Category: Dividend Income

Here is the dividend income report for May, 2018.

The monthly dividend income came out to $44.66. The yearly income total for 2018 through the end of the month was $1321.55.

The income for May, 2017 was $531.68, and the yearly income for 2017 through the end of May was $2346.62.

Once again, the only income came from bond funds. The stock ETFs only pay on “C” months. So far the twelve-month moving average is still doing okay. Still, I have moments where I wonder if I did the right thing.

Looking at the past payouts on Vanguard’s site, some of the international funds should have some big payouts soon. They might not pay out until July. I might also buy more shares in VYM in my rollover. I might go up to 1000 shares. That might work out to about 25 shares a year.

My employment situation is up in the air. I might be leaving my company in a few months. Obviously this has a downside of no more income. But I will have a lot of money to put into my rollover. And more time for meditation.

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 2018:

Month	YTD	Amount	3MMA	12MMA
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 stocks and the income amounts for May, 2018:

• Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF: $36.01
• Vanguard Total International Bond: $8.65

 

Big Jim likes bond funds.

“The Valley of the Nervia” by Claude Monet (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926); image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, assumed allowed under Fair Use.

The monthly dividend income came out to $50.88. The yearly income total for 2018 through the end of the month was $1276.89.

The income for April, 2017 was $324.66, and the yearly income for 2017 through the end of April was $1814.94.

Once again, the only income came from bond funds. The stock ETFs only pay on “C” months. So far the twelve-month moving average is still doing okay.

Note: January, April, July and October are the “A” months. February, May, August and November are “B” months. March, June, September and December are the “C” months. I got this terminology from David Fish, maker of the great monthly Dividend Champion spreadsheet. If you want to invest directly in dividend growth companies, you should get his spreadsheet every month.

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 2011 through 2018:

Month	YTD	Amount	3MMA	12MMA
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 stocks and the income amounts for April, 2018:

• Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF: $36.45
• Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF: $3.86 (Capital Gains)
• Vanguard Total International Bond: $10.57

Capri mit Blick auf Santa Serafina, by Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (5 September 1807 – 11 September 1863), assumed allowed under Fair Use.

Here is the dividend income report for March, 2018.

The monthly dividend income came out to $1100.29. The yearly income total for 2018 through the end of the month was $1226.31.

The income for March, 2017 was $805.35, and the yearly income for 2017 through the end of March was $1490.28.

The total was not too bad for a “C” month (March, June, September and December), as David Fish calls them. The problem is my totals for the prior “A” and “B” months were low, and this quarter only happened due to getting dividends on stocks after I sold them. That will not repeat in the future.

I think my total for 2018 will be lower than for 2017. I have still not re-invested all the money I got from selling my stocks. Everyone says you should have a cash cushion, and now my cushion is bigger. I might buy some more stocks and get my cash to the same amount as before, so that will increase my income going forward.

Another thing that will make my income lower than before is that before I only bought stocks that had yields of at least 2% (at least at the time I bought them). Many of these ETFs have stocks with yields that are lower than that, so that will dampen things. But then again, I keep saying that I am not just going for price.

One thing that might change things in the future is that I have more international stocks. Many companies outside the US do not pay the same amount for all four quarters. Many, like Vodafone, pay twice a year, in unequal amounts. I think the first quarter was pretty light. But all in all, while my income may be lower for this year, I still think that the dividends will increase, and with them, my happiness.

Here is a table with the year-to-date amounts, the monthly amounts, and the three- and twelve-month moving averages for each March from 2011 through 2018:

Month	YTD	Amount	3MMA	12MMA
2018-03	$1226.01	$1099.99	$408.67	$606.06
2017-03	$1490.28	$805.35	$496.76	$517.88
2016-03	$1352.29	$732.13	$450.76	$470.38
2015-03	$1179.82	$612.48	$393.27	$390.27
2014-03	$934.15	$437.87	$311.38	$301.75
2013-03	$719.36	$360.85	$239.79	$292.68
2012-03	$792.26	$294.68	$264.09	$269.92
2011-03	$645.19	$229.43	$200.06	$163.15

 

Here are the stocks and the income amounts for March, 2018:

• Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF: $33.23
• Vanguard Total International Bond ETF: $8.74
• RLI Corp: $29.09
• Vanguard Utilities ETF: $168.43
• Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF: $159.10
• Vanguard International Dividend Appreciation ETF: $39.62
• Vanguard REIT ETF: $143.41
• Vanguard Global ex-US Real Estate ETF: $15.46
• Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF: $243.36 (I have this in two accounts)
• Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF: $183.43
• Vanguard International High Dividend Yield ETF: $76.42

 

Colosseum and Arch of Constantine, Rome by  Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), AKA Canaletto, which is Italian for “Canaletto”, assumed allowed under Fair Use. This guy has a LOT of nice landscapes.

