Dividend Income – October 2018…

Are you waiting or buying with the markets down in October? My portfolio definitely took a hit but regardless, the dividend income keeps on coming in and I DRIP more shares along the way – purchased at a discount of course.

At this time of year, I am usually curious to see what my 2019 income is going to look like. Using my portfolio and dividend tracker, I usually forecast the upcoming year before the dividend increases come in for the new year and it establishes the dividend income growth from my contributions.

Stock Trades

No transactions in October outside of the DRIP shares I got from dividends. I am saving and will look at what I can do in November. My dividend portfolio is always accessible and I update the transactions here once per month.

For the record, I have to wait until the new year to add money to my TFSA or RRSP accounts. The only available account to invest in is my non-registered account. If you are still filling the investment accounts one by one, be sure to check out the TFSA vs RRSP infographic on which account to start with.

Stock Performance

It’s definitely not the time to panic these days and make drastic changes. It’s very important for investors to understand the difference between a paper loss and a real loss. Every day, your portfolio wins and loses value.

While I reached the $1,000,000 portfolio value (dividend portfolio + company plan), it was back down in October. I reached a high of $1,020,000 and a low of $968,000 during October 2018. Today, on November 7, 2018, the value is at $997,000 and the dividend only portfolio of the portfolio is at $762,000 (for those doing math on the dividend income below).

My annual rate of return since inception is at 11.58% compared with the 7.67% for the index blend I track (50 / 50 of US and Canadian index). I really do not like to compare the trailing twelve months (TTM) or the last year. It really doesn’t help assess the long-term strength of stock selections so I avoid looking at those metrics and focus on the long game. With my data going back to 2009, I have almost 10 years of data which gives me confidence that I could use 9% or 10% as a number to forecast my portfolio into the future as opposed to a conservative 6% for example.

The following stocks are my best performers by far since my portfolio inception:

Dividend Income

My October 2018 dividend income is $1,847.18. A new high for my monthly dividend income! My monthly average is $1,577 per month as per my 2018 dividend income.

I should reach $2,000 in the new year after I add some money and receive dividend increases.

I have extrapolated my dividend income growth and since inception, it has grown by 17.66% annually. If I forecast into the future, I should reach the $50,000 mark in dividend income by 2024.

While it’s nice, I want $60,000 by 2024 and I will need to save more with the current stocks in my portfolio. That’s simply what the numbers are saying. The other option is to switch my low yield investments to higher yield and that will give me a boost since 27% of my portfolio has a dividend yield below 2%.

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