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…
| Aflac Incorporated (AFL) | $48.60 |
| Pfizer Inc. (PFE) | $21.60 |
| Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) | $40.50 |
| WEC Energy Group Inc. (WEC) | $14.75 |
| JM Smucker Co. (SJM) | $12.75 |
| Phillips 66 (PSX) | $21.60 |
| Enbridge Inc. (ENB) | $47.13 |
| Visa Inc. (V) | $5.00 |
| Southern Co. (SO) | $51.00 |
| Discover Financial Services (DFS) | $6.00 |
| TJX Companies Inc. (TJX) | $1.95 |
| Southside Bancshares, Inc. (SBSI) | $24.00 |
| Amgen, Inc. (AMGN) | $14.50 |
| Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) | $16.40 |
| Chevron Corporation (CVX) | $23.80 |
| Emerson Electric Co. (EMR) | $41.65 |
| Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) | $47.30 |
| Int'l Business Machines Corp. (IBM) | $31.40 |
| United Technologies Corporation (UTX) | $29.41 |
| Target Corporation (TGT) | $3.20 |
| Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) | $15.75 |
| Hanesbrands Inc. (HBI) | $10.50 |
| Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) | $90.00 |
| 3M Co. (MMM) | $14.40 |
| United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) | $24.00 |
| CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (CNP) | $25.88 |
| Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) | $11.50 |
| EPR Properties (EPR) | $15.01 |
| Flowers Foods, Inc. (FLO) | $48.60 |
| Hershey Co. (HSY) | $18.05 |
| Main Street Capital Corporation (MAIN) | $23.40 |
| McDonald's Corporation (MCD) | $63.80 |
| Stag Industrial Inc. (STAG) | $13.11 |
| Polaris Industries Inc. (PII) | $12.20 |
| Realty Income Corp. (O) | $21.42 |
| Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) | $27.82 |
| VF Corp. (VFC) | $28.05 |
| Dominion Resources, Inc. (D) | $27.53 |
| Unilever PLC (UL) | $44.22 |
| The Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) | $8.00 |
| Linde PLC (LIN) | $8.75 |
| Harris Corporation (HRS) | $27.40 |
| Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.B) | $47.00 |
| Public Storage (PSA) | $10.00 |
| Qualcomm, Inc. (QCOM) | $37.20 |
| Brinker International, Inc. (EAT) | $28.50 |
| Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD) | $12.60 |
| Chatham Lodging Trust (CLDT) | $15.95 |
| C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (CHRW) | $12.50 |
| Crown Castle International Corp. (CCI) | $16.88 |
| Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) | $48.60 |
| Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) | $10.60 |
| NorthWestern Corp. (NWE) | $14.38 |
| Union Pacific Corporation (UNP) | $52.80 |
| Travelers Companies Inc. (TRV) | $7.70 |
| PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) | $71.42 |
| Service Corporation International (SCI) | $3.60 |
| BP PLC (BP) | $67.65 |
| Total: | $1,539.31 |
Just for reference, a great resource for tracking your portfolio and everything related to it is Personal Capital.
A new record. This is the first time I’ve ever earned this much dividend income in a single month.
Truly amazing stuff. I couldn’t be happier with or more proud of what’s become of the Fund.
More importantly, I couldn’t be happier with or more proud of what I’ve been doing with this incredible opportunity. I’m taking maximum advantage of this freedom, every single day. I don’t ever want to look back and feel like I let all of this slip by me. I’d be so disappointed in myself if I let this time and autonomy go to waste. I truly am out here making my dreams come true. It’s something I’m very grateful for.
This is only the second month ever in which I collected over $1,500 in dividend income in a single month. I’m looking forward to many more!
Sleep comes easy to me these days. There’s no reason to toss and turn when I know I’ve got so many wonderful businesses out there going to bat for me. Thousands of employees are working hard, ensuring that growing profit rolls in, and I end up collecting increasing dividends as a result of all of this. Meanwhile, I do practically nothing for it. It’s the easiest work I’ve ever done.
Of course, that’s slightly tongue-in-cheek. I had to work extremely hard in order to go from below broke to financially independent in six years. That required otherworldly effort.
But collecting this ongoing and increasing dividend income doesn’t require ongoing and increasing effort. I’m on easy street these days.
The compounding dividend snowball I started to roll back in 2010 has an unstoppable momentum behind it now. I just have to stay out of the way, more or less.
I’ll give you some perspective on this snowball.
