Dividend Income Report – October 2022

By | November 10, 2022
no job

Well, this is a late report. But, based on my last post, you can understand why. As mentioned in previous posts, this blog is a bit therapeutic for me. It helps take my mind off things and it gives me something to focus on. I anticipate that I will be unemployed in the coming months. Moreover, I likely won’t ever have another job in my life. Oh, how quickly life can change. This is Murphy’s Law on steroids. In any case, I am taking life one day at a time, and I am trying not to sweat the small stuff. I am no longer concerned with winning the rat race, but instead, will be focusing on how to enjoy life, even in these difficult times. Wish me luck. But, in the meantime, let’s see how much dividend income I earned during October 2022.

Dividend Income

In October 2022, I earned $30.47 in dividends broken down as follows:

$30.47 is not a bad mount given the size of the portfolio. At issue however will be the extent to which I can continue to contribution to my dividend portfolio, let alone increase the amount. That’s because, as mentioned, I won’t have a job anymore in the not-so-distant future. So, without that income stream, it’s going to be difficult to contribute (or increase) the minimum contribution to my dividend portfolio.

But, as I said earlier, I’m not trying to sweat the small staff. I am taking things one day at a time, and, in the case of my dividend portfolio, one month at a time. The beautiful thing is that even if I didn’t contribute to the portfolio again, the compounding effect will still continue – albeit at a small incremental rate. But for now, I am keeping things just the way they are. Stay tuned for future updates.

Annual Income

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

Here is the raw data:

I made 16.79% LESS in dividends this October than I did in October of last year. It could be worse. Clearly my dividend portfolio did not move in the direction I would have hoped. One of my goals is that my portfolio will be back in positive territory. Hopefully, I can get to this point before I lose my job.

Forward Annual Dividends

At the time of this writing, the forward annual dividends is $391.57.  A month ago, my forward annual dividends was $380.98. This represents a modest 2.78% growth from the previous month. Still, I know that there this is much work to do.

I am keeping things the same for the rest of the year. Come January, I will reassess my goal for the new year.

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.

$391.57 per year is $32.63 dividends per month, on average. At present, I earn enough in dividends to cover Acorns, Amazon Prime and Netflix.  

The following is a list of expenses I am targeting:

Technically, the next bill I am targeting is my student loans. The current balance on my student loans is approximately $5,000. I am grateful that I was able to pay down my student loans to that amount. It has taken me YEARS and the original balance was over $100,000.

Currently, the minimum payment on my student loans is $0.00 because I am in deferment until December 2022. The previous payment was $19.59, which is what I am tracking here. I am anticipating that my student loan balance will be either forgiven or cancelled and I won’t have to worry about it anymore. If I am wrong, I should hopefully be able to payoff my student loans in 2023 – before I leave my job. So, I will continue to track the student loan balance here and remove it from the list at the appropriate time.

Finally, because I won’t be employed anymore, I may need to reassess my expenses. I anticipate that I will have enough money to fund my current lifestyle for the rest of my life. I won’t be rich, but I also won’t starve. But, I may need to look closely at what I am spending money on when I don’t have a job income to rely on.

Saving Challenges

As you can imagine, the savings challenges that I was working on no longer make sense. So, I will no longer be updating my progress towards these goals. I haven’t done rideshare recently. I supposed it’s always an option if I need extra money, but right now, I’m just taking a break from everything.

I took some time off of work, so that I could try and get my head in a better place. I may do rideshare again in the future, but if I do, it will be to take my mind off things, or because I’m bored and have nothing else to do. Like I said, I am taking things one day at a time.

Final Thoughts

I am glad I was able to get this report out. As the saying goes, better late than never.

Moreover, I am looking forward to telling people that I am unemployed. I’m sure they might think I’m a bum or something. Haha. But, I get to do what I want, when I want, within reason. Unless I win the lottery, I won’t ever be rich. But, I am no longer pursuing wealth. Rather, I am pursuing life and happiness and those things are far more meaningful to me.

I hope to publish the next Dividend Income Report on time in November.

Thanks for reading. How was October for you? Break any milestones?

Let me know your thoughts by commenting below.

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