Ahh, dividends.
Even just hearing that word conjures up all kinds of warm and fuzzy feelings for me.
I remember playing the board game Monopoly as a kid. My favorite Chance card was the one where Mr. Monopoly (or Rich Uncle Pennybags) collected his bank dividend of $50.
I thought that was so neat. Collecting money for nothing. Growing up as poor as I did, it seemed like a pipe dream as a child.
Well, it’s no pipe dream.
But it is a dream; it’s a dream of a lifestyle that almost anyone can live, as I’ve proven out over the years.
Mr. Monopoly sits on my shelf at home, reminding me every day of just how far I’ve come…
How far?
I went from below broke in early 2010 to financially independent in early 2016.
And I did so with no particular advantage(s) over anyone else. I grew up in a crack house in Detroit. My parents abandoned me. I have no college degree. I worked at a car dealership making ~$50,000 per year – until I didn’t.
Those six years of my life I set aside to aggressively save and intelligently invest my capital resulted in financial freedom at 33 years old – which is how I became Mr. Free At 33.
That financial freedom is underpinned by the five-figure and growing passive dividend income my FIRE Fund generates on my behalf.
I aptly named my portfolio the FIRE Fund because it allowed me to become financially independent and retire early (FIRE).
I built this portfolio on the tenets of dividend growth investing, whereby I allocate my capital almost exclusively toward high-quality stocks that have lengthy track records of paying rising dividends year after year.
These are world-class businesses. Because of that, they tend to rake in more profit year in and year out.
Well, shareholders are ultimately the collective owners of any publicly-traded company, and growing dividends are our rightful share of that growing profit.
The growing dividends that are sent my way by the businesses I own a slice of are enough to cover my essential expenses in life, meaning I don’t need to ever have a job again. Haven’t had one since turning 32 years old. And I have no plans to ever go back.
If you’re interested in using dividend growth investing to achieve FIRE for yourself, check out my two best-selling books on this: The Dividend Mantra Way and 5 Steps To Retire In 5 Years (also available in paperback).
What you’ll soon see is the tangible manifestation of all of these concepts I write about.
The table below lists every dividend I received (as well as each respective company that paid it) from the preceding month.
This is cash money, folks. Every time a dividend comes in, that’s real-life money I can use to do whatever I want with. Now we all know why Mr. Monopoly loved to kick back with a cigar, like a boss.
When you’re collecting a dividend a day, you are a boss!
Without further ado…
| AT&T Inc. (T) | $102.00 |
| General Mills, Inc. (GIS) | $36.75 |
| Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) | $45.19 |
| CVS Health Corp. (CVS) | $10.00 |
| American Express Company (AXP) | $7.80 |
| The Clorox Co. (CLX) | $28.80 |
| General Dynamics Corporation (GD) | $18.60 |
| Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD) | $22.00 |
| Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) | $3.85 |
| British Am Tobacco PLC (BTI) | $28.46 |
| Apple Inc. (AAPL) | $14.60 |
| ONEOK, Inc. (OKE) | $86.00 |
| Abbott Laboratories (ABT) | $11.20 |
| AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) | $42.80 |
| Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) | $21.00 |
| EPR Properties (EPR) | $15.01 |
| Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL) | $4.20 |
| Main Street Capital Corporation (MAIN) | $23.40 |
| Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) | $15.00 |
| National Retail Properties, Inc. (NNN) | $72.50 |
| Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) | $36.58 |
| Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. (OHI) | $105.60 |
| Stag Industrial Inc. (STAG) | $13.11 |
| Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (SKT) | $14.00 |
| Realty Income Corp. (O) | $21.42 |
| Chatham Lodging Trust (CLDT) | $15.95 |
| Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM) | $10.75 |
| Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) | $18.00 |
| Fastenal Company (FAST) | $29.50 |
| HCP, Inc. (HCP) | $29.60 |
| Welltower Inc. (WELL) | $39.15 |
| Total: | $942.82 |
Just for reference, a great resource for tracking your portfolio and everything related to it is Personal Capital.
I just want to express my gratitude for the position I’m in, the support I’ve received over the years, and the people at all of these companies working hard.
There are thousands of hard-working folks out there putting in a huge amount of effort, day in and day out, which is what ultimately results in these growing dividends coming my way. I owe them thanks.
It’s an amazing position for me to be in.
Dozens of world-class companies paid me this month. Not one. Not two or three. Dozens.
Some investors prefer to be highly concentrated. Good for them.
But I can only say that I sleep incredibly well at night knowing that I’ve got so many high-quality businesses out there going to bat for me, every single day. One or two massive companies could, for example, totally disappear tomorrow, yet I’d still be OK. That peace of mind is truly priceless.
