It’s hard to believe that Baby T2.0 is already 2 weeks old. Time sure went by with a blink of an eye. It’s good that she’s eating and sleeping quite well for a 2 week old. Mrs. T and I are trying to get as much sleep as we can but between waking up at night for diaper changes and feeds as well as Baby T1.0 waking up around 6:30AM every morning, we’re definitely sleep deprived. I have to say though, things are certainly a lot easier this time around, considering that we’re not on the crazy 3 hour feeding schedule and doing feed on demand instead.
It was comforting to know that our dividend portfolio was generating income for us, considering I took a 1 week unpaid parental leave at work in March. Gotta love having our money working hard for us instead of us needing to work hard for money. 🙂
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 as all.
Dividend Income
In March, we received dividend from the following companies:
Pure Industrial REIT (AAR.UN)
BP PLC (BP)
Care Capital Properties (CCP)
Corus Entertainment (CJR.B)
Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO)
ConocoPhillips (COP)
Chevron (CVX)
Dream Office REIT (D.UN)
Dream Global REIT (DRG.UN)
Enbridge (ENB.TO)
Evertz Technologies (ET.TO)
Fortis (FTS.TO)
H&R REIT (HR.UN)
Intact Financial (IFC.TO)
Intel (INTC)
Inter Pipeline (IPL.TO)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
KEG Income Trust (KEG.UN)
Liquor Store (LIQ.TO)
McDonald’s (MCD)
Manulife Financial (MFC.TO)
Magna International (MG.TO)
MCAN Mortgage Corp (MKP.TO)
Qualcomm (QCOM)
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B)
RioCan REIT (REI.UN)
Saputo (SAP.TO)
Suncor (SU.TO)
Target (TGT)
Unilever PLC (UL)
Ventas (VTR)
Vanguard CAN All Cap (VCN.TO)
Vanguard All-World Ex Canada (VXC.TO)
WestJet (WJA.TO)
Waste Management (WM)
Phew, that’s a long list!
In March 2016, we received a total of $952.77 in dividend income from 33 companies and 2 ETF index funds. Of the $952.77 received, $303.71 was in US dollar and $649.06 was in Canadian dollar. It’s encouraging to see that our dividend income was so diversified this past month and over 30% of the income was in US 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.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed that we didn’t receive over $1,000 in dividend for the month of March. Only $47.23 short, SO CLOSE!!! The reality is, we probably would have made this cool milestone two months in a row if it weren’t for the dividend cuts from Dream Office and ConocoPhillips. Yes these dividend cuts are definitely hurting our monthly dividend income level. But on the positive side, at least these companies are cutting their dividends rather than suspending dividends completely. There’s always hope that both companies will increase their dividend payout in the near future once oil price recovers.
Dividend Growth
Compared to March 2015, we saw a YOY growth of 22.85%. That’s a great YOY growth number despite all the dividend cuts & freezes we’ve encountered in the last half year, contributed by the low crude oil price.
If you are wondering, our dividend growth is contributed by three things – investing fresh capital, purchasing of additional shares through dividend reinvesting plan (DRIP), and increasing of individual stock’s organic dividend payout each year. We believe in utilizing the power of all of these three components to grow our dividend income exponentially.
Thanks to DRIP, we were able to purchase additional 15 shares of various dividend paying stocks, which in term increased our annual dividend by $16.41. I think this is pretty significant because given a 3% yield, that meant we didn’t have to invest $547. When we do save $547, we can invest this money to generate additional $16.41 at 3% yield. Pretty cool stuff if you think about it.
Moving Forward
So far in 2016 we’ve received a total of $2,809.08 in dividend income. If we use a $20 per hour wage for calculation, that means we didn’t have to actively work for over 140 hours so far this year. This corresponds to 17.5 days of work. That’s 17.5 days of freedom and setting our own schedules.
Considering that our 2016 dividend income goal is $13,000, we’re behind schedule by $440.92. That’s a lot of money to make up. As you can see, the dividend cuts that we’ve encountered are putting a hurdle on this goal. We’ll have to try very hard to save and use the money to buy more dividend paying stocks. Hopefully we can recover and achieve this ambiguous goal by end of this year.
