Summer is finally here in Vancouver! It’s certainly nice to see nothing but sun in the weather forecast for an extended period of time. That is way better than the rainy season we get in Vancouver for the rest of the year. Have you heard about the rain joke about Vancouver?
Vancouver doesn’t rain a whole lot, just twice a week. Once for 3 days, the other time for 4 days.
All the sun means that our garden is growing nicely. We have been harvesting a lot of strawberries, between 3-5 kg (6.6 -11 lbs) every other day! Home-grown organic strawberries taste so much better than store-bought ones. Our home-grown strawberries may look smaller than the ones you see in stores, but they are so much sweeter with more flavors!
Garden looking very green Kale Tomatoes are coming!!! 🙂 Carrots, garlic, peas, and pumpkins Home-grown juicy sweet strawberries. Yum!
The kiddos love picking strawberries and eating them right away. Although in Baby T2.0’s case, she doesn’t quite understand that she should only pick the red ones. Quite often she would pick a completely green strawberry, eat it, then have a yuck face due to sourness.
Baby T1.0 harvesting his carrots. He planted the seeds in the spring. Baby T2.0 managed to pick a red strawberry
We are also picking some fresh raspberries from the garden every other day. Thanks to having fresh kale, spinach, dill, parsley, carrots, basil, rhubarb, and salad from our garden, we are saving quite a bit of money on grocery. We are also freezing a few things for future consumption.
All these fresh berries and produce mean we are making a lot of yummy food at home too.
What kind of things have we been making?
Strawberry rhubarb and coconut cake!
Home-made pesto
Healthy kale chips
And various dishes from our cookbooks.
Needless to say, we have been busy both in the garden and in the kitchen!
Hold on, this is a monthly dividend update post and not a garden & food update right? Sorry for getting side-tracked. Let’s stay focused and talk about dividend income. 🙂
June Dividend Income
In June 2017 we received dividend income from 46 companies:
- Pure Industrial REIT (AAR.UN)
- Brookfield Renewable (BEP.UN)
- BP (BP)
- Care Capital Properties (CCP)
- Corus Entertainment (CJR.B)
- Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO)
- ConocoPhillips (COP)
- Chevron (CVX)
- Canadian Tire (CTC.A)
- Dream Office REIT (D.UN)
- Dream Global REIT (DRG.UN)
- Dream Industrial REIT (DIR.UN)
- Enbridge (ENB.TO)
- Evertz Technologies (ET.TO)
- Enbridge Income Trust (ENF.TO)
- Fortis (FTS.TO)
- Hydro One (H.TO)
- H&R REIT (HR.UN)
- High 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)
- Metro (MRU.TO)
- Prairiesky Royalty (PSK.TO)
- Qualcomm (QCOM)
- Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B)
- RioCan REIT (REI.UN)
- Saputo (SAP.TO)
- Smart REIT (SRU.UN)
- 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)
- Exco Technologies (XTC.TO)
In total we received $1,269.43Â in dividend income.
First of all this is an all-time record! Woohoo! Second, it is crazy that we received dividend income from 46 companies! Talk about diversification.
Out of the $1,269.43 dividend income that we received in June, $287.57 was in USD and $981.86 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 June 2017 were Manulife Financial, Suncor, Enbridge, Cheveron, and Intact Financial. The top 5 payouts accounted for 31.55% of our June dividend income.
Dividend Growth
Despite having a record dividend income month, we saw a lower than usual YOY growth rate. At 15.47%, this is the lowest YOY growth rate so far in 2017. Obviously as we get higher dividend income, it becomes increasingly more difficult to get more than 15% YOY growth. I have mentioned this fact numerous times already.
At the mid-year mark, we are tracking an overall 20.52% YOY growth rate. Still very respectable but we are starting to see this number dipping lower each month.
Dividend Increases
In June a number of companies that we own in our portfolio announced dividend increases:
- Target raised its dividend by 3.3% to $0.62 per share
- General Mills raised its dividend by 2.08% to $0.49 per share
These announcements have increased our annual dividend income by $5.2. Not a great month when it comes to dividend increases but an increase is better than no increase at all.
Dividend Stock Transactions
In June we made perhaps some controversial stock transactions.
We liquidated all of our positions in
- Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI)
- Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B)
With the proceeds from these two interactions and some added US cash, we then purchased
- 25 shares of Costco (COST)
As I stated in the post, I don’t feel as confident with the oil sector. While KMI is a pipeline company rather than an oil-producing company, I simply believe that our money is better off invested somewhere else. I like Costco’s business model and believe they will continue to grow in the future.
