you’re attaining your goals that’s all that matters. And I’m sure you’ll eventually own a piece of at least one of those companies at some point. My dividend totals oscillate a bit from month to month, especially from the second month of every quarter to the third. But I don’t think this volatility in monthly dividends will affect one’s ability to become financially independent. Those of us skilled in the arena of budgeting will simply take excess dividends from one month and apply it to another month where the dividends are lower.

    Keep up the great work. Your frugality is impressive!

    Best regards.

  58. BCS,

    That’s fantastic! $105 is really wonderful, and not far off what I hit the last couple of Mays. For not getting your portfolio reallocated until March it looks like you’re doing a really solid job over there.

    And $1,000 in dividends for the year is just the start of something great. Stick with it!!

    Best wishes.

  59. Such an inspiration! Thank you so much for your blog posts. I enjoy reading them all. Quite insightful for a 26 year old looking to learn and incorporate some similar strategies. Best Regards!

  60. G Dougz,

    Thanks for stopping by!

    I’m so glad you’ve found some inspiration here. I started when I was almost 28 years old – not much older than where you’re at now. Starting young is so important, so you’re off to a great start there. Ignore the noise and stay consistent. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Hope you stay in touch and continue to stop by. I do my best to put out great content here.

    Take care!

  61. Ever since I stumbled across your blog early this year, I have been a great fan and a regular reader. In fact, I got encouraged to document my dividend growth journey just like you and others are doing. This provides me with inspiration to stay focused. Please visit http://dividendgrowthjourney.wordpress.com when you get a chance and provide feedback on my portfolio and investments. I really appreciate your help.

    Its great to see your dividends rolling in and also increasing over time. I am happy to report that my dividends for May hit $91.22 which is an increase of $64.00 compared to May last year. This is primarily due to some investments early this year and also dividend increases from other stocks that I hold. I hope to continue increasing my dividends thereby increasing my passive income.

  62. I’d give it a shot to network with a number of financial advisors. They may be willing to take on an analyst to help crunch numbers/run client analysis/develop budgets/etc… i.e. something that doesn’t “require” a degree.

    Personally, as a theoretical prospective client, if you told me your story about wanting to change your life, get out of debt, save, invest, and then if you showed me your numbers and entire history (could just give a link to the blog, or give them the short story in 10 minutes), I’d want to invest with you much more than John Finkleton who graduated with a degree in Finance from Michigan.

    Get a further look into it. It’s a great business to be in, or assist with if you can’t run it yourself, and it seems to be regarding topics that you spend ALL DAY THINKING ABOUT anyway.

    Personally, I am giving investment management a serious thought as a FI career. If I can amass clients with $10 million in assets and charge 0.75% in fees (very competitive), that’s easily $75k in income for a part-time job. $10 million in assets is probably around 10-15 doctors around age 40.

    I know I’m making it overly simple, but the reward is definitely there and there is a HUGE need for qualified, and TRUSTWORTHY advisors. Most of them are just salespeople who studied marketing in college.

  63. DGJourney,

    Hey, congrats on starting your own journey and blog. I wish you the best of luck with both!

    I took a look at your portfolio. While there are some companies I wouldn’t personally invest in (HPQ and GOOG, for instance), as long as the portfolio befits you and your goals that’s all that matters. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Great job on the YOY dividend income increase! That’s fantastic. Consistent progress is the name of the game. Keep it up!

    Best regards.

  64. HPQ and GOOG doesn’t necessarily fit the “Dividend growth” strategy. Those are stocks that I had invested a while back. I just got 1 share of Google few years back and even though there are no dividends, it has doubled since then. Same thing with HPQ which I invested when the stock took a beating over couple of years when it hit $13.00 from a high of $45.00. These are stocks that I primarily invested for capital appreciation rather than dividends and were invested few years back. I want and hope to be more disciplined going forward in my investment selections that fit my overall strategy.

  65. Ravi,

    Thanks for the ideas there. I hear you. I may look into this at some point in the near future. I really have nothing to lose, other than perhaps the cost of buying a suit for an interview or two. If nobody in the industry wants to hire me then I just continue on writing, or I can always go back to working for a car dealership. There really is no failure here.

