The following is my dividend history for my portfolio going back to January of 2008. I promise to eventually go back further, but in the meantime…

December of 2019 saw my dividend income top out at $3,144.39 an increase of 12.13% from December 2018. This amounts to an increase of $340.32 YOY. Q4 was my highest quarter of dividend income so far at $8,185.91, and December 2019 has been my highest single month of dividends ever as well.  The goal for the year was to increase dividend income 8-10% and pass $28,000 for the year as I have transitioned back to early retirement/semi-retirement. For 2019,I actually surpassed my dividend income goal and reach $29,586.98 for a 12.8% YOY increase.

Dividends are a beautiful thing. I compare dividend stocks to being a landlord. Every month, I collect dividends (rent) and over time I am seeing the value of the stocks (think the property) rise. The beautiful thing of dividends, I don’t worry if the tenant will pay, or destroy the property. If I want to sell the property (stock), it just cost a few bucks and can be executed in seconds to raise capital (actually I don’t even run into any transaction cost anymore. It’s also super easy to get the current value of the stocks, unlike in housing where comp sales can make a difference in value. When you have enough dividend income to live off, it also helps distract you from market fluctuations. Take Q4 2018, for example, it was shit. It didn’t bother me though. I stayed put, invested in the market, and continued to collect my dividends, even reinvesting the dividends, and occasionally buying some stocks.

So without further adieu, my portfolios dividend history dating back to January of 2008. Please notice the tabs at the bottom of the excel spreadsheet (monthly, quarterly, annual).

And for now for some charts.

Monthly:

Quarterly:

Annually:

So, why do I even bother sharing this information every month. I want readers to notice a couple things and encourage anyone who is in the earlier stages of building up there financial assets. When you’re starting out it may feel like you aren’t making any progress towards your goals. You may only have a couple bucks in dividends for the month. Don’t give up and keep at it. Notice how the charts are showing a slow and steady progress with the amount of dividend income increasing, slowly but surely over time. In December of 2008, I had $385.57 in dividend income. Fast forward a little over a decade later and I am getting passive dividend income off my portfolio of $3,144.39 (for December 2019), resulting in crazy awesome growth in my dividend income of 715.51%. That wasn’t much time that passed to build up to this point.

The other thing I want you to notice. Look closely at those figures and charts. You see how it is continually growing over time. My lifetime dividend income since starting in 2008 is only $130,898.47. But look again at those charts. Since 2017, I have received a total of $78,475.07 in dividends. Those 3 years alone account for 59.95% of my dividend income over the last just over a decade. This wasn’t a fluke or luck, it was planned and can be replicated by you. My December 2019 dividends alone was more than I received in all of 2008. So while you may feel like you’re not seeing rapid growth of your passive income, give it time…

It’s like the snowball effect., you just have to start and get it rolling.

How I did it:

There’s no real super secret to growing your passive dividend income. It basically was a few things repeated over time. Really it involves investing on a regular basis. I slowly but surely accumulated positions in stocks, investing at least each month. From here, the companies did the work for me. Most of my positions are dividend growth stocks, meaning these companies slowly but surely increase their dividend each year. Instead of spending these dividends, I reinvested the dividends, this purchases additional fractional shares, and in turn increases my dividend income each quarter. This results in a crazy concept of double compounded growth. Patience is key.

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