Last month I received a dividend income of $931.34 for April and May looks pretty decent as well. I’m definitely having a banner year so far but summer is a coming. Saying that, I plan to scale everything back a little so I can enjoy more time with the wife and kids for July and August.
This year, my goal is to pass $8,000 in total dividends received. Let’s check out what happened in May.
May Dividend Income
For the month of May I received dividends from 15 different companies.
| Ticker | Company Name | Dividend |
| TSE:AX.UN | Artis REIT | $102.33 |
| TSE:RY | Royal Bank | $91.35 |
| TSE:NVU.UN | Northview Apartment REIT | $84.60 |
| OHI | Omega | $75.60 |
| TSE:PLZ.UN | Plaza REIT | $73.51 |
| TSE:ALA | AtlaGas | $70.53 |
| TSE:D.UN | Dream Office REIT | $38.25 |
| TSE:ENF | Enbridge | $37.64 |
| GIS | General Mills | $31.68 |
| TSE:SJR.B | Shaw | $30.81 |
| TSE:AD | Alaris | $27.14 |
| O | Reality Income | $21.10 |
| TSE:PZA | Pizza Pizza | $17.90 |
| TSE:PWF | Power Financial | $15.68 |
| TSE:CPG | Cresent | $15.06 |
| Total | $733.18 |
I received $733.18 in dividends for the month of May.
This blows past my previous quarter by a staggering $176 dollars. Not a bad jump in 3 months 🙂
What can I buy??
Every month, after I have tallied my dividend totals, I like to see what I could do with all the free money. I do this for two reasons.
The first being that I like to feel rewarded for my hard work and when I can imagine what the money could buy me, it becomes more real than say, 4 shares of 8 different companies.
The second reason is that I fully expect to look back here in say a decade and ponder what could have been had I been a consumer rather than a saver. I imagine I will look back at that BBQ or TV in 10 years from now and I’d be just about throwing the thing out.
Now, saying that, I’m going to buy a brand new…
Outbound Steel Frame Pool, 16-ft x 48-in
Regular Price: $749.99
Nope, my yard is too small. Plus I have a outdoor public pool that costs $2 for the day!
Like every month, I DRIP my dividends and buy back more shares, usually at a market discount. This is the secret to investing.
The money that I make (dividends) will now continue to make their own money! And on and on it goes.
The reason I like to invest my money through dividend reinvesting is 2 parts.
- I don’t pay a transaction fee, which doesn’t seem like much, but they do add up fast.
- I get a DRIP discount on new shares below market price, usually by around 3-5%
Nuts and Bolts
- My year over year increase was 60.79% or $277.18 more than May 2016
- My quarter over quarter increase was 31.57%
| Month | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2017 $ INC | 2017 % INC |
| January | $152.00 | $367.00 | $639.12 | $272.12 | 74.15% |
| February | $229.00 | $427.00 | $557.24 | $130.24 | 30.50% |
| March | $385.00 | $602.00 | $850.50 | $248.50 | 41.28% |
| April | $201.00 | $313.00 | $931.94 | $618.94 | 197.74% |
| May | $375.00 | $456.00 | $733.18 | $277.18 | 60.79% |
| June | $475.00 | $676.00 | $0.00 | 0 | 0.00% |
| July | $200.00 | $380.00 | $0.00 | 0 | 0.00% |
| August | $375.00 | $501.00 | $0.00 | 0 | 0.00% |
| September | $499.00 | $716.88 | $0.00 | 0 | 0.00% |
| October | $236.00 | $479.38 | $0.00 | 0 | 0.00% |
| November | $418.00 | $514.57 | $0.00 | 0 | 0.00% |
| December | $624.00 | $760.03 | $0.00 | 0 | 0.00% |
| YTD Total | $4,169.00 | $6,192.86 | $3,711.98 | $1,546.98 | 0.00% |
One of my goals for 2017 is to increase my dividend payout an average of $170 per month over the previous year. I’m moving quite ahead of schedule with an average increase of $309.40 per month. ($1,546.98/5). Saying that, I don’t expect to keep up at this breakneck pace through summer.
My total dividend haul this year has already passed my 2014 total year and I should pass my 2015 mark by the end of June 🙂 I’m currently sitting at $3,711.98 and it’s only June 1st.