Dear readers, how was your March dividend income?
Congrats on the great month. That is a nice list of companies you own. 22% growth is outstanding and I am sure it will only go higher and higher. Keep up the great work and congratulations to you and Mrs. T on baby T 2.0.
Thanks freezeman24. 🙂
How do you set up automatic DRIPs and do you pay commissions on purchasing more shares? Sorry if there is already a post about this, but I’d surely appreciate it. Thank you.
Hi,
I sign automatic synthetic DRIP with my discount brokers. There’s no commission for purchasing more shares but you need to make sure the dividend you received is equal or more than the stock share price.
What happens to the Dividends if they are under the price of a share?
Then you don’t get any DRIP shares and the dividends just gets deposited in your account.
For example, say we get $85 dividend payout from PG.
If PG’s stock price is $80, we would DRIP 1 share and $5 gets deposited in our trading account.
If PG’s stock price is $87, all that money is deposited in our trading account
Now some companies offer DRIP price discount (i.e. 5-10%) so you get to buy DRIP shares at a lower price than market price.
Congratulations on the good month and the new addition to the family. I wasn’t too far behind, I managed to get $922 in dividends this month. I had a company reduce their dividend late in 2015 and it had an impact on my monthly receipts. The upside is I did a quick trade in March that generated $2000 in income. I usually do not do these types of trades but when I saw the opportunity I just couldn’t pass it up.
That’s a pretty solid dividend income as well as a solid trade to get $2k income. Congrats!
hey, another awesome month for you 🙂
when i look at you 2015 dividend income:
Mar – $775.53
Apr – $866.32
May – $844.52
Jun – $770.03
Jul – $975.71
Aug – $927.24
Sep – $824.69
Oct – $947.08
Nov – $922.68
Dec – $973.73
I think you are able to pull in more than 1000 dollars every month that is left in 2016. 🙂
keep it up!
best regards
Hi easydividend,
I sure hope so! Working hard to get to that point.
great job, Tawcan. To pull in almost $1k in a month in dividend income is absolutely amazing! Add in the fact that you were able to take a week of unpaid leave to be with your newborn and not worry about a paycheck or getting behind on bills, and they will see the reason we strive for passive income, to enjoy the things that really matter in life!
Congrats again!
Hi Tradeourlife,
Thanks, it’s great receiving dividend income that’s for sure.
That’s some good growth, good dividends, good company names..just a great update Tawcan. Good luck for the rest of the year with your income and the baby.
Love the graph, that’s some hefty income over the year.
Tristan
Thanks Tristan.
Super impressive amount! 22% growth even with the dividend cut, that’s even more impressive. You own so many businesses, that even 1 or 2 decrease in dividend, it won’t affect your income 1-bit.
Hi Vivanne,
Thanks. That’s why diversification is so important, so you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. 🙂
with a 28,85pct YOY growth, you can be very proud! Despite not having 1000 In dividend income, the result u still very spectacular in my books!
It is always nice to see that people value family by taking parental leave! I like the idea that the dividend income gives you the comforting thought that it is possible to do.
Did you consider the year end goal a stretch or an almost sure win?
Hi ambertreeleaves,
Very happy with the YOY growth for sure. Hopefully we can continue this kind of amazing growth moving forward. Family is important, I wish I can take longer parental leave though.
The $13,000 goal will be tough with all the dividend cut/freeze headwind we’re facing, but we gotta give our best shot right?
When you can’t work for your money, have your money work for you. At your pace you’ll be able to take off many more weeks of paternal leave should you want it and not miss a beat with that divvy income rolling in. That four digit milestone is within reach. A few reinvestments and raises and you’ll get there. Awesome and inspiring results as always. Thank you for sharing.
Hi DivHut,
Very true. Gotta love having money working hard for us. 😀
That’s awesome Tawcan! Soon you’ll be having 2 months of every quarter with $1k in dividends. That’s really great. I’m still working on getting my first month of $1k dividends although that’ll probably come sometime in 2016. Congrats again on Baby T2.0!
