Dividend Income Report – August 2022

Can you believe it? We are already in September. Happy Labor Day everyone. Only 4 more months to go before the end of the year. I for one can’t wait until the year is over. This year has been crazy for me. Despite all the downs that have occurred recently (and there have been a few), I am trying to keep my spirits up. There are a lot of blessings in my life and a lot of things to be thankful for. Things could be much worse. One of the things I can count on is my dividends working for me in the background. Rain or shine, good times or bad, my stock portfolio continues to pay me passive income in dividends. Those dividends not only increase my savings, but they get reinvested in my portfolio allowing me to experience compounding growth – albeit at a slow pace. Overtime, the growth rate will become exponential. Until then, I continue to track my progress and hope to one day realize the benefits of financial freedom. So, without further adieu, let’s see how much dividends I earned in August 2022.

Dividend Income

In August, I earned $22.40 in dividends broken down as follows:

Slow and steady wins the race. That near $23 was added back into the dividend portfolio to buy more shares. Over time, I will benefit from compounding growth and if I’m doing it right, also ever increasing dividends. Moreover, beginning 2023, or late 2022, I anticipate slightly increasing my minimum contributions to my dividend portfolio. So, this amount will get bigger and bigger as my dividend snowball gets larger and larger.

In previous posts, included my July 2022 Dividend Income Report, I indicated that I will be drastically increasing my minimum contributions. However, for the reasons identified towards the end of this report, I am modifying that stance. So, I will still increase contributions, but I don’t anticipate it will be drastic. Any drastic increase would likely come around July or August 2023.

Annual Income

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

Here is the raw data:

I made 51.08% LESS in dividends this August than I did in August of last year. It could be worse. Clearly my dividend portfolio did not move in the direction I would have hoped. But, with consistency and dedication, I fully expect August 2023 to be well on its way to exceed the income generated in August 2022.

Forward Annual Dividends

At the time of this writing, the forward annual dividends is $370.12.  A month ago, my forward annual dividends was $357.32. This represents a healthy 3.58% growth from the previous month. Still, I know that there this is much work to do.

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.

$370.12 per year is $30.84 dividends per month, on average. At present, I earn enough in dividends to cover Acorns and Amazon Prime.  I cancelled my Hulu Plus subscriptions, but I renewed my Acorns subscription. The next bill I am targeting is Netflix. The total amount needed until I can pay the next bill is $0.28 in dividends.  I hope to cover this bill in September.

The following is a list of expenses I am targeting:

14-Month Savings Goal

This is a brand new project I am starting. When I initially drafted this post, I explained this project fully, but then I realized it was too long and deserved its own post.

So, sufficed to say, I plan on saving towards the down payment on a beach condo (or house) and I will be tracking my progress here on a monthly basis.

My savings amount and strategy are specific and will be outlined in a later post on the subject. But, as referenced above, because of this savings goal, I won’t be drastically increasing the minimum contributions to my dividend portfolio in January 2023.

Conclusion

As I take a break from work during this Labor Day weekend, it gives me a moment to reflect on life and reflect on my goals. I am determined to finish the year strong and to work on saving more money and spending less.

My dividend portfolio is an important part of my overall retirement planning strategy and I am also determined to see this strategy through. We have four months left in the year and that’s plenty of time to make sound financial decisions that our future selves will be thankful for.

So, how was August for you?

Let me know your thoughts by commenting below.