Is 2018 the year I reach 10000 dollars in annual dividends? Can Steve work hard enough to make it happen? Will Timmy find his red ball that was taken by the big kids? Do dogs go to heaven? Tune in this month to find out! Well, at least you’ll find out one of those things. Which one? Probably the dividend one since this is a dividend post.

As you know from the last update, I was just north of 7.2k after November. That makes it seem like I’d be way off but December is always my biggest dividend month.

That’s because I hold many index funds and mutual funds. These typically pay quarterly and some only annually. That means a good March, June and September and a great December.

Last year’s December brought in $2946.31! Using the magical power of math, you can see that just adding that to my YTD total through November would bring me above 10000 dollars in annual dividends.

Let’s see if I was able to at least equal last year’s December and maybe even grow it a little bit in this month’s exciting dividend review! P.S. Timmy did not find his red ball. The big kids threw it in the river. Those punks.

December Dividends

December comes in at $3469.18! That’s a new record for a month. It’s a pretty sizable 17.75% bump over last year. You know what that means!

I did it guys. I hit 10000 dollars in annual dividends! December’s great result brings the 2018 total to $10,702.03!

Y/Y, my dividend growth was 28.6%. That is very impressive considering I only grew dividends 18% last year on a smaller starting point.

I think I underestimated the power of dividend growth when I set my goals this year because I blew them out of the water. Gold in my goals was 10.25k so I beat that rather easily. That just speaks to the power of continued investing. It helps that companies also raised dividends quite a bit this year and I was reinvesting my dividends throughout the year.

Related : My 2018 Annual Goals

The best part about December is that it’s all reinvested to help my dividends grow next year. This $3.4k reinvested will generate an additional $79.79 annually based on the average yield of my portfolio.

Steve, my dividend employee had himself a great month – the biggest one ever. His hourly wage spiked to $20.82/hr in December and that brought his annual hourly wage to $5.35/hr. It’s not quite minimum wage but I’m certainly getting closer each year. That compares very favorably to the $4.16/hr Steve earned last year.

Related : My Dividend Employee Steve

All in all, this was an awesome dividend year. I saw great growth across all quarters and finished it off with a record breaking December. If you look at the quarterly performance year over year, you can see the impressive growth across the board.

There are big jumps each quarter and it’s not just Q4 with the big December month that’s driving my annual dividend income. That means that even Q1 in 2019 will give me a taste of the kind of improvement I can expect to see this year.

Looking back at the monthly performance since I first started tracking this is striking. There’s so much growth each year and now that these numbers are getting bigger, the growth just compounds on itself.

The $10,700 in dividends I received this year will help me generate an extra $244 in dividends next year. That’s not a bad number at all for organic growth! You can imagine how that can compound when you consider the additional money flowing into the market plus the dividend growth from the securities I already hold.

It’s a recipe for explosive growth! I wonder if I can break the 28% growth rate I saw this year even though the starting point is much higher. I sure as hell will try!

One thing that isn’t considered here is the various capitals gains many of my mutual funds paid out this year. In December alone, I saw $1812.61 in capital gains that were used to buy more shares. In 2018, that total was $3943.85. These aren’t dividends so I don’t count them here but more shares equals more future dividends and that’s always a good thing!

The fact that I’m generating over 10000 dollars in annual dividends is amazing. I was barely above $7,000 just two years ago when I first started tracking this and now I’m near $11,000 and forward income is going higher with each contribution and reinvested month.

I think I’ll have to account for that type of growth when I set my goals next year and aim for something higher. Seeing these numbers and the level of growth certainly pushes me forward and makes me want to save more because I’m definitely seeing results.

Results are always good and hopefully your December was as fruitful as mine and the start of your year is great. I’m definitely eager to get started on saving more in 2019 so I can break more records in 2019 and grow at an even bigger pace!

Here’s to a great 2019 and getting Steve closer to earning the minimum wage!

December Total : $3469.18

2018 Total : $10702.03

Portfolio monthly hourly wage : $20.82/hr

Portfolio annual hourly wage : $5.35/hr