How Much Free Money?
| Year | Total Dividends Received |
| 2014 | $2,421.00 |
| 2015 | $4,169.00 |
| 2016 | $6,193.00 |
| 2017 | $3,711.98 |
| 2018 | $0.00 |
| 2019 | $0.00 |
| 2020 | $0.00 |
| Total | $16,494.84 |
Since 2014 I have received $16,494.84 worth of dividends. This does not include any capital appreciation.
Every month I like to see what my total dividend income could purchase if I chose to spend it on frivolous stuff. Seeing as my monthly dividend bought me a fancy new above ground swimming pool, I thought what else could I buy to master my back stroke.
Turns out I could buy a …
SWIMMING POOLS – EX DISPLAY
This does look cool but I fully expect my dividends to continue to work for me and in time buy me not only the pool but the house as well.
Until next time.
Stay classy Fire bros
Steve, rock on man. Your growth is very impressive. Keeping that pace is quite a testament to your abilities!
Keep it up,
Dan
Passive Income Dude recently posted…My 4th Rental Property Is Under Contract!
Thanks Dan,
Also, congratulations on your 4th house!
very nice numbers almost close to 1k,year over year growth is rockingon
Very close to the G mark 🙂
I hope to hit it for June.
Man fantastic income and great year over year or better yet quarter over quarter increase!
Passivecanadianincome recently posted…Ontario Raising Minimum Wage
The start of the year has been better than I could have anticipated. I’m fairly confident that my pace will slow down for the rest of the year but I’m okay with that.
Cheers PCI
You go. Good job. Lots of good companies paying you. Awesome increase. Keep it up.
Doug recently posted…May Dividends
Thanks for reading Doug
Very nice! I like DRIP as well but only use it for my 401K and IRA accounts. For taxable accounts, I usually wait till I have enough money and then buy shares in whatever is at good valuation.
BTW, I’ve noticed that my broker doesn’t show cost basis for DRIPs. It’s not a problem for retirement accounts, but for taxable accounts I’m wondering how the cost basis is reported at year end if I were to sell any of the DRIP shares? Thanks.
Just for this reason, I never DRIP in my taxed account. It can get super messy. Lucky for me, I keep a low paying ETF (2% Div) and my non dividend stocks in my taxed account such as BBRY and BTE so it’s only my capital gains and my dividend income that gets to the tax man.
If, in the future, I have large amounts of dividends in my taxable account I will take it as cash until I have over $1000 and then buy shares with that.
Good to know as that’s exactly what I do, I wait till dividends accumulate and then buy whatever shares I want with them and leave the DRIP for retirement accounts only. Thanks.
Those are some awesome results Steve! Keep up the good work and defintely scale back for the summer. Time is your most valuable asset, better spend it with the family. We’ll still be here waiting for your next updates 😉
Mr. Robot recently posted…May 2017 dividend update
Wise words Mr Robot!
We all do this so we can have the time later free from work to spend it doing the things we love. Lucky for me I started young enough that even in my 30’s I’m pretty much set and don’t have a mortgage so that take care of a huge worry.
I plan to take a month off this summer and 2 months off in 2018 🙂
Awesome progress on your growing investment income! That dividend snowballing has been amazing and the monthly numbers are becoming pretty significant. The cool thing is there is so much more to come! Thanks as well for the TSX-listed dividend ideas.
Jay recently posted…Best Breakout Trading Signal for Trend Following
Hi Jay,
It is really cool to see that my monthly dividends are now generating their own dividends! I’ve built a spreadsheet that automatically calculates my dividends dividends and it’s compounding just over $4 dollars a month.
Pretty cool 🙂
Amazing stuff as always. These results are amazing and the growth rate you have posted is pretty darn inspiring. Keep on pushing and keep on striving for your goal. You’ll get there before you know it. I cannot wait till June to see what kind of insane results you post.
Bert
June should be close to that 4 digit milestone 🙂 I might be a tad short but I can say with confidence that I will pass that mark before the end of the year.
It’s easy to keep pushing forward when there are so many great blogs to pick up inspiration from such as yours and Lanny’s @ dividenddiplomats
That’s awesome Steve. Excellent report and I like the way you present it in terms of what you could buy with the money. Being a saver/investor instead of just a consumer is crucial to building a dividend portfolio. $700 in passive dividend income is just impressive. I’m looking forward to more great reports.
Dividend Portfolio recently posted…I’m Getting A Divorce
Thanks DP!
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