And my mind’s peace continues to increase every single month, in part because the dividend income continues to increase every single month.
The compounding snowball that I started to roll years ago has developed an unstoppable momentum. That has created an unstoppable momentum behind my lifestyle options. My flexibility continues to grow. New opportunities sprout up every day.
I’ll give you some perspective on this snowball.
This month’s dividend income is 18.9% higher than the $792.98 I earned in February 2018. The total amount of dividend income I’ve collected in 2019 is now up to $1,876.77. I’ve realized 15.9% YOY growth compared to the $1,619.33 in dividend income I earned through February 2018.
These might seem like big numbers, but I started my journey to FIRE back in early 2010 while still in debt. I took one step at a time, just like everyone else. Each and every dollar saved and invested adds up. And it adds up quickly. Before you know it, compounding starts providing you a little tailwind. It eventually becomes a hurricane force tailwind. Once that starts gusting, you can’t be stopped.
The craziest thing about it is, I stopped aggressively investing three years ago. I achieved FIRE in March 2016 at the age of 33, which meant I basically achieved my major financial goals in life.
Ever since then, I’ve decided to allocate a good chunk of my resources toward other areas of my life. This income growth is mostly the result of the snowball just rolling at this point. If that’s not proof of the power of dividend growth investing, I don’t know what is.
Living off of dividends is the dream. And it’s a dream that can easily be a reality.
But the key, as always, is to get started. Life is too short to let these early retirement dreams pass you by.
I can certainly say I feel like I’m living inside of a dream. I wake up every day, overwhelmed with excitement to live exactly as I wish to. For a college dropout who grew up in a crack house in Detroit, it almost seems to good to be true at times.
This year is off to a phenomenal start for me. I hope all of you are having a great year thus far, too!
Full disclosure: I’m long all aforementioned stocks.
How was your month? How much dividend income did you collect? Is your dividend income (and the growth of it) living up to expectations?
Thanks for reading.
Image courtesy of: imgflip and WarnerMedia.
P.S. If you’d also like to collect five-figure dividend income and reach FIRE, check out some phenomenal tools and services that personally helped me become financially independent in my early 30s!
How much of your dividend income is taxed?
Grettman,
This amount of dividend income is under the 15% threshold for qualified dividends, which is taxed at zero. But it’s kind of a moot point because the overall amount of passive income we’re talking about here isn’t high enough to trigger much taxation in general terms.
Cheers!
Hi Jason there are a number of RIETs in your portfolio. I always have to pay tax on my REIT income as its classified as Non Qualified. The rate is really low only 10%.
Any way great to see continued growth on the income side. I just started tracking my dividend growth and am looking forward to comparing the numbers as time goes on.
All the best to you and everyone here on the blog 🙂
Bob
Bob,
REIT dividends aren’t qualified, but much of that income is often not classified as dividends. However, it’s a moot point. I mean, the standard deduction for 2019 is over $12k. You can actually use those online tax tools to get a feel for what you’d be paying in taxes regarding passive income. Of course, my exact situation won’t translate very well over to anyone else’s exact situation, which is why I don’t really get into taxes too often.
Cheers!
I understand the tax code. My wife still has a JOB 🙁 so I get a little hit on my non-qual dividends. Like I said it’s small so I dont mind and most riets pay a hefty dividend so it easly makes up for the few $ I pay 🙂
Very nicely done. Almost 20% higher in a year is amazing stats. Keep that up for sure. If you manage to do that February 2020 will bring in almost 1100. Now that is amazing growth.
BHL,
Thanks, man. I’ve never been in better financial, physical, or mental condition than I am right now. It’s really a dream come true. 🙂
We’ll see about 2020. The growth rate in percentage terms will naturally slow as the amounts grow larger, but things will soon start to get very interesting in absolute terms!
Hope you had a great month, too.
Best regards.
Congrats on an awesome month! It’s always nice to see double digit YOY growth. Imagine next year when you cross the $1K mark for February! The snowball gets bigger and bigger. 🙂
MDD,
Thanks so much!
It’s awesome to see the snowball roll faster like this. It’s basically running away from me. Feels good to know that I can take it easy and let compounding do its work. Frees me up to work on so many other aspects of my life. It’s a huge blessing. 🙂
Cheers!
Jason,
Almost 1k in one of the off months. That is simply great, shows what long germ planning and effort get you.
– Gremlin
DG,
Definitely. It’s a plan that I devised many years ago. To see it all come to fruition like this, in a very tangible way, is special. I’m really grateful that I’ve been able to share and show it almost from the beginning. I can still think back to when the portfolio was just a few grand. I was so determined and confident. There was never a doubt about it all working out, but these posts really allow it to “hit home” when you see the numbers like that.
