December 2020 Dividend Income

It's hard to believe that as I'm writing this blog post, the first full week of the year is already in the books.

With that said, as I alluded to in my Review of 2020 Financial/Personal Goals post last week, I'll turn my attention to the dividend income that I received in December 2020.

Analysis:

During the month of December 2020, I received $165.60 in net dividends against the $139.46 in net dividends that were received in September 2020, which represents a quarterly growth rate of 18.7% (and adjusting for special dividends in my retirement account, 5.5%).

Furthermore, the $165.60 in net dividends received in December 2020 equates to an 80.7% YoY growth rate compared to the $91.63 in net dividends that were received in December 2019.

Diving deeper into the net dividends that I received in December 2020, I collected $63.56 (net of the $5.00 in Robinhood Gold fees) from 19 companies in my Robinhood portfolio, $11.89 from 6 companies in my Webull portfolio, $89.67 from the Capital Income Builder (CAIBX) holding in my retirement account, and $0.48 from 24 companies in my M1 Finance portfolio.

The additional $26.14 in net dividends received from September 2020 to December 2020 came as a result of the following activity within my portfolios:

Due to CAIBX's dividend schedule, I received $18.50 in special dividends in December 2020 that I didn't receive in September 2020.

As a result of owning more shares of CAIBX, I also received an additional $7.51 in regular dividends.

I also received an extra $1.05 in dividends from my 3 shares of Broadcom (AVGO) as a result of their most recent 10.0% dividend increase.

I received an additional $2.80 from Lockheed Martin (LMT) as a result of my purchase of 1 share of the stock in my Robinhood account, and the stock's 8.3% dividend increase in my Webull account.

My dividends declined $1.25 across my Robinhood and M1 Finance accounts as a result of Dominion Energy's (D) recent dividend cut.

My dividends received from Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B) increased $0.12 as a result of the most recent 4.1% dividend increase.

I also received an additional $0.01 in dividends from Realty Income (O) due to the most recent 0.2% dividend increase.

My dividends received from PepsiCo (PEP) declined by $2.07 across my Robinhood and M1 Finance accounts due to the timing of PEP's dividend payment.

I received an additional $0.04 in dividends from Visa (V) in my Webull account as a result of V's most recent 6.7% dividend increase.

My net dividends also increased by $2.75 as a result of the reduction in Robinhood interest to $0.00.

My dividends received from Digital Realty Trust (DLR) declined by $3.36 in my Robinhood account due to the timing of DLR's dividend payment.

The $0.04 special dividend that I received from Fastenal (FAST) in my M1 Finance portfolio offset the $0.03 in collective declines from D and PEP that I previously discussed, which helped my dividends to increase by $0.01 in this account.

Concluding Thoughts:

I ended 2020 with a bang, collecting a record $165.60 in net dividends in December.

My net dividends received in 2020 were a record $1,127.05 against $615.30 in net dividends received in 2019, which represents an 83.2% YoY growth rate in net dividends from 2019 to 2020.

Despite a challenging year on the dividend announcement front, steady capital contributions and dividend reinvestment helped me to produce my best year of dividend income yet, which positions me for an even better year of income in 2021.

Discussion:

How was your dividend income in December 2020?

Did 2020 represent your best year of net dividends to date in your investing career as well?

As always, I appreciate your readership and welcome your comments in the comment section below.