Wow I can’t believe 2016 is half way over already. It’s that time of the month where I post my favourite topic – monthly dividend income update! For those of you that are new to this site, each month I provide an update on our dividend income and our dividend growth. We love dividend income because it’s money that we receive for doing absolutely nothing at all. Gotta love getting paid while changing Baby T2.0’s diaper. Can you believe that Baby T2.0 is already 3 months old? I honestly don’t remember the time before her arrival. The house was so much quieter with only Baby T1.0 running around. I also don’t remember what life was like before we had Baby T1.0 and Baby T2.0. Isn’t it weird?
In June we saw Britain deciding to exit the European Union. The referendum result sent the market tumbling for a couple of days. The market has rebounded since. Unfortunately, I didn’t pull any buy triggers as I thought the market would continue to tumble. Oops, I guessed wrong. Deep down I’m praying for more market volatility so we can buy some dividend stocks. It’s certainly getting harder and harder finding bargains lately.
Without further ado, let see how much dividend income we received for June 2016.
Dividend Income
In June, we received dividend income from the following companies:
Pure Industrial REIT (AAR.UN)
Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP.UN)
BP plc (BP)
Care Capital Properties (CCP)
Corus Entertainment (CJR.B)
*** Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) ***
Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO)
ConocoPhillips (COP)
Chevron (CVX)
Dream Office REIT (D.UN)
Dream Global REIT (DRG.UN)
Dream Industrial REIT (DIR.UN)
Enbridge (ENB.TO)
Evertz Technologies (ET.TO)
Fortis (FTS.TO)
H&R REIT (HR.UN)
Higher Liner Foods (HLF.TO)
Intact Financial (IFC.TO)
Intel (INTC)
Inter Pipeline (IPL.TO)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
KEG Income Trust (KEG.UN)
McDonald’s (MCD)
Manulife Financial (MFC.TO)
Magna International (MG.TO)
MCAN Mortgage Corp (MKP.TO)
Qualcomm (QCM)
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B)
RioCan REIT (REI.UN)
Sapputo (SAP.TO)
Suncor (SU.TO)
Target (TGT)
Unilever plc (UL)
Visa (V)
Ventas (VTR)
Vanguard Can All Cap (VCN.TO)
Vanguard All-World Ex Canada (VXC.TO)
WestJet (WJA.TO)
Waste Management (WM)
Wal-Mart (WMT)
Phew! That was a long list! We received dividend income from a total of 40 different companies!!! That’s like receiving paycheques from 40 different employers. Talk about income diversification.
In total, we received $1,099.33 in dividend income in June 2016. Of the $1,099.33 received, $321.88 was in US dollar and $777.45 was in Canadian dollar. Please note, we use a 1 to 1 currency rate approach, so we do not convert the dividends received in US dollar into Canadian currency. Reason for doing this is to keep the math simple and avoid fluctuations in dividend income over time due to changes in the exchange rate.
The top 5 payouts came from Chevron, Enbridge, Manulife Financial, Suncor, and Intact Financial. The top 5 dividend payouts corresponds to 32.7% of our June dividend income. Not only it’s great to see that we received dividends from 40 different companies, it’s also great to see that the top 5 payouts only contributed to a small percentage. This is definitely a right step in income diversification.
I highlighted payment from Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) because it was not an actual quarterly dividend payment. The money received was from the Prairiesky Royalty transaction. But it’s cash payment received from owning a dividend stock nonetheless. 🙂
Dividend Growth
Compared to June 2015, we saw a YOY growth of 42.8%. As Baby T1.0 would say “HOLY MOLY!” The chart below gives a good overview of our monthly dividend earned on a year over year basis since 2011. Very cool to see that June 2016 was a new record, only $0.67 off from the $1,100 milestone.
In June we saw a few companies in our dividend portfolio increasing their dividend payouts. National Bank (NA.TO) increased dividend payout by 1.85%, Target (TGT) increased dividend payout by 7.14%, and GIS increased dividend payout by 4.35%. Thanks to these payout increases, our forward dividend income has increased by $17.76.