Best regards!
Nice work Jason! 18.9% is some great growth! I wish I get those kind of raises every year at my job 😉 Keep up the great work, your path, story and results are extremely inspiring!
DP,
Thanks a lot. Appreciate it very much. If I can inspire a few people out there, I consider it all well worth it. 🙂
Cheers!
Hey Jason, I love seeing your monthly reports. I am beyond excited for the first time that you report that your ‘lightest’ dividend month meets, if not exceeds, your average COL. That will be an EPIC milestone in your financial journey. Maybe, at that point, we can talk about you becoming Mr Flush @ 33… although it will probably be Mr Flush @ 38 or 39 😛
Andrew,
It’s nice. Every YOY increase gives me a sense of relief. It just kind of grows that margin of safety, which allows me to allocate my resources more enjoyably and effectively. Looking at total passive income, which is coming up on $1,500/month, it feels great. I’m super fortunate. 🙂
Thanks for all the support. Hope all is well over there!!
Best wishes.
Hey I thought you didn’t like the cold weather? You’ve got a huge snowball out there! Haha
Amazing numbers here Jason. Nice to see that growth really take off on its own every single month.
3P,
I make an exception for a snowball. It’s the only exception I make. 😂
It’s great to see this stuff. I’m blessed to be in a position to show it. A lot of people continue to underestimate compounding. But seeing it add up like this is that “light bulb moment” for a lot of people. I do what I can to inspire!
Thanks for dropping by!
Best regards.
Love the YOY growth.
My February was down 6% but I’m still adjusting from switching over to a lot of mutual funds so my YOY numbers are a bit misleading. March should be a huge increase of last year and then I’ll see how my Q1 compares.
sfmitch,
That’s nice. It’ll be awesome to see what things look like next year after everything is all settled. Wishing you the best with it!
Cheers.
nice Jason
absolutely solid month with another great yr over yr growth rate.
keep it up man
cheers
CPI,
Thanks a lot!
Hope you also had a great month. 🙂
Best regards.
Congrats on another solid month! You are my goal
DSFI,
Hey, I’m glad to know that you’re getting some inspiration from this!
I stopped aggressively investing years ago, as it was never a goal of mine to have a bigger than necessary pile of money. So I’m sure others will surpass me in terms of portfolio value and all that. But if I can serve as a role model in terms of living one’s best life, that’s a real dream come true for me. 🙂
Best wishes.
Impressive year over year growth! How much of it was due to dividend growth vs. additional capital added to the stash? Thanks for sharing your journey.
PM!
Thanks!!
The vast majority of it was organic dividend growth. I post all of my stock purchases on social media and then share the rationale in full posts here on the blog. The FIRE Fund updates actually break down the dividend growth between organic and new purchases.
Cheers!
Dear jason,
Writing after a long time (although read the blog regularly). Great to see the success of fire! Was wondering if there is large monthly variation in total dividends. You are truelly an inspiration. Trying to get my daughter to read your blogs😀she is majoring in economy and starting to like the idea of dividends😀
Cheers,
Rishi
Rishi,
I appreciate the readership and support very much! 🙂
There’s a variation in dividends. You can see that in the monthly reports. However, it doesn’t actually matter in reality. My income at my old day job would oscillate quite a bit, too. Those who are good at budgeting get to FIRE. Those who are good at budgeting also know how to manage oscillating cash flow. Goes hand in hand.
Thanks for sharing the message!
Best wishes.
Congrats on the February results and you are no doubt off to a strong start for 2019. Certainly a portion of that YoY increase due to rate increases, but I guessing much of it was driven by reinvestment of dividends and additional capital contributions to the portfolio? Perhaps I am not paying all that close attention to your purchasing activity because I was under the impression that many of your purchases since retiring and moving to Thailand were nominal relative to the size of your portfolio, but the YoY increase in income suggests otherwise. In any event, great results no matter how you slice it!
On another note, reading your of your experiences living in Thailand seeing your photos here and on Facebook, have definitely peeked my interest in making a visit to the County, just not sure how soon that will be.
PIV,
Yeah, it’s pretty incredible stuff. The snowball just continues to blast away downhill. Most of the growth is organic. I actually split it up (organic versus new purchases) in every FIRE Fund update. So you can go back and see a number of updates over the last year to see how things shake out. The dividend growth from the portfolio is doing most of the work now. I think I invested less than $1,000 through March 1, for example.
Thailand is amazing. I’m living my best life here. It’s definitely not for everyone (thank goodness), but it’s been amazing for me. I’m enjoying it very much. 🙂
Best regards!