The market has been quite volatile the last few weeks. We are monitoring a few stocks and see whether to pull the buy trigger or not. It is nice to have some cash reserve available to pull the buy trigger whenever there is a buy opportunity.
2017 Mid-Year Review
With half of 2017 is in the books, it is time to do a mid-year review. So far in 2017 we have received $7,156.76 in dividend income or $1,192.79 per month. If we receive the same amount for the rest of the year, that would result in dividend income of $14,313.52 for 2017. This is below our goal of getting $15,000 for the year and indicates that we have some work to do. Having said that, as we continue adding new capital in our portfolio, I strongly believe that our 2H 2017 dividend income will be higher than 1H.
At an hourly wage of $40 ($83,200 annually), this means we have saved ourselves almost 179 hours of work. This corresponds to 22 days or 4 weeks of work. By having our money working hard for us, we were able to save ourselves some time. Gotta love that!
Previously I did an analysis on our expenses after 5 months. Based on the analysis, we are spending $3,844.83 per month. So at $1,192.79 average monthly dividend income, the dividend income can cover 31% of our monthly expenses. Clearly we are still ways away from reaching financial independence.
So where does that leave us?
We will continue executing our dividend growth investing strategy by:
- Purchasing new dividend stocks or add to existing positions when there are good buying opportunities.
- Continue DRIPing shares with dividend income received to take advantage of the power of compound interest.
- Get in line and stay in line!
In addition, we need to continue tracking our expenses and see what we can optimize and reduce. We are also trying to side hustle more to bring home additional income.
Summary
June was an excellent month. It is always nice to have a record-setting dividend income month with money coming from so many different sources.
Since we liquidated a couple of positions and added a stock with a lower yield, we need to purchase more stocks in the future to make up for the difference and continue the dividend income growth.
Dear readers, how was your June dividend income?
Such impressive dividend income and garden! Do you have any problems with deer, squirrels, rabbits or insects in you garden? We tried a couple of years to grow tomatoes and strawberries, but couldn’t keep the animals away. It became such a losing battle, we gave up. What are we doing wrong? .
Luckily we don’t have any animals or insects problems. We don’t live by a forest so wild animals aren’t an issue.
Wow. Dividend increases all around. Year-to-Year has seen double-digit increases starting in January. I like the layout of your report Tawcan. Also, the garden pictures were great. Makes me want to eat a strawberry right now.
Thank you Dividend Portfolio. Have tweaked a bit on how I reported our dividend income over time and I like the current format a lot.
Enjoyable read. Loved the garden pics. The veggies and berries look delicious. And congrats on the dividend income growth. That is awesome. Looks like you are well on your way to FI. You and your family are a great example of what one can do with proper amounts of education and motivation. I’ll enjoy watching your journey.
Oldster
Thank you Oldster for your kind words. Education and motivation go a long way. 🙂
Tawcan. Amazing dividends and amazing haul from the garden. It looks delicious. I’m trying to think of a good gardening/dividend pun, but I can’t quite put one together. Regardless, congrats on the great month and I look forward to seeing what the second half of the year has in store for you.
Bert
Haha you gotta work harder for a good gardening/dividend pun. :p
Wow nice job on that garden harvest, love fresh strawberries. Your return this month was very impressive as well 🙂
Thanks MrSLM. Fresh strawberries are pretty amazing. I’d love to have a home gym like you though.
So you are now harvesting from the garden and from your dividend stocks, and both yields are great! Well done mate.
Thanks Team CF. Have to say, I love harvesting from the garden and from dividend stocks
Really nice garden as well as the half year report accumulation of dividends which I’m guessing will end the year around $14,000 total?
On your portfolio of dividend income, would that dividend income be for ‘just’ both you & your wife, and is the dividend income all inclusive combined in registered as well as non-registered accounts?
Does the ‘dividend income include that of other family members, friends etc that you may also be money managing for?
Do you presently have any other ‘passive income streams’ beside you & your wife’s side business, perhaps rental/income property?
We are aiming to hit $15,000 so a bit of work still. The dividend income is summary from both mine and my wife’s accounts. Both registered and non-registered. We don’t manage for other family members or friends.
The other income streams are semi-passive and we don’t disclose those on the blog.
Congrats on the fantastic dividend income results. The garden is awesome. You’re putting that greenhouse to good use. Enjoy the summer.
Thanks, definitely enjoying the summer. Hope you’re doing the same thing too.
Your garden is amazing! I just have green onions on my patio. Haha. I know what you mean about the strawberries, I went picking recently and the strawberries are small but they taste so much sweeter than what you would get in a plastic carton at the grocery store, even though they are triple in size. My dividend portfolio pales in comparison to yours but this month was a $800+ month which is pretty good for me!
