I received $96.73 in taxable October 2019 dividend income. It feels like I’m really knocking on the $100/month every month. Looking back to last year, I received $164, but that was because VTI paid in October instead of September last year. Not considering VTI, I went from about $85 to $97 for the month of October, which I’m fairly happy with.

Dividend Growth

A little disappointing from IFF! I like IFF’s broad product – just about everything has flavors added. I am mostly hands off, so I have no plans on selling. But, you can see their dividend increases the last few years all in a decline: 20.5%, 19.2%, 14.3%, 7.8%, 5.8%, and now 2.7%.

I honestly don’t know what to expect from MO. I was happy with their 5% increase after their massive increases since 2017.

As for RSG, I will take a healthy 8% increase! Waste handling seems like it will only get bigger and bigger and I’m happy to have them as one of my top individual holdings. Even without the dividend, I love this company. Their current yield is at a 5-year low so hopefully there are some nice dividend hikes in the future for RSG.

I’d have to invest $367 at my current 2.08% portfolio yield to increase my income this much.

Forward Dividend Income

Another healthy month of new contributions. I’ll try for one more of these before I go back to my normal $2k/month contributions. If all my numbers are correct, I’ve just cracked the $200/month average income mark.

Each benchmark is exciting. Way back when I started DGI investing, I had a bit saved up and was leaning toward a rental property. I still am tempted to try that out sometimes, but I love the low-effort return on investment. For now, I’m happy clicking a few buttons and not worrying about tenants and property. Seeing my income hit $200/month is great because that’s the sort of return I was hoping to get if I bought a rental property.

Purchases – VTI, KO, CSCO

Purchased 33 shares of Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTI) @ $151.80/share

I’m aggressively trying to bring my taxable portfolio to a 50/50 ratio of VTI to all other individual stocks. This purchase brings me to about 47/53. Maybe two more months if I can stay disciplined! My plan after that is to maintain 50/50 in contributions, so I’ll be back to having fun with individual stocks soon hopefully.

Purchased 1 share of Coca Cola (KO) @ $53.85/share

I have strengthened a lot of my favorite holdings like V and UNH, but I want to make sure not to forget the more defensive, steady old stalwarts. This is only one share, but I mean to keep building KO.

Purchased 2 shares of Cisco (CSCO) @ $46.54/share

CSCO has been both the victim and beneficiary of my reinvesting style. I began only adding CSCO as my dividends accumulated. When I make a contribution, I tend to pick up higher-priced shares because that’s when I am able to. So, CSCO only found its way to my portfolio when I could buy a share here and there. Despite that, my CSCO holding is in the $900+ range. I’m happy to keep adding CSCO, whether it’s one share at a time or ten at a time.

Head on over to my portfolio page if you’d like to see what companies pay me in other months!