Dividend Income – November 2024 Update

Welcome to another monthly dividend update. I have been posting these monthly dividend updates since the birth of this blog in July 2014.

Why do I keep writing and publishing these monthly updates?

Because they keep us accountable and allow us to demonstrate that it is possible to build up a sizable dividend portfolio over time and eventually live off our portfolio one day. In addition, I hope to inspire other people to get started with investing.

After spending 12 days in Japan and Taiwan in October, I stayed on the ground for a week before heading out for a four-day business trip the first week of November (last work trip of the year …. yeah!). This time around, I flew to Toronto on a Monday, had a few meetings in the surrounding area the next day, drove down to Rochester, New York that very same night (about a 3.5-hour drive), had meetings in Rochester on Wednesday, and then drove back to Toronto on Thursday and flew out from Pearson International Airport. 

In case you’re curious, I happened to be in the US on the presidential election day and the day after. Oh, the fun! 

While in Toronto, I met up with a reader for lunch. This reader and I have been emailing back and forth consistently for the last few years. We chatted over lunch and agreed that we’d need to do it again another time. 

I was planning to meet up with Dividend Daddy while in Toronto but a last-minute change prevented us from doing so. Oh well, next time. 

The biggest benefit of having this blog is the ability to connect with other like-minded people around the globe. I really enjoy this! 

While at home, we purchased a 3D printer from Bambu Lab, with the help of the home school funding, to aid Kid 1.0 in learning more about 3D design and modelling. Since receiving the 3D printer, we have been designing and printing many cool things. 

Kid 1.0 has been using Tinkercad but it only supports basic functionalities. We tried to install the free version of Autodesk, but our 10-year-old iMac was not compatible with the latest version of Autodesk. Perhaps we need to update our computer next year and finally adopt Apple Silicon.

Readers may recall that one of my goals is to have omakase (leave it up to you chef-curated meal) with Mrs. T. The original idea is to enjoy omakase with Mrs. T when we visit Taiwan. Since the Taiwan trip never materialized this year, we decided to enjoy omakase in Vancouver by going to Itosugi Kappo Cuisine for lunch. 

I have had sushi omakase a few times before but it was Mrs. T’s first time and she thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We plan to check out omakase when we visit Taiwan next year and potentially go back to Itosugi Kappo Cuisine again. 

Dividend Income – November 2024

Back to dividend income.

In November we received dividend pay cheques from the following companies:

• Apple (AAPL)
• AbbVie (ABBV)
• Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO)
• Costco (COST)
• Emera (EMA)
• Granite REIT (GRT.UN)
• National Bank (NA.TO)
• Power Corp (POW.TO)
• Procter & Gamble (PG)
• Royal Bank (RY.TO)
• SmartCentres REIT (SRU.UN)

These 11 pay cheques totalled $3,453.25. A very solid month considering November is one of the weaker dividend income months for us. 

Compared to November 2023, we saw a YoY increase of 11.9%. A small part of the YoY increase was a result of the purchase of National Bank (118.502 shares) and Royal Bank (8 shares) earlier this year. Most of the YoY increase was a result of organic dividend growth and DRIP. 

After 11 months, we are averaging a YoY increase of 14.77%. 

With one more month left in 2024, it will be very challenging to finish the year with a YoY average of above 15%. Although this would be slightly disappointing, having a YoY growth average of over 10% is still very solid due to the fact that we’re facing the law of the big numbers. 

Dividend Hikes 

If you look at our dividend portfolio, we invest in a mix of high-yield, low-dividend growth stocks and low-yield, high-dividend growth stocks. We want to take advantage of the high-yield dividend stocks for dividend income and utilize the low-yield, high-dividend growth stocks to grow our dividend income organically. 

In November, the following companies announced dividend hikes:

• Granite REIT (GRT.UN) raised its dividend payout by 3.03% to $0.2833 per share
• Canadian Tire (CTC.A) raised its dividend payout by 1.43% to $1.775 per share
• Telus (T.TO) raised its dividend payout by 3.4% to $0.4023 per share
• Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.TO) raised its dividend payout by 11.4% to $0.195 per share

All these payout increases were relatively small – other than ATD – but it’s nice to see Granite and Telus raising dividends since they already have relatively high yields. 

The four dividend hikes increased our forward annual dividend income by $136.58. 

Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIP)

We utilize DRIP to increase our forward annual dividend income. With Questrade and TD, we signed up for synthetic DRIP whenever we are eligible so we can drip at least one share at each dividend payout period. With Wealthsimple Trade, we enable fractional DRIP so all dividends are used to get additional shares. 

• Sign up for Wealthsimple with my referral code or type in YDC3NA when you sign up. You’ll get a $25 reward for simply signing up.
• Sign up for Questrade with my referral code or enter referral code 826124747428063 when signing up

In November we dripped the following shares: 

• 0.353 shares of Apple
• 0.699 shares of AbbVie
• 3 shares of Bank of Montreal
• 0.047 shares of Costco
• 3.214 shares of Emera
• 0.468 shares of Granite REIT
• 5.969 shares of National Bank
• 0.555 shares of Procter & Gamble
• 5.91 shares of Power Corp
• 4.189 shares of Royal Bank
• 6 shares of SmartCentres REIT
• 0.082 shares of Waste Connections

30.486 shares were added via DRIP and $2,890.42 out of $3,453.25 were invested right away. As a result, we increased our forward annual dividend by $111.46.

