October is usually a small month for me. However, some late ETF dividends might change that this year.

Those slackers at Vanguard or iShares must have forgot to press that dividend button or something. That means that a few of my ETFs that always paid out in September suddenly paid out a day or two into October. I track everything on a paid basis so that means my October is likely to be pretty solid this year.

Despite the above, my September was still solid with a 25% growth rate and October is likely to eclipse that.

2018 has been an awesome dividend year for me. I enter October with a 27.3% growth rate for the year. You gotta love the power of compound interest and additional money flowing into the market.

Last year’s October clocked in at $142.81 so let’s see where I end up this year. I think it’ll be a pretty good month based on the late ETF dividends flowing into this month.

October Dividends

October shatters all sorts of records for a non quarter ending month with $516.12! That’s a 261.4% growth rate over last year.

Late ETF dividends were the cause of a lot of that but even without those, my growth rate would have been 68%.

That’s not bad at all and I’m extremely happy with those numbers; with or without the late dividends. It just a continuation of the great growth I’ve seen all year and I’m super excited to take this into December, my biggest month.

The $516.12 reinvested at my average portfolio yield will mean an extra $11.87 annually or $0.99 per month. I like the sound of that!

Steve, my dividend employee brought in $3.10/hr this month which is a real boost to his normal October wages. His annual wage moves to $4.22/hr after October.

Related : My dividend employee Steve

Overall, this is another awesome month in a string of awesome months. October brings my total for the year to $7034.71. That’s 33.6% higher than where I was at this time last year.

Here’s two cool facts about this number. One is that even if I have 0 growth in November and December, I’ll break break $10k for the first time in a year and that’ll be really cool to see.

Another is that the $7034.71 I received through October is higher than my entire dividend total in 2016, the first year I tracked this. I’m pretty impressed with the growth there as I’ve already beaten my 2016 annual number and I haven’t even had my biggest month of the year yet.

You can see the progression in my dividends below.

You can see that the purple is looking good every month this year and I’ve still got the biggest peak in December. I believe I’m on pace to break through that $10k threshold this year and then the sky is the limit! Well, not really, there’s definitely a limit that’s lower than that but it’ll be nice to break into the teens.

I know Steve and his hourly wage will appreciate it.

This has been a good year for dividend growth. Companies have returned more money to shareholders via dividend bumps after the tax cut and I’ve continued pushing money into the market and reinvesting dividends as they come in each month.

I’m seeing 33% growth so far this and while that will likely drop come December, I’m still on pace for excellent growth. If I can keep this up across multiple years then these totals will start looking impressive in a few years. Steve’s hourly wage isn’t enough to live on but it might be in a bit of time at this pace.

This has been a good year on the dividend front and an even better year on the personal front. In fact, I’ve got my honeymoon in Hawaii coming up in about ten days and I’m freaking excited about that. I’ll be back with tales of Hawaii and my November numbers in the next dividend update.

How was your October? Did any of your ETFs pay their dividends late and boost your October income?

October Total : $516.12

2018 Total : $7034.71

Portfolio monthly hourly wage : $3.10/hr

Portfolio annual hourly wage : $4.22/hr