    And I hope you do indeed try it out as a FI career, or even perhaps before you hit FI. It would be fantastic to actually wake up and look forward to work every day, much like how life is like for me right now. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Best wishes.

  66. DM,

    I think your concerns about the credentialing requirements are valid. If you go for the “top end” places, like fancy hedge funds, they are probably going to want a fancy Ivy League degree to go along with it. If you go for the more “mass market” financial advisors, they probably have cookie-cutter resumes that they look for. As a third option – what if you just started advertising on your site or elsewhere your availability to work as a personal financial consultant. I don’t know if there are any regulatory requirements you need to worry about, although I imagine that you could deal with those through a clear disclaimer and a careful selection of your title (maybe “financial advisor” is a legal term, but “consultant” is not, etc.) But, if you posted that on your site, you might get a handful of takers. If you charged a reasonable hourly fee (say $50), that would be incredible value for your clients. I always find the % of assets model to be something of a scam, so you are differentiating yourself right there. And, then you can get some experience with this – over time you likely could raise rates and/or find yourself turning away clients because there was so much demand. You might even be able to steer some of those excess clients to others in this community who would be interested in doing it for the pleasure of helping others rather than the money.

    Good luck!
    Tad

  67. Solid month and great YOY increase. I bet waiting tables was a lot more work than collecting dividend income ๐Ÿ™‚ Every month I see higher dividends, it’s a reminder of why I started investing in dividend paying companies.

    I hope you’re enjoying being closer with the family.

    Cheers

  68. Tad,

    Interesting thoughts there. Thanks for sharing!

    That may be something I look into, although I bet the legal complications are larger than they might first appear. And for good reason, as regulation in the financial industry is meant to protect people from fraudsters.

    I may end up applying at a local place or two in due time, knowing that even if they say no I don’t have much to lose. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Thanks for getting back to me!

    Take care.

  69. Brent,

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Waiting tables was a ton of work. I’m frugal, but whenever I do go out to eat I always tip very well. Unless the waitstaff was incompetent, I usually tip 20% or so. It doesn’t seem like a hard job, but I know how tough it was. The only good thing was the schedule. It’s not your typical 40-hour job, although some days can be quite long when you work doubles.

    The rising dividends are indeed a great reminder every single month. If I ever need a refresher on why I’m doing this I just look at my results and all doubts go away! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Thanks for stopping by.

    Best wishes.

  70. The weather has been beautiful, a few rainy days are no problem. The skeeters have been horrible, as bad as I’ve ever seen. Makes me think of a camp song we used to sing when I was a kid. “There’s a skeeter on my peter, whack it off. Whack it off!”

  71. KeithX,

    I know! We don’t really have mosquitoes down in Florida where I lived. I assume it’s different in the middle of the state down there.

    But since I’ve been up here it’s been like World War 3 where it’s mosquitoes vs. humans. Unbelievable. We had a cookout for Memorial Day and we had to cut it way short because the bugs were so bad. I wonder what’s going on with that? I thought maybe it was just this area, but I guess not. I don’t ever remember so many mosquitoes growing up here.

    Cheers!

  72. Just a thought …

    You should breakdown your growth into two groups:
    – Growth from new money that you put to work
    – Growth from dividend growth and dividend re-investment

  73. Hey DM,

    Congratulations on another successful month for Dividends. A 3 digit % increase YOY is very impressive, especially since you’ve been doing this for a few years now. This level of increase YOY will inevitably become more difficult to achieve as time goes on.

    It’s also good to see that you’re still on track with your ambitious dividend income goal for 2014. I like your confidence, and I wish you all the best with it.

    A wise man once told me “success begets success!” ๐Ÿ™‚

    Keep up the good work my friend.

    All the best
    Huw

  74. Toothless One,

    I agree. That would make it easier to see where the growth is coming from, although since I update dividends and stock purchases monthly this is somewhat already exposed. But I’ll try to include the capital gains, fresh capital infusion, and dividend income, all separate in the future so that you can easily see how the Fund grew and where.

    Thanks for the suggestion!

