Dividend Income Summary: Lanny's July 2023 Summary

This is what dividend investing is all about! Investing in dividend stocks allows you to earn dividend income, the best passive income stream! Bias, you better believe it.

Time to dive into Lanny’s July 2023 dividend income results! Were records set? Almost to financial freedom? One day and one month at a time!

Dividend Income

Dividend Income is the fruit from the labor of investing your money in the stock market. Further, Dividend Income is my primary vehicle on the road to Financial Freedom, which you can see through my Dividend Portfolio.

How do I research & screen for dividend stocks prior to making a purchase? I use our Dividend Diplomat Stock Screener and trade on Ally’s investment platform (one of our Financial Freedom Products) and on SoFi.

I also automatically invest and max out, pre-tax, my 401(k) through work and my Health Savings Account. This allows me to save a ton of money on taxes (aka thousands), which allows me to invest even more. In addition, all dividends I receive are automatically being reinvested back into the company that paid the dividend, aka Dividend Reinvestment Plan or DRIP for short. This takes the emotion out of timing the market and builds onto my passive income stream!

Growing your dividend income takes time and consistency. Investing as often, and early, as you can allows compound interest (aka dividends) to work its magic. I have gone from making $2.70 in a single month in dividend income to well over … $10,000+ in a single month. A new dividend income record was set in December 2021. Was it broken this month?! The power of compounding and dividend reinvestment is a wonderful component to the portfolio. Each and every month, whether big or small, I continue to report the passive income that dividend investing provides me. Why?

*Not pictured is my wife’s dividend income above*

I want to show you that dividend investing makes it possible to achieve financial freedom and/or financial independence. We all start somewhere, but consistently investing, compounding (reinvesting) dividends, and keeping it simple, allows you to be in a significantly better position than most. Further, if I can grow this portfolio and income stream, you can too.

Dividend Income - July 2023

Now, on to the numbers… In July, we (my wife and I) received a dividend income total of $1,421.13. Speechless. Here we go again. The Notorious Investor here, bringing in over $5K. Let's go! This is even with a change in the timing of huge dividends that are coming in July when they used to come in June.

The amount and number of stocks listed below show you what it means to buy and hold for the long term. Most of the positions I have owned for years, letting dividend growth and reinvestment do their thing. This is what dividend investing for financial freedom is all about. The passive income stream is growing at a rapid pace.

2023 has been one heck of a year. The S&P 500 is pretty much at all-time highs. The Fed is still going to be increasing interest rates in September, as the economy is still on fire. Borrowing rates are through the roof, inflation is slightly cooling/less of a surge. However, Americans continue to spend like there is no tomorrow. What am I doing? Investing, not stopping, and consistently adding dividend income.

Here is the breakdown of dividend income for the month, between taxable and retirement (far right column, under “Retirement”) accounts. In addition, “W” means my wife’s account:

BIG dividends this month.

I own a ton of Canadian Imperial (CM) (CM:CA), one of the big Canadian Banks. They are solid and consistent, paying an increasing dividend income stream. One day, this will be $1,000 per quarter, mark my words.

Why is dividend income the best form of passive income? The $200 dividend from CM was reinvested and acquired almost 5 more shares, adding more income. Rinse and repeat.

Philip Morris (PM), yes the sin stock, paid me a handsome dividend. I anticipate the $600+ in dividends will reinvest and add over 6 more shares, just compounding my forward dividend income stream.

Lastly, I’ll talk about my Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO). As you can see, almost at $100, this past quarter payment. I anticipate this to be well over $100 come September/October, depending on the month it pays out. I buy $60 per day of VOO. Doing that alone will add millions to the pie with decades of time doing magic.

I also split out my retirement accounts in the far right column and the taxable account dividends are in the left two columns. The retirement accounts are composed of HSA investments, ROTH and Traditional IRAs, as well as our work 401(k) accounts. In total, the retirement accounts brought in a total dividend income amount of $317.62 or 22% of the dividend income total. This still left over $1,100+ in the taxable account! $1,000+ in taxable dividends is great to see but would prefer an average of at least $2,000 per month.

Dividend Income Year-over-Year Comparison

2022:

2023:

Our dividend income is up… $364.71, a 35% jump.

This is what dividend investing is about. Increasing your passive income, by consistently investing in the market and letting dividend reinvestment do the trick.

In addition, plenty of dividend growth above. However, also dividend cuts, Paramount Global (PARA), are also present.

However, a majority of the stocks you see above increase dividends every year. That is one of the required screening metrics for the stocks I buy.

The fun one is STORE Capital (STOR). They got acquired and I moved the proceeds and added to Broadstone Net Lease (BNL), which now produces almost $20+ more per quarter.

Next stop is $2,000 for me. Time to strive to hit that per month, on the off-months.

Dividend Increases

July was probably one of the lowest number of stocks increasing their dividend for me.

However, I’ll take as many dividend increases as I can get.

The best dividend increase? Cummins (CMI). No question there. Cummins is as consistent as ever.

Notable ones are also The J. M. Smucker (SJM) at 3.92%. Not sure I foresee this getting better in the near term, however.

In total, dividend increases created $21.25 in additional passive dividend income. I would need to invest $607 at a 3.50% dividend yield in order to add to that income. Thank you for the increases, as I didn’t have to come up with the capital to create that form of income!

Dividend Income Conclusion & Summary

The name of the game is to apply what you learn through financial education. The next steps are to maximize every dollar for investment opportunities and live life on your own terms. My plan is to demonstrate that dividend income can be a revenue engine. A revenue engine that allows you to take back control of your life. A revenue engine to help you reach financial freedom. Dividend investing, once you learn the right way, becomes easier and starts to immensely make sense!

Excited for the future, no doubt. Further, all of the investing from last year and moves this year show that my aim to save 60% of my income, and make every dollar count, has provided the dividend growth.

As always, thank you for stopping by, leave your comments and questions below. Good luck and happy investing everyone!

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Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.