July 2019 Dividend Income

As I'm writing this, July has officially come to a close and the calendar has turned to August. The NFL regular season is just weeks away from starting, the MLB regular season has two months left, and the NBA regular season is still almost 3 months away.

As an NBA fan, I'm most looking forward to the regular season beginning. With all the big moves made this offseason, the NBA title picture is wide open for the taking. Fortunately, my Bucks very much remain in the picture after a decent offseason overall.

But most importantly for the intent of this post, we'll delve into the dividends I received during July.

I collected $33.84 in dividends during the month of July. Of which, $33.59 originated from the 13 companies in my Robinhood account and the remaining $0.25 originated from 11 companies in my M1 Finance account.

The $33.84 in dividends collected this month represents 6.9% quarter over quarter growth compared to the $31.67 in dividends collected in April 2019, and even more astonishingly, a 101.1% YOY growth rate compared to the $16.83 in dividends that I collected in July 2018.

There were a number of changes from April to July that accounted for the $2.17 difference in dividend income, which happened entirely in my Robinhood account as my M1 Finance account was unchanged from April to July:

I collected an additional $0.01 in dividend income from the monthly dividend payer, Realty Income (O) due to its consistent quarterly dividend increases. I love all my companies about equally like a parent loves their children, but of the 59 companies I own between my Robinhood account and M1 Finance account, Realty Income holds a special place in my heart as the only monthly dividend paying company I own.

I also collected an additional $0.10 in dividend income from Leggett & Platt (LEG), which was because of the 5.3% dividend increase they announced a while back.

I received $0.90 less from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) compared to April, which is due to their varying earnings and target payout ratio.

Relative newcomer to the portfolio, Albemarle (ALB) contributed to $1.10 in dividends. For those interested, I have provided an in-depth analysis of Albemarle on Seeking Alpha, which led me to initiate a position in the company back in May.

Like Albemarle, I also added Eastman Chemical (EMN) to my portfolio in May, following an analysis of the company on Seeking Alpha. This added $1.86 in dividend income compared to April 2019.

Summary:

While the growth from April to July of this year was satisfactory, the most breathtaking takeaway from this post was the fact that my dividend income literally DOUBLED from July 2018 to July 2019. Admittedly, this was because of a relatively low starting point in terms of dividend income. However, I could argue that during this time, I wasn't even investing on a very regular basis due to paying my way through undergrad.

The real fun will begin early next year once I have my car fully paid in cash, a few other obligations paid off, and a small emergency fund built up. In addition to the increased impact of dividend growth and reinvestment that comes with a larger base of dividends, I will also be able to aggressively invest 60-70% of my net income into dividend companies. This will act as rocket fuel being thrown on the dividend flame, which I couldn't be more excited about.

Conclusion:

Did you have any new dividend payers during July? Did you reach any dividend milestones? As always, thanks for reading and I look forward to reading and replying to your comments.