Thanks to DRIP, we were able to purchase additional 16 shares of various dividend paying stocks, which in term increased our forward looking dividend by $18.02.
Due to organic dividend growth and DRIP, our forward dividend income increased by $35.78. While $35.78 may not seem significant to some readers, I’m jumping up and down celebrating this small success. Why? Because given a 3% yield, this means we didn’t have to invest $1,192.67 to result such increase in our dividend income. The $35.78 will compound itself and increases our future dividend income. This is really the best example of getting paid for doing absolutely nothing at all!
Moving forward
So far in 2016 we’ve received a total of $5,956.98 in dividend income. Considering that we’re half way through 2016 already, we are definitely behind progress on our $13,000 annual dividend goal. Given the $13,000 dividend income goal, we should be at $6,500 dividend received already. That’s a difference of $543.02 or ~8% behind target. We will see if we can make up this difference moving forward.
I have been thinking lately whether it makes sense to utilize options to result more passive income or not. Although I have read some books on options before, the concept of doing calls and puts is still a bit foreign to me. I’ve seen a few dividend growth investors utilizing options to generate more passive income, I would love to hear some feedback.
Dear readers, how was your June dividend income?
Hi Tawcan,
Wow you are doing great. It is great to see the progress since 2011. I always like to see fellow investors succeed.
Keep following this path.
Kisses,
Mrs. Moneypenny.
Thanks Mrs. Moneypenny. Definitely great to see our progress since 2011, we’ve done quite a bit that’s for sure.
OMG. That’s impressive Tawcan. I’m not even anywhere near $100 in a month, but I’m also just getting started. I just read your interview over at Investment Hunting. That was a great interview. Glad I found your site.
Thanks Data Lore. The interview was a lot of fun to do.
That sure was a super long list of companies paying you in June. Congrats on hitting another four digit income mark for the month. It’s nice to see that year over year growth still rocking along too even with a relatively large portfolio. Just goes to show what dividend growth investing can achieve. Will be interesting to see how the second half of 2016 goes and see how close you come to your total dividend income target.
Hi DivHut,
Thanks, I was very surprised to see the high YOY growth. 🙂
It must feel great to get another month of $1,000+ in dividend payments 🙂 I’m just at the very start of my journey, so I can’t imagine what that must feel like!
It does feel great to get over $1,000 for doing absolutely nothing at all. You’ll get there very soon Nicola.
Keep it up Tawcan. You and wifey are doing awesome. Don’t stop. We can’t stop! Cheers bro.
Thanks Dividend Hustler. We are a long way from catching up to you guys.
Tawcan,
Congrats on the receiving over $1000 in dividend income and from 40 different companies.
As far as options goes, if you want to buy stock XYZ at $40 and its currently trading at $40.xx , why not sell a put option to receive premium. You keep the premium regardless if the stock goes up, down or sideways. Why not receive extra income, for something you are going to do anyway. Writing a put option ties up 20% of your break-even in terms of capital required (break even = strike price – credit received).
Hi Investing Pursuits,
Good point! Definitely something to think about.
Fantastic month Tawcan, so close to $1,100.
Thanks Investment Hunting. Hopefully will hit $1,100 mark soon.
Awesome work on 3 $1000+ months in a row! That pretty much means you’re in the 4 digit realm for good now 😀
Thanks misterslm.
Another very solid month, Tawcan. I appreciate your transparency and learn something new every time I read one of your dividend reports.
Hi FinanceSuperhero,
Thanks for your kind words. Glad to provide something valuable to you with my dividend updates.
That diversity is amazing – nice work. March 2014 looks like an outlier. Did you cash out? Go big for a month?
Thanks getrichquickish. We’ve invested a lot since March and that showed in the monthly dividend income result.
Just 8% behind on the $13000 target, not worried just yet, you guys can do it!
Solid numbers Tawcan.
