Dividend Income for September 2015

Dividend Income Report

No More Waffles lives! The past month I haven’t been active much because of work commitments, a general lack of writing pleasure and a short holiday, but I can’t stop publishing my passive income through dividend growth investing, now can I? Soon after launching this blog last year, I started sharing my dividend income to maintain my motivation, but also to inspire others to follow a similar journey.

Contrary to my writing efforts, the dividends haven’t stopped doing their thing. Not a week went by without some company or another forwarding me a piece of their profits, effectively generating a never-ending stream of passive income. My invested savings continue to work tirelessly for me even when I don’t want to.

It’s now exactly one year ago since I received my very first dividend income from American fast-food giant McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) – and what a year it’s been. For example, last month I noticed that by saving and investing aggressively I was already closing in on this year’s dividend goal of €500. Even the quaint state of the stock market can’t bring down the positive feeling I get when I’m looking at that number.

Speak of the devil, the stock market – many of you thought I had given up on financial independence because of the downturn in the markets, but nothing could be further from the truth. What’s more, I decided to average down on a couple of stocks and I initiated a new position in Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) after its massive decline during the past couple of weeks.

And I’m unlikely to stop there – perseverance is the only variable fully within my control, after all! Reduced stock prices simply mean that your money works that much harder for you when you invest it in companies with solid business fundamentals, so that’s what I’ll continue to do for the foreseeable future.

Be that as it may, let’s stick to the here and now, and see what September brought me in terms of free-of-work dividends.

 

Dividends received

September was absolutely massive in terms of income, almost trumping Europe-heavy May, which still is my best month to date. When considering that most companies paid me a quarterly or bi-annual dividend back then, that’s a tall order. Nevertheless, I managed to make almost €110 in passive income.

Most of this month’s payments came from the beaten-up oil sector and miner BHP Billiton (LON:BLT), one of the companies I decided to average down on. However, these higher risk investments and big payments are balanced out throughout the year by consumer defensive and healthcare stocks like Unilever (LON:ULVR) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), two of my biggest holdings.

All dividends below are listed in Euros, and are after foreign withholding taxes and a 25% income tax levied by the Belgian federal government.

Date Ticker Company Dividend
01/09 AFL Aflac Inc. 1.94
08/09 JNJ Johnson & Johnson 8.35
09/09 ULVR Unilever plc. 12.72
10/09 IBM International Business Machines Corp. 4.33
16/09 MCD McDonald's Corp. 6.56
21/09 BP BP plc. 6.04
21/09 RDSB Royal Dutch Shell 18.77
23/09 QCOM Qualcomm Inc. 2.41
25/09 RB Reckitt Benckiser plc. 5.00
29/09 BLT BHP Billiton plc. 43.72
Total 109.84

What’s not to love about the numbers above? Like I’ve mentioned earlier, the incoming capital provides me a ton of mental sustenance in the current market environment – I’m not going to lie, seeing your net worth drop by almost double digit numbers in one week isn’t very fun.

To me, the past month has shown once again the personal finance is, in fact, very personal indeed. The short-term success of incoming dividends reinforces my commitment to the long-term idea behind financial independence, which is one of the reasons why I like dividend growth investing so much – emphasis on “I”.

 

Growth

Ha, it’s year-over-year comparison time! I’ve waited a long time to finally compare my income from last year to this year’s numbers, but we’re finally here.

In anticipation of this milestone I updated the graph below in August already so you can now clearly see the increase – or decrease, of course – from last year. As it turns out, the dividend income from September 2014 isn’t anywhere near what I’m pulling in now because of an 837% jump.

Dividend Income for September 2015

As a result of September’s large numbers, my average monthly income for 2015 also took a strong leap forward, from a little under €40 last month to over €48 now. Basically, I now receive enough income on average to feed myself for two weeks every month. And if the dividend growth rate of the companies I’m invested in increases at a faster pace than inflation, these numbers will continue to grow all on their own.

