Dividend Income – Feb 2015 Update

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been using the same picture in our monthly dividend income update posts for the last few months. I love seeing how happy Dilbert and Willy are in this picture. I think this picture is perfect as it exemplifies the beauty of dividends – doing nothing and still getting paid. This is the best type of income. Every month when I tallying up our monthly dividend income, I always feel grateful and very fortunate that we are able to build a sizable dividend portfolio that pays a significant amount of money each month.

Another reason why I like dividend income so much is because eligible dividends are taxed at a much lower rate than active incomes. Thanks to how we structured our dividend portfolio, most of the dividends that we receive are in tax-sheltered accounts, so we don’t even pay taxes at all. The latest rumour is that the Harper government may raise the TFSA contribution limit to $10,000 next year (apparently the announcement will come in this spring). If this is true, this will be super awesome for us. Having a $10,000 TFSA contribution limit means that we will be able to put $20,000 aside each year and have this amount grow tax free. The dividends received inside the TFSA will be tax free as well. 🙂

In February we were very fortunate to be able to initiate a few purchases to add $312.13 in our forward looking annual dividend. With the recent market drops, we’re definitely looking to initiate a few more purchases. I’m working on our income tax filings and looks like we’ll get some money back. Our plan is to reinvest the refunds and also transfer whatever money that we’ve saved into the RRSP. For some reason I always get so excited around tax season because it allows us to re-examine our investment plan, tweak it, and make it even better.

 

Here’s a list of stocks that we received dividends in February 2015:

Apple (AAPL)
Pure Industrial REIT (AAR.UN)
Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO)
Chorus Aviation (CHR.B)
Corus Entertainment (CJR.B)
Canadian Oil Sand (COS.TO)
Dream Office REIT (D.UN)
Energyplus Corp (ERF.TO)
General Mills (GIS)
H&R REIT (HR.UN)
KEG Income Trust (KEG.UN)
Kinder Morgan (KMI)
Liquor Store (LIQ.TO)
National Bank (NA.TO)
Omega Healthcare (OHI)
Procter & Gamble (PG)
Potash (POT.TO)
RioCan REIT (REI.UN)
Royal Bank (RY.TO)
AT&T (T)
Vodafone (VOD)
Verizon (VZ)

In February we received a total of $867.64 in dividend! This is an increase of 38% compared to February 2014.

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Please note, when it comes to monthly dividend income, I do not differentiate US and Canadian currencies. To keep the math simple, I’m using a 1 to 1 currency rate when it comes to dividend income received in US currency. This may not be accurate but it keeps life simple.

It’s nice to see that we received more dividends from US companies this month. Back in January we only received dividend from one US company. One of my goals this year is to further diversify our dividend portfolio so we have more international exposures. One of the ways is by buying index ETF’s that focus on international companies, another way is to buy ADR (American Depositary Receipt) stocks.

So far in 2015 we have received a total of $1,490.49 in dividends. That’s an increase of 35.27% compared to the first two months of 2014. It’s exciting and assuring at the same time to see such awesome growth. It shows that we’re definitely on the right track and making some excellent progress!

Looking forward, I expect our March’s dividend income to be slightly below our March 2014’s dividend income. We had an abnormally high dividend amount last March because we received some special dividend payouts. Although the March dividend amount will be slightly lower, if we look at the dividend income from a quarterly basis, our Q1 2015 dividend income will look quite impressive compared to Q1 2014.

I can’t believe that we’re already in the 3rd month of 2015. Time sure flies when you’re having fun!

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52 thoughts on “Dividend Income – Feb 2015 Update”

  1. Tawcan,

    I agree with the majority of the commenters. Keep the picture of Dilbert. It is just about as great as your year over year increase in dividend income. Keep the snowball rolling.

    Thanks for sharing,

    The Money Spot

    Reply
  2. Tawcan,
    You’ve built up an impressive income stream.
    I am getting close to $100 a month, so I will have work harder :).
    Are these positions in your taxable accounts?
    I am thinking of ways of moving my mutual funds from my 401k into dividend stocks as well as using Roth accounts to limit future tax impacts.
    Tax season is really making me think :).
    Div4son

    Reply
    • Hi Div4son,

      Don’t feel discouraged, it has taken us years to build this kind of income stream. Most of our positions are in tax free or tax deferred accounts. I would say about 10% or so of our dividend portfolio is held in taxable accounts. It’s always a good idea to invest in tax sheltered accounts first.

      Reply
  3. Excellent passive income for the month Tawcan. If you keep at it, the passive income will eventually cover all your essential expenses then you can get to the financial freedom. I got lots of work to do Haha

    BSR

    Reply
    • I BeSmartRich,

      We’ll have to work on passive income a bit more to cover all of our expenses. But we’re not in a rush to achieve FI. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Holy Macaroni. That is awesome. Can’t believe you already have in sight the 10K$ dividend milestone. Great work!

    Reply
    • Hi Monsieur Dividende,

      $10k in dividend would be totally awesome. If you tell me this number is achievable a few years ago I’d tell you that you’re crazy. Just to show how powerful it is to have an investment strategy.

      Reply
  5. Great job! Almost $1,500 through two of the slower paying months is awesome. You’re going to kill it this year with dividend income. Especially since this month alone you were able to add over $300 to your forward dividends. Keep up the good work!