We are looking forward to fresh tomatoes, I have to say store-bought ones just don’t taste as good.
Nicely done on $800+ dividend this past month.
Wow! Way to go Tawcan. 46 companies and almost $1,300 in dividend income is really awesome! Looking at your chart, which goes back to 2011, you’ve manage to grow your dividends month after month, year after year! Looking forward to seeing you finish up the year strong.
Best wishes and continued success my friend. AFFJ
Thanks AFFJ. Didn’t realize we were closer to $1,300 in dividend income this month than $1,200. Maybe we’ll hit $1,300 later this year. That’d be pretty awesome.
Great garden unfortunately our siding is still in process so we didnt plant anything this year. Wow great income and 42 companies dam!! haha keep it up
It definitely took us a number of hours to plant all these in the spring. But I guess you can say the hard work paid off.
The garden is going gang busters and that rhubarb and raspberry pie looked delicious. If you haven’t already, try a little yellow or purple chard – it’s fantastic in a stir fry, and grows in nicely. A very acceptable dividend payout for the month too, though I know you’re looking to increase it, covering 30% of your expenses is great. No dividends for me in June, only a matter of time though!
Cool will have to try yellow or purple chard next time we do stir fry. Thanks for the suggestion.
Nice Bob! Very impressive garden, and an even more impressive passive income! Not a big veggies eater (I should know better, I’m a personal trainer, go figure), but jeez you guys are running the full gamut over there. Eating produce that you cultivated from your own land is gonna reap some dividends as well, in the form of your health and well being, for your entire family!
We aren’t vegetarians but lately we have been eating more and more veggies. I think that’s a good thing. 🙂
Haha, nice joke about the rain Tawcan. Wow you guys have an amazing garden and you are reaping the healthy benefits right now, although that doesn’t include all of the (good exercise) effort to create it I suppose. Anyway, great looking produce!
Nice job on the dividend income as always, great growth 🙂
Mr DDU
I love that rain joke haha. It does take a bit of time and effort to look after the garden. Good point.
That garden looks incredible. I am quite jealous as my wife and I are struggling with ours this year. We tried planting a few things in different places throughout the yard and they didnt turn out as planned. Oh well.
As for the dividend income, that is incredible!! Very inspiring
ADD
Mrs. T grew up on a farm so that definitely helped. She also did a lot of research in terms what to plant and where to plant. Lots of work involved that’s for sure. 🙂
Love all the garden pictures Tawcan! It’s really doing great!
Nice dividend growth too! 15% is pretty good! I’ll be lucky if I can manage 10% growth this year! It gets a lot tougher to grow divvy income without constantly adding new capital.
Your dividend income is significantly higher than ours so 10% YOY growth is really rock solid for you. It’s definitely gets tougher to grow dividend income without adding new capital at your dividend income level.
That is a juice green garden you have. Keep up the good work. We also grow vegetables ourselves, more as a learning tool for the kids. I hope one day our raspberries will be really a lot!
And nice dividend month as well. All time highs are great.
Thank you. We don’t have a lot of raspberries yet, certainly not as many when compared to what my parents’ yard is yielding.
Solid metaphor: garden and income both growing very well.
Haha love your metaphor.
Wow! that’s quite a garden. We are working on building one like it next year. Don’t worry about Vancouver weather, we have half your rain in Quebec, but 100 times your snow 😉 hahaha!
Congrats on the strong dividend income!
I’ll take rain over snow. :p
It’s really nice to have a vegetable garden for sure.
Congrats on your terrific month. Always nice to set a new record.
And your garden looks great.
Cheers
Pollie
Thanks Pollie, appreciate your kind words.
Haha I love the Vancouver joke! I didn’t know it rains so much in the city. I’ve also been enjoying the summer so far. It’s great to see the sun and enjoy summer activities.
I seriously wish I could just replicate your garden and put it in our backyard. My MIL has been trying to grow green onions, garlic and other plants in our backyard, but the progress has been slow so far -_-
We do a lot of work with the soil, putting compost and other nutrients every spring. It also helps to rotate the crops around the planting area.
Forget the AMZN/WFM marriage. Looks like you can open your own organic, farm to table grocery store with that amazing bounty. Your garden really does look amazing. I can only imagine how fresh and real everything tastes. Awesome June for you as well. So many different companies yielding a four figure month with a double digit year over year gain. You are doing something right. Keep up the good work!
Haha maybe we should consider open a farom to table grocery store. 😀
Awesome post! Incredible that you’re generating this passive income and helping you live more freely.
Thank you Lance. Hoping one day that our passive income exceeds our expenses.