Can you believe there are only 4 more months left for 2017 and fall is just around the corner? Often I wish I have more time on my hands so I can get more things done!
I spent the Labour Day long weekend pressure washing our patio and deck. Boy I sure got very messy and muddy. I ended up hosing myself down before entering the house. Although it was very messy, it was very satisfying to see a cleaner patio and deck. I might have to pressure washing again though since I missed a few spots here and there. Time to get dirty again!
FinCon is coming up in late October and I am looking forward to stalking errr meeting many bloggers in person. Plutus Award is given out during FinCon. If you like this blog, I would really appreciate if you can nominate this blog for Best International Personal Finance Blog. Click here to nominate. Thank you!
Aug Dividend Income
In August 2017 we received dividend income from 27 companies:
- AbbView (ABV)
- Apple (AAPL)
- Pure Industrial REIT (AAR.UN)
- Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO)
- Care Capital Properties (CCP)
- Corus Entertainment
- Dream Office REIT (D.UN)
- Dream Global REIT (DRG.UN)
- Dream Industrial REIT (DIR.UN)
- Emera (EMA.TO)
- Enbridge Income Trust (ENF.TO)
- General Mills (GIS)
- H&R REIT (HR.UN)
- Inter Pipeline (IPL.TO)
- KEG Income Trust (KEG.UN)
- National Bank (NA.TO)
- Omega Healthcare (OHI)
- Procter & Gamble (PG)
- Potash (POT.TO)
- Prairiesky Royalty (PSK.TO)
- RioCan REIT (REI.UN)
- Royal Bank (RY.TO)
- Starbucks (SBUX)
- Smart REIT (SRU.UN)
- AT&T (T)
- Vodafone (VOD)
- Verizon (VZ)
In total we received $1,276.98Â in dividend income. This is very close to the record dividend income of $1,282.42 that we received back in July 2018. And of course, very close to breaking the $1,300 milestone once again.
Hopefully before the end of 2017 we would break the $1,300 milestone.
Out of the $1,276.98 dividend income that we received in August, $381.73 was in USD and $895.25 was in CAD. Please note, we use a 1 to 1 currency rate approach. Therefore, we do not convert dividends received in USD to CAD. We are ignoring exchange rate to keep the math simple. This is our way to avoid fluctuations in dividend income over time due to changes in the exchange rate.
The top 5 dividend payouts in August 2017 were Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank, National Bank, Vodafone, and Omega Healthcare. The top 5 payouts accounted for 58.3% of our August dividend income.
Dividend Income Breakdown
We hold our dividend stocks in taxable accounts, RRSPs, and TFSAs. Every year, we maximize tax-advantage accounts first before investing in taxable accounts.
For August dividend income, the breakdown across the different accounts are:
- Taxable:Â $284.38 or 22.27%
- RRSPs:Â $629.41 or 49.29%
- TFSAs:Â $363.19 or 28.44%
Majority of the August dividend income was tax free (yea!) just as per planned. We try to be as tax efficient as possible by investing REITs and income trusts in TFSA only and US dividend paying stocks in RRSPs only. We only invest in eligible Canadian dividend paying companies in taxable accounts.
Dividend Growth
Compared to August 2016, we saw a YOY growth of 14.51%. Not the best performance matrix but still pretty reputable considering we received over $1,100 in dividend income in August 2016.
Dividend Increases
In August a number of stocks that we own in our portfolio announced dividend increase:
- Saputo raised its dividend by 6.7% to $0.16 per share
- Royal Bank raised its dividend by 4.6% to $0.91 per share
- CIBC raised its dividend by 2.36% to $1.30 per share
- Bank of Nova Scotia raised its dividend by 3.95% to $0.79 per share
All these organic dividend growths have added $111.04 toward our annual dividend income.
To get the same increase in annual dividend income, at 3% dividend yield, we would have to invest over $3,700 of fresh capital. This is why organic dividend growth is so important.
Dividend Stock Transactions
In August we continued adding shares to stocks that we already own. We purchased
- 70 shares of Inter Pipeline (IPL.TO)
- 38 shares of High Liner Foods (HLF.TO)
In addition, we received 4 shares of Sabra Health Care (SBRA) from the Care Capital spinoff.
In total we increased our annual dividend income by $147.16
Summary
Thanks to 27 pay cheques, we received over $1,200 in dividend income in August 2017. This is pretty awesome for doing absolutely nothing and having our money working hard for us.
So far in 2017 we have received $9,716.16 in dividend income.
To give some quantitative perspective, at $40/hour wage ($83,200 annual), our dividend income has saved us over 242 working hours, or 30.3 days already. That’s over 6 weeks worth of work!!!
Our goal for 2017 is to receive over $15,000 in dividend income. At this point we are about $283.84 or 2.83% behind target. With only 4 months left, we will see if we can increase our monthly dividend income and achieve this goal. Stay tuned!
Dear readers, how was your August dividend income?
Tawcan, great month again.
Always great to have div increases by companies.
Regarding HLF, I own it, too. I don’t have a full position and question if I should pick up more. Yes, the price is right but I never ever see anybody buying their products when I am shopping. People seem to always go for fresh produce.
Odd I’ve been seeing people buying HLF products in the local grocery stores.
Tawcan,
As always…fantastic month. Your income totals continue to impress. What I love best from your article is seeing the total summary, the dividend increases, and the transactions. Sure, the results now are amazing. But you are continuing to set the table for strong dividend growth in future periods by pushing ahead and making a ton of moves.
