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 November 2022 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), as well as SoFi’s investing application – commission free.

Related: Dividend Diplomat Stock Screener

Related: Financial Freedom Products

Related: 3 Financial Products to Create Wealth in 2022

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, aka Dividend Reinvestment Plan or DRIP for short.  This takes the emotion out of timing the market and BUILDS onto my passive income stream!

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 December 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 – November 2022

Now, on to the numbers… In November, we (my wife and I) received a dividend income total of $1,198.05.  Staying far above $1,000 now, in total.  Very nice to be over this “mendoza” line, love the baseball reference.  If we keep this churning, we may be hitting the glorious $2k per month in passive income very soon!

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.  I have owned John Deere (DE), Procter & Gamble (PG), Caterpillar (CAT) and Norfolk (NSC) for so many years!

November finished off on another positive note, thanks to the Fed discussing a “softer” approach to interest rates.  The S&P 500 is still north of 4,000 for consecutive weeks.  WILD!

In addition, the Fed has raised rates by 375 points so far this year, which is wild.  Do we see another 50 or 75 basis point increase in the future?  Time will tell.  Student loan forgiveness is in full-swing, allowing borrowers to remove $10,000 and up to $20,000 of their debt.  The housing market is in straight cool down mode and Crypto is in a free fall thanks to FTX, causing bankruptcies to companies – such as BlockFi.

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

So what happened in dividend income this month?

AbbVie (ABBV) really flexing some muscle here with $90 in total dividends, thanks to both my wife and I owning this stock.  Then, as my position of Verizon (VZ) is fairly set, the $81+ dividend is very well received, reinvesting into over 2 more shares!  This will be $100 per quarter before we know it.  The dividend king of Procter & Gamble (PG) is also impressive.

Citizens & Northern (CZNC) a good old community bank I’ve owned for years continues to pour dividends in both the taxable and Roth IRA.

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 $346.95 or 29% of the dividend income total.  Need to get the taxable to $1,000+, as we were below that threshold.  COME ON!

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

DIvidend Income Year over Year Comparison

2021:     2022:

Our dividend income was…. DOWN from last year?!  Nooo!!!! What gives?!  We were down almost $9 from last year, which is not material.  However, my passive income was down, what happened?

First, AT&T (T).  I just can’t seem to get away from talking AT&T!  Total dividends received last year from them equated to $198, with only $114 this year (between taxable and IRA accounts).  This was due to the spin-off of WarnerMediaDiscovery (WBD).  Therefore, that alone was a big reason.

Second, I sold my Healthpeak Properties (PEAK) stock this year in 2022 and moved the funds into VYM and Medical Properties Trust (MPW).  MPW pays in a different month or not November.  Therefore, that was a $49 reduction there.

Therefore, between AT&T and Healthpeak, that equated to $133 in total reductions.

However, on a positive note all other stocks pretty much paid a higher dividend.  Let’s GO!!!!

Overall, a solid dividend month.  The push to $2,000 is on!  Keep on investing.

Dividend Increases

In November, we rocked in SIX HUGE dividend increases, that really added a punch to the dividend stock portfolio.  In fact, we showcase NINE expected dividend increases in NOVEMBER!

The increases below, for the most part, were anticipated.  Nothing really fell out of expectations.

KeyBank (KEY) had a nice impact due to the position size we have in my wife’s account.  In addition, have to love Aflac (AFL), just an awesome dividend aristocrat.

Related: The Impact of The Dividend Growth Rate!

Again, no other surprises, but we are very excited for December dividend increases from companies such as, Pfizer (PFE), CVS Pharmacy (CVS) and the mutual funds in Vanguard’s High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM).

In total, the dividend increases created $64.63 in additional passive dividend income.  I would need to invest $1,850 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 interested in our dividend stocks to buy for December, please see our YouTube channel, 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!