Here is the dividend income report for February, 2018.

The monthly dividend income came out to $66.43. The yearly income total for 2018 through the end of the month was $126.02.

The income for February, 2017 was $466.05, and the yearly income for 2017 through the end of February was $684.93.

A big chunk of this month’s income came from Vodafone. I guess I sold after the ex-date, or the record date, or something. I plan on holding my ETFs for a long time, so frankly the difference between these dates is irrelevant to me. I know there are some people who go in and out of dividend stocks to get the payout, but I am not one of those people. Granted, I did sell most of my stocks recently and put the money into ETFs, but I held some of those stocks for six years.

The bond ETFs do not pay as much as I thought, especially the international one. I am toying with the idea of getting some Wisdom Tree ETFs. They pay every month. I will sit down and make a spreadsheet to see if getting one payment every three months is any different than getting three smaller payments once a month.

So far, I have not put as much into ETFs as I have put into stocks. I still have a lot of cash. So the drop in stock prices is not as bad as it could have been for me. But if I stay with this strategy it will probably take a while until I beat my previous records.

Here is a table with the year-to-date amounts, the monthly amounts, and the three- and twelve-month moving averages for each February from 2012 through 2018:

Month	YTD	Amount	3MMA	12MMA
2018-02	$126.02	$66.43	$654.60	$581.51
2017-02	$684.93	$466.05	$570.90	$511.78
2016-02	$620.16	$383.08	$524.89	$460.41
2015-02	$567.34	$353.85	$492.40	$375.72
2014-02	$496.28	$336.61	$363.62	$295.33
2013-02	$358.51	$248.39	$348.20	$287.16
2012-02	$497.58	$308.90	$337.51	$264.48

 

Here are the stocks and the income amounts for February, 2018:

• Vodafone: $21.15
• Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF: $35.42
• Vanguard Total International Bond ETF: $9.86

 

“The Visitation” by El Greco (1541 – 7 April 1614), housed at Dumberton Oaks assumed allowed under Fair Use.

Here is the dividend income report for November, 2017.

The monthly dividend income came out to $560.60. The yearly income total for 2017 through the end of the month was $5699.20.

The income for November, 2016 was $506.98, and the yearly income for 2016 through the end of November was $5048.77.

I am in the process of selling most of my stocks and putting my money in ETFs, with an emphasis on dividend growth ETFs. I plan on writing more about this in the future.

Here is a table with the year-to-date amounts, the monthly amounts, and the three- and twelve-month moving averages for each November from 2011 through 2017:

Month	YTD	Amount	3MMA	12MMA
2017-11	$5699.20	$560.60	$559.31	$560.58
2016-11	$5048.77	$506.98	$502.98	$500.27
2015-11	$4517.55	$460.83	$477.55	$452.28
2014-11	$3528.16	$291.27	$357.30	$343.53
2013-11	$2811.61	$252.75	$277.74	$291.48
2012-11	$2898.91	$247.99	$262.78	$284.49
2011-11	$2577.05	$246.37	$232.84	$240.81

 

Here are the stocks and the income amounts for November, 2017:

• AT&T: $53.95
• Verizon: $64.58
• WGL Holdings Inc: $18.31
• ABM Industries Inc: $9.95
• Lowe’s Cos Inc: $22.96
• Air Products & Chemicals Inc: $64.92
• Clorox Co: $50.16
• Texas Instruments: $68.84
• Colgate-Palmolive: $46.00
• Hormel Foods Corp: $16.94
• Northwest Natural Gas Co: $30.04
• Procter & Gamble: $43.02
• Eaton Corporation: $70.93

 

“Crucible of Creation”  taken by the Hubble Telescope and released by NASA on November 20th, 1995. Image from Hubble Site, assumed allowed under Fair Use.

Here is the dividend income report for October, 2017.

The monthly dividend income came out to $341.83. The yearly income total for 2017 through the end of the month was $5138.63.

The income for October, 2016 was $281.09, and the yearly income for 2016 through the end of October was $4541.79.