Keep it up and feel free to stop by my place if you miss washing decks and want to take on another project haha
Bert
Thanks Bert. It’s great to see money coming in every month without having to do anything. 😀
Woot awesome man! You guys are killing it. It is truely great to see! How many different companies do yoi have in your portfolio?
Cheers
Thanks, you can check in our dividend portfolio page.
That’s pretty impressive man. How is your overall portfolio performing on a YTD return basis..?
I like how you add the hours of work week(s) saved analysis to this post! Its absolutely essential to remind yourself as to why you’re in this, so as to have the long term view and in the process staying motivated.
I have begun to track my dividends, but they’re paltry when compared to the others in this PF blogging community. Although, my investing style is different..
Thanks, I like having quantitative analysis to show how much our dividend income has saved us in terms of time.
I don’t share the YTD return basis on the blog since we also own non-dividend paying stocks.
Solid month Tawcan! And yeah this year has gone by unusually fast, at least in my mind. I’m not even sure where summer went.
Thanks MrSLM. Looks like you had a very solid August dividend income too. I wonder if we’ll ever catch up to you guys. 🙂
Nice month Tawcan!
I found your purchases interesting. I am thinking about selling my interpipeline, which i have held since early 2012. Nothong company specific, but I also own Enbridge and Transcanada so looking to reduce pipeline exposure.
I like the Highliner purchase. It has been on my watchlist along with Intertape Polymer and Northwest Company.
That makes sense you’re reducing pipeline exposure. Our exposure in pipeline is a bit limited, hence for our purchase of IPL.
As always a solid showing for the month and awesome year over year gain too, especially with a four figure amount coming in. Nice to see a handful of names in common too. Keep up the good work. An inspiration to all.
Fantastic work. You really are smashing it this year. And wow, 30 days of “free” work, that is an awesome way to look at your income. Well done to you. Keep up the excellent work.
Thank you Buy, Hold Long. 🙂
Very nicely done Bob! Solid stream of dividends from those companies. It’s so satisfying to do outdoor work, especially if its gets oneself dirty. August was my first dividend month so it was nice to finally have dividends to post about!
Thanks man. It’s nice to spend some time “improving” our house. Nicely done on getting your first dividend income.
I love seeing the organic dividend growth broke out the way you did.
The raise can seem small, but when you compare it to how much capital you’d have to invest to achieve the same amount…that raise looks a whole lot bigger.
Thanks Nick. It’s a good parameter to monitor. Yes the raise can seem small but when you consider how much money you’d have to invest, it adds up!
Nice dividend income this month Tawcan!
This was one of the “off” months for my dividends, so you beat me soundly this month! I’ll catch up in September! 😉
Hi Mr. Tako,
You guys had a “slow” month but your overall dividend income for 2017 is really solid. Hopefully we’ll be able to match yours in Sept.
Great job as usual Tawcan!! Always an inspiration! I too find it hard to believe that there are only several months left this year. And congrats on the number of payers – 27 is awesome! And great growth as well. August was a record month for me personally and I saw good growth, like you did. Thanks for sharing and keep it up!
Passive Income Dude
Hi Dan,
Thanks, getting 27 pay cheques is definitely great, that’s a lot of diversification. Awesome that you had a record month in August. 🙂
I am curious what is the reason that you have both US telecomm stocks but none of Canadian ones? I thought Telus and Bell are better than AT&T and Verizon if you look at the dividend growth rate? I am also tempted to buy CHL in order to benefit from China’s fast growth.
Hi May,
If you look at our dividend portfolio we own Telus, Bell, and Rogers. Just they didn’t pay any dividends in August.
I see. Just took a look at your portfolio, well done. I am in the process of building a dividend growth portfolio, so far I got 34 stocks and my target is around 50 stocks eventually. I feel 50 is plenty to take care of. I am wondering how do you manage your portfolio? 71 stocks would take lots of time and energy to track. Or is your strategy actually buy and forget? I have bought MFC long time ago during 2008, and just forgot about it literally. When I came to look at it, for these many years, the total return is only a little bit more than 10%. Considering inflation, I actually lost money with MFC. So I feel even for dividend growth stock, even with company normally would be considered as quite safe, buy and forget is not a good strategy.
Time flys when you are having fun and with dividend totals like that, I bet you are having a lot of fun!!
Keep up the great work. Glad to see your higher than average holding in OHI. That is my biggest dividend payer by far. Nice to see some more confidence from other bloggers revolving around that holding.
ADD
Thanks ADD. Love the dividend income just keeps rolling in! 😀
I know, right! I can’t believe we only have 4 months left in 2017. I feel like it was February just a month ago. Where did time go? I wish I had more time in a day almost every day. Since it’s impossible, I’ve been trying to be more efficient with my time, but it’s proven to be challenging. I’m still working on it. And congrats on a successful month of dividend income!
P.S. I like the photo! Is it ice-cream?
It’s crazy how quickly time seems to fly this year. Definitely need to try to be more efficient with my time. 🙂
It was a ice-cream pudding that we had in an owl cafe in Japan.
Awesome month! What percentage of your investment portfolio is REIT? I have Riocan as well and recently bought more. What is your asset allocation- are you more weighted in Canadian given the favorable taxation of dividend paging companies?
About 15% of our portfolio is in REITs with a mixture of Canadian and US REITs. We are more weighted in Canadian dividend paying stocks due to currency exchange. We do hold a good portion of US dividend paying stocks in our portfolio.