Hi JC,
Thanks. It would be really nice to get $1k every month, working hard to get to that point. 🙂
Nicely done. Glad to hear the family is doing well. Get some sleep!
Thanks Brian. Trying all I can do get more sleep. Needing to get up super early for work this week was certainly pretty tough.
Man you were so close to $1,000. It will definitely happen this year probably in December. Nice work Tawcan.
Thanks Investment Hunting.
Congrats on the new addition. Thankfully I was able to take a week of paid vacation from my previous employer when our 10-month old was born. Whenever #2 comes along, I’m going to have to follow your gameplan. My passive income is nowhere near yours, but it’s nice to see that it is possible. Even with rollercoaster market conditions.
Hi Josh,
Thanks. I could have used my vacation days but decided to take unpaid parental leave so we can save up my vacation time for later.
Wow, great work. Congrats on the growth! Best of all of course, congrats on the new family addition.
Mark
Thanks Mark, still have a long way to go before we can catch you. 🙂
Tawcan,
I always enjoy seeing that picture you post under each monthly dividend income report.
$1,000/month is a really good amount of passive income to be earning. This is equivalent to spending 12 hours/week at the office. So you are slowly buying yourself time, one dividend check at a time. And best of all, over time the size of those dividend checks will keep growing.
Good luck in your investing journey! Hope you can get some sleep!
Dividend Growth Investor
Hi Dividend Growth Investor,
Thanks for dropping by. That’s a good way to look at it. 12 hours per week saved for March, I like that!
23% growth on numbers that are already quite large is fantantic! Pushing hard to catch up to you!
Keep up the great work
Hi American Dividend Dream,
We’re working hard to keep up the over 20% YOY growth. With the somewhat large dividend income, it’s getting more and more challenging to have that kind of YOY growth.
Congrats on the milestone: Baby T2.0 is 2 weeks old! A great milestone indeed.
Also good job on the dividend income from. Keep up the good non-work!
Thanks mattattack08. A great March all around indeed.
It is rather unfortunate that you had two dividend cuts for this month, but you still got very close again to that magic $1000 mark. Hope that you guys can still make that $13000 target for the year, would be awesome (although we would still be impressed with $12500!). Now that I’m thinking about it, when converting our dividend income to CAD, we are pretty close to your number, unfortunately we won’t be able to keep that up (yet).
Glad to hear that the kids are doing well. Hope that you are able to get some sleep. As for the wake up time, that is not even too bad, by that time I’m already half way to work……otherwise I’m wasting time in traffic jams.
Hi Team CF,
I guess if we converted US dividend to CAN currency we’d be over $1,000 but I like the 1:1 exchange simplicity too much to do that. The $13,000 target will be pretty tough so we’ll see what we end up with.
Baby T2.0 is sleeping pretty well actually, unfortunately I have to get up super early a few times due to work schedule this week. 🙁
Great job guys. Close to a g note again. It’s life changing money buds. Keep it up. Congrats on the baby. What a blessing. You 2 are definitely wealthy in every way. Life’s wonderful and awesome so let’s keep at it and push ourselves to greater and greater.
Cheers.
Hi Dividend Hustler,
Life changing money for sure. Can’t wait to consistently crack the grand mile each month.
$1000 of monthly dividend is really awesome. I can’t wait to reach the amount! 🙂 Looks like we share a lot of stocks in our portfolio.
BSR
Hi BeSmartRich,
Just keep saving and investing, you’ll get there one day too.
Congrats for this passive income. I wish I had dividends income 3 months ago, to have more weeks off with my new born
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks The financial tech. You’ll get to similar dividend income one day too.
Congrats on the passive income, Tawcan. Another great month for you. Keep up the great work
R2R
Thanks R2R.
Nice work Tawcans! So close to that $1000 milestone 🙂 I remember our newborn days….so very sleepy. Good thing this is passive income. If you guys were like us, you’d be too tired to walk outside and pick the dollars up on the lawn…..much less go to a second job. I hope you have a great (and restful) week
-Bryan
Thanks Bryan. Definitely would love to get more sleep. 🙂