Thanks Team CF. Gotta invest more to make it the $13,000 target.
Your progress is amazing. $1100 now. That well diversified portfolio with dividend focus is really paying off. Great job!
Thanks BeSmartRich.
“I have been thinking lately whether it makes sense to utilize options to result more passive income or not. Although I have read some books on options before, the concept of doing calls and puts is still a bit foreign to me.”
It is to me as well. Personally, stick with your plan. You’re doing VERY well.
Mark
Hi Mark,
Very true. Maybe I have enough on my plate already. 🙂
Is that a big dividend in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Haha!
Nice June though!
ROFL!!! Good one Mr. Tako.
Solid month. And that’s some pretty solid diversification!
I can’t believe July is here already either… Crazy
Hi The Green Swan,
Hard to believe we’re getting closer and closer to Christmas. Crazy stuff.
Wow what a great month Tawcan. It is always nice to have a well diversified list of companies paying out dividends. Your snowball seems to have a lot of momentum behind it which is fantastic. Hopefully your portfolio will make it 3 months in a row! Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing!
Thanks More Dividends.
Huge congrats Tawcan, you’re doing amazing – $1k+ now seems to be your new normal 🙂
I guess the Brexit just goes to show you have to pull the trigger, even if just a lil bit, when there is value there. Otherwise ignore the noise.
We don’t do puts or calls and won’t for a very long time, there is enough on our plate trying to understand investing, blogging and my job 🙂
Tristan
Hi Tristan,
Yup I think $1K is the new normal now. Time to aim for $1.5k per month. 🙂
You get payd by 40 companies. HOLY MOLY! this is amazing!
If I am able to generate 1000 € in dividends one day, I will stop working. the premium from trading options will do the rest.
At the beginning a put/call strategy seems difficult, but when you go on reading, you start to realize, that this is a very simpel and efficient strategy to maximize your return. I would say through Puts and Calls you can make 1 % per month more in a very conservative way.
I dont know your portfolio size, but I can show you whats possible.
My portfolio size is somewhere between 40-50k. this month I earned 9,80€ in dividends and 1255,10€ in option premium.
For this return i need 10 minutes every few days. At some days I didn’t even log into my brokerage account.
I think you should give it a try. you will not regret it.
congratulation on another solid month of dividends. 🙂
keep up the great work,
thanks for sharing your results!
Chri
Hi easydividend,
Hmm 1% per month more sounds interesting. So you need to do 10 minutes every few days, what do you do in these 10 minutes? If you’re doing covered calls, did any of the contracts get exercised?
Hello,
I do covered Calls and cash secured puts (I use margin too) If I have 100 shares from a stock, i can sell covered calls. I try to set the strike price 10-20% above the current share price, so if I get assigned i can keep the option premium and realize the price gain. if there is a price gain between 10 and 20 % in one month, i am happy to sell the stock.
in the next step i try to make some money on cash secured puts. if i want to hold the same stock again, i wait for a little decline in the shareprice, so the option premium for puts increases. i sell the put, can keep the premium.
If i get exercised I am happy to buy 100 shares of the stock at the chosen strike price.
that’s it. 🙂 I try to let my whole money work for me every day. so, if there is an expired option, I look at some dividend stocks and sell another option, just to let my hard earned money work even harder for me.
best regards 🙂
Hi easydividend,
Interesting strategy, I’ll definitely need to look into options a bit more.
I love the diversification! What are the odds that they all shit the bed at the same time? Almost zero! I have also started looking into supercharging returns with very safe puts
Hi apprenticebuilder,
Exactly, that’s why income diversification is so important.
Tawcan,
You’re doing excellent! Glad to see that your dividend train is still rolling uphill and ahead on schedule. I will admit though, my neck strained looking at how many companies paid you this month! Obviously that’s a good problem to have :). Keep it up!
