July 2022: Dividend Growth Portfolio Update
Updated: Dec 24, 2022
Table of Contents
Projected Annual Dividend Income (PADI)
The GOAL of my dividend growth portfolio is to balance increasing share value (Growth) while simultaneously building and producing passive income (Dividends) that can be used during retirement. Currently my portfolio is concentrated more on growth with a dividend yield of 3.05%. As I near retirement I will look to produce more income and less growth. Typically, I deposit $2,000-$4,000 monthly into this portfolio, with $15,500 deposited YTD. This portfolio is in addition to my tax deferred ROTH TSP. Currently, I reinvest all dividends utilizing DRIP. As I gain more dividends, I will hand select targeted reinvestment and withdraw the correct percentage to cover anticipated taxes.
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Portfolio Update
The family I decided to take a much overdue vacation in May/April. We took our normal investment allocation and spent it towards this trip. Well worth it I might add. Life is about balance and memories. Remember to take time for you and your family! Additionally, my job took me somewhere remote where I had no internet service for nearly two months. I finally got back to civilization in late June, early July. That's why you haven't seen my normal monthly updates!
This month I contributed $6,000 to my portfolio to make up for June and July simultaneously. I added positions below to rebalance my portfolio:
Apple Stock x 2
DGRO ETF x 21
Disney Stock x 8
Home Depot Stock x 1
Microsoft Stock x 5
Realty Income REIT x 13
SCHD ETF x 12
Visa Stock x 1
I nearly doubled my Disney holdings this month after going back and forth all month. Disney remains my biggest loss so I decided to average way down because I continue to trust that Disney will return its dividend in another few years. If not, I still believe Disney will appreciate before I retire. These new positions added $115.45 to my portfolio's passive income or just shy of $10 a month.
My portfolio returned to the green side toward the end of the month. Overall, from mid-July my portfolio returned 7.98% compared to the SP500 return of 9.11%.
My portfolio remains down for Year to Date (YTD). My allocation has returned -9.64% YTD which is less than the overall SP500 return of -14.17%! Gotta love less volatility! We all hope the market continues regain ground through the end of the year to end positive. I will continue to make monthly contributions and buy stocks that are undervalued first.
Dividend Income Growth (YoY)
My dividend income continues to surpass expectations with a 298% increase in dividend income (July 2021 Vs. July 2022). I won't even calculate the comparison for 2020 since that's the year I began tracking my dividends. Yearly passive income received also surpassed 2021 totals and we still have five more months of dividend payments. My 2022 total passive income is $830.57 compared to $757.19 for 2021. That's a 9.69% increase!
One thing I have considered is modifying my portfolio to bring in consistent dividend income month to month. Currently the quarters have my largest dividend payments. This would require me to close some positions and start new positions in dividends in the months I'd like to raise. This is really a quality-of-life issue since it would require me to budget quarterly income over several months instead of a more balanced payment schedule. Below is the last two years of dividend payments.
Amazing that I only received $5.25 two years ago for July.
Quarterly Comparisons
Quarterly income continues to grow as expected. One month into Quarter 3, I've received 43% of the dividends when compared to 2021. I expect to post more than $400 in dividends by the end of this quarter.
Projected Annual Dividend Income (PADI)
Lastly, my projected annual dividend income is now $1,846.02 or $153.84 a month!
16 of my 17 positions pay dividends (Disney being the non-payer). This is up from $1462 I posted as my PADI in my March portfolio update.
I hope this update hope this update helps break down the power of dividends and inspires some of the new dividend investor. Stay the course and be patient!