 

Going forward

The previous paragraph nicely leads into the last one of this post. The mathematicians among you have probably noticed that an average income of 48 Euros in 2015 multiplied by twelve months is more than the previously mentioned €500 goal for this year. Indeed, I have already crossed my 2015 income goal!

I still can’t believe how fast and swiftly I’ve managed to accumulate €584 in passive income already, but numbers don’t lie of course. If you had told me on New Year’s Eve I’d crush my goal with four months to spare, I would have given you a one-way ticket to the neirest loony bin, yet here we are – who is the silly person now, huh?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I truly feel like I’ve already won the Win for Life lottery. All I need is enough time and a small portion of luck – anything is better than odds of one in a million! – to carry my financial independence journey through.

With the power of compounding interest and continued saving backing me up, my current passive income level only needs enough time to grow to a high enough level so that it can systain my current lifestyle. And time I’ve got in spades at 26 years of age.

Thank you once again for reading and for your continued support. I especially appreciate the personal messages I’ve received the over past few weeks – I’m trying to get back to all of you as soon as possible.

30 Comments

  1. It’s alive!

    Great to see you back NMW. It seem you had a great dividend month. My dividens last month were pretty good to.

    Take care

    1. Geblin,

      Thanks! Kinda glad to be back to blogging. Although I was burned out at some point in time I’ve missed putting these reports together and interacting with you guys.

      September was excellent! I knew it would be great because of my additional shares in BLT, but I didn’t expect the increase to be this big. Let’s hope I’m not a one trick pony and that the upcoming months are more of the same.

      Good to hear you had a good month too, although that doesn’t surprise me too much. You’re still the #1 Belgian out there with regards to dividend income!

      Cheers,
      NMW

  2. Welcome back. I was beginning to wonder… but I thought ‘it’s not quite a month yet, i’ll email him when it goes over a month’ – anyway you just got in there before I had to check up on you.

    Fantastic success on the goal-cruching – my recent post on our Q3 update had the same outcome – we also crushed our dividend income goal’s for my NISA account.

    September was a fab month, my best ever. Really glad to see you having such a great month too.

    Here’s to a slightly more regular posting schedule!

    Cheers

    1. M,

      No worries – I’m alive and well! Just a bit burned out on writing after long days at work and balancing that out by being a bit more social than usual. Thank you for checking up on me though!

      I’ll make sure to check out your recent posts too – I’ve been slacking terribly in that department, especially because you make it sound like you guys are way kicking ass left, right and center. Keep it up!

      Cheers,
      NMW

  3. Hello NMW,

    Great progress and congratulations on smashing your dividend income goals with still three months to go before the end of the year.

    Lynx

    1. Lynx,

      Thank you for checking in and for your support the past few months! I’m really happy to share my progress and successes with you guys.

      I hope everything is well over there too!

      Cheers,
      NMW

  4. Great results for the month. As you stated, what’s not to love seeing about money come in to your account. Great results. I see we share a few names in common for the month too. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!

    1. Keith,

      Free-of-work money is my favourite kind of money, so the bigger the amount in my brokerage account, the better!

      I’m glad to hear you and I share a couple of stocks. You know I’m a big fan of your steady approach. Keep it up on your end too.

      Cheers,
      NMW

  5. Congrats! Nice growth and it’s great to finally get to do YoY comparisons. Just imagine how things will be with another couple of years behind you.

    1. JC,

      Like you said, the YoY comparisons are a fun new thing to do! It’s incredible how high the growth numbers currently are, so I can’t even begin to comprehend where I’ll be a few years from now.

      I guess I can always look at your progress for inspiration… 😉

      Cheers,
      NMW

  6. Great progress NMW. Good to see that you’re not giving up on us when it comes to updating your dividend income. Keep up the great work.

    1. Tawcan,

      It would be a shame not to keep my readers in the loop, especially with regards to one of the most important aspects of my FI journey. Besides, putting these reports together is probably my favourite thing about blogging.

      Good to hear from you!

      Best wishes,
      NMW

    1. Ryan,

      They see me rollin’ – no one hatin’ though! 😉

      Hope you’re doing great over there too!