Hi Dividend Reaper,
Haha, that’s definitely a good problem to have. 🙂
Great job Tawcan. Your second half will be higher just with the drips and increases in payouts so not all is lost in the $13000 goal. I spent the month of April and part of May re-balancing my portfolio, I was getting to heavy a concentration in some areas and next to nothing in others. I also took the opportunity to sell a few stocks that had increased a lot in value. With this re-balancing I had a dividend income in June of $2,532.52. This is the highest month in the quarter the other two months are not above $2k.
About options. June was the first month I wrote covered calls. I did very well in the month, probably better than normal, but I was able to make $2,500 for the month. So far none of my calls were assigned, although I do have a couple that are still open until the 15th of this month. One stock I wrote a call on was Apple. I wrote it for an Aug 19 call date, today I actually bought back the options at a much reduced price and then wrote another covered call on the stock. Between buying back the option and writing a new one I made around $225. As I mentioned I am new to this as well so still learning how to use it but so far so good.
Hi Paul,
Wow solid dividend income considering that you re-balanced. Interesting, I didn’t know you can buy back the options. Do you find yourself spending a lot of time looking at options? Perhaps this is something I should be looking into a bit more.
Hi Tawcan,
I wouldn’t say I spent a lot of time in June reviewing options. I did put in a lot of upfront work to try and understand how they work. I read a bit and had numerous conversations with a friend. I am still a rookie at options trading so still learning. I have maybe 3 stocks that I use to write covered calls so those are the only ones I look at the option chains. I may take a quick look at them each day just to gage where they are trading that day so I can decide if I want to sell a covered call. A lot of times just seeing where the stock is trading for the day, up or down, gives you a pretty good idea if the calls are going to be selling higher or lower.
As for buying back a covered call. Once you sell a covered call it shows up in your account just like your other stocks but will show up as a negative number of calls. Once it is there you can then buy it from that screen, I use TD so I’m going based on what I see there. As with the share price, the price of the option goes up and down as well. With Apple, I had sold the covered call when Apple was up around $100 and when it dropped back to $94 I took a quick look at the option chain and noticed I could buy it back at a significantly reduced price.
I forget the exact statistics, but I heard that only about 30% or so of calls actually go to term.
Hi Paul,
Appreciate your feedback. I’ll have to do more reading on options. Do you have any books/articles that you’d recommend reading?
I usually just search the net for answers to questions I have about trading options. As well, I am lucky that one of my friends is knowledgeable about the subject. He has been making his living off trading and dividends for a little over 5 years now. So when there is something I cannot find on the net I ask him. It was during one discussion with him that I found out about buying back or selling calls that you have already sold or bought. It was BNN that I heard the stat about most options never going to full term. I had two outstanding options expire yesterday so I only have 1 more open and it is for Aug 19th. I will be watching to see if prices get to a point that make sense to sell a few more covered calls.
Congrats on the dividend income Tawcan!! That’s pretty awesome you hit over $1K in the month. Keep it up!!
R2R
Thanks R2R.
Congrats! 40 paychecks and over $1k in monthly dividends is fantastic. That snowball is really picking up steam and those increases and reinvested dividends just make a bigger and bigger impact each year.
I used to utilize options more whenever I was flush with cash, but now not so much. If you run it conservatively I think writing puts and calls is a pretty good way to generate some extra income and/or purchase shares for cheaper prices which is always a good thing.
we had a solid June ourselves with a personal best for dividends received and if we count our retirement mutual fund holdings we cross the $1k mark for the first time ever which is pretty cool.
All the best in the second half.
Hi JC,
Thanks, that snowball is really picking up steam for sure. Doing covered calls sounds interesting but I don’t like the idea of losing dividend stocks when the buyer exercise the contract. I guess I’ll have to do more reading.
Another awesome month Tawcan, back to back 1000+ months which is amazing! Guess what I said about 1000 being hard was proven wrong as you were basically 100 over the mark! Love those dividend increases that were given, looking forward to more!
Hi Stefan,
Feeling blessed to receive $1,000+ per month for 3 straight months.