I received $557.47 in taxable dividend income for June 2021. This tops my previous best month by $23! And tops my monthly total from a year ago by almost $90 or 19%. The gain is due quite a bit to my hefty contributions this year, especially to VTI (which alone paid me $349 this month).
| ticker | total_payout_2021 | total_payout_2020 |
|---|---|---|
| VTI | $349.00 | $297.36 |
| BLK | $20.65 | $0.00 |
| MCD | $20.64 | $18.75 |
| UNH | $17.40 | $13.75 |
| NEE | $14.63 | $0.00 |
| TRV | $13.20 | $12.75 |
| MSFT | $12.88 | $11.22 |
| AVY | $10.88 | $9.28 |
| RTX | $10.71 | $9.97 |
| MMM | $10.36 | $10.29 |
| HD | $9.91 | $7.50 |
| MGA | $9.46 | $8.80 |
| AWR | $7.37 | $5.18 |
| SO | $7.26 | $7.04 |
| V | $7.04 | $6.30 |
| IBM | $6.56 | $6.52 |
| NOC | $6.28 | $5.80 |
| JNJ | $5.30 | $5.05 |
| PFE | $5.07 | $4.94 |
| ADM | $4.81 | $4.68 |
| EMR | $4.54 | $4.50 |
| NDSN | $3.51 | $2.66 |
| WFC | $0.00 | $9.69 |
| PFG | $0.00 | $5.04 |
| FLO | $0.00 | $0.80 |
| $557.47 | $467.88 |
That’s a long list of payments! At the top of my individual holdings is BlackRock (BLK), which I shifted all my old WFC, PFG, and FLO into a year ago at this time. This should be the last month those three appear on the list.
Another noticeable addition since last June is NEE, which I first started purchasing in December 2020, and now holds my #16 spot in my portfolio.
Dividend Growth
| percent_increase | annual_increase_dollars | |
|---|---|---|
| AVY | 9.68% | $3.84 |
| IBM | 0.61% | $0.16 |
| JNJ | 4.95% | $1.00 |
| NOC | 8.28% | $1.92 |
| RTX | 7.37% | $2.94 |
| SO | 3.12% | $0.88 |
| TRV | 3.53% | $1.80 |
| UNH | 16.00% | $9.06 |
| VTI | 0.86% | $11.45 |
| Total | $33.05 |
I had some great increases this month (along with a few duds). This was actually my second-best month in terms of increases!
The good:
AVY tops my “good” list, with an unexpected increase (for me at least). I was a bit concerned when Avery Dennison held their dividend at $0.58/quarter for six quarters in a row, but they’ve now gotten back on schedule with their second increase in the last four quarters. After an increase from $0.58 to $0.62 and then to $0.68, AVY effectively increased their dividend by 17.2% in the last year.
UNH comes in second place on my good list this month with a 16% increase!
The bad:
IBM is just making small increases to keep their increase streak intact ($0.01 two years in a row). I bought IBM a few years ago thinking maybe I’d try to make a value play. I most often buy companies at or near their all-time highs, but IBM was one exception. Hopefully they can eventually compete in the cloud space, but it’s a pretty far leap up to the range where Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are competing these days. I hope to keep holding IBM until I retire, but I have no incentive to add to it.
At my 1.51% average portfolio yield, I’d have to invest $2,189 to generate this much additional income (wow).
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 | $9.35 | $28.05 | $5.84 | $8.98 | $33.05 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $86.35 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $1.61 | $1.62 | $8.89 | $1.64 | $1.95 | $7.14 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $22.85 |
| new_contributions | $68.26 | $60.80 | $67.00 | $61.99 | $56.84 | $101.65 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $416.53 |
| Total | $70.95 | $71.77 | $103.94 | $69.47 | $67.77 | $141.84 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $525.74 |
This was a good month for my forward income. I reinvested my largest month of dividend income, had my second-best month of dividend increases, and managed to double my typical contributions. My calculations tell me I added $142 in annual dividend income in June. $40 of that additional income comes from reinvestments and raises, which I consider truly passive.
I mentioned in my 2021 Goals Check-In that I hope to hit an average of $10/day in dividend income, but have quite a ways to go. Halfway through the year, I made only 44% of progress from where I stood at the start of the year. However, with June’s raises and reinvestments, I’m now 52% of the way there. I may not be out of this race yet!
I always have to give home ownership updates. I am ready to repaint and re-side some of my house next week. It won’t be cheap, but luckily my emergency fund can handle it.
Purchases – ACN, AWR, LOW, NDSN, TRV, VTI
Keeping with my 2021 goals, I added to a few of my mid-range holdings in my portfolio. The next month or two will focus more on my top holdings.
Purchased 0.54 shares of Accenture (ACN) @ $283.45/share
I have been picking a stock to reinvest dividends into until I reach a full share, then shift to another stock until I reach a full share in that one. This completes a full share of Accenture. I haven’t picked which stock to focus my attention on next.
Purchased 8.0 shares of American States Water (AWR) @ $79.03/share
AWR holding on tight after slipping from $94/share two and a half years ago. Luckily, this gives me more time to increase my shares and actually decrease my average cost from roughly $86.
Purchased 6.0 shares of Lowe’s (LOW) @ $190.03/share
Lowe’s is also down from a bit of a peak ($211 in May). I’m glad I got to snag a few more shares at a slightly lower price.
Purchased 8.0 shares of Nordson Corporation (NDSN) @ $215.58/share
Nordson has quietly been on of my best performers in my portfolio, but I tend to neglect it because it has a very low yield (0.71%) and seems to always be expensive! I have wanted to pick up a few more shares for NDSN for years, and now it sits at my #10 spot of individual holdings.
Purchased 1.0 shares of Travelers Companies (TRV) @ $145.37/share
TRV is another holding I have sort of neglected, but I can’t ignore the insurance industry. I have batted around the idea of adding Aflac, but I decided to stick with Travelers for another share.
Purchased 21.57 shares of Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF (VTI) @ $217.80/share
I keep devoting 50% or of my new contributions to VTI. I also added 1.57 shares via reinvestment this month. In 2020, VTI outperformed my own picks by a few percent. I haven’t calculated it yet this year, but I think VTI is beating my own picks once again. I’ve thought about increasing my VTI contribution percentage to over 50% if that holds up.