Thank you Johnson and Johnson. I logged into my account at Computershare and noticed that my recent addition to my JNJ shares have been updated. I am the proud owner of 12.255425 shares of JNJ stock. More importantly, because I increased the number of shares, this puts my forward annual dividends to just over $600 for the first time! I’m super excited to have crossed the $600 milestone.

So What’s The Big Deal?

Well, in the grand scheme of things, $600 is not a lot of money. I’m definitely not going to retire off that amount. But, let’s consider this. $600 is, on average, $50 per month. That’s enough to take care of my Netflix, Hulu, and monthly Capital One Investing brokerage fees combined! I would still have money left over to go to a fast food restaurant and maybe even buy a six-pack case of beer. What’s even more awesome is that, if I did nothing else, that $600 would still continue to rise. Why? Because the companies I’m invested in have a track record of routinely raising their dividends. In fact, I am waiting to see if Starbucks will announce a dividend increase soon, and if so, how much.

So, am I going to spend the $600 on bills or frivolous spending? Absolutely not!!! I’m going to continue to reinvest my dividends into each respective stock. I’m also going to continue to dollar cost average my way into my Dividend Portfolio. But, why stop at $600? Don’t look now but I am working towards crossing 4 digits in 2018 for a whopping $1000 in annual forward dividend income.

The Bad News

Earlier this year, I achieved my annual goals in dividend income super early. Then, I made a new goal of earning $700 in annual forward dividend income. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to reach $700 by the end of the year. But, I’m confident that I can make that next year, and possibly even reach $1000 in annual forward dividend income.

Conclusion

I’m very excited to reach this milestone. Dividend investing is a slow way to build wealth and patience is a must. I still have about 16 years to go before I retire and that’s a lot of time to grow my portfolio to an amount that produces much more than $50 a month on average. It took me about two years to get to this point. But, I am more focused than I have ever been. I suspect that next year, I’m going to try and grow my portfolio like a mad man, and hopefully at an exponential rate. You’ll just have to wait and see. For now though, I’m recognizing and highlighting the fact that I’ve reached $600 in forward annual dividend income.

Let me know your thoughts by commenting below.