As many of my readers may know, I love dividend stocks and believe dividends provide a great source of passive income. Moving forward, I will be providing quarterly updates regarding my dividend income. Utilizing 'The Dividend Report' section of my blog, I will share my progress towards my dividend goals. I will also share dividend growth stock ideas and thoughts. Additionally, I will share the rational behind any future purchases or sales. Dividends are truly a wonderful thing.
The current goal is to average $1,500/month in dividend checks. I would like dividends to provide between 25-33% of my monthly retirement income. However, this goal may be revised upwards over time.
Going through old statements from the last three years took a great deal of effort. However, the end result was well worth the time since all of my dividend data is compiled (see graph & table below). On a go forward, it will be much easier to track my dividend progress. The great news is that my dividend income has increase modestly over the past three years but is still far from my goal.
My Q2-2016 dividend income was $453.51. Last quarter (Q1-2016), my dividend income was $344.93. This equates to a $108.58 or 31.5% increase from the previous quarter. The increase was largely due to the additions of dividends from Disney and Kraft Heinz; both stocks were purchased in February. Additionally, I also acquired more shares of Wells Fargo to during the market pull-back. Lastly, continued 401k contributions also provided a source of more dividends via index funds.
Last year's second quarter dividend income was $256.42. This equates to a $197.09 or 76.8% increase from the same quarter last year.
My average monthly dividend income is $153.17 ($453.51 / 3 months = $153.17), which is 10.07% of my current goal of $1,500/month.
Thanks for letting us follow along. How are you choosing which dividend stocks to buy?
Thanks for following. That is a great question and there will be a future blog post (or several) covering my selection criteria and methodology. I have outperformed the S&P 500 consistently.
Nice! Our dividend income goals are pretty close. We're looking to get $17,000 a year in income. We're only doing index funds for now though.
That is a great goal. Will the $17,000 cover all your expenses? If not, what other forms of income will you look to?