Dividend Income - December 2015 Update

Hi Everyone,

Well there is its...  2015 is gone and 2016 is here.  The year went by incredibly fast, that's for sure.  But, I know for a fact that I had a ball this year! My wife and I didn’t hit nearly all of our financial goals like we would have liked, but looking back… Who Cares! We went to 7 weddings, 6 of which out of state. Hotel rooms, catching up with old friends, multiple vacations (Austin TX, Fenwick Island DE, New Orleans LA, Pensacola FL, Gulf Shores AL, Pittsburg PA, Connecticut) and time well spent with family. We work our ass off and play hard, that’s all you can hope for.  I'll have a post out shortly about the goals passed or not passed throughout 2015 in a little bit.  Even though I know there might be some failures it is important to remember to try and save the most you can.  Because, not having to work for money is the best way to make money! So hopefully this post inspires other families out there to start saving and investing as soon as they can. The power you feel knowing that you are richer than you were yesterday and you didn't have to work for it is a wonderful feeling.

We realize that our situation is different than every other blogger out there but its not how much you make, its how much you save. We make a middle class income but we live well below our means and this gives us the benefit to invest the surplus month after month and subsequently drive our passive income to new heights!

We ended up just making one small purchase in December, KMI of 28 shares at $17.80, for roughly $500 total.  I did not even bother to right about it, but that purchase means we invested $47,000 this past year!  Pretty remarkable.

We want to thank all of you readers out there who have stopped by and congratulated us thus far.  You are the reason these posts keep coming out and continue to get better and better!

So with that being said, lets get down to the numbers.


This month was a bit of a disappointment with regards to the year over year increase.  This months total came in at just $976.19 which was a decrease of 3.36% compared to last year.  It was 85.16% higher than last quarter.

The reason for the drop was due to the mutual funds from the 401K not paying out nearly as much as they did last year.  As a mostly dividend growth investor, it annoys me that there are such wild swings with regards to mutual funds.  It would be awesome if the dividends grew every year so investors could have a clue to what their final end of year payouts will be.  My mutual fund VMGRX was roughly $250 less than last year and only one 401K fund, VIIIX increased its payout.  Had all payouts just stayed the same, we would have made roughly $1,250 this December or about a 25% increase.  But so is life.

December Dividend Income:

Total:  $976.19

The chart above shows the increase from the previous quarter.  When looking at the month of August, the $54.06 was the change from June.  As you look at the charts from month to month, it really shows the power of compounding, dividend increases, new purchases and using DRIP with all the companies.

In total, we had a $381.87 increase from September.  We had quite a bit of purchases that helped increase dividends from individual companies like XOM, DOV UVE, WBA & MMM.  The coolest increase that I like above is the extra $6.47 we received from MSFT!  They raised the dividend 16% and with roughly 124 shares that's an extra $6.50 in our pocket every quarter over last year.  Love it!  

Jump over to our dividend income page to see the increases month after month.  There is also a nice chart on that page for all you visual learners out there.  On that page, you can easily see dividend income investing at work which hopefully one day will be greater than our expenses and that's what we like to call The American Dividend Dream!  Check out our complete portfolio here updated on 1/5/2016.

How was your December?

Thanks,
ADD