Dividend Income Report – April 2023

Another month has gone by and we start the second quarter of 2023. What an expensive month it’s been. I closed on the new condo and I’ve done nothing but spend money. In fact, I really should create a budget and stick to it. I spent money that I have, and that I don’t have. So, my credit card bill is astronomical. I pledged to limit my spending in May, but we will see. Sufficed to say that I’ve incurred much more expenses than income in April. But, that’s not why you’re really here. Now it’s time to see how much dividend income I earned in April. So, without further adieu, let’s dive in.

Dividend Income

In April I earned $5.52 in dividend income broken down as follows:

Wow! As I am writing this, I am staying at a hotel, and I went to get coffee this morning. It was a caramel vanilla latte and I spent over $7 on the coffee!!! It’s all good though. I know the amount is small. All this does is motivate me to contribute more to my dividend portfolio.

Hopefully, if I do what I set out to do, I will create a budget and hopefully increase the contributions to my dividend portfolio sooner rather than later.

Annual Income

Here is a graphical representation of the dividends earned in April in relation to the dividends earned in previous years:

Here is the raw data:

As you can see, I earned 68.62% LESS dividends this year compared to last year. Of course, the reason for that is that I had to liquidate my stocks to fund the earnest deposit needed for my condo. The good news is that I hate seeing my account balance this low and my goal is to get it over $10k soon.

Forward Annual Dividends

At the time of this writing, the forward annual dividends is $101.31! It’s encouraging to be over the $100 mark!  A month ago, my forward annual dividends was $95.20. This represents a 6.42% increase from the previous month. I’ll take it.

I am hoping to start increasing my monthly contributions to my dividend portfolio as early as August. April was a very expensive month for me personally, but it’s all an investment for the future.

As referenced earlier, I am going to create a budget and stick to it. This will help curb my poor spending habits, and who knows, I might identify additional funds that can go into my dividend portfolio.

Only time will tell.

What Expenses Would Dividends Cover?

Here, I visualize what expenses my annual dividend income could pay for. This is one of my favorite parts of pursuing dividend growth investing.

$101.31 per year is $8.44 dividends per month, on average. At present, I earn enough in dividends to cover Acorns. I’ll take it.  

The following is a list of expenses I am targeting:

I will need to reassess my expenses in about a month or two. My credit card debt is around $10,000. My goal is to pay this off by the end of the year, so we will see. More to follow in future months regarding the expenses I pay with my dividend income.

Final Thoughts

I’ll be focusing on paying my mortgage for the new beach condo over the next couple of months. My first payment is June and, as it stands right now, I don’t have my June’s mortgage payment. So, I don’t anticipating increasing the contributions to my dividend portfolio until I am comfortable paying my mortgage for several months. The condo should start paying for itself next year, but I am hoping not to wait that long. The last thing I want to do is pull the very little money I have left from my retirement accounts to pay for my mortgage. We shall see!

Also, at some point, I’m going to have a heart-to-heart with my spending habits. If I am honest, I just spend money without regard to a plan or self-control. In order to get out of my credit card debt of over $10,000, I need to buckle down, create a budget and stick to it. I said I was going to do that in May. I’ll make a good faith effort to get started. Wish me luck.

How was April for you? Did you break any records? Let me know by commenting below.