    Reply
  6. Tawcan,

    You’re crushing it, buddy! That’s some impressive income already. Even better is the YoY growth compared to last year.

    Glad to hear might be able to stash away more tax-free/deferred money in the future! That’ll give another big boost to your dividends.

    Keep it up,
    NMW

    Reply
    • Hi NMW,

      Being able to stash away more tax-free/deferred money is always good. This is probably something you wish you can do in Belgium right?

      Reply
  7. Tawcan,

    That picture is hilarious. I love the Dilbert comics. They always provide a great laugh when I need it most. Nothing is better than having a bad day at work and walking past someones desk with a funny three frame Dilbert comic.

    A 38% increase in dividend income is great compared to last year! Make sure you show us next month what your March 2015 total vs. your March 2014 less special dividend total. I am interested to see the growth in your core, recurring dividends. I am jealous that you received a lot of special dividends. Outside of mutual funds announcing capital gain distributions, I have not had any special dividend surprises. But it is bound to happen eventually, right??

    Keep up the great work!

    Bert

    Reply
  8. 35.27% increase, that’s amazing growth rate. You guys did a very good job job diversifying. Any international ETF that paying dividend you are recommending?

    Reply
  9. You’re doing a GREAT job! Congrats on such a substantial February and as you pointed out, all the better because there was no physical labor involved in getting this money. That’s how it’s done for sure! March should be even better.

    – HMB

    Reply
  10. Congrats on a huge February, Tawcan! $850 is absolutely crushing it. March is lining up to be a good month for Marie and me–can’t wait to see your results!

    Keep on saving,
    Charles

    *also, love the Dilbert header. That’s how I feel about dividends, too!

    Reply
    • Hi Charles,

      That’s great to hear that your March dividend income is lining up to be a good one too! It’s always good getting dividends.

      Reply
  11. Hi Tawcan,

    Love posts like this, you are powering your way towards FI! Very motivational, which is half the battle, keeping that motivation up 🙂

    Must be good to know that all these companies are working away, expanding and growing just so they can repay their kind owners…. you! 😀

    Mr Z

    PS – the picture is epic. They look properly stoked.

    Reply
    • Hi Mr. Zombie,

      Powering our way toward FI feels great. It’s great knowing that we own so many companies and they are working hard for us in generating some passive income.

      Reply
  12. Wow.. So many dividends from such awesome businesses! You’re killing it, my friend. Very inspiring, thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  13. Tawcan,

    What a dream of receiving that amount of money in doing NOTHING, great increase compare to last year and confident that next quarter, will be nice as well.
    Cheers,
    RA50

    Reply
    • Hi RA50,

      Thanks, the dividend income snowball is definitely rolling down the hill at a faster speed and getting bigger and bigger. 🙂

      Reply
  14. Great work Tawcan! You guys are doing excellent with the pace of increase you are seeing at such high dividend income levels. We can’t wait to see your next round of purchases as the market is starting to provide better prices for the long term investors. All the best.

    FD

    Reply
    • Hi Forward Dividends,

      We’re very happy with our progress and dividend income levels. Can’t wait to see what we’ll end up with in 2015.

      Reply
    • Hi Dividend Gremlin,

      Thanks, we’re hoping to add more companies into our portfolio, hopefully soon we’ll share more positions.

      Reply
  15. I’m just curious, and I’m asking everyone I know who does “dividend” or value investing, are your proceeds net of taxes?

    Reply
    • Hi Elroy,

      All the dividend income amounts are before taxes. Most of our holdings are in tax sheltered accounts so we don’t pay any taxes. I’d say about 10% of our portfolio is in taxable accounts.

      Reply
  16. The picture is great and I don’t think your readers will mind. Everytime I come to your blog I learn something new for I am still so conservative with my money, and your blog is proof that investing is not a just a dream, but can be a reality. Thanks for the education as always.

    Reply
  17. Please keep using the Dilbert picture for all of your dividend income posts 🙂

    You are off to a great start in 2015, as that’s a fantastic YOY increase. Keep it up!

    Reply
  18. Great Month! You’re doing it up Tawcan. keep up the great work bud. You’ll be financially independent in no time. Keep hustling and I’ll be seeing you. Thank you and take care.

    Reply
  19. Great work, Tawcan! By February 2016 you should be pushing or exceed $1,000 for one of the more difficult dividend months. That should feel amazing and deserves a beer or your beverage of choice when the time comes:)

    It’s nice to see AAPL show up on someone else’s list. It’s not the most popular dividend growth stock, but I consider it a staple of my portfolio and foresee many years of excellent growth ahead regardless of how the Apple Watch performs.

    I’d love to get OHI into my portfolio at some point. It’s one of the ones I came oh so close to buying last year and has gained significantly — along with the whole REIT sector — since then. Interest rate fears are already pulling REITs down a little and OHI is where I planning on moving some or all of my currently dead ARCP position to.

    Best,
    DWC

    Reply
    • Hi DWC,

      It would be awesome to receive $1,000 per month on average. That’s something we’re working very hard to achieve.

      AAPL is not the most popular dividend growth stock but considering the company is loaded with cash, I think we’ll continue seeing dividend growth in the future.

      I really like OHI because as the general population ages, there’s more and more need for OHI facilities.

      Reply

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