2018 – A Year in Dividends

I hope everyone is having a great new year! As you know, I like to take a look back on the year to see how well I have done. I think I’ve had a very successful year not just financially but also personally. I have used my knowledge on finances on helping more people with theirs. By just giving out advice like which are the best credit cards for building credit and showing them how to invest their money smartly, I have been able to get people in a lot better places, financially. Now it’s time to reflect on 2018 and see how we did.

December of 2018 was a tough month for equities. After breaking through $530k portfolio value earlier in the year, my portfolio dipped below $450k. That’s with adding fresh capital each month. I do believe we have some decent valuations and I have a long list of stocks to pick from that I believe are in the buy range. I actually don’t mind this correction because it’s allowing me to purchase shares of the same companies I’ve been buying for better prices which also produces higher starting yields.

Monthly Dividends

Here’s Decembers’ dividends and a look at the entire year of dividends:

WFC – 64.5
V – 105.38
UL – 129.43
XOM – 205
JNJ – 138.6
WBA – 57.2
RDS.B – 301.74
KO – 35.49
HBI – 26.58
CRI – 11.53
PFE – 102
VOO – 88.18
HSY – 69.72
NSC – 81.60

December total – $1417 , up from $1256 or 12.8%.

Quarterly Dividends

Here’s a look at how I’ve been doing on a quarterly basis since 2017.

I broke $4,000 ($4,227 to be exact!) in the last quarter of 2018 which is new record. I hope to break through the $5,000 quarterly mark by the end of 2019. Over the long-term, I want to see that quarterly income is going up. This is motivation to me to keep plugging away and gets me one step closer to FI. The second quarter of 2017 is an outlier as I have a once yearly dividend from Novartis of about $280 and I also had a twice yearly dividend from DEO. This was over $340 which caused the higher second quarter dividends that year. This has already smoothed out and didn’t cause any outliers this year.

Total Dividends

Overall a solid year with total dividends of $13,919 up from 8,168. This is a 70% increase from 2017.

Forward Dividends

My forward dividend income is currently $18,077.

Dividend Goals

My forward dividend goal by the end of 2018 was $13,000 (currently $18,077) and a total forward passive income of $26,000 (now around $37,500) with the gap filled in by real estate income. I blew past both of these goals. One reason was that I started to use options more to juice my portfolio. So far it has been working out pretty well. I’ve also been contributing fresh capital as much as possible and was able to add two more rental properties in 2018.

I’ll be putting together some dividend goals for 2019 soon so stay tuned!

Recent Transactions

December was a wild and crazy month. I sold a little bit of stock to help fund the purchase of rental #5. I sold my entire position of BBVA partly for this reason and partly because things are too uncertain in Mexico with the new president as well as the Spanish economy. I had a margin call on a put I sold of some shares of V. My largest position, MO, decided to go on a buying spree and spent a lot of money on their equity stake in JUUL as well as a large position in a cannabis company, similar to Oregrown, which lowered their credit rating. My MO purchases are currently on hold because of this but I don’t plan to sell any.

I did purchase some shares of BAC, this is a new position. They are just looking too cheap on a forward P/E basis. I plan to add more to BAC to bring it up to the same weight as WFC. Warren Buffet also has significant stakes in both of these banks. I believe rising rates should benefit both companies going forward.

Some stocks on my watchlist are:

MSFT GIS IBM DEO WFC BTI DIS V BUD T TIF BLK BAC