This month’s dividend income is 5.9% higher than the $1,454.07 I earned in March 2018. The total amount of dividend income I’ve collected in 2019 is now up to $3,416.08. I’ve realized 11.1% YOY growth compared to the $3,073.40 in dividend income I earned through March 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 achieved my primary financial goal 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!
That’s such an amazing amount – a very nice monthly wage 🙂
Nicola,
It’s a lot more than I made waiting tables during college. Even my full-time jobs in my early 20s didn’t pay this much. And that was all very hard work. This is, to put it mildly, much easier and more enjoyable.
Hope you also had a great month over there. 🙂
Best regards.
That is an awesome month! I am nearing the end of my MBA and not sure the education is really going to pay off for me and still going to have to pay back the debt incurred from it. Don’t want to sell off too much income either. I reached $400 for the first time in a month in March.
Great work early on really does set you up for a more free future!
SWAN
SWAN,
Hey, congratulations on the upcoming graduation. That’s exciting. Hope it works out for the best! 🙂
And great work there with the new milestone. It only gets bigger and better from here.
Cheers!
You continue to inspire my friend. Keep up the good work, or in this case, the non-work…
Andrew,
Thanks, man!
If it’s inspirational, I consider my work – or non-work – complete. 🙂
Best regards.
Congrats on a record month! Over $1,500 in dividends is fantastic! I crossed the $1K milestone for the first time ever last month. March sure was an exciting and awesome month. Anyways, congrats again on reaching new heights! Keep up the great work! 🙂
MDD,
Congrats to you, too. That’s awesome stuff. I still remember crossing over the four-figure mark in a single month for the first time. Very special. The acceleration from there is awesome. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by!
Best wishes.
Gogogogogogo! Love me some distributions.
fv,
Dividends do give me those warm and fuzzy feelings. 🙂
Cheers!
It’s amazing to see the snowball continue to grow when it is basically on automatic pilot these days. With a long list like that we no doubt share many of the same names. Keep it going. It is the “forever portfolio.”
DH,
Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s really rolling now. I couldn’t be any happier. The Fund is a wonderful collection of wonderful businesses, and I’m extremely fortunate to own a slice of them all. 🙂
Best regards.
Great progress, Jason. That is more than enough inciting cover you even if you had zero active income, which is not the case so this comes in at above and beyond.
March 2019 dividend income was another record for me as well, coming in at $11,784. It’s a stunning income level to fathom considering that I had struggled very hard about 18 years ago to make this level of monthly income and now it’s just automatic. That just provides an amazing safety net in life to cover the family and other pursuits. It’s a real blessing for sure.
-Mike
Mike,
It’s a great spot to be in. I’ll probably always be productive and earn some kind of active income as a result, just because remaining productive is a key component to enjoying life. But it’s awesome to know that I can do whatever I want, regardless of the money, which allows me to align my passions and that productivity.
Congrats on the great month over there. That kind of financial security is priceless! 🙂
Cheers.
Congrats on the the new personal record…they are of course meant to be broken 🙂
PIV,
Absolutely. Records are meant to be broken, and the nature of a compounding snowball ensures that’s exactly what happens. 🙂
Best wishes!
Jason –
It’s surreal isn’t it? Setting records with less work. The growth in percentage and in $ amount terms is simply amazing. Nice job J!
-Lanny
Lanny,
Totally surreal. I honestly can’t believe it sometimes. I wake up when I want, then go do exactly what I want, every day. I live where I want and spend time with people I love being around. It’s a dream. I’m super fortunate. 🙂
I’m sure you guys had an awesome, March too. It’s great to see those numbers – and the freedom it provides – grow.
Thanks for dropping by!
Best regards.
Love to see this. It shows what patience and a little time will do. Keep it up.
hobbies,
Thanks. I love showing these reports like this, since they showcase the power of organic dividend growth. 🙂
Hope you also had a great month over there.
Cheers!
I love the blog and congrats on hitting a new record.
Reminds me of the famous Rockefeller quote: “Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.”
Of course we know there are many other things that give us pleasure, but the dividends give us freedom. March was also a record month for me.
FP,
Thanks a lot. Appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to read. 🙂
Yeah, I certainly hope Rockefeller got pleasure out of more in life than just dividends. I’ve always kind of cringed whenever I’ve come across that quote.
Congrats on a new record. Keep it up!!
Best regards.
Hi Jason, happy for your hapiness! 🙂
If you started over today, would you buy the same stocks? And how do you keep track of them? I myself have been buying dividend stocks for a couple of years and as their value increase I get more nervous about the future. But it is almost impossible for me, and for you I guess to analyze all these stocks every month, or even 6months.