    Cheers.

  75. Huw,

    Success begets success, indeed! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Thanks for the support. These kinds of YOY % increases will definitely be more difficult to attain in the future as the base I’m working off of expands, and that’s before even factoring in the reduced income. But if the path to FI is much more enjoyable then I suppose that might be okay.

    I definitely think I’ll be able to attain my 2014 goal, even with reduced investment frequency moving forward. I expect to invest in June, and I’m hoping I can maybe do something in July as well. It won’t be my usual $2k-$3k per month type of activity, but if I can contribute a solid $1k+ per month I’ll be ecstatic.

    Keep up the great work on your end too!

    Best regards.

  76. Jason. Congrats! I was at $1,124.89 vs. 995.21 last May. Not too impressive companies r ed to your 100 percent gain. I’ll keep at it…

  77. Diplomat,

    I’d gladly trade with you any day my 100% YOY increase for your $1,124 monthly dividend tally.

    You know where you can reach me… ๐Ÿ™‚

    Great job. Keep it up!!!

    Best wishes.

  78. Great job with over $300 in dividends and a 100%+ YoY increase. I was at about the same % of increase from last year but you still got me by about $60 in dividends for May. I’m really looking forward to putting some capital to work because I’ve got a lot more cash in my accounts than I like. I’m about to start investing some as long as it’s decent valuations and go for the highest quality stocks out there. June already off to a great start for dividends with about 7 payments already rolling in. Keep ’em coming!

  79. JC,

    I bet you have some huge cash reserves over there. I know your income is pretty high and you haven’t been buying a lot lately. You’ll be in a wonderful position if we do indeed see a significant pullback. Although, I like some of your recent buys focusing more on the growth side rather than the yield side. SBUX, for example, is one company I’d like to invest in at some point.

    Take care!

  80. Jason,
    Since you are getting close to your maximum number of positions and you wont have as much money to invest near term, does that change your approach to reinvesting dividends?
    Joel

  81. Joel,

    Well, it will change things a bit. Basically, I’ll continue to reinvest dividends with fresh capital as I’ve always done, except now I’ll do a lot more reinvesting in current positions. New investments will be few and far between from here on out. There’s a few companies I have my eye on like CL, ADP, GIS, UL, NSRGY, UNP, and a few others. But I don’t plan on going much over 50. I also don’t plan to do much selling either, so I’ll have to be very picky.

    I hope this helps?

    Take care.

  82. Jason, I bought 300 shares of ACRP and 100 shares of ESV today. I pray I’m not reaching for yield! It ads $600 annual in dividends. Best, DD

  83. DD,

    Fantastic! Your purchases just increased your dividends more than I earned in my entire first year of dividend investing! And that’s about half of what I made in my second year. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Keep up the fantastic work. That’s some serious ammo! I haven’t looked at ESV too deeply, but maybe I should.

    Cheers.

  84. thanks. Would you consider turning on automatic DRIP or will you still collect dividends & redeploy manually into positions?

  85. joel,

    I plan to continue investing as I always have, but perhaps at a slower pace. So I won’t be using any DRIPs. I’ll continue allocating capital manually, which I think is better for the long haul.

    Best regards.

  86. Sorry I’m late to the discussion, but can you explain what you mean by”the investments in ONE Gas, Inc. (OGS) and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) were spun off or provided to me from other companies I already owned an equity stake in (Oneok, Inc. (OKE) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), respectively)”? The original companies you own gave you shares in other companies? How does that work?

    Thanks and best of luck!

  87. nona,

    That’s correct. Sometimes you’ll see a company decide to get rid of certain operations. And there are a number of ways to do this. They can sell off that side of the business for cash and then use that cash for other purposes. But another way to separate certain operations is to spin off operations and give shareholders a stake in the new business. That was the case for OGS. VZ was a bit different, as VOD decided to sell off its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless and gave current VOD shareholders all of the VZ shares it was entitled to as part of the sale.

    I discussed the VOD transaction a bit here:

    https://www.dividendmantra.com/2013/09/vodafone-sells-45-stake-in-verizon/

    I hope that helps!

    Best regards.

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