Hi Everyone,
So here we are, 2017 has come to a close. What a year it was! Paid off the house, adopted a child, lived in Florida for a month, and still received a nice some of money from dividends!
I am still working up the cost of adoption post so I figured I would throw this one in here first.
In total, we received income from 6 different funds in December and here is what it looked like:
UVE - $27.83
V - $20.71
VWILX - 72.78
VHT - $19.97
FTSE - $156.86
MM - $5.44
Total - $303.59
So, we cleared the $300 mark and best of all, the totals were not so lopsided like they are for my OHI holding. With FTSE being a mutual fund with a basket full of stocks, there is less risk than just one primary holding. Like I posted last year, my company/Vanguard changed up the investment mix for my 401K and 3 of my other funds do not pay dividends or capital gain distributions anymore. We investors are told that they are automatically reinvested into the fund...
In 2017, we received a total of $2,750 in dividends! Our expenses for the last 6 months of the year, not including adoption expenses were averaging $2,500 a month. With recent investments, including TAP, O, SKT and BTI, we are projecting over $3,000 already for next year. Slowly but surely we are climbing our way back to where we were before all the big life changes.
2018 is already shaping up to be one of the best years yet. Having a child is truly life changing and incredible. If we can keep expenses running low and add around $1000 a month to the taxable account throughout the year, we should gather around $500 more per year in dividend income.
If you do the math, obviously you can see that retiring early is essentially out of the question. Like I said in the previous post, having a child and one income changes things. I wouldn't change anything though. We are enjoying every minute of our growing family!
Hope you had a great 2017!
ADD
I think FI is still doable (based on your investment pattern). Your income will continue to rise as you advance in career. Secondly, child expenses would peak at around 5 and starts going down (i.e. daycare replaced by school). Yes, it's a short term bump ... but I am sure you will recover and be on your way to FI. Having a family is priceless :-)
ReplyDeleteI hopes its possible! Daycare is not an issue for that because my wife is now a full time stay at home mom, something she has always wanted. The difference in income and cost is not favorable, what I mean is that we would come out more ahead if she continued to work, but we didn't want anyone else raising our child. It is true that having a family is priceless, so much fun!
DeleteThanks for the comment!
Paid off the house and adopted a child!?! Sounds like an amazing year for you ADD!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you can top that, but you can try.
Good Luck in 2018!
-MH
Thanks Money! It was certainly a year of changes and the only way to top that would be another child haha.
DeleteThanks for stopping by!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe list of accomplishments in 2017 is amazing. So many great life events and I cannot wait until we have a child in our family as well. One day soon, hopefully. Man, if you had this great of a year in 2017 and you are saying 2018 is going to be even better, then heck, I'm VERY excited about reading about your 2018 one article at a time :)
ReplyDeleteBert
Having a family is truly life changing and you will never know what it is like until you have your own. Enjoy the time just you and your wife right now because things change in a hurry! Not much downtime to do what you want when there is an infant in the house. Only time will tell if 2018 is better than this past year, I just hope things slow down a bit so I can enjoy it. Time seems to be flying by these days!
DeleteGood luck in 2018 Bert
I own O and SKT as well. They pay a nice yield that seems to be well covered. Do the funds that you listed pay most of their dividends in December, or are they more evenly scattered through the year?
ReplyDeleteAll the funds pay at different times throughout the year. Unfortunately, the mutual funds are hit or miss throughout the year. Sometimes pay twice a year, or up to four times a year and the payout is always different, sometimes more, sometimes less. Dividend growth stocks are the way to go if you want consistent checks hitting your account.
Delete2017 definitely will be a memorable year for you. So many great things have happened. Congrats on cracking $300 for the month. Life is all about constant change and adaptation and with your child I'm sure 2018 will be another memorable year. Keep that dividend portfolio alive and well no matter how busy or tired you get :) Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThat's the goal, slow and steady purchases and hopefully with some good fortunes, the stocks will make us very rich in the future!
DeleteYou had yourself a great year as well and I look forward to seeing what 2018 has in store for you!
Cheers
Congrats on all the family and investing accomplishments in 2017! Enjoy that new addition to your family! During that month in Florida your investments continued working in background. May they continue to do so for you in the years to come.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! It looks like you had an awesome year!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to have my dividends compound and compound until I no longer need to work my 9 to 5 job anymore
I just started my own blog about dividend growth investing and my path to financial freedom.
If you have a second check it out and let me know what you think!
https://millenialdividends.blogspot.com/
Congrats in great $300 to the thirty day period. Lifestyle is centered on regular adjust along with edition is actually your kids I believe 2018 are going to be yet another unique calendar year. Preserve that will dividend stock portfolio well along with effectively it doesn't matter precisely how occupied as well as fatigued you have Carry on the excellent operate.
ReplyDelete