There is not a whole lot to report this month. Just rolling along and making money.

I might sell Kellogg. They were below my cost basis, and I was thinking they might not be profitable for some time. I do invest in stocks for the cash flow and not capital gains, but that does not mean I want to take a loss. If a firm cuts its dividend and the price has dropped, then I still lose money.

I had thought that getting into a food stock would be good since everybody needs to eat. However, that does not seem to be working out. Both Kellogg and General Mills have not increased their revenue and/or profits by a whole lot over the past few years. Even Coke is having problems keeping revenue growing, and they have Warren Buffett on their speed dial. Kellogg did get a boost in earnings from a weaker dollar. But I don’t know if I should count on that in the future. An article on Bloomberg about this had a quote from Ken Shea, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence: “They’re really tripling down on cost cuts, which tells me they know the top line is not going to turn in their favor any time soon.” It reminds me of a quote from Starbucks founder Howard Schultz: “Cutting prices or putting things on sale is not sustainable business strategy. The other side of it is that you can’t cut enough costs to save your way to prosperity.”

Berkshire Hathaway was behind the merger of Kraft and Heinz, and from what I have read KraftHeinz is also relying on cost cuts to make a profit. Maybe food is not a good industry to be in. There is also a lot of churn in the agricultural trading industry (archive here). I hope that my investment in ADM will work out. I might wait a while before buying Bunge.

On a side note, Glencore tried to buy Bunge a while back. Part of the pitch to investors is that doing so would break up the “ABCD” quartet of ADM, Bunge Ltd., Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus. But is “AGCD” any better than “ABCD”? Or is reducing the quartet to a trio any better?

One reason that I was looking to invest in food is that I thought that people would pay for something they need. It turns out they will, but people want low prices for things they need. Many people will pay a lot of money for things they want, like electronics. Or things they want but have convinced themselves they need, like iPhones.

On the other hand, water stocks seem to be doing pretty well.

WRT energy, I did see an article on Bloomberg’s site about Exxon’s research and investment into green energy. Hopefully they are sincerely looking into it, and not backing smaller companies to buy their technologies and take them out of the market.

I am also looking at insurance. It seems like a no-brainer: a financial product people need. But I wonder how climate change is going to affect insurance. Berkshire Hathaway‘s insurance divisions lost money due to natural disasters. Travelers and Munich Re were also negatively affected by natural disasters.

Here is a table with the year-to-date amounts, the monthly amounts, and the three- and twelve-month moving averages for each October from 2011 through 2017:

Month	YTD	Amount	3MMA	12MMA
2017-10	$5138.63	$341.83	$566.34	$556.11
2016-10	$4541.79	$281.09	$508.05	$496.43
2015-10	$4056.72	$312.23	$459.42	$438.15
2014-10	$3236.89	$243.87	$368.19	$340.32
2013-10	$2558.86	$184.81	$295.19	$291.08
2012-10	$2650.92	$225.14	$285.46	$284.35
2011-10	$2330.68	$208.90	$258.17	$238.44

 

Here are the stocks and the income amounts for October, 2017:

• Automatic Data Processing: $35.28
• Coca-Cola Co: $51.28
• MDU Resources Group Inc.: $11.81
• Kimberly-Clark: $59.11
• Illinois Tool Works: $44.60
• Leggett & Platt, Incorporated: $54.73
• Chubb Corp: $45.86
• Sysco Corp: $20.03
• RPM International Inc.: $19.13

 

“Edge of a Wheatfield with Poppies” (1887) by Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853-July 29, 1890), assumed allowed under Fair Use.

Here is the dividend income report for September, 2017.

The monthly dividend income came out to $775.50. The yearly income total for 2017 through the end of the month was $4796.80.

The income for September, 2016 was $720.86, and the yearly income for 2016 through the end of September was $4260.70.

There is not a whole lot to report this month. Just rolling along and making money.

It looks like Exxon might get back to where it was a few months ago. I think eventually oil companies will either become more diverse energy companies or go out of business. Some of them are doing research into other forms of energy and/or funding other companies. They have gone back and forth on this a few times. I think eventually they will need to stick with funding/backing other forms of energy. Some are really backing offshore wind.

