Here is the dividend income report for April, 2023.
The monthly dividend income came out to $206.73. The yearly income total for 2023 through the end of the month was $2591.69.
The income for April, 2022 was $265.84, and the yearly income for 2022 through the end of April was $2397.58.
Today the big story is another bank failure: JPMorgan Chase took over the assets of California-based First Republic bank. This is the fourth mid-sized bank that has failed in a month.
Of the four that failed this year, three of them (Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and now First Republic Bank) had assets of between $50 billion and $250 billion. The Dodd-Frank Act passed in 2010, and stipulated that banks with more than $50B in assets had to undergo more frequent stress tests and keep higher levels of cash reserves on hand. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (aka EGRRCPA) passed in 2017 raised that level to $250B. Executives from at least one of these failed banks lobbied for the regulations to be lifted, and they got what they wanted. We do not know what would have happened if Dodd-Frank had not been altered, but I have no problem pointing out that three of these four failed banks might not have failed if the regulations were left unaltered.
A lot of people love to say that regulation can slow businesses down. But when de-regulated firms fail, those same people get quiet. I think slow is better than bankrupt, despite what the self-proclaimed “party of business” says.
There is an article on Daily Kos encouraging people to pull their money out of the big banks. I used to have accounts with Chase. There were advantages to having an account with a bank that had offices everywhere, but Chase seemed to keep making headlines for wrong-doing, sort of like Wells Fargo a few years ago. I moved my accounts to a bank based in Texas. So far it has worked out okay for me.
Here is a table with the year-to-date amounts, the monthly amounts, and the three- and twelve-month moving averages for each April from the beginning of my records through 2023:
| Month | YTD | Amount | 3MMA | 12MMA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-04 | $2591.69 | $206.73 | $831.05 | $1031.66 |
| 2022-04 | $2397.58 | $265.84 | $774.77 | $917.50 |
| 2021-04 | $2339.11 | $259.95 | $750.24 | $884.09 |
| 2020-04 | $2271.57 | $200.13 | $753.19 | $907.51 |
| 2019-04 | $1855.76 | $483.26 | $588.35 | $629.22 |
| 2018-04 | $1276.89 | $50.88 | $405.77 | $583.24 |
| 2017-04 | $1814.94 | $324.66 | $532.02 | $522.40 |
| 2016-04 | $1622.67 | $270.38 | $461.86 | $471.14 |
| 2015-04 | $1441.12 | $261.30 | $409.21 | $395.68 |
| 2014-04 | $1130.58 | $196.43 | $323.64 | $303.18 |
| 2013-04 | $898.59 | $179.23 | $262.82 | $289.40 |
| 2012-04 | $1010.82 | $218.56 | $274.05 | $271.21 |
| 2011-04 | $848.29 | $203.10 | $216.30 | $179.46 |
Here are the securities and the income amounts for April, 2023:
- Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF: $190.24
- Vanguard Total International Bond ETF: $16.49
Big Jim says it is better to try to get rich slowly than to try to do it quickly.
Painting by Vicente López Portaña (1772 – 1850); image from Wikimedia, image assumed to be under public domain.
