$21.65 – Portfolio Milestone!

[Kerim]

So, like many dividend growth investors, I monitor my portfolio closely, happily tracking every dividend reinvestment and annual dividend raise. I also track my total annual dividend amount. I’ve watched that number grow slowly over the years, starting from a very small amount.

Relative to the income from my job, and relative to my expenses, the amount I receive in annual dividends is laughably small. Small enough that I sometimes wonder if it really will ever grow into the robust income stream that we all read and dream about and discuss in dividend growth circles. But I’ve done the projections (conservatively at that), and math doesn’t lie – given enough time and no serious setbacks, it *should* work. But it is still so far out in the future that it doesn’t feel very tangible.

But recently I added some cells to my spreadsheet that made me very happy. Instead of just tracking my annual number, I added a couple of cells, just for fun, that divide the annual number by 12 and by 365 – so I can also see the average amount I receive in dividends each month and each day.

The daily number startled me; it is $21.65. My humble portfolio is throwing off (on average) $21.65 in dividends each and every day. Just for waking up in the morning, whether it is a weekday or weekend, sunny or cloudy, $21.65. I’m not sure why this excites me in a way that the annual number does not, but I’m enjoying the shift in perspective.

[Shawnjeffrey]

If only one could get those dividends on a daily basis rather than have to wait weeks often times for that payout gratification! It would make being patient all the easier if nothing else.

At this stage my daily dividend would barely buy me a bottle of Coke, but it is nearing a milestone of its own(1000 annually) that I am excited to reach!

[Horace Cugle]

Congrats on the milestone! It is nice to be able to look at your portfolio and realize you're getting somewhere.

[ChadR]

Nice milestone. Great way to look at your dividends and see all the progress that you've made.

[ronn38]

Hmmmm...
We all track our dividends annually, but daily is a fun kinda "I earn a free lunch everyday" way to look at it.

Bravo!!!!

I hit a milestone with my last purchase of KMI -- Wallstreet is making my house payments for me now :-)

Ronn

[EricL]

Impressive, gotta love getting paid to wake up in the morning.

I just started DGI in Q1 of this year by selling off my mutual funds in my 401k and putting together my own portfolio of 50 dividend paying stocks. I reached the $100 mark for a month for the first time in June and am on pace to meet the $100 mark again here in September.

Love entering the dividends at the end the week into my spreadsheet that I track everything with. Looking forward to the day when the reinvestment of dividends start buying whole shares every quarter rather than the .1 shares I am getting now =).

[Kerim]

(09-19-2013, 09:59 PM)ronn38 Wrote: I hit a milestone with my last purchase of KMI -- Wallstreet is making my house payments for me now :-)

Now THAT's a milestone. Wow.

[Dan Mac @DGSInvesting]

I think this is a really good and very motivating way to track your dividend income! Currently I keep a spreadsheet tracking my monthly and annual dividend income which also compares it year over year so I can see the growth. While this is motivating, I like the idea of keeping track of the daily number. It could be fun seeing that grow from a small amount (maybe covering my lunch for the day) to something much more significant (something like buying me lunch and dinner for a day!)

[Jimbo]

Wow. 21.65 per day is quite good, of course this was almost a year ago so i am sure it has increased even more.

It makes your house payment, hmmmmm very nice.

For fun i did the math and between my IRA & Roth, i am getting 6.48 per day and looking for ward to increaseing that as i am getting more into Dividend stocks.

Jim

[rnsmth]

We will get close to $14 a day this year, but we are getting $131 a day in other retirement income.

The main benefit if the dividend income for us is that we get to keep reinvesting it for several years. If someone had told me a few years ago that I would be able to invest over $400 a month after we retired I would have told them they were loco.

When we get fully settled in here in Mérida, Yucatán, México I think we will be able to match that amount from our other retirement income. Woo Hoo

[hron]

Hi guys, where can I find a friendly excel that can do the forward looking projection. Started to put something together but got myself too complex in the process.
Thanks in advance! Ron

[EricL]

(04-08-2014, 01:05 PM)hron Wrote: Hi guys, where can I find a friendly excel that can do the forward looking projection. Started to put something together but got myself too complex in the process.
Thanks in advance! Ron

I just have two columns at the end of my spreadsheet, one with the annual dividend and the final column the projected income, which is just the number of shares I own times the annual dividend rate.

Whenever I see that a company I own has increased the dividend, I just plug in the new annual rate in the cell.

Here is my most recent portfolio update, about halfway down is a image of my spreadsheet for a visual.