I can’t find it now, but I read an article about this energy transition (I think it was on Bloomberg) in which an executive at Royal Dutch Shell pointed out that the reason the Shell Oil Company is called the Shell Oil Company is because they started out in the 19th century importing sea shells into the UK. I guess people liked having shells in their living rooms. But shells have nothing to do with oil, and the founders were not named “Shell”, so it is kind of an odd name for an oil company. He said they survived the 20th century by becoming an oil company, and if they want to make it throught the 21st, they will have to do something in addition to and/or in place of being an oil company. So there is a transition going on.

If you are a startup fanboy who thinks that big companies never do anything right and small companies are never wrong (and always useful), you can pretend all of this is not happening if it makes you feel better.

I will have to look more into what Chevron and Exxon are doing.

Also on my to-do list: Look at water utilities and insurance companies. It would be nice if there were fit women who found this sort of thing exciting.

Here is a table with the year-to-date amounts, the monthly amounts, and the three- and twelve-month moving averages for each September from 2011 through 2017:

Month	YTD	Amount	3MMA	12MMA
2017-09	$4796.80	$775.50	$562.76	$551.05
2016-09	$4260.70	$720.86	$505.47	$499.02
2015-09	$3744.49	$659.59	$443.06	$432.46
2014-09	$2993.02	$536.75	$353.04	$335.39
2013-09	$2374.05	$395.65	$293.78	$294.44
2012-09	$2425.78	$315.21	$283.66	$283.00
2011-09	$2121.78	$243.26	$256.81	$233.01

 

Here are the stocks and the income amounts for September, 2017:

• AFLAC Inc: $48.07
• American States Water Co: $29.79
• Black Hills Corp: $17.01
• Bemis Co Inc: $32.40
• Vectren Corp: $26.28
• Aqua America: $35.00
• Archer-Daniels-Midland Co: $39.28
• Honeywell International: $68.66
• Sonoco Products Co: $53.38
• Chevron: $27.77
• Emerson Electric Co: $53.30
• Exxon Mobil Corp: $93.42
• Johnson & Johnson: $88.91
• 3M Co: $16.67
• Walgreen Co: $23.92
• Dover Corp: $11.40
• Consolidated Edison Inc: $22.95
• Kellogg Company: $59.25
• RLI Corp: $28.04

 

Image of Spell For Not Letting Ani’s Heart Create Opposition Against Him from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, available at Wikipedia, assumed allowed under Fair Use (it dates from 1550 BCE, so I assume it’s public domain). The image may not be relevant to the contents.

 

Here is the dividend income report for August, 2017.

The monthly dividend income came out to $581.69. The yearly income total for 2017 through the end of the month was $4021.30.

The income for August, 2016 was $522.20, and the yearly income for 2016 through the end of August was $3539.84.

There is not a whole lot to report this month. Just rolling along and making money.

I might buy some ETFs. USAA might make some new ones, I might check those out.

I have thought about selling ExxonMobil. I think that oil companies will probably go down in value. I think they will definitely have fewer employees in a few years. I am still above my cost basis. It has gone up because of Hurricane Harvey. Usually hurricanes wipe out investments. Now one is helping bail me out. A hurricane is keeping my Exxon shares afloat.

Here is a table with the year-to-date amounts, the monthly amounts, and the three- and twelve-month moving averages for each August from 2011 through 2017:

Month	YTD	Amount	3MMA	12MMA
2017-08	$4021.30	$581.69	$558.23	$546.50
2016-08	$3539.84	$522.20	$493.44	$493.92
2015-08	$3084.90	$406.45	$427.26	$422.22
2014-08	$2456.27	$323.94	$348.41	$323.64
2013-08	$1978.40	$305.11	$279.05	$287.74
2012-08	$2110.57	$316.04	$280.53	$277.00
2011-08	$1878.52	$322.35	$254.56	$225.45

 

Here are the stocks and the income amounts for August, 2017:

• AT&T: $53.28
• Verizon: $62.45
• WGL Holdings Inc: $18.20
• Clorox Co: $49.85
• ABM Industries Inc: $9.92
• Vodafone: $40.13
• Lowe’s Cos Inc: $22.84
• Air Products & Chemicals Inc: $64.50
• Texas Instruments: $55.18
• Colgate-Palmolive: $45.75
• Hormel Foods Corp: $16.85
• Northwest Natural Gas Co: $29.67
• Procter & Gamble: $42.70
• Eaton Corporation: $70.37

 

Portrait of the dogs playing poker by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (September 18, 1844 – January 24, 1934), available at Wikipedia, assumed allowed under Fair Use.

This site has a disclaimer.