I received $92.99 in taxable January 2021 dividend income. I had to double check because I was surprised to see my lowest total in quite some time. It’s my lowest total for the first month of a quarter in seven quarters! I’ll dig into why.
| ticker | total_payout_2021 | total_payout_2020 |
|---|---|---|
| MO | $18.06 | $17.64 |
| MDT | $13.92 | $10.80 |
| RSG | $12.75 | $11.75 |
| KMB | $8.56 | $8.24 |
| IFF | $8.47 | $8.25 |
| CINF | $7.80 | $6.72 |
| CAH | $7.29 | $7.22 |
| CSCO | $7.20 | $7.00 |
| EMN | $6.21 | $5.94 |
| NDSN | $2.73 | $2.66 |
| DIS | $0.00 | $13.20 |
| RTN | $0.00 | $8.48 |
| PPL | $0.00 | $6.19 |
| $92.99 | $114.08 |
Ouch, this is a huge decrease from last year! It’s pretty easy to see why. I lost about $28 from DIS, RTN, and PPL.
- DIS: Suspended dividend – last payment was at this time last year. I’m quite content with anything Disney does and I’m happy to leave my few shares in their hands. In one year after that last payment, their share price has gained about 50%.
- RTN: Simply merged into RTX, which now pays in the third month of each quarter.
- PPL: I sold all my small number of shares and picked up BLK, which pays in the third month of each quarter.
Unfortunately in 2020, my dividend increases were fairly small for my January payers, and I didn’t add much to these positions either. To be exact, I added $612 to my January payers in 2020 which will generate about $3 per quarter in income.
I added about $16,000 in new contributions throughout 2020, but only 4% went into January payers. I never base my purchases on payment months or dividend frequency, and it definitely shows here! I actually hadn’t realized the contrast until just now while writing this post.
Dividend Growth
| percent_increase | annual_increase_dollars | |
|---|---|---|
| EMN | 4.54% | $1.08 |
| Total | $1.08 |
My only dividend increase came from EMN, and was a respectable 4.54%. I haven’t added to EMN in over two and a half years, but I am glad to have a diversified chemical company. I love companies that may not be household names, but are probably in all our household products.
EMN’s raise last year was 6.5%, and this year’s was 4.5%. The difference was really just one penny per share.
At 1.80% yield, I’d have to contribute $60 to generate this much income.
Forward Dividend Income
| Year: 2019 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dividend_increases | $7.00 | $3.10 | $36.71 | $4.55 | $5.99 | $22.83 | $3.01 | $5.04 | $13.20 | $6.44 | $2.61 | $29.35 | $139.83 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $2.47 | $-12.99 | $3.47 | $2.02 | $2.05 | $4.22 | $1.80 | $1.60 | $6.79 | $1.78 | $1.78 | $9.57 | $24.56 |
| new_contributions | $-0.30 | $6.03 | $0.02 | $1.06 | $0.03 | $-0.51 | $188.35 | $276.00 | $147.06 | $93.04 | $146.50 | $32.79 | $890.06 |
| Total | $9.17 | $-3.86 | $40.20 | $7.63 | $8.07 | $26.54 | $193.16 | $282.64 | $167.05 | $101.26 | $150.89 | $71.71 | $1,054.46 |
| Year: 2020 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dividend_increases | $1.44 | $8.76 | $18.54 | $-52.15 | $-22.73 | $31.08 | $3.81 | $0.00 | $19.47 | $4.96 | $20.70 | $26.81 | $60.69 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $1.88 | $1.55 | $10.38 | $9.07 | $1.78 | $7.85 | $-3.23 | $2.50 | $8.02 | $1.57 | $2.07 | $9.03 | $52.47 |
| new_contributions | $2.24 | $17.81 | $37.11 | $-1.16 | $9.41 | $6.34 | $-30.23 | $11.93 | $-0.25 | $0.19 | $19.35 | $51.72 | $124.48 |
| Total | $5.56 | $28.12 | $66.03 | $-44.24 | $-11.54 | $45.27 | $-29.65 | $14.43 | $27.24 | $6.72 | $42.12 | $87.56 | $237.62 |
| Year: 2021 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dividend_increases | $1.08 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $1.08 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $1.61 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $1.61 |
| new_contributions | $68.26 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $68.26 |
| Total | $70.95 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $70.95 |
I’m happy with my start to 2021 from a contributions standpoint. Hoping to keep up the momentum, and crossing my fingers for better dividend increases and reinvestments as the year goes on. If I can add $71 to my annual forward income each month, I can increase my average monthly income by about 25%.
Purchases – NEE, PG, VTI
Purchased 15.2 shares of NextEra Energy (NEE) @ $75.16/share
This was an effort to bump NEE much further up in my portfolio (now sitting at #16 in terms of portfolio percentage). I’d still like to get it a bit higher. NEE will be my main energy representation in my portfolio.
Purchased 7.0 shares of Procter & Gamble Co (PG) @ $137.60/share
One of the classic DGI stocks! I keep adding partial shares here and there, and honestly thought I had more built up in my portfolio than I did. PG is one of those stocks that I can really just set it and forget it for the next few decades.
Purchased 10 shares of Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTI) @ $192.66/share
Speaking of set it and forget it, I added 50% of my January contributions to VTI. I’ve been doing this for a little while, and my VTI holding keeps outperforming the rest of my individual picks! One one hand, I wish my individual picks would beat the market, but on the other hand, I’m glad I have such a chunk of my portfolio in VTI and love seeing it do well recently.
Head on over to my portfolio page if you’d like to see what companies pay me in other months!
What a beautiful and informative diagram.
I wonder if you could share the code for making this chart.
Thank you.
Thanks Hsieh! I plan to share it in a post when I clean it up! In the meantime though, I just use Python and Plotly.
Dozer –
Solid results and understandable reasons for the January 2021 shakeup. It may be a while before Disney comes back with their dividend, but I’ll be pumped up when they do!
Also – love the dividend stock purchases, the set it and forget it stocks and ETFs are where it’s at!
-Lanny