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) | $15.00 |
| Raytheon Company (RTN) | $23.56 |
| American Express Company (AXP) | $7.80 |
| The Clorox Co. (CLX) | $28.80 |
| General Dynamics Corporation (GD) | $20.40 |
| Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD) | $23.20 |
| British Am Tobacco PLC (BTI) | $32.98 |
| Abbott Laboratories (ABT) | $11.20 |
| AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) | $42.80 |
| Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) | $21.50 |
| EPR Properties (EPR) | $15.01 |
| Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL) | $4.20 |
| Main Street Capital Corporation (MAIN) | $24.00 |
| Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) | $18.75 |
| National Retail Properties, Inc. (NNN) | $72.50 |
| Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) | $38.04 |
| ONEOK, Inc. (OKE) | $86.50 |
| Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. (OHI) | $105.60 |
| Stag Industrial Inc. (STAG) | $13.11 |
| Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (SKT) | $14.20 |
| Realty Income Corp. (O) | $21.47 |
| Apple Inc. (AAPL) | $15.40 |
| Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) | $3.85 |
| WestRock Company (WRK) | $9.10 |
| HCP, Inc. (HCP) | $29.60 |
| Fastenal Company (FAST) | $21.50 |
| Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) | $18.00 |
| Nestle SA (NSRGY) | $48.47 |
| Welltower Inc. (WELL) | $39.15 |
| Chatham Lodging Trust (CLDT) | $15.95 |
| Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM) | $12.00 |
| Total: | $1,037.58 |
Just for reference, a great resource for tracking your portfolio and everything related to it is Personal Capital.
The money for nothing, my life for free.
These are some fantastic, world-class enterprises here. They’re providing the products and/or services the world demands, earning very healthy profits as a result. And they’re paying me a growing slice of those growing profits. I’m so fortunate to be in this position.
While others pay attention to stock prices, news broadcasts, and political headlines, I collect my dividends and go about my way. It’s so easy, it’s almost silly.
And because these companies are providing the world with what it wants, they’ll very likely continue to make more money year after year. It’s all about selling more products/services, to more people, at higher prices.
That means more dividend income for yours truly.
This is the nature of a dividend growth snowball. It’s an inevitable avalanche.
Let’s see this snowball in action.
This month’s dividend income is 9.4% higher than the $948.68 I earned in May 2018. The total amount of dividend income I’ve collected in 2019 is now up to $5,347.02. I’ve realized 11.6% YOY growth compared to the $4,798.97 in dividend income I earned through May 2018.
I couldn’t be more proud of or pleased with the Fund and the life situation I find myself in.
Indeed, they’re inextricably linked. I’m only able to live my dream early retirement life in Thailand because of the Fund and the growing passive dividend income it generates for me. I’m incredibly grateful for this.
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 the majority 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 has been phenomenal 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!
At first I was skeptical of your plan but I realized it might be similar to a real estate strategy I have considered… buy a rental property without care of appreciation that generates a good cash flow relative to initial investment. Well done!
Mike,
Thanks!
Stock prices go up and down every day, but dividends tend to only go in one direction. One is much, much less volatile than the other. 🙂
What the market is doing doesn’t matter to me. Capital gains do nothing for my life. If anything, I honestly prefer lower prices.
Cheers!
How do you feel about Raytheon now that they are merging with United Technologies? Are you going to just hold and get the extra shares for extra dividend income or do you plan to see pre and/or post merger?
Brian,
I’ll continue holding and collecting my growing dividends, of course. 🙂
By the way, I don’t sell stocks:
https://www.mrfreeat33.com/why-i-will-never-sell-another-stock/
Best regards.
Hi Jason,
Over 1k in May is really solid! Congratulations and well done.
My dividend income was also rocking in May at around $7.2k or so. We are also now back in Bangkok and that is a great feeling. It is truly wonderful to be back!
Hope to catch up with you again soon, it’s been too long since last time.
Cheers,
Mike
Mike,
That’s awesome. Welcome back to BKK/Thailand! 🙂
Yeah, I do hope we can catch up. Perhaps when we head down there later this year. The time flies by so fast when we’re in BKK. Just so much to see and do (and eat).
Best wishes!
Hi Jaaon Fantastic 🙂 I really enjoy the monthly dividend updates I’ve added a few of the same companies to my Fun Fund.
Dividends are definitely a relative thing. I was watching a interview with Warren B he was being questioned about KHC the price drop the dividend cut ect. He listened for a bit and then kindly told the person ” We still received a dividend check of over $100 million this quarter ” Warren had a wide smile 🙂 no need to sell anything with a dividend check like that 🙂
Thanks again for all you do. Enjoy 🙂
Bob
Bob,
Well, my dividend checks aren’t anywhere near Buffett’s, but I still have a very wide smile every time one comes in. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by!
Cheers.
Fantastic month! Always nice to see 4-digit numbers in dividend income. Great payouts from T and OHI as well! Always very impressive! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
MDD,
My pleasure to share. I just hope it inspires a few people out there. 🙂
Best regards.
It is a wonderful thing to see others set and accomplish significant goals. Thanks for sharing and congrats on the ever growing income stream.
PIV,
Thanks so much. Appreciate the support!
A lot of people didn’t know what to make out of my goals back in the day. It’s hard to think that some poor kid from Detroit is gonna dig out of this big hole and reach FIRE in short order.
It’s a dream life nowadays. And part of that dream for me is helping others make their dreams come true. 🙂
Best wishes.
Congrats Jason on another great month for you, I did just about the same at around 1K. You have an excellent stock portfolio destined to only go up in dividend growth. Isn’t that neat! I don’t pay much attention to the capital gains either. As long as our companies are solid and healthy financially you can’t help it but get growth. I wish all the best for you and girlfriend. Take care; Omar
Omar,
Sounds like we both had a great month. Awesome!!
Appreciate the support. I certainly wish the same for you and yours over there. 🙂
Cheers.
J –
Heck yes, a 4 digit month of May for you! Also, love the long list, as always. High quality companies, sending you checks.
One thing I hope is that HCP can start to really fire on all cylinders and get back to that cash flowing/dividend increasing path they were on, as long as performance supports it. Nice job!
-Lanny
Lanny,
Yeah, I’m with you. I do hope HCP gets back on the right track with the dividend raises. They’ve been making some good moves with the business of late, so I think that’ll come down the line.
Hope you and Bert also had a fantastic May! 🙂
Best regards.
That’s a lot of companies in your FIRE fund. I read somewhere it says for individual, 10 or less stocks are enough to be diversified. Is there a reason why your fund is over 100 stocks?
Ellen,
Well, this isn’t related to the article. But diversification is really an individual call. If you can sleep at night riding it out with just 10 companies, I say go for it. I personally wouldn’t want to bet my financial life on just 10 businesses, since anything can happen. And since artificially limiting oneself doesn’t make investing any cheaper or easier, I don’t see the purpose of taking on the risk of being so concentrated.
Cheers.
Fantastic Jason. Yet another 1000 dollar month. Killing it.
BHL,
Thanks, man!
Hope you also had a great month over there. 🙂
Best wishes.
My May dividends were almos $3k…i was happy until i read Mike $7.2k :0)
Mark,
Comparison is the thief of joy. 😉
https://www.mrfreeat33.com/we-are-the-1/
But great job over there. That’s a hell of a month!
Cheers.
Comparison is good when you use it to motivate you :0)
Mark,
I guess. I only ever compared myself to my best effort. I personally couldn’t care less about what anyone else earns, owns, etc.
Cheers.