Steady As She Goes | Dividend Update - October 2017

Dividend Update - October 2017

It's the end of one month and the beginning of another so it's time for my favorite update: my dividend update.  These dividend updates reflect all dividends that I receive through my investing pursuits. I hope they can help inspire you to take control of your own finances and invest to build a passive income stream. What you use that stream for is up to you, whether it's to fund early retirement, just provide some FI/FU money, or even to provide for an annual vacation; the key is that it can provide options and open up all sorts of possibilities. You can check my dividend income or progress pages to see what dedication to an investment plan can give you.


Coming off the heels of September's personal best a smaller dividend total for October was to be expected.  However, it was still a solid month of progress.  My FI Portfolio churned out $254.69 in dividends while my Roth IRA chipped in another $37.55.  That's bring October's total to $292.24.

FI Portfolio

On the surface my FI Portfolio showed just a 0.8% increase compared to the prior quarter.  Although compared to October 2016 the numbers are a bit more palatable at a 5.7% increase.  

Part of the discrepancy is due to the timing of dividend payments as some companies have a regular schedule of paying the first month of every quarter and others pay on a normal schedule albeit one that doesn't follow a normal quarterly timeline.  However, as long as the dividends keep getting paid and raised they can follow whatever schedule they want.  

I'm essentially right on track with my YTD total for 2017 compared to 2016 with just a -0.01% difference.  It might not make sense for my dividends to just be on par with 2016's YTD total considering most of the companies I own have raised their dividend over the last year and I completely agree with you.  However, there is an explanation for that.  I had done a little bit of trimming of some positions in 2016 in order to lock in some profits as well as raise some cash for opportunities.  There's also been a few companies that I owned via spinoffs that have since been acquired.  All in all the fact that it's even with 2016 is a good sign and 2017's final tally should pull ahead over the last 2 months of the year.

Roth IRA Portfolio

My Roth IRA portfolio gives a purer view of dividend growth investing at work since I have not contributed additional capital to the portfolio since October 2012.  Since the account, and therefore dividends, are small I opt to just automatically reinvest the dividends instead of pooling them with new capital.

Thanks to dividend increases and reinvestment October's total showed a solid 5.8% increase from July's total.  However, compared to October 2016 it was a huge 50.6% increase!  Part of that was due to the investment in McCormick & Company (MKC) earlier this year.  My YTD total for my Roth is sitting at a 10.2% increase compared to 2016.

Dividend Raises During the Month

October was a steady month for dividend increases with 3 companies announcing pay raises for their owners during the month.  What's not to like about dividend raises?  You mean a company I own a piece of, albeit it, wants to pay out more of their profits to me just because I own part of the company?  Sign me up!  That's dividend growth investing at work!

The raises came from a wide variety of sectors of the economy: a healthcare REIT, the world's largest transaction processor, an insurance company.  Combined these 3 raises increased my forward 12-month dividends by $13.77.  Through the end of October I've received 42 increases from 35 of the companies in my FI Portfolio that have increased my forward 12-month dividends by a total of $261.67.

Looking Forward

The forward 12-month dividends for my FI Portfolio are at $5,864.91.  My Roth IRA's forward 12-month dividends are at $317.73.  Total forward 12-month dividends across both accounts are at $6,182.64.

Monthly Average

Below is the chart showing the monthly dividend totals for each year that I've been investing as well as the monthly average.  It's not always an increase as some companies have odd payout schedules and eventually some positions will get dropped, but the long-term trend is what matters.  

In order to smooth out changes I've included a rolling 12-month average for the current reporting period to compare with the monthly average for the previous years.  The current rolling 12-month average for my FI Portfolio only sits at $469.71 which is essentially even with the 2016 monthly average.

Monthly Comparison of Dividends Received in my FI Portfolio

Dividends Received Breakdown

FI Portfolio - Dividend Income

Company	Dividend Amount
EOG Resources, Inc. (EOG)	$1.36
Medtronic plc (MDT)	$42.38
Phillip Morris International, Inc. (PM)	$66.99
The Coca-Cola Company (KO)	$60.51
Realty Income (O)	$20.02
General Electric (GE)	$41.09
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)	$13.25
Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD)	$9.09
October 2017 Total	$254.69
2017 YTD Total	$4,512.36

Roth IRA - Dividend Income

Company	Dividend Amount	DRIP Shares
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM)	$13.08	0.129
Phillip Morris International, Inc.	$14.98	0.131
McCormick & Company (MKC)	$9.49	0.096
October 2017 Total	$37.55
2017 YTD Total	$247.11

I've updated my Dividend Income page to reflect October's changes.

Did the 4th quarter of 2017 get off to a good start?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles on FreeDigitalPhotos.net.