I received $741.29 in taxable dividend income for December 2021. Dividend investors can always look forward to December as it’s typically the highest-paying month of the year. I wasn’t expecting to reach the 700’s, but here I am.
I do focus disproportionately on the third month of each quarter (mostly via VTI). But even if it’s every third month for now, I feel more and more like this is significant passive income. When I get to $1,000 per month and replace my minimum contribution, I’ll really feel like things are rolling.
| ticker | total_payout_2021 | total_payout_2020 |
|---|---|---|
| VTI | $502.75 | $345.93 |
| BLK | $22.36 | $10.02 |
| MCD | $22.08 | $19.35 |
| NEE | $18.48 | $0.00 |
| UNH | $17.40 | $13.75 |
| MSFT | $16.12 | $12.32 |
| TRV | $14.09 | $12.75 |
| AVY | $13.60 | $9.92 |
| KO | $13.02 | $12.71 |
| AWR | $10.95 | $7.37 |
| RTN | $10.71 | $0.00 |
| MMM | $10.36 | $10.29 |
| HD | $9.92 | $7.50 |
| V | $9.75 | $6.72 |
| MGA | $9.46 | $8.80 |
| SO | $7.26 | $7.04 |
| 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 | $4.63 | $4.54 |
| NVDA | $0.32 | $0.00 |
| RTX | $0.00 | $9.97 |
| $741.29 | $525.97 |
Dividend Growth
| percent_increase | annual_increase_dollars | |
|---|---|---|
| EMR | 1.98% | $0.36 |
| MCD | 6.98% | $5.76 |
| MSFT | 10.71% | $6.24 |
| V | 17.19% | $5.50 |
| VTI | 1.63% | $25.26 |
| Total | $43.12 |
VTI sticks out this month. I got a 1.63% increase over my previous rolling 3-year average when counting in this month’s monster payout. This is my personal way of quantifying annual increase/decrease from a varying VTI payout. Aside from VTI, I also got some hefty increases from MCD, MSFT, and V.
I would have to invest $3,147 at my current portfolio yield of 1.37% to produce this much income that I just got from raises alone. This is probably my best month of my investing career.
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 | $8.97 | $33.05 | $5.49 | $15.20 | $8.72 | $10.96 | $23.99 | $28.43 | $179.13 |
| dividend_reinvestments | $1.61 | $1.62 | $8.89 | $1.64 | $1.95 | $7.12 | $1.21 | $1.83 | $8.37 | $0.92 | $1.30 | $3.43 | $39.89 |
| new_contributions | $68.26 | $60.80 | $67.00 | $61.99 | $56.84 | $101.67 | $42.09 | $75.06 | $54.36 | $31.38 | $30.54 | $39.52 | $689.50 |
| Total | $70.95 | $71.77 | $103.94 | $69.47 | $67.76 | $141.84 | $48.79 | $92.09 | $71.45 | $43.26 | $55.83 | $71.38 | $908.53 |
2021 is in the past, and I added $909 to my annual income via dividend increases, reinvestments, and new contributions. I probably have the lowest yield I’ve ever had, but have also had some nice growth (new chart below!). I’m really looking forward to 2022.
Purchases – BLK, NVDA, V, VTI
0.16 shares of BlackRock (BLK) @ $918.04/share. Cost Basis: $191.58. Forward Income: $2.67/year
Same as the last few months, I’m putting my reinvested dividends into BLK until I get a full share.
4.0 shares of Nvidia (NVDA) @ $281.94/share. Cost Basis: $845.82 Forward Income: $0.48/year
This is my third month of a row where I have added NVDA shares. I want to get it up into my top 5 or so positions, so I still have a few more additions to do.
5.0 shares of Visa (V) @ $196.30/share. Cost Basis: $981.50. Forward Income: $7.50/year
Visa has gone on a bit of a sale. I really believe in Visa so was excited to pick some up at a bit of a discount compared to its recent ramp up.
12.07 shares of Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTI) @ $236.11/share. Cost Basis: $2,848.90. Forward Income: $34.97/year
VTI has been treating me really well, and I enjoy not worrying about what price it is at whenever I want to add a few more shares. I picked up 2.07 shares this month from reinvestment alone!
Final thoughts
This wraps up an enormous year for me. I managed large, steady contributions throughout the year. I’m looking forward to checking whether I hit my 2021 goals, and setting new ones for 2022.
I also finally got around to making some cool portfolio tracking improvements. I replaced my Excel screenshot with an HTML table for my dividend portfolio generated using Python. I also made a net worth chart broken down by account type. I’ll decide whether to include this in a separate monthly update or in this post, but I’ll include it somehow going forward. I’m sure everyone’s portfolios have been seeing nice growth in the past two years, but it’s incredible to see it actually laid out like this.