This is what dividend investing is all about!  Investing in dividend stocks allows YOU to earn dividend income, the best passive income stream!  Bias, you better believe it.

Time to dive into Lanny’s December 2021 dividend income results!  Were records set?  Almost to financial freedom?  One day and one month at a time!

Dividend Income

Dividend Income is the fruit from the labor of investing your money in the stock market.  Further, Dividend Income is my primary vehicle on the road to Financial Freedom, which you can see through my Dividend Portfolio.

How do I research & screen for dividend stocks prior to making a purchase?  I use our Dividend Diplomat Stock Screener and trade on Ally’s investment platform (one of our Financial Freedom Products) – commission free.

Related: Dividend Diplomat Stock Screener

Related: Financial Freedom Products

Related: 3 Financial Products to Create Wealth in 2021

I also automatically invest and max out, pre-tax, my 401k through work and my Health Savings Account.  This allows me to save a TON of money on taxes (aka thousands), which allows me to invest even more.  In addition, all dividends I receive are automatically being reinvested back into the company that paid the dividend.  This takes the emotion out of timing the market.

Related: Tax Strategy – Part 3 to Reduce Taxes & Increase Investment.

Related: The Power of Dividend Reinvesting

Related: Why I Don’t Time or Predict The Market

Growing your dividend income takes time and consistency.  Investing as often, and early, as you can allows compound interest (aka dividends) to work it’s magic.  I have gone from making $2.70 in a single month in dividend income to well over … $10,000+ in a single month.  A NEW dividend income record was set in March of 2021. Was it broken this month?!  The power of compounding and dividend reinvestment is a wonderful component to the portfolio.  Each and every month, whether big or small, I continue to report the passive income that dividend investing provides me.  Why?

*Not pictured is my wife’s dividend income above*

I want to show YOU that dividend investing makes it possible to achieve financial freedom and/or financial independence.  We all start somewhere, but consistently investing, compounding (reinvesting) dividends and keeping it simple, allows you to be in a significantly better position than most.  Further, if I can grow this portfolio and income stream, YOU can too.

dividend income – December 2021

Now, on to the numbers… In December, we (my wife and I) received an INSANE, RECORD TOTAL amount of… $11,627.76 of dividend income.  I have NEVER crossed $10,000.  EVER.  We had over $5,000 last year, but THIS is INSANE!  2021 dividends were definitely back and DECEMBER proved that all the way.

The amount and number of stocks listed below show you what it means to buy and hold for the long term.  Most of the positions I have owned for YEARS, letting dividend growth and reinvestment do it’s thing.  This is what dividend investing for financial freedom is all about.  The passive income stream is growing at a RAPID pace.

2022 is off to a volatile start, stock market has roared up and also roared down.  Omicron, Delta-cron, COVID-19 is still VERY prevalent in today’s world.  In addition, the Fed continues to tease the interest rate hikes that are coming this year and they could be coming sooner than we think, as well as with their slow-down/tapering in bond buying.

Here is the breakdown of dividend income for the month of December, between taxable and retirement (far right column, under “Retirement”) accounts.  In addition, “W” means my wife’s account:

So lucky.  The Vanguard mutual funds and exchange traded funds really came through.  My VINIX dividend and distribution was really over $5,000 this quarter.  It is just insane.

All of the investing in Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM) really paid off, as well.  In our taxable accounts, we almost received $500 in dividend income!  Cannot wait for this snowball to continue to churn.  I accidentally put T. Rowe (TROW) in place of PRFDX, just as an FYI!  I already deleted the spreadsheet, so did not want to reproduce.

I also split out my retirement accounts in the far right column and the taxable account dividends are in the left two columns.  The retirement accounts are composed of H.S.A. investments, ROTH and Traditional IRAs, as well as our work 401(k) accounts.  In total, the retirement accounts brought in a total dividend income amount of $9,214.97 or 79% of the dividend income total.  This still left over $2,413 in the taxable account!  Financial freedom figures, folks.  Ah… can’t this be each and every month?!

Related: Maximizing your Roth for 10 Years… Then Set It & Forget It!

DIvidend Income Year over Year Comparison

2020:

2021:

Welp, there we have it.  A $6,144.44 dividend income increase from prior year’s December totals.  My wife and I had over a 112% increase from last year.  This helps that our old 401k’s had a higher dividend and distribution payout of over $4,400, see the Vanguard VINIX mutual fund totals.

My Aflac (AFL) dividend is still cruising right now.  They had amazing dividend growth in 2021.  I am up over $15 year over year, by strictly dividend reinvestment and growth.

The list is large.  It’s all about staying consistently invested in the stock market, no matter what happens.  If you persevered through 2020, you definitely benefited in 2021.  The average dividend growth on my portfolio was around 8%.  The growth rate is definitely appreciated and I’ll need that to carry into 2022.

Dividend Increases

My streak of 5 dividend increases finally ends, as I had 5 from August through November.  However, this does not include or count exchange traded funds or mutual funds; those investments crushed December!  I did have 4 dividend increases noted below for the month of December!  Which company increased their dividend that exceeded my expectations?

The BEST increase had to come from CVS (CVS).  Why?  This was unexpected and was extremely appreciated.  Us shareholders have been waiting for this moment, to finally receive a dividend increase after the Aetna acquisition.  An increase the dividend they did.  Nice!

Related: Earn up to 9.00% on your money with up to $250 sign up bonus!

Canadian Imperial (CM) brought back dividend growth.  However, all else was fairly expected and consistent.

Related: The Impact of The Dividend Growth Rate!

In total, dividend increases created $98.38 in additional passive dividend income.  I would need to invest $2,800 at a 3.50% dividend yield in order to add that income.  Thank you for the increases, as I didn’t have to come up with the capital to create that form of income!

Dividend Income Conclusion & Summary

The name of the game is to apply what you learn through financial education.  The next steps are to maximize every dollar for investment opportunities and live life on your own terms.  My plan is to demonstrate that dividend income can be a revenue engine.  A revenue engine that allows you to take back control of your life.  A revenue engine to help you reach financial freedom.  Dividend investing, once you learn the right way, becomes easier and starts to immensely make sense!

Excited for the future, no doubt.  Further, all of the investing from last year and moves this year, shows that my aim to save 60% of my income, and making every dollar count, has provided the dividend growth.

If you are just starting out on your investment journey and you aren’t sure to start – please see the articles mentioned throughout this post.  We are trying to bring you financial education and help you reach your financial goals.

Further, if you are interest in our dividend stocks to buy for January, please see our YouTube video (below), subscribe to our channel and check us out!  We’ll help break down further investing topics not only on this blog, but by showing you through video!

As always, thank you for stopping by, leave your comments and questions below.  Good luck and happy investing everyone!