Stock Transactions

Just as in October, we didn’t make any stock transactions in November. We are working hard to save money for next year’s TFSA contribution room. In addition to saving money, the stock market went for a run in November so we didn’t see any good buying opportunities. 

Dividend Scorecard – November 2024

Here’s our dividend scorecard for November 2024.

November is one of the weaker dividend months for us, so we are quite pleased with receiving over $3,4000 in dividend income. 

Adding $248.04 to our forward annual dividend income is quite solid. At a 4% dividend yield, that’s equivalent to adding $5,917 in new capital. 

Random Thoughts – the crazy bull market

At the time of writing, our investment portfolio is up 32.9% year to date, which is absolutely insane!!! If only it would continue……forever!

Who knew a presidential election result could greatly impact the stock market? 

Many readers have asked me the same question over and over:

Are you worried about investing money into stocks & ETFs when the market is at all-time highs?

I understand why people are concerned with investing money into the equity market when the market is at all-time highs. It’s natural to think that if markets are at all-time highs, that there’s really only one way for them to go, and that’s the way investors don’t want. But let’s not forget the market has been hitting all-time highs multiple times.

I remember answering similar questions back in 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018… 

Well, you get the picture. 🙂 It’s very much of a recurring pattern.

I get it. People get a bit squirmy when the market keeps going higher and higher. And we all realize there’s no guarantee that the market will keep climbing. The stock market is cyclical so even though we’re in a bull market, a bear market could be just around the corner. (The length of the average bear market is nine and a half months, while the length of the average bull market is two and a half years. That’s a fact worth remembering.)

Am I worried?

No.

Long time readers will remember I’m a huge advocate of time in the market and not timing the market. 

So we will simply continue what we have been investing with our money:

Just. Keep. Investing.  

Our investing strategy boils down to these four simple steps:

1. Earn income
2. Spend below our means
3. Invest savings 
4. Increase our earning-saving gap

Rinse and repeat. 

If you don’t believe me that time in the market is more important than timing the market, the smart folks at Capital Group also showed that time, not timing, is what matters. 

The Capital Group pointed out that history has consistently shown that the longer the period, the greater the chance of a positive outcome.

Forget about option trading and speculating. For us, following the four simple steps and keeping it simple is the best strategy. This also allows us to remove our emotions from our investment strategy (at least as much as possible).

One important factor to remember about investing – investing and making profits is simple if you only look at things from the mathematical side. However, the difficulty of investing increases significantly when emotions are involved. 

It’s easy to become a billionaire when you’re trading using paper money. When you are investing with your hard-earned money, emotions often take over and people make silly and highly questionable decisions. 

It’s these stupid decisions that come back to haunt you! 

Remember, we have no control over the equity market. There’s no way anyone can predict how long this bull market will last and there’s no way anyone can predict when the bear market will start and how long it will last.

I mean, did anyone predict the market drop back in 2020? And did anyone predict the quick recovery a few months later? 

I don’t think so. 

So rather than be scared about the market being at all-time highs and hiding your money under your mattress, allow me to repeat it again.

Just. Keep. Investing.  

And keep it simple. 

We have done so since our financial epiphany. 

Do yourself a big favour and Ignore market performance and focus on your financial goals and milestones! 

Summary – Dividend Income November 2024 Update

After 11 months, we have received $52,938.87 from our dividend portfolio. It’s amazing how much progress we have made over the years. It’s unbelievable knowing that our money is working hard for us no matter what we are doing. 

With one more month to go, we should have no problem exceeding our goal of $55,000 in dividend income for 2024. The real question is, how much will we end up at the end of 2024?

Based on my calculation, I estimate we’d end up just over $57,000 in dividend income. Essentially we had more than doubled our dividend income in four years from $26,975.01 in 2021 to over $57,000 in 2024.

The power of compounding is very amazing. 

And this also demonstrates the power of consistency and staying on course with our investing strategy.

To put things in perspective, $52,938.87 after 11 months is equivalent of:

• $158.03 per day or $6.58 per hour our dividend portfolio is generating for us
• $1,102.89 per work week or $27.57 hourly wage.

When I graduated from university and started my first full-time job, I was making $50,000. It mindblowing that our dividend portfolio is now generating more money than my first full-time job (ignoring inflation for simplicity).  

We are extremely grateful and appreciative of our financial success. With holidays just around the corner, we believe it’s important to provide a helping hand for those in need. 

We’re certainly doing that ourselves. In case you’re wondering, in addition to the monthly charitable donations, we are doing the following this December:

• Sponsoring a family of 6 for Christmas
• Volunteering for the community Christmas dinner at a local church
• Additional donations to local food bank

If you are capable, we’d highly encourage you to donate and/or volunteer at local charities and help out people in your community.

Thank you and happy investing!