Here is the dividend income report for May, 2020.
The monthly dividend income came out to $179.08. The yearly income total for 2020 through the end of the month was $2450.65.
The income for May, 2019 was $150.95, and the yearly income for 2019 through the end of May was $2006.71.
The one big event in May is that I sold all my shares of RWR from my IRA. I bought at $100/share, it got to $67 when it paid the March dividend, then it went up to $80, and I started thinking about selling. When I sold it was at $71, now it is around $77.
The March dividend for RWR was 58 cents, and the June dividend was 70 cents. I thought the June dividend would be lower. I am not caught up listening to Ron DeLegge’s Index Investing Show or The Phil Ferguson Show, so I do not know what they are saying about what is going on. (I am actually a couple of years behind with The Phil Ferguson Show). I guess I need to work on my investment policy statement and written investment plan. I need to figure out my rules for when to buy and when to sell. I think they might be different for ETFs. A lot of DGI investors sell when a company cuts their dividend, but for funds the divident varies (I assume this is due to people going in and out of the funds).
Given that I sold based on price, maybe I am not as dedicated to indexing and dividends as I would like. I like to think I make my own decisions, but maybe I do not. I guess the capital gains conditioning is stronger than I thought. But I do think that real estate and REITs will have a hard time in the future.
Wolf Street points out that a lot of mortgages are in forbearance right now. We might not see the pain in real estate for a while. I think office REITs will get hosed.
I am on the fence about working from home. I don’t miss the commute, but I am getting tired of the dogs, the trucks, and the neighbors smoking pot all the time. It is easier to focus at the office. I hope that working from home does not become mandatory forever. I think it would be a mistake for companies to do that. Granted, some people do like it. It would be a mistake for companies to not explore it, or mix the two. If you used to lease five floors in a building and now you only need three or four, that is a no-brainer.
When the iPad came out, all the Apple fanboys were saying that in five years, nobody would buy a laptop or a desktop ever again, everybody would be all tablet all the time. That did not happen. I think WFH will be the same. I think there will be changes, but I don’t think offices will go away.
I have read a lot of articles and watched videos in which people have said that big cities in the US might lose population. I think this would be a tragedy financially, economically and environmentally. We have put in a lot of time and money into building cities, and it would be stupid to throw it all away and pave over more farmland because some people are too stubborn to wear masks. A lot of big cities in Asia (except maybe Wuhan) and Europe are flattening the curve through masks and distancing.
It looks like Realty Income is still able to increase their dividend. If you look at their top 20 tenants, there are a lot of food stores. They might be okay. This is something to keep an eye on. I might revisit RWR in January and see if I think it is worth getting back into. Their biggest stock is Prologis, which is a REIT for logistics. Somebody has to get the food to the grocery store. Their second biggest holding is Digital Reality which focuses on data centers. Perhaps selling was a mistake.
I have done pretty well investing on my own. Sometimes it is because I am smart, sometimes because I am lucky. It looks like with RWR I was neither.
Here is a table with the year-to-date amounts, the monthly amounts, and the three- and twelve-month moving averages for each May from 2011 through 2020:
| Month | YTD | Amount | 3MMA | 12MMA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-05 | $2450.65 | $179.08 | $747.49 | $909.85 |
| 2019-05 | $2006.71 | $150.95 | $592.51 | $638.08 |
| 2018-05 | $1321.55 | $44.66 | $398.51 | $542.66 |
| 2017-05 | $2346.62 | $531.68 | $553.90 | $530.30 |
| 2016-05 | $2059.52 | $436.85 | $479.79 | $477.37 |
| 2015-05 | $1803.11 | $361.99 | $411.92 | $402.51 |
| 2014-05 | $1411.19 | $280.01 | $304.77 | $306.30 |
| 2013-05 | $1141.24 | $242.65 | $260.91 | $288.11 |
| 2012-05 | $1268.97 | $258.15 | $257.13 | $270.51 |
| 2011-05 | $1114.84 | $266.55 | $233.03 | $194.61 |
Here are the securities and the income amounts for May, 2020:
- Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF: $169.02
- Vanguard Total International Bond ETF: $10.06
Big Jim admits he does not know how to handle a crisis.
Image from Wikimedia, assumed allowed under Fair Use. Painting of Saint Michael by Guariento di Arpo (1310-1370).
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