Tax season is upon us. I’ve already filed my taxes and am waiting for my refund to process. Recently, I asked How Should I Spend My Tax Refund? I’m still trying to figure it out, but as soon as I decide, I will let you know. Of course, I’m sure that’s not why you came here. It’s that time of the month to see how much dividends I earned. Now that I get to report on the second month of the first quarter, I expect it to be a great report. How great? Well, you just have to keep reading, won’t ya!

Dividend Income

In February, I received a total of $141.16in dividends broken down as follows:

1 AAPL Apple $7.91 2 ABBV Abbvie $32.36 3 GIS General Mills $21.91 4 HRL Hormel Foods $9.33 5 O Realty Income $8.35 6 PG Proctor & Gamble $15.02 7 SBUX Starbucks $12.43 8 T AT&T $33.85 $141.16

Not too bad. I’m inching closer to that $150 mark for total dividends in a month. Even with the minimum contribution to my portfolio reduced, the portfolio is growing at a decent pace. Last quarter, I made $124.92, so that’s an increase of $16.24 extra to the portfolio since then. I would still love for the speed of the growth to be higher, but it’s hard to inject new capital into my portfolio right now because of my many goals. For more information, see my Goals and Financial Plan for 2019. Perhaps I’ll use my tax refund to increase my portfolio. Only time will tell.

Annual Comparison

Below is a graphical representation of my dividends this year as compared to the last two years:

Here is the raw data:

MONTH 2017 2018 2019 Rate January $0.00 $14.93 $37.54 151.44% February $0.00 $77.66 $141.16 81.77% March $0.00 $72.93 April $0.41 $31.47 May $2.85 $79.33 June $16.89 $98.51 July $5.99 $42.32 August $21.95 $108.44 September $28.72 $111.15 October $23.21 $48.09 November $62.11 $124.92 December $76.51 $140.24

Well, it’s not a triple-digit increase, but a high double-digit increase from last year. As my dividend portfolio matures, the rate of the increase seems to go down. But that’s okay. The portfolio is still moving in the right direction.

Forward Annual Dividends

At the time of this writing, my forward annual dividend is $1333.85. A month ago, my forward annual dividend was $1309.91. This represents an increase of $23.94 or 2.00% in my forward annual dividend income. This is the same percentage increase as last month’s reporting. I’m getting closer to that $1500 mark, which will happen in 2019. But it might take a little longer than I would have liked because of that pesky reduction in minimum contribution to my dividend portfolio. But, as always, slow and steady wins the race!







Conclusion

Well, there you have it. Not a bad month. The dividend portfolio showed a healthy increase from last year, and a slow but steady increase from last quarter.

I haven’t made a decision about what to do with my very small tax refund. Right now, the leading contenders include paying down more on my mortgage and/or making a one-time payment to my dividend portfolio. I have an idea, but I keep going back and forth between the two options. Regardless, of my indecision, my portfolio is still there working for me in the background. That’s one of the beautiful things about dividend growth investing.

How was February for you? What do you think of this post? Let me know your thoughts by commenting below.