Dividend Income Report – July 2020

Another month has gone by. I’ve had a very busy month. I moved to another state and was able to rent a studio. Basically, I’m paying $30 less for rent and all utilities. I’m only here for six months. During that time, I’m going to explore the possibility of buying a house to live in. That way, I can have roommates and lower my living costs even further. Obviously, I don’t need to buy a house to have roommates, but everything is on the table. Additionally, I’m trying to learn my new job. It’s a bit exciting, but it’s definitely keeping me busy. But, enough about me. That’s not why you’re here. You’re here because dividend growth investing is an awesome strategy for long term investors. So, let’s see how many dividends I earned in July!

Dividend Income

In July, I earned $6.67 in dividends broken down as follows:

NO.	STOCK	NAME	DIVIDENDS
1	KMB	Kimberly-Clark	$1.21
2	KO	Coca Cola	$1.40
3	MO	Altria Group	$3.40
4	O	Realty Income	$0.66
			$6.67

That’s what I get for starting over. $6.67 is a small amount of money. Still, it’s $6.67 that I didn’t have before. AND, it’s $6.67 that has been re-invested to continue to work for me while I sleep. That’s just hard to beat. I didn’t use the money to buy Starbucks or anything. Dividend investing is a long-term strategy, and this is only the beginning. It just gets better from here. Besides, the first month of the quarter is usually my slowest month!

Annual Income

Here is the graphical representation of the dividends earned in July in relation to the dividends earned in previous years.

Here is the raw data:

MONTH	2017	2018	2019	2020	Rate
January	$0.00	$14.93	$37.54	$2.22	-94.09%
February	$0.00	$77.66	$141.16	$7.49	-94.69%
March	$0.00	$72.93	$136.45	$78.68	-42.34%
April	$0.41	$31.47	$55.39	$0.33	-99.40%
May	$2.85	$79.33	$142.69	$2.23	-98.44%
June	$16.89	$98.51	$160.47	$10.29	-93.59%
July	$5.99	$42.32	$59.68	$6.67	-88.82%
August	$21.95	$108.44	$147.73
September	$28.72	$111.15	$151.66
October	$23.21	$48.09	$3.00
November	$62.11	$124.92	$7.18
December	$76.51	$140.24	$116.51

As you can see, in July, I earned 88.82 LESS dividends than I did in 2019. Notably, this is a slight improvement in terms of percentage from my June 2020 Dividend Income Report. The trend is moving in the right direction and eventually, I will get back into positive territory.

Finally, the Dividend Tracker has been updated accordingly.

Forward Annual Dividends

At the time of this writing, my forward annual dividends is $204.30. In my last dividend income report, my forward annual dividends was $183.75. This represents an 11% increase from the previous month. This increase is due in part to the additional contributions made in accordance with the adopt-a-stock project.

What Expenses Would Dividends Cover?

Here, I visualize what expenses my annual dividend income could pay for.

$204.30 per year is $17.03 dividends per month, on average. At present, I pay $1 per month to use Acorns. Also, my Hulu Plus bill is $6.41 per month. I earn enough in dividends to cover both Acorns and Hulu Plus. The next bill I am targeting is Amazon Prime. That amount is $14.13 per month. The immediate goal will be to see if I can generate enough dividends to cover all three bills for the year.

Although the $204.30 was an increase from the previously reported forward annual income, I don’t yet earn enough in dividends to cover all 3. But, the dividends will keep growing and so at some point, I’ll get there. The following is a list of expenses I am currently targeting:

Adopt A Stock Project

For the month of August, XOM has been identified as the most undervalued stock of the month. Therefore, I will attempt to buy at least one additional share of Exxon Mobile during the month of August.

Conclusion

There you have it. July is over and I’m looking forward the rest of the year. I will try to post more frequently, but I suspect that won’t happen until at least around September or October. Of course, the monthly dividend income reports will always be posted on time.

I still haven’t closed on the condo yet. More delays due to COVID-19. I’m hoping August is the month I close, but I’m not holding my breath. I anticipate needing more money for the down payment, but I don’t plan on touching my dividend portfolio anymore.

I’m sort of at a cross-road in life. I have so many plans and goals, but not enough financial resources to do them all. I want to invest in real estate, dividend growth investing, payoff my house early and max out my contributions to my retirement accounts. The problem is, I can’t do them all. So, I actually have to prioritize. It doesn’t help that I’m contemplating also saving up for a down payment on my dream condo which I won’t be able to purchase until about 6-7 years from now. Such is life right?

Well, as soon as I make decisions, I will let you know. But, don’t worry. As I’ve indicated in previous posts, Dividend Portfolio isn’t going anywhere. In fact, as soon as I close on the condo, I will work to fulfill my goal of having my portfolio reach 10k by the end of the year. So stay tuned.

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