How do you approach this?
Best regards
Andreas
Andreas,
Thanks a lot! 🙂
Managing a large portfolio isn’t difficult or time consuming. Most of it now is just holding and collecting my dividends, which isn’t terribly different from buying a large index fund (a diversified collection of stocks) and sitting on it. People tend to overcomplicate this. I covered the ins and outs of the management side a number of years ago:
https://www.dividendmantra.com/2014/11/is-managing-a-large-dividend-growth-stock-portfolio-time-consuming/
Hope that helps!
Cheers.
Great post, thanks! 🙂
My dividend income is still fairly small but I do love checking my account every month to see what kind of growth I have had, that’s my favorite part about dividend investing.
Chad,
It’s awesome to receive pay raises for doing absolutely nothing. Keep it up. Those numbers grow faster than you might think. 🙂
Cheers.
Hi Jason,
normal I don´t write much below dividend payout articles but crossing 1.500 $ is a nice milestone. And it will get even every year better. What I´m always wondering is, that you have to do so much in the beginning to catch 100 $ / 200 $ /300 $ income per month. The most difficult part of it and the first 100.000 $ are really hard to archieve. But now you are 4 times away from this milestone and it seems that there is nothing simpler to cross the next 100 $/month to the existing income. The complete opposite of it, it seems for me way to easy now.
So there is no concern, as long as we are not forced to sell shares, that this will change a lot in the negative in the future. No, it will get every year better. Same as you I collect some active money with my projects and I don´t need this active money. On the other side I don´t let it happen to work for nothing or too less money because I don´t want to ruin the market for others if I work for none. I also buy from time to time some shares, but it simple doesn´t make any sense for me. March was not a record month due to the special dividend from BBL (I have quite a lot of them) and a special payment from Dr Pepper Snapples takeover in January, but without these two positions it would.. This is also not that important any more and I love to write this.
Best regards
Oliver
Oliver,
Sounds like we have a similar mindset and find ourselves in a similar position in life. It’s a great spot be in. 🙂
Many people, even those with plenty of money, never seem to make it up Maslow’s hierarchy. They continue to muck around at the bottom, accumulating more money at the expense of their more finite and valuable resources, and then wonder why they’re not yet happy. It’s a shame, but there’s not much I can do about that. I just go about my wonderful life and share whatever insight I learn on the way.
Thanks for dropping by!
Best wishes.
Hi I’m new here. As you have this blog and related products, doesn’t this mean that you’re living on much more than $1500 per month? Otherwise you’d still have a very frugal lifestyle. If I could sell products like you do, I’d be very happy. For me, that’s a great success.
David,
Glad you found the blog. Definitely a lot of content to check out. Hope you enjoy.
Speaking of content, I publicly share my expenses every month. I typically spend between $1,200 and $1,300 per month, which passive income covers. However, that includes various luxuries. And I also pay for my significant other’s way whenever we’re together. I actually spend only about $1,000 on my essential expenses every month.
Here’s my latest expense report:
https://www.mrfreeat33.com/expenses-for-february-2019/
Cheers!
Thanks..I live in Australia so that budget would be pushing it!
Interestingly I see you have mostly individual stocks as opposed to ETFs . You can create your own ‘index’ anyhow but over here ETFs offer us easier exposure to overseas markets.
Jason,
That is awesome, 50 or so different companies with 50 paychecks adding up to 1500. The sheer numbers of companies will boggle some minds, but I think you got the right idea with casting a wide net. In reference to index funds and etfs… screw them, you just built your own for much less in fees.
– Gremlin
Gremlin,
Yeah, I’m right there with you. If someone wants a fund, go for it. To each their own. But a fund is not magic. It’s simply a collection of stocks that someone else picked. I happen to really like my collection. No ongoing fees, tax efficiency, and the robust and growing dividend income certainly keeps me happy. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by!
Best wishes.
Congrats on the second month crossing $1500. You give me more encouragement to pursue financial independence.
DSFI,
Glad to hear that. If there’s anything I’d ever want to accomplish with the writing, it’s to inspire others to make their dreams come true. Financial security and freedom is the foundation we need to go out there and do so many amazing things. 🙂
Best regards!
Jason, the 11% year over year growth is amazing. But, did some of that come from adding new shares/new purchases of stock?
DD,
It’s mostly organic growth. I stopped aggressively investing three years ago after achieving my overarching personal financial goal of FIRE at 33 years old. You can go back and see any/all of the FIRE Fund updates over the last year, all of which discuss portfolio activity.
Cheers!