      Cheers,
      NMW

  7. I had forgotten I was subscribed to you! Great to see you back and with a 20% m/m forward income. Very impressive. Seems like doubling up for a couple more years is realistic.
    Eric

    1. Eric,

      I don’t blame you since I fell off the map without any warning. Glad to hear you’re still subscribed and enjoying my posts though.

      Doubling my income seems very likely for the following two years, but after that it could become difficult. Of course, we never know what could transpire in the mean time. Besides, if I keep this growth rate up for just a little while I’ll be one happy camper.

      Cheers,
      NMW

    1. DAC,

      Good to hear you’re also doing great over there! Just imagine where we’ll both be in a couple of years from now – I can already sense the financially free lifestyle.

      Cheers,
      NMW

  8. Ah, this community just isn’t the same without the famous NMW! Awesome numbers mate, you’re doing incredibly well. Then again, that’s to be expected with such a high savings rate – it also means that a year from now you’ll be looking at another huge YoY increase.

    Good call on CAT too! I’m a fellow shareholder and was delighted with their latest 10% dividend increase. I can really see this one being a great overall investment in years to come!

    Cheers

    DL

    1. Legion,

      Ha, I don’t know about famous, but I’ll take your compliment any day! 🙂

      A YoY increase like the one I’m experiencing now isn’t very likely to materialise over the coming years, but even half would be terrific! I’ll do everything within my power to push my savings rate and dividend income over the couple of months though.

      Judging from today’s big gain I bought into CAT at the right moment. When a stock is beaten up by outside factors that are of very little impact to its solid long-term fundamentals, that’s the time I like to strike. Top the whole thing off with solid dividend growth – if you can still call a 10% jump “solid” – and I’m happy to own CAT with you.

      Best wishes,
      NMW

  9. NMW,

    Awesome 1st year. All that money that you’ve earned through smart use of your resources. You crushed your annual goal for this year, and you still have 1 quarter left. Good luck on pushing hard the rest of the year.

    – Gremlin

    1. Gremlin,

      Thanks, buddy! Appreciate the support as always.

      During the final quarter I expect to earn around €100 more in dividend income, so I’m pretty stunned by how low my initial estimate was for the year. Onward!

      Hope you’re doing well over there!

      Cheers,
      NMW

  10. Hi NMW, congrats on the September income amount. That 837% increase yoy is incredible! I look forward to reading your next posts. It must feel great to increase your average monthly income to an amount that could cover some tangible expenses. Keep up the great work.

    1. Dividendniche,

      Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment, much appreciated!

      You hit the nail on the head in your comment. Its tangibility is what makes dividend growth investing so great for me: seeing your passive income cover a bunch of monthly expenses is a great motivator to push on.

      Cheers,
      NMW

  11. Question – are you doing dividend reinvestment or are you doing something different with the dividend cash?

    1. John,

      Even though it doesn’t matter to me where my income originates, you could say that I reinvest my dividends every single month. I don’t use DRIP schemes (because they’re often not available to me), so I just add the cash dividends to one of my monthly purchases.

      Cheers,
      NMW

    1. Sharon,

      Thank you! I’ll try my best to keep pushing my snowball faster and faster downhill.

      Best wishes,
      NMW

  12. Hey NMW,

    Great to see your progress, and seeing you back in action. But it’s also great to see you taking a break when it makes sense – I’ve just returned from a decent blogging hiatus myself. Gotta keep that portfolio of life well-balanced!

    I’m still always astounded with the results you produce on the saving and investing front, keep up the great work.

    Cheers,

    Jason

    1. Jason,

      Glad to hear I’m not the only one who needs a little break once in a while. You’re absolutely right that you have to (re)balance your life and activities – otherwise there’s no poin in trying to become financially independent anyway!

      The investing results come automatically I must say. The only effort I put in is saving as much as possible! Paradoxically, the easiest way to do that is by doing nothing at all keeping your money in your pocket. 🙂

      All the best to you and your family,
      NMW

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