Dividend Income Summary: Lanny’s September 2024 Summary

This is what dividend investing is all about!  Investing in dividend stocks allows YOU to earn dividend income, the best passive income stream!  Bias, you better believe it.

Time to dive into Lanny’s September 2024 dividend income results!  Were records set?  Almost to financial freedom?  One day and one month at a time!

Dividend Income

Dividend Income is the fruit from the labor of investing your money in the stock market.  Further, Dividend Income is my primary vehicle on the road to Financial Freedom, which you can see through my Dividend Portfolio.

How do I research & screen for dividend stocks prior to making a purchase?  I use our Dividend Diplomat Stock Screener and trade on Ally’s investment platform (one of our Financial Freedom Products) and on SoFi.

Related: Dividend Diplomat Stock Screener

Related: Financial Freedom Products

Related: 3 Financial Freedom Products

I also automatically invest and max out, pre-tax, my 401k through work and my Health Savings Account.  This allows me to save a TON of money on taxes (aka thousands), which allows me to invest even more.  In addition, all dividends I receive are automatically being reinvested back into the company that paid the dividend, aka Dividend Reinvestment Plan or DRIP for short.  This takes the emotion out of timing the market and BUILDS onto my passive income stream!

Related: Tax Strategy – Part 3 to Reduce Taxes & Increase Investment.

Related: The Power of Dividend Reinvesting

Related: Why I Don’t Time or Predict The Market

Growing your dividend income takes time and consistency.  Investing as often, and early, as you can allows compound interest (aka dividends) to work it’s magic.  I have gone from making $2.70 in a single month in dividend income to well over … $10,000+ in a single month.  My dividend income record was set in December of 2021. Was it broken this month?!  The power of compounding and dividend reinvestment is a wonderful component to the portfolio.  Each and every month, whether big or small, I continue to report the passive income that dividend investing provides me.  Why?

*Not pictured is my wife’s dividend income above*

I want to show YOU that dividend investing makes it possible to achieve financial freedom and/or financial independence.  We all start somewhere, but consistently investing, compounding (reinvesting) dividends and keeping it simple, allows you to be in a significantly better position than most.  Further, if I can grow this portfolio and income stream, YOU can too.

dividend income – september 2024

Now, on to the numbers… In September, we (my wife and I) received a dividend income total of $4,621.76.  Interesting… I didn’t cross $5,000 for thus quarter-end and I know EXACTLY why… i’ll get into that in a moment.

The amount and number of stocks listed below show you what it means to buy and hold for the long term.  Most of the positions I have owned for YEARS, letting dividend growth and reinvestment do it’s thing.  This is what dividend investing for financial freedom is all about.  The passive income stream is growing at a RAPID pace.

2023 was up 24%.  9+ months down in 2024 and the S&P 500 is still up 22.6%, and we aren’t slowing down it seems.  Unemployment has actually come down recently, after slowly coming back up.

We have now received our first rate cut in September and we are leaning towards a potential rate cut again before the end of the year, at least.  We shall found out!

Here is the breakdown of dividend income for the month, between taxable and retirement (far right column, under “Retirement”) accounts.  In addition, “W” means my wife’s account:

Vanguard ETFs came through big.  Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM) is now bringing in over $1,300 per quarter here, time to keep that growing.

The quarter-end lists are massive, simply because most companies do pay out quarterly.

I have massive dividend aristocrats that pay me this go around, Aflac (AFL) over $100, Target (TGT) over $150, T. Rowe (TROW) over $135, for example.

I also split out my retirement accounts in the far right column and the taxable account dividends are in the left two columns.  The retirement accounts are composed of H.S.A. investments, ROTH and Traditional IRAs, as well as our work 401(k) accounts.  In total, the retirement accounts brought in a total dividend income amount of $642.90 or 13.9% of the dividend income total.  Therefore, the majority of the dividend income came from my taxable account.  LET’S GO!!

Related: Maximizing your Roth for 10 Years… Then Set It & Forget It!

Dividend Income Year over Year Comparison

2023: 2024:

Our dividend income is DOWN… from prior year, agh!  What gives?!  Another month, year over year is DOWN.  I have the exact reason for it.

My Vanguard 401k changed their investment plans.  That is what happened.  I’ll break it down here.

My wife and my old Vanguard 401k plan was previously invested in the Vanguard Institutional Index Fund or VINIX; which is essentially the S&P 500.  Well, Vanguard changed their investment plans for those in their 401k plan.  They moved to more of a trust-based S&P 500 plan option, aka… NO MORE VINIX and NO MORE DIVIDENDS.

No VINIX led to an impact of a downward impact of $877.07.  DANG IT!

I would have crushed it over $5,000 if I would have still owned ViNIX.  I may rollover my 401k now, that’s for sure.

The bright side – I am cleaning up the portfolio and almost every dividend stock that paid me in 2023 increased or paid a higher dividend in 2024, due to dividend growth and/or dividend reinvestment.

No WestRock (WRK) this month, due to selling off that position, as I recap the sales I have had this year.

Time to crack $2,000 next year, let’s go!

Dividend Increases

I received 7 dividend increases this month, including the Vanguard ETFs!  Which dividend increase is the best?

The best dividend increase was the fact that McDonald’s (MCD), by far.  After the poor expectations but still managing a 6% increase is HUGE!

Then, my Vanguard trifecta came through with dividend growth across the board.  This added a HUGE punch to the portfolio, to the tune of over $125+!  Let’s freaking go!

Related: The Impact of The Dividend Growth Rate!

In total, dividend increases created $183.49 in additional passive dividend income.  I would need to invest $5,242 at a 3.50% dividend yield in order to add that income.  Thank you for the increases, as I didn’t have to come up with the capital to create that form of income!

Dividend Income Conclusion & Summary

The name of the game is to apply what you learn through financial education.  The next steps are to maximize every dollar for investment opportunities and live life on your own terms.  Therefore, my plan is to demonstrate that dividend income can be a revenue engine.  A revenue engine that allows you to take back control of your life.  A revenue engine to help you reach financial freedom.  Dividend investing, once you learn the right way, becomes easier and starts to immensely make sense!

Excited for the future, no doubt.  Furthermore, all of the investing from last year and moves this year, shows that my aim to save 60% of my income, and making every dollar count, has provided the dividend growth.

If you are just starting out on your investment journey and you aren’t sure to start – please see the articles mentioned throughout this post.  We are trying to bring you financial education and help you reach your financial goals.

Further, if you are interested in our dividend stocks to buy, dividend news, stock purchases, etc., please see our YouTube video (below), subscribe to our channel and check us out!  Accordingly, we’ll help break down further investing topics not only on this blog, but by showing you through video!

As always, thank you for stopping by, leave your comments and questions below.